Malayalam numbers ൪,൯ looks like chillu glyphs ര്‍, ന്‍

[santhoshtr]

Malayalam numbers usually has vertical stroke as its tail, while chillus should have curvy tail.

[lianghai]

Thanks for your feedback. I'll let the designer know. However, afaik, Malayalam numbers ൪, ൯ are also often without distinction from chillu letters ർ, ൻ, especially when chillu letters take the style of vertical straight tails. Do you consider that a common option or just a marginal style that is only decent in lettering and display typefaces?

[santhoshtr]

Vertical straight tails is a choice made to distinguish between numbers and chillus. I agree that there are fonts that use the same glyph style for both. Especially Nirmala UI. In the past month, this created a massive data corruption in governemnt records because one of the online tool by Kerala government accidentally used Malayalam numbers instead of chillus in data entry(input tool). The difference was obvious with other free licensed fonts(http://smc.org.in/fonts/) and we reported it(http://blog.smc.org.in/electoral-malayalam-mistakes/). In the print I have seen an example whre Malayalam numerals in small size compared to Chillus.

[lianghai]

Thanks for introducing that case of data corruption. In the post on SMC, the issue of mixing anusvara (ം) and digit zero (൦) was also mentioned. Do you also, regarding zero (൦), recommend that explicit letterform (the one used in some fonts like Rachana Bold) over the simple circular letterform? Or is the size difference between anusvara and zero is usually enough for users to distinguish them?

Furthermore, about those less frequently used characters for "Fractions" — U+0D73 ൳, U+0D74 ൴, U+0D75 ൵. Do you recommend that ൴ ൵ should have straight tails so they're consistent to digits ൪ and ൯, or they should have curly tails since there're no chillu letters similiar to them? And about U+0D73 ൳, is there a good way to dinstinguish it from the digit zero (൦) when the latter one takes the tailed form?

Btw, may I know why you still prefer the legacy <C, Virama, ZWJ> sequences for chillu letters (as I can see in SMC's article encoding) instead of the new, atomic characters?

[santhoshtr]

Or is the size difference between anusvara and zero is usually enough for users to distinguish them?

Size difference is usually enough. But anuswara is circular and 0 is not exactly circular.

Do you recommend that ൴ ൵ should have straight tails so they're consistent to digits ൪ and ൯, or they should have curly tails since there're no chillu letters similiar to them?

The need not be consistant with digit glyphs. They are already distinct from Chillus and designer is free to choose curly tail or straight tail.

And about U+0D73 ൳, is there a good way to dinstinguish it from the digit zero (൦) when the latter one takes the tailed form?

U+0D73 should have small radius eye and longer tail. Digit zero, if its glyph has tail, it is circle with large radius and short tail. But the tailed form of digit zero is rare and now days all fonts I know use circular form without tail.

may I know why you still prefer the legacy <C, Virama, ZWJ> sequences

We don't prefer one above another. We treat them equally. Historically SMC was against alternate encoding of chillu. It is a long story to write down here :). But http://thottingal.in/documents/ReportonMalayalamUnicodeIssues.pdf http://thottingal.in/documents/SMC_Unicode_5.1.pdf http://thottingal.in/documents/rachana-malayalam-collation.pdf and finally http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2013/13036-chillus-uptake.pdf will give enough details. In short, <C, Virama, ZWJ> cannot be called legacy sequence, but it is alternate encdoing and unicode insists all applications must treat them equally. You may contact me in email if you need more information on this since it is not related to the issue about hind-kochi :)

[lianghai]

I'll ask the designer to try a more oval shape (taking reference to Meera) for Malayalam digit zero, besides improve the other two digits.

Ah… I really should've read "Report on the Issues of Malayalam Language in Unicode" more carefully. Thank you for emphasizing this document and the other ones. Information in these documents should be able for me to make decisions now. And when I run into some more tech issues about Malayalam (mmm, I plan to make some major renovation and correction on all of ITF's Malayalam fonts (there's a traditional orthography design)), I know where to find help now. :)

[santhoshtr]

You are welcome!. Happy to help :)

[davelab6]

@lianghai what is the status of this? :)

[davelab6]

@lianghai ping