On Wednesday, September 1, 2021 1:43:56 PM IST kauśika cittūr wrote:
> Dear All,
>
> I have encountered a strange problem using certain Devanagari fonts for the
> Sanskrit languagein ConTeXt, wherein the rakaar ligatures are not rendered
> properly in some glyphs/conjuncts. The problem is not too easy to describe
> so please pardon this long email.
>
> The fonts I am using are as follows:
> • Shobhika – https://github.com/Sandhi-IITBombay/Shobhika
> • Murty Sanskrit – https://murtylibrary.com/mcli-fonts.php
>
> I had previously posted about this issue on TeX SE and Ulrike Fischer was
> kind enough to suggest that the problem might have something to do with the
> font rendering (since I have no issues in XeLaTeX (using Harfbuzz)):
>
> https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/612634/devanagari-forms-in-context-u
> sing-shobhika-font
>
> My ConTeXt (LMTX) version is: 2021.08.30 19:56
>
> I am using the following typescript for Murty:
>
> \starttypescript [serif] [murty]
> \definefontsynonym
> [Serif]
> [name:murtysanskritregular]
> [features=devanagari-two]
> \stoptypescript
>
> \starttypescript [murty]
> \definetypeface [murty] [rm] [serif] [murty] [default]
> \stoptypescript
>
> and the following for Shobhika:
>
> \starttypescript [serif] [shobhika]
> \definefontsynonym
> [Serif]
> [name:shobhikaregular]
> [features=devanagari-two]
> \definefontsynonym
> [SerifBold]
> [name:shobhikabold]
> [features=devanagari-two]
> \stoptypescript
>
> \starttypescript [shobhika]
> \definetypeface [shobhika] [rm] [serif] [shobhika]
> \stoptypescript
>
> Below is the test file I am using to demonstrate the problem:
>
> \setupbodyfont[shobhika]
> \starttext
> \startcolumns
> ट्रा ट्रि ट्री ट्रु द्रू ट्रे ट्रै ट्रो ट्रौ
>
> ठ्रा ठ्रि ठ्री ठ्रु ठ्रू ठ्रे ठ्रै ठ्रो ठ्रौ
>
> ड्रा ड्रि ड्री ड्रु ड्रू ड्रे ड्रै ड्रो ड्रौ
>
> ढ्रा ढ्रि ढ्री ढ्रु ढ्रू ढ्रे ढ्रै ढ्रो ढ्रौ
>
> छ्रा छ्रि छ्री छ्रु छ्रू छ्रे छ्रै छ्रो छ्रौ
>
> \column
> क्र ख्र ग्र घ्र ण्र
>
> च्र छ्र ज्र झ्र ञ्र
>
> च्रे छ्रे ज्रे झ्रे ञ्रे
>
> त्रे थ्रे द्रे ध्रे न्रे
>
> प्र फ्र ब्र भ्र म्र
>
> य्र ल्र व्र स्र श्र ष्र ह्र
> \stopcolumns
> \stoptext
>
> When I use the 'devanagari-two' feature set, which sets the script tag to
> 'dev2', the rakaar forms (provided by the features 'rkrf=yes' and
> 'blwf=yes') do not render properly for some glyphs, namely the glyphs in
> the right column, enclosed in a red rectangle in the file
> 'devanagari-two-forms-shobhika.png' attached in the Drive folder here.
>
> When I switch to using the 'devanagari-one'
> feature set (in the foregoing typescript definitions), which sets the script
> tag to 'deva', the rakaar forms in the left column are rendered incorrectly
> in
> the file 'devanagari-one-forms-shobhika.png' attached in the Drive folder
> here.
>
> Analogous problems occur with the Murty font. Further, in the Murty font,
> one other conjunct, namely
> त् + त
> does not render properly. I have highlighted this in the file
> 'murty-conjuct.png'.
>
> The sample images demonstrating the issues are available in the following
> public Google Drive folder:
>
> https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1aOmPKqBzB5usVvT9g-Bxk87exyiQn7ax
>
> I must mention once again that I have no such problems using either of these
> fonts in XeLaTeX.
>
> What I am noticing is that this problem only occurs with consonant forms
> that have a 'circular base', i.e., have no danda (the vertical line) next
> to the character. For what it is worth, I have noticed also that I am able
> to 'circumvent' this issue if I write
>
> छ्र + ZWS + Devanagari vowel sign
>
> where ZWS is the zero-width space U+200B. Unfortunately, this quickly
> becomes very untenable in large documents. Since I was new to ConTeXt I did
> not venture
> to ask earlier on since I had not read much of the documentaion. Now, after
> having read quite a bit, I have mustered up the courage to ask here. As a
> stop-gap solution, I defined another font alternative with
> \definefontalternative[rk]
> and used that with a font synonym using 'devanagari-two' where necessary.
>
> I have completely migrated (away from (Xe)LaTeX )to ConTeXt for all my
> university work which is in English with lots of mathematics. I am by no
> means an expert but I have learned very much about ConTeXt by reading the
> excellent wiki, documentation and mailing list. I have no issues using
> ConTeXt on an everyday basis for my English-language based work. It is only
> when I tried to use it for my work in Indian-languages that I ran into this
> issue.
>
> I request your kind help in this matter. I really want to be able to use
> ConTeXt for these Indic works. I will be grateful for any help and/or
> guidance.
>
> Many thanks,
> kauśika
Dear List,
I request your kind help in this matter. I have consulted almost all resources
on ConTeXt in this regard, despite which I am unable to resolve it. I