Choosing the right font for Indian language translation

In this age of globalization, documents / websites / software, etc. they are being converted to multiple languages. The idea is simple: the content must be in “the language of the reader”. For a website, it is the viewer (potential customer); for a software, it is the end user; for a whitepaper, it is the technical analyst and so on. Reading in your native language not only gives the end user / reader a ‘homey’ feeling, it also helps them understand the topic easily and relate to it more easily.

The booming Indian economy has led to an increase in demand for Indian languages, which has led to an increase in the number of translation agencies in India. However, typing in the vernacular languages ​​of India is not known to all. Fonts in these languages ​​are not interconvertible as is the case with English fonts. Let’s take the example of the Hindi and Marathi fonts.

Hindi is the national language of India and most of the correspondences in the northern part of the country occur in Hindi. Since much of the content is written in English and other regional Indian languages, there is a growing demand for Hindi translation services. Hindi is written in Devanagari script. As a handwritten document is not accepted in most places (and it is not clear), the Hindi translator must write the content in Hindi.

Maharashtra, towards the central part of India, is the economic center of the country. Marathi is the language spoken in Maharashtra and therefore any communication between Mumbai and the rest of the country / world requires Marathi translation services. In fact, Marathi is also written in Devanagari script and many characters are similar to Hindi.

An important point to keep in mind when writing in any vernacular is the application in which the text will be used. For example, if the text is simply needed in a Word file, it needs to be incorporated into software, it is the content of a website, etc. Unicode is the most frequently used font and is the simplest and most universal font for these languages. Unicode fonts are easy to transport and can be streamed via PC without character loss / encryption errors etc. The content of a website is usually written only in Unicode font.

There are other types of fonts known as ttf (true-type fonts) and otf (open-type fonts) that are also used for writing. There are many software and design applications that do not accept Unicode fonts and would need the Marathi translator (or Hindi translator) to write the ttf / otf fonts.

Simply put, choosing the correct font for writing is entirely based on the application in which the content will be used and should be chosen with deep thought as it forms the basis of professional translation services.