New Kannada fonts in three months

BANGALORE: Taking note of the lack of quality fonts in Kannada, the Karnataka Knowledge Commission (KKC) is in the process of developing new fonts with the assistance of experts. The fonts, which are expected to be developed in three months, will be used in Kanaja portal and later be made available for free download for public. “One may notice that there is a dearth of good fonts in Kannada. We are in touch with expert font developers to design attractive fonts,” Prof M K Sridhar, Member Secretary and Executive Director of the KKC, told Express. Kanaja portal, a user-centric informational website equivalent to Wikipedia, was officially launched by Chief Minsiter B S Yeddyurappa in December 2009. The site currently sports only one font style. The fonts under development will be used to make the Portal more attractive. “The usage of these fonts will not be restricted to the Kanaja portal alone. We want the public to download these fonts. They will be hosted on the internet for free download,” said Prof Sridhar. While it was KKC’s idea of developing new Kannada fonts, the challenge was the actual materialization of the idea. “It is a design oriented process. We have established contact with many font developers and expert consultants in the field of typography. Tenders have also been called for the development process,” he said adding that the International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), which manages the Kanaja portal, was in charge of the tendering process.