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| Home --> Software Design issues --> Encoding Standards |
| Examples
of Unicode text rendering with different applications
Shown below are several examples of the same text rendered by different applications running under Windows and Linux. These examples vindicate the stand that rendering Unicode text in Indian Languages can become application dependent. Even different applications running under the same Operating system do not have a standard API they can fall back on to get some uniformity! |
Interested viewers may want to check how the text gets rendered on their own systems which support Unicode rendering. The file aditya.txt is available for download. |
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The screen
shot shows the text as manually typed into WordPad on a WindowsXP system.
Wordpad seems to be quite faithful in implementing Unicode rendering rules.
The first string has no modifier characters and is perhaps the easiest
to render. The remaining eleven have been composed using one or more of
the zero width modifiers.
WordPad under Win2000 may
render the strings differently, somewhat along the lines shown in the next
image.
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This
is the rendering of the text under MS Word 2000 on an XP system. We make
several interesting observations.
1. The modifier strings seem to have been interpreted correctly only in some cases. 2. Gaps appear between Glyphs. 3. Word has calculated the span of each string incorrectly as can be seen from the red wavy underline in each string. The span has no relationship to the actual width of the text, even for the properly specified string, viz. the first. 4. Modifiers occuring in
the last syllable certainly cause problems with huge gaps.
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This rendering is under Microsoft Word from Office /XP on a WinXP system. It is clear that Microsoft has taken care of some of the problems with Word2000, at least in respect of widths of the characters but again, modifier characters cause problems. |
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This is the rendering under Internet Explorer-6 on a Win2000 system. Again, one sees much confusion in rendering the codes with modifier characters. Apparently, text sent from a web server is handled differently by browsers. Noticeable are the characters which could not be rendered. |
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This
is the rendering under Mozilla 1.0 on a Debian Linux system. Even the very
first string has run into a problem of incorrectly placed Matra! The last
syllable is rendered differently and uses the halanth inplace of the half
letter! Surprisingly the widths seem to have been computed correclty.
On Linux systems, Matra placement
is far from satisfactory even when the Matra is located on the required
side of the consonant.
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This is the rendering under Opera on a debian System. Notice how the modifier codes have been faithfully interpreted but have been rendered using a different scheme! Opera seems to provide a clear clue to the presence of modifier characters! Unfortunately, this does not help. The Matra for "ih" is still on the wrong side! |
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The screen image on the left shows how Opera under WinXP renders the text. This is in contrast with the rendering under Linux. However, there it is still at variance with the rendering of the same text by Opera under Linux! Also notice how the zero width joiner before "yA" gets rendered with a new shape! |
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