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w3c / iip

Documenting gaps and requirements for support of Indic languages on the Web and in eBooks.
https://w3c.github.io/iip/
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Devanagari: 3.8 Emphasis and Highlights - Bold and Italics are non-native, should not be allowed #39

Open alolita opened 5 years ago

alolita commented 5 years ago

https://w3c.github.io/iip/gap-analysis/deva-gap.html#emphasis

Add usage examples based on Latin script styles provided by DTP software applied to Devanagari text.

Issue: Bold and Italics are not allowed in Devanagari based languages. Add tests to support correct behavior.

r12a commented 5 years ago

So how does one indicate emphasis in Devanagari text? Is it purely linguistic, or are other devices used?

vivekpani commented 5 years ago

Bold is used. Italics, underline and other such features aren't.

kulpreetchilana commented 5 years ago

I'm not 100% sure we should discourage the use of Italics for Indic text. At least for Gurmukhi, I've found two samples from pre-1980s that show some semblance of slanted / cursive-style text used for emphasis or added style.

img_0805 This is from Giani Gurdit Singh's Mera Pind. The first line of every chapter is a couplet in what looks to be synthetically-slanted Gurmukhi (I don't think typesetting software existed for Gurmukhi at the time this was published)

img_0806 This is a sign board from a village in Punjab with two interesting Italic-style designs used for emphasis.

These samples are from 40+ years ago. Language is constantly changing and evolving, so it's reasonable that cursive / slanted Gurmukhi is accepted as a form of emphasis today. I think the slanted hand-lettering style should be preferred to the synthetically slanted style, but unfortunately I have yet to find a Gurmukhi font in this style.