|
What
is Aksharamala? |
|
Aksharamala is a standards-based software tool that
facilitates inputting content in Indian languages. While enabled,
Aksharamala automatically transliterates the English characters you type
to a target Indian Language in the application of focus (see
demo). Aksharamala works as a conduit between the keyboard and the
target application and does not have an UI of its own. It is very
flexible in that you can change the target language, the input scheme
from the tray app (see
snapshot) with the use of a hotkey. It supports the popular ITRANS
transliteration scheme and several keyboard layouts such as DOE. |
|
|
|
Features |
- On-the-fly conversion of ASCII text written in ITRANS (or any
supported input scheme) to target encoding.
- Support for ASCII-based Proprietary fonts. This enables inputting
text in applications which are not Unicode-compliant. For example,
Aksharamala can be used in Yahoo messenger that does not support
Unicode.
- Support of switching between English and Devanagari input using
the Hotkey or a special ASCII sequence (such as '##').
- Support for adding additional languages or input schemes (as they
become available) without updating the software.
- Support for multiple keyboard layouts (DOE, INSCRIPT etc.)
- Support for "revers-literation" schemes - This allows easy
conversion of existing content created using ASCII based fonts (such
as Shusha) to Unicode.
- Multi-lingual support.
|
|
Sample
Uses of Aksharamala |
General Usage
- Email, both web-based and email applications such as Outlook,
Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail
- Instant Messaging - Chat with friends and family using Yahoo, MSN
messenger
- Content creation using FrontPage, Word XP
- Development of Unicode applications that take input in Indian
languages
- Storage of information in Indian languages using MS Access, SQL
Server, Oracle, MySQL or other popular database software
Publishing
- Develop content in Indian languages using applications of your
choice
- Aksharamala comes with high-quality, true-type fonts that are
suitable for publishing. You could also integrate your own fonts
with it (Using our developer and enterprise editions)
- Use Aksharamala for an economic means to create, edit and
distribute content in Indian languages.
Educational Institution
- Develop applications in Indian languages for teaching language
courses
- Deploy Aksharamala to facilitate communication using Indian
languages via email, instant messaging among your personnel
- Create content in Indian languages for students to use and
communicate
Portal
- Reach a wider audience by presenting your content in Indian
languages
- Create news reports, online advertisements, other content in
multiple Indian languages to cater to specific language groups
- Provide services to non-English speaking population by creating UI
and backend applications to process Indian language input
|
|
Strengths |
- Easy to use
- Hot key enable / disable
- Non-intrusive
- Use the popular applications that you are already familiar with
(Outlook for email, MSN for chat etc.)
- Supports several popular transliteration schemes and keyboard
layouts
- Support for Unicode and Proprietary formats alike (we recommend
Unicode if your target app supports it)
- Runs on all Windows 32-bit platforms from Windows 9x to XP.
|
|
Our
Competition |
- Most DO NOT support Unicode
- Most of them use proprietary fonts/input schemes
- Some even come with proprietary font rendering engines
- Some are server-based solutions which are slow and non-standard
|
|
Advantages |
On top of being most convenient and intuitive way to
type in Indian languages using an English keyboard our solution has the
following advantages as well:
- Uses Unicode: This allows data interchange between
applications using cut and paste and other Windows standard
mechanisms. Other non-Unicode solutions do not give this portability
as the character-mapping for each font is vendor-dependent and can
change without notice.
- Consistent: Our input method supports many popular Input
schemes. We support ITRANS 5.x across all supported Indian
languages. ITRANS is consistent across all Indian languages. That
is, a user familiar with typing using this method (in any language)
can do the same in any other language without re-learning the
character sequence.
- Comprehensive: Our solution is not application specific.
Our software directly speaks with OS in a standard manner and so can
be used across all applications on Windows 9x, NT, 2000, ME, XP.
This means that not only can you create a document but you can also
create a directory or file name in Hindi using our software. (NOTE:
Directory, filename creation in Indian languages is supported by
only Windows 2000/XP while Indic support is enabled.)
- Standard: Aksharamala is similar to other international
input schemes that use the same standards for example Japanese,
Chinese etc.,
- Compact: This software has a small footprint as it uses
system APIs for fast and efficient transformation from English
character sequence to the respective Indian language.
|
|
Aksharamala
2004 Editions |
- Professional Edition
- Developer Edition
- Enterprise Edition
|