Processing Tools

The following are some useful procedures, fonts, links, and Unix and PC (Dos and Win) Software Tools for preparing Sanskrit documents.

itrans

• ITRANS Transliteration Schemes -
  • Reference Summary - If you are planning to encode any Sanskrit document, this is the file you will need to start with - print and post it next to your computer to develop familiarity with the scheme.
  • Common Errors - and tips on correct ITRANS transliteration.
  • Preferred transliteration scheme - Text | PostScript | GIF.
• Itranslator (Itranslator2003 - latest, Itranslator99, Itranslator98) for PC -
  • http://www.omkarananda-ashram.org/Sanskrit/Itranslt.html (Alternate downloads 1 2) - a great PC Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP software - Itranslator is a free utility for PCs developed by Omkarananda Ashram Himalayas, which converts ITRANS 5.2 (as well as older versions including ITRANS 4) Sanskrit text or text files into Devanagari scipt and roman+diacritics (True Type), which can then be exported or pasted via the clipboard to any application. Itranslator produces results that are fully editable, printable on any printer, and of publishing quality.

    This free software is useful for converting existing texts like those available on the Documents List pages into Devanagari and Roman+diacritics, as well as for typing your own texts. You DO NOT need ITRANS, TeX, LaTeX, ghostview/ ghostscript, web browsers, MSWord or any word processor to get this program working.

    The Itranslator 99 uses 8-bit true type fonts and is compatible with all versions of Windows.

    The newer Itranslator 2003 uses 16-bit Unicode-compatible fonts and is working only on Windows 2000 / XP / Server 2003.

    A detailed 'Technical Manual of Itranslator' developed by Ulrich Stiehl is available, which includes a comparison of Itranslator 99 and 2003.

• ITRANS Software Package and Online utilities -
  • ITRANS HomePage -
    • Avinash Chopde's HomePage - (The author of ITRANS) - describes the latest release of ITRANS and has downloads available; also describes his other Package for sanskrit processing - for easy entry of Indic Script text using MS-Windows word-processors.

  • Itrans with JavaScript - 
    
    • JTRANS | : This is an exciting new Javascript-based development - written by Sandeep Sibal and Arun Kumar Gupta. A simple but very powerful way of editing Devanaagarii in a WYSIWIG front-end using a Web browser. It uses some of the latest internet / world-wide-web techniques and the specially prepared Xdvng font. JTrans2 can be used on any browser platform that supports JavaScript - Unix, Mac and PC. Many extensions to capabilities and additional fonts' support are planned. For viewing web pages with Xdvng - PC Fonts | Unix-BDF Fonts

  • Itrans Direct Web Interface -
    
    • Main site and Hari Adiseshu's Itrans Web interface Convertor - for online conversion of Itrans to Devanaagarii and other Indic Scripts.

  • Itrans/MAC -
    • Itrans for the MAC platform is given at Avinash Chopde's site and https://sanskritdocuments.org/sanskritfaq.html. The details are given in http://www.dvaita.info/shrao/itrans/.

  • dishaa HomePage -
    • dishaa - is a direct Indian script HTML authoring application.

Software tools

• PC GhostScript GhostViewer Software -
  
  • GhostScript and GSview - The latest versions of GsView/GhostScript, these are now available for many platforms.
  • Test PostScript file - Use these test PostScript files, to check the installation of your postscript viewer.
  
  
• Adobe PDF reader. Check/uncheck the additional installations (Photoshop album starter, Google tool bar etc) as per your requirements.
• TeX/LaTeX -
  • LaTex - summary reference help file.
  • TeX/LaTex installation - A FAQ for on various platforms.

