Paper Details

Name: Amit Sharma
Country: India

Year: 2025
Volume: Volume-12, Issue-2 (July-December)
Page Number: 1-11
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16014579

India’s multilingual print ecosystem—encompassing education, governance, and media—relies heavily on accurate and culturally sensitive typesetting in over 20 major scripts. However, the structural complexity of Indic scripts such as Devanagari, Tamil, Bengali, and Urdu poses significant challenges in digital rendering, ligature formation, font compatibility, and layout automation. This paper investigates the evolution of typesetting technologies from metal casting and phototypesetting to Unicode-based digital publishing and highlights the persistent limitations in font engineering, rendering engines, and prepress workflows. Case studies from NCERT, regional boards, and vernacular newspapers illustrate how technical fragmentation and inadequate standardization hinder print accessibility and aesthetic integrity. The paper also reviews government-backed standardization efforts (TDIL, Bhashini), community-driven font development (e.g., Google Noto, Lohit), and advances in OpenType and OCR technologies. Finally, it recommends script-specific layout engines, policy-level standardization, and professional training initiatives as strategic pathways for building a robust, scalable, and inclusive multilingual print infrastructure in India.
Keywords: Multilingual typesetting, Indic scripts, Devanagari, Unicode rendering, OpenType features, Indian typography, vernacular printing, font standardization, digital publishing, ligature handling, government publishing, regional language fonts, desktop publishing, script complexity, print accessibility