TYPE DESIGN INFORMATION PAGE last updated on Wed Nov 20 11:50:14 EST 2024

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Kartika

A Malayalam font distributed by Microsoft. Hashim Padiyath Mohemmadali (Cochin, Kerala) explains its uselessness: Kartika intends to be a Malayalam font, but isn't as the shapes are very unlike any accepted letterforms in Malayalam. I am not sure if it works better as a Malaysian font! It is one of those Indic fonts which has been slapped on us by Microsoft typography as default, but works more as an insult to the language and script. When we Malayalis see it being used increasingly on blogs and sites, being the default Malayalam typeface, we shudder in disgust and self-pity. Fortunately its Roman portion is better, being a mix of Akzidenz Grotesk, Helvetica, Univers, Arial, Verdana etc. To which Sii Daniels (Microsft) replies: The Latin portion of the Windows Indic UI fonts are lifted from "Microsoft Sans Serif" which is the outline verison of the "MS Sans" Windows 3.0 era bitmap font, which was originally named "Helv". Helv was based on bitmaps licensed from Bitstream but hand modified by a former Microsoft engineer who is now the minority owner of the Seattle Mariners baseball club.

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