Improvements for Noto Sans Syloti Nagri

[Sagir8453]

Defect Report

Many characters in the Noto sans Syloti Nagri font are wrong or not in order.

Font

NotoSansSylotiNagri-Regular.ttf.

Where the font came from, and when

Site: https://noto-website-2.storage.googleapis.com/pkgs/NotoSansSylotiNagti-hinted.zip Date: 2019-03-25

Font Version

The current one available on GitHub.

Issue

As shown in the image below, some characters need improvements. An alternative glyph for the character "A" is needed, the alternative form is more common and less confusing with the character "RO". The shape of the character "I" should be improved, the top part. Now the consonants. "TTHO" should be like "6" as in the image. The "DDHO" should also look different. The "DO" 's bottom part should be longer. The "DHO" should have an alternative form. The "NO"'s front part should be connected little bit billow from the top of the vertical line. The "BHO" should be improved, it looks too similar to the "NO" in the current font. The "LO" should have an alternative form. The "SHO" also needs improvements. Now the diacritics. The "E", "DVISVARA" and the top part of the vowel sign "OO" should be separated from the horizontal line. And the "U" diacitic should be separate from the letters and it should be longer also. The "DU" (DO + U diacitic) should be like in the image. Will talk about the conjunct consonants issue later when they are supported.

Screenshot

Syloti Nagri alphabet from manuscripts. The letter "ddo" is missing here. A font that I'm making. It's currently in alpha state. Will try to post an improved version later. Base of my font. Another manuscript page.

The "DU"

[PaulHanslow]

@Sagir8453 This is a comment about the upcoming changes to Noto Sans Syloti Nagri, showing examples of what's changed . The second part of this comment is about questions I've had where I'm unsure and require answers. I wish to note that showing individual graphemes for what needs addressing/changing makes it easier to assess what's being talked about rather than images involving a group of characters. Also, it would be helpful to have characters referred to by unicode values than naming convention like 'SHO' and 'BHO'. Conjuncts are easier to identify and locate by using _uniXXXXuniXXXX (eg. 'DU' would be written as '_uniA816uniA825'). Thanks

Changes yet to be uploaded

1. A (U+A800) alt zig-zag form added As per your note, the zig-zag form would become the default with the straight barred version becoming the alt form. Advise otherwise if this is incorrect.

2. I (U+A801) redesigned Top part of I redesigned with additional loop structure.

3. TTHO (U+A811) redesigned Old form had hard junction at the bottom of the main stem. Redesign's counter form has been closed to avoid ambiguity with DDHO (U+A813).

4. DDHO (U+A813) redesigned Old form has a hard junction at the bottom of the main stem. Redesign has the main stem curving into the upward stroke. The overall 'loop' shape has been vertically lowered to avoid ambiguity with TTHO (U+A811). Sangri8453's version of DDHO and TTHO has the main stem curving towards the left before curving upward. Google Noto version has been kept straight to better harmonise with the overall design, which is more rigid than calligraphic.

5. DHO (U+A817) alt form added

6. NO (U+A818) redesigned Stroke now meets the main vertical stem at a lower position rather than at the inflection point of the top-stroke and stem.

7. BHO (U+A81C) redesigned BHO looked too similar to NO (U+A818) before the redesign.

8. VOWEL SIGN U (U+A825) tests The VOWEL SIGN U has been lengthened to the left. How this vowel attaches to base shapes has also been checked (see image).

QUESTIONS

1. LO (U+A81F) alt form How should this alt form look. Am I correct in assuming it is this grapheme from the image you attached?

2. DU (DO + U diacritic) (uniA816_uniA825) Am I correct in that it is the character that looks like this?

DU is tricky in that I'm prioritising avoiding clashes with adjacent characters, which limits the length of the DU's out-stroke. The image below shows character pairs which I believe are too close to each other (coloured light blue) when the tail stroke is made long.

Please inform me if character sequences occur where _uniA816uniA825 is followed by characters with the VOWEL SIGN U (U+A825). If so, I'll do more extensive clashing tests. Clashes are marked pink with close clashes marked light blue.

3. You state LO (U+A81F) should have alt form. What does this look like (please show an isolated pictogram of this alt form).

4. You state SHO needs improvements but not in what manner. Is SHO a conjunct? An isolated pictogram of this letter as well as its unicode properties would be helpful (ie uniXXXX_uniXXXX if it's a conjunct).

5. The following omissions are mentioned in another Open Issue for Noto Sans Syloti Nagri but I'm unsure how these two conjuncts should look. Please advise.

6. I'm yet to update any conjunct which features a base shape that's been changed. The plan is complete the conjuncts after finishing this round of updates.