Typing & Input support for Odia
Typing & Input support for Odia

Wikipedia heavily uses diverse scripts from numerous languages. It has adopted Unicode (UTF-8) as the "encoding" scheme for its websites. In order to view this Odia/Oriya (ଓଡ଼ିଆ) version of Wikipedia, you need to have your computer set up to see web pages encoded in Unicode Odia/Oriya (ଓଡ଼ିଆ) scripts. To do this, you need to have a Unicode capable browser and Unicode Odia/Oriya (ଓଡ଼ିଆ) fonts. Both Internet Explorer and Firefox's latest versions support viewing Odia/Oriya (ଓଡ଼ିଆ) scripts once you install the fonts.

Check for existing support

 
Animated video tutorial that shows how to change fonts for solving rendering issues in a Mozilla Firefox browser.

The following image shows you how a correctly enabled computer will render the Odia/Oriya (ଓଡ଼ିଆ) script:
 

The following line of text shows how your computer renders the above line:
ଡ଼ + ି = ଡ଼ି

If the rendering on your computer matches the rendering on the image, then you have already enabled complex text support for Odia/Oriya (ଓଡ଼ିଆ) and should be able to view text correctly in Odia/Oriya (ଓଡ଼ିଆ) script. However, this does not mean you will be able to edit text in Odia/Oriya (ଓଡ଼ିଆ). To edit such text you need to install the appropriate keyboard software on your operating system.

Windows XP (Service Pack 2)

Viewing

Go through the following steps:

  1. Download the latest version of Internet Explorer(IE8+) or Firefox browser(Firefox 4)
  2. Download Unicode Odia/Oriya fonts from the web and install them on your operating system; quite a few of these fonts are freely available.
  3. Download free Odia(Oriya) fonts from here. List of free Odia fonts.
  4. Go to control panel -> Regional and Language Options -> Language, and check the "Install files for complex scripts and right-to-left languages" option. You will need your Windows XP SP2 installer CD to install these new files.
  5. Install Odia(Oriya) support on your browsers:
    • On Internet Explorer 8: Go to Tools -> Internet Options -> General -> Languages, and add Oriya as a language.
    • On Firefox 4: Go to Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> General -> Edit Languages..., and add Oriya as a language.
  6. Go to your browser's "view" menu and set the "character encoding" or "encoding" feature to: Unicode (UTF-8).
  7. If you want to change to a favorite Odia Unicode font for your webpages:
    • For Internet Explorer 6: Go to Tools-->Internet options-->Fonts, choose Odia from the Language Script pulldown menu and select from one of the available Odia fonts in your system.
    • For Firefox 4: Go to Tools -> Options -> Content tab -> Advanced... in the Fonts and colors section. In the pop up window titled "Fonts", select Odia from the "Fonts for:" pulldown Menu and set a Odia font of your choice for various kinds of fields like Serif, Sans Serif, Monospace, etc. to be shown on webpages.

Inputting

  1. Go to Start -> Control Panel -> Regional and Language Options -> Language, and check the option “Install files for complex scripts and right-to-left languages" and insert Win XP CD in your CD-ROM drive to install the files.
  2. Download and install any Odia input interface software from the list provided near the end of this article.
  3. Follow the help guide/manual that comes with the applications for instructions on how to input Odia. You should be able to input anywhere you need to type Odia provided the application is unicode compliant. Ideally, you should also be able to input Odia directly into the edit window of this wiki in your browser.

Windows 95, 98, ME and NT

These operating systems contain no support for indic scripts (combined letters) and thus no support for Odia script. However, downloading Internet Explorer 6.0, Opera (9 or later) or Mozilla Firefox (you need version 2.0 or later!) should enable you to view Odia scripts on these operating systems. If after downloading the appropriate browser you still cannot view Indic scripts please install an appropriate Unicode Odia font. To input Odia scripts, you can use web/browser based tools noted below in this article.

Windows Vista and Windows 7

Odia script support is automatically enabled.

Viewing

You do not need to do anything to enable viewing of Odia text.

Inputting

You can use any unicode compliant standard input methods. See more in this page.

Mac OS X

Unicode support is built into Mac OS X (Cocoa based applications). Oriya editor for iTunes

Viewing

MacOS is currently shipped with Google's open-source Noto Sans Oriya and Noto Serif Oriya fonts, and native proprietary fonts such as Oriya MN and Oriya Sangam MN.

Inputting

To input Odia you have to download Odia keyboard layouts.

Linux with Gnome Desktop

Viewing

You do not need to do anything to enable viewing of Indic text in Gnome 2.8 or later. Ensure you have Odia Unicode fonts.

Inputting

  • Go to Applications > Preferences > Keyboard.
  • Select the "Layouts" tab.
  • Select the keyboard for the language or script you wish to use from the "Available Layouts" frame and then press "Add".
  • Press "Close" to discard the dialog box.
  • Right click on the main menu on your desktop and select "Add to Panel...".
  • Select "Keyboard Indicator" and click "Add".
  • Position the keyboard indicator on your menu bar and click it to switch between keyboard layouts.

Linux with KDE Desktop

Viewing

You do not need to do anything to enable viewing of Indic text. Ensure you have Unicode Odia fonts.

Inputting

  • In the Control Center, go to Regional & Accessibility, Keyboard Layout
  • In the tab Layout, click on Enable keyboard layouts
  • Choose the layouts you want to use in Available layouts
  • Click on Apply
  • Now, you will have an icon for the KDE Keyboard Tool in your panel, in which you can change between the various keyboard layouts you have selected before

Freely available Odia fonts

  • Utkal Oriya font
  • Lohit fonts project - Lohit fonts are available in several Indic languages, names of the packages may vary) ttf-fonts-indic for Debian and Ubuntu/Kubuntu, fonts-indic for Gentoo and Fedora.

Unicode encoding converters

List of software/resources

Linux

Web/Browser Based

Windows

Text Convert

See Also

Notes

  1. ୧.୦ ୧.୧ ୧.୨ ୧.୩ Panigrahi, Subhashish. "Odia language gets a new Unicode font converter". Wikimedia Blog. Retrieved 17 March 2015.