ICTA launches Bhashita font family
The Sinhala language, far from being a dying language, has many
features that even some of the world languages lack. IT, a handmaid of
the human mind, should be utilised to let the beauty of the language be
optimised for the benefit of man, said Prof. J.B. Disanayaka after the
launching 'Bhashita', the Sinhala font family produced by the
Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) in
Colombo recently.
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ICTA chairman Prof. P.W. Epasinghe presents a CD with the
‘Bhashita’ Sinhala font family to Prof. J.B. Disanayaka. |
The erudite linguist cited several examples to show how the Sinhala
language has facilities not found in many world languages.
The veteran Sinhala scholar said that the human mind should instruct
the computer as to what it should do. ICT is a tool. It should be a
handmaid of man and not the other way round, the professor said.
Prof. J.B. Disanayaka delivered the keynote address. Several others
also spoke.
ICTA chairman Prof. P.W. Epasinghe, several members of the University
staff and journalists participated.
A notable group among the participants was a team from Royal College
Colombo who have made a mark in the use of Sinhala in ICT. A CD with
Bhashita was handed over to each of the participants by ICTA chairman
Prof. P.W. Epasinghe.
ICTA has identified the enabling of ICT in local languages, Sinhala
and Tamil, as a priority area in the e-Sri Lanka initiative.
ICTA is promoting the use of ICT in Sinhala and Tamil and is
addressing issues relating to local language support such as standard
keyboards, applications in Sinhala and Tamil and fonts. At present there
is a wide choice with regard to standards-based fonts in English, but
very few Unicode compliant fonts are available.
The availability of a high quality, and standards-conformant 'free'
Sinhala font would enable content providers to create Sinhala language
content correctly with the full use of Unicode features and for the
interchange of correct Sinhala characters in the communication media.
There are many Unicode compliant English fonts, but not many Unicode
compliant Sinhala fonts are available at present. Therefore, ICTA
decided to develop a standards-based font and make it available users.
ICTA will make available the font Bhashita freely, but the licence
will be such that the font cannot be changed. |
