Typesetting Kannada Unicode using XeTeX
Typesetting software yield better looking documents than word processing software. Word processing softwares are quick and efficient in producing documents for daily use. Books, thesis and works of art require better presentation.
Typesetting is an art and science and requires constant study and practice. However, software packages like TeX make typesetting accessible to all.
In the following paragraphs, I have made a note of setting up your Linux system to typeset kannada text using Unicode. The commands shown below were tested on a Ubuntu 9.04 operating system.
Install XeTeX
$ sudo apt-get install texlive-xetex
Download Akshar fonts and install
$ cd /usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-kannada-fonts
$ sudo wget http://www.kamban.com.au/fonts/akshar.ttf
$ sudo fc-cache
Note: You may have to install ttf-kannada-fonts package if don't see the above directory.
Prepare document
Create a TeX file containing Kannada Unicode text. See attached ondu.tex for example.
Process the document
Convert the .tex file to .pdf using xelatex command
$ xelatex ondu.tex
View output
The above step outputs the typeset document in PDF format. PDF files can be opened using the evince program under Gnome desktop environment.
$ evince ondu.pdf
References
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