• Various useful tools such as SSH Putty, WinSCP WS_FTP LE, Audio/Video processors are available at
  
  • http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/(free)
  • http://winscp.sourceforge.net/eng/download.php(free)
  • http://www.ftpplanet.com/downloadLE.asp?ipswitch(demo).
  • Real Player and Real Producer basic (free, signup needed).
  • Wavepad audio editor and converter at www.nch.com.au (demo but shareware); the site also has CD to mp3/Wav converter.
  • Excellent audio/video conversion tools (e.g. rm2mp3) at http://www.boilsoft.com/ (at price).
  • MP3 to WMA converter. Use 64kbps,4800khz.
  • www.yousendit.com to send files of uptp 50-100 MB to anyone with email address.
  • megashares.com allows file uploads.
  • Find broken links on web sites using the free software Xenu.
  • Component Software Difference file-difference version analysis tool for Microsoft Windows.
  • kdiff3, to compare files side by side, like xxdiff on Linux/Unix/Windows. Other difference tools are linked here.
  • Pick a license from http://creativecommons.org and mention that in the pages, for example, to allow non-commercial use, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/.
  • Folder size for Windows (Not for Vista).
  • WinRAR archiver.
  • vcdgear VCD to mpeg extraction software.
  • Digital video information with software links.
  • Super software from erightsoft for audio/video extraction from video files.
  Some of the above sites need simple sign-up.

• Information on creation of dynamic fonts is available at http://webservices.nic.in/html/hindiweb.htm. The site explains how to create EOT,PRF, and java scripts so that user will not have to download specific fonts needed to view a text created with specialized fonts.

fonts

Various fonts used for Sanskrit text formatting, display and printing. Please download in the binary mode. 

other resources

• A method using WinXP to directly type devanAgarI in Unicode is presented by Mihas Bayaryn (bayaryn at mail.ru). Read SanUnireadme.html for details. All these files are packaged in the KeyBoardhelp.zip and the .msi and .dll files are in the keyboard.zip.

  A note by Mihas Bayaryn, a Belarusian-English scholar: The phonetic keyboardlayout for devanaAgarI was developed using the program Keyboard layout Manager (devanagari inscript layout requires special character-marks on keyboard). Unicode format has its own defects but it is the only solution (it is really multilingual). There are some reasons for this. 1) Text in unicode is searcheable. 2) It is easy to format this text in many fonts (at this moment there about devanagari fonts for unicode, the best is Sanskrit2003). 3) It is easy to convert this text to other encodings (for example by Word macros). 4) Unicode text can contain characters in many languages (for example Belarusian English Sanskrit and many others at once). There are about 20 different indian encodings for devanagari (one font - one encoding). These texts are not sercheable, it is difficult to convert them in other encodings, and they support only devanagari and roman scripts (not cyrilic for example).

  How does one use .dll and .msi files?

  .msi file format is executable in WinXP - like all .exe files. And .dll file in <i386> directory is the library-file of keyboard layout.

  To install this keyboard driver one has to:
  1. unpack keyboard.zip file in one directory
  2. run sanskrit.msi file
  3. go to Control Panel > Languages and Regional Settings > Languages > More > Languages and IME
  4. then add Sanskrit as Language and Sanskrit Romanized as IME.
  5. all is done.
  

  To type devanagari in text-editor one also must have installed at least one unicode font which supports devanagari (Mangal, Arial MS Unicode, Sanskrit 2003, GIST-Yogesh and others).

  Using <Alt-Shift> changes keyboard layout to Sanskrit and type.
  
  

• Explore a new Devanagari scripting tool at http://sarasvati.sourceforge.net written by Stefan Webb. It works with Windows XP and 2000. The site is equipped with screenshots and manuals.

  Also try out other interfaces at http://www.aksharamala.com, Itrans online interface, Sanskrit bhaarat, and Itranslator linked above.

• A modified transliteration scheme - for the use of accents by Charles Wikner.

• Unix Devnag | PC Devnag - Velthuis fonts/encoding system for download.
  There is also a Mac version of Velthuis devnag software available, by Himanshu Pota.

• A tool to convert Devanagari to transliterated Sanskrit developed by Rajko Jerama. Use sans.exe, and/or sansdeva.exe or devasans.exe. A short user's manual and correspondence with Rajko Jerama are available. Please report if you experience any problem.

• The granthamandira.org has conversion utility between between and Harvard - Kyoto, Itrans, CSX, Unicode HTML, velthuis/.dn, and Raga encoding systems. The utility software can be downloaded for offline conversion using local files as input or as browser. There are also some MS Word macros that can do the conversion.

zip/unzip software

Some of the Sanskrit Documents and files may be available only in 'zipped' format which will require decompression programs before viewing --

• PkZIP decompression software for Dos and Win

• WinZip decompression software for Dos and Win