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Can we get rid of the italics on the text? The use of italics on pretty much 90% of systems with some of the IAST characters (e.g. ṁ) results in wierd spacing because those letters are often substituted with other character (because mainstream fonts don't have all the IAST characters). Sukh | ਸੁਖ | Talk 14:33, 18 December 2005 (UTC)
Template:Unicode works just as well. -- Babub→ Talk 10:19, 8 August 2006 (UTC)
Here I will crosspost something from Unicode template talk page regarding the same confusion there:
Using the Unicode template to display Devanagari is no longer as much of an issue as it once was due to better support for Unicode on all new computers that have been sold for at least the past two years. On a practical basis the Unicode template is rarely used on the Hinduism pages that use Devanagari. The IAST transliteration method can optionally be shown via the IAST template if IAST is used. But IAST and Unicode address completely different issues.
The IAST template and the Unicode template do different things. IAST is one of several incompatible transliteration methods for Devanagari. So using the IAST tag specifies which of the alternative methods is being used. Also note that IAST is a transliteration method for a writing system (Devanagari) which is used for multiple languages such as Hindi, Sanskrit, etc. Sanskrit is a language that can be written using various writing systems, such as Bonji, IAST, Devanagari, etc.
The template I see most often on the Hinduism pages for Sanskrit is some variant of this: ([[Sanskrit]]:{{lang|sa|गणेश पुराणम्}}; {{IAST|gaṇeśa purāṇam}}) which displays:
( Sanskrit:गणेश पुराणम्; gaṇeśa purāṇam)
Notice that no explicit Unicode tags are used. The LANG tag argument is just the raw Unicode character value.
Buddhipriya 19:56, 25 March 2007 (UTC)
It seems that using this template makes the font size smaller for some reason:
Wikitext | Result |
---|---|
The Panchatantra (pañcatantra) is a nītiśastra | The Panchatantra (pañcatantra) is a nītiśastra |
The Panchatantra ({{IAST|pañcatantra}}) is a {{IAST|nītiśastra}} | The Panchatantra (pañcatantra) is a nītiśastra |
So using {{IAST}} makes it smaller and less readable. Can this be fixed? Shreevatsa ( talk) 18:47, 31 January 2009 (UTC)
On further investigation, it seems that this template just transcludes Template:Transl, so that {{IAST|saṃskṛtam}} is just a shortcut for {{transl|sa|IAST|saṃskṛtam}}, for example. Testing above table with {{transl}} instead:
Wikitext | Result |
---|---|
The Panchatantra (pañcatantra) is a nītiśastra | The Panchatantra (pañcatantra) is a nītiśastra |
The Panchatantra ({{transl|sa|IAST|pañcatantra}}) is a {{transl|sa|IAST|nītiśastra}} | The Panchatantra (pañcatantra) is a nītiśastra |
Yup. So it needs fixing elsewhere. Shreevatsa ( talk) 22:04, 31 January 2009 (UTC)
The font selection for terms using the IAST template is very poor. I have researched the fonts that include all the IAST characters quite a bit, and the choices here are sloppy and in some cases broken. On the Windows and Linux systems I have used, they are all switched over to god-awful monospace fonts with terrible legibility, that often do not even contain all of the IAST characters (!), when standard sans-serif fonts are readily available on all major platforms for every IAST character. This should be changed in Wikipedia, but I do not know where the code is for it, or how I can reach it. It would only take a little work to make peoples' lives easier here, and to improve the appearance of Wikipedia's articles that utilize IAST.
The choices IAST fonts are really quite clear for every major OS, and I can go into much, much more detail with all sorts of other fonts that also support every IAST character, but it shouldn't be necessary. Someone, please, please, please tell me where I can go to fix this. I can put together CSS font-family lists that will work gracefully on these major platforms and blend well with the rest of Wikipedia's text. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tengu800 ( talk • contribs) 05:47, 22 December 2009 (UTC)
Italics are typographically correct for transliteration. The issue raised five years ago above (transliterated characters may display strangely or be spaced wrongly in italics) is surely not an issue for most present-day computers. Please restore italics to this template. Wareh ( talk) 16:33, 7 August 2010 (UTC)
A few people (such as myself) have commented on the general awfulness of the font appearances in Firefox for the IAST template. Just wanted to let others know that this font selection is made in the following file: MediaWiki:Common.css/WinFixes.css. In this file, it is the "Unicode" class that effectively makes the decision. Since MediaWiki:Common.css/WinFixes.css is a sub-page of MediaWiki:Common.css, the best place to discuss this is probably MediaWiki talk:Common.css, which will have more eyes looking at it, and more people able to help (hopefully). I have proposed some font code in CSS that hopefully can improve things and make transliterated Indic terms actually look nice and harmonize with the rest of the text. Tengu800 ( talk) 02:12, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
![]() | This template does not require a rating on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | |||||||
|
Can we get rid of the italics on the text? The use of italics on pretty much 90% of systems with some of the IAST characters (e.g. ṁ) results in wierd spacing because those letters are often substituted with other character (because mainstream fonts don't have all the IAST characters). Sukh | ਸੁਖ | Talk 14:33, 18 December 2005 (UTC)
Template:Unicode works just as well. -- Babub→ Talk 10:19, 8 August 2006 (UTC)
Here I will crosspost something from Unicode template talk page regarding the same confusion there:
Using the Unicode template to display Devanagari is no longer as much of an issue as it once was due to better support for Unicode on all new computers that have been sold for at least the past two years. On a practical basis the Unicode template is rarely used on the Hinduism pages that use Devanagari. The IAST transliteration method can optionally be shown via the IAST template if IAST is used. But IAST and Unicode address completely different issues.
The IAST template and the Unicode template do different things. IAST is one of several incompatible transliteration methods for Devanagari. So using the IAST tag specifies which of the alternative methods is being used. Also note that IAST is a transliteration method for a writing system (Devanagari) which is used for multiple languages such as Hindi, Sanskrit, etc. Sanskrit is a language that can be written using various writing systems, such as Bonji, IAST, Devanagari, etc.
The template I see most often on the Hinduism pages for Sanskrit is some variant of this: ([[Sanskrit]]:{{lang|sa|गणेश पुराणम्}}; {{IAST|gaṇeśa purāṇam}}) which displays:
( Sanskrit:गणेश पुराणम्; gaṇeśa purāṇam)
Notice that no explicit Unicode tags are used. The LANG tag argument is just the raw Unicode character value.
Buddhipriya 19:56, 25 March 2007 (UTC)
It seems that using this template makes the font size smaller for some reason:
Wikitext | Result |
---|---|
The Panchatantra (pañcatantra) is a nītiśastra | The Panchatantra (pañcatantra) is a nītiśastra |
The Panchatantra ({{IAST|pañcatantra}}) is a {{IAST|nītiśastra}} | The Panchatantra (pañcatantra) is a nītiśastra |
So using {{IAST}} makes it smaller and less readable. Can this be fixed? Shreevatsa ( talk) 18:47, 31 January 2009 (UTC)
On further investigation, it seems that this template just transcludes Template:Transl, so that {{IAST|saṃskṛtam}} is just a shortcut for {{transl|sa|IAST|saṃskṛtam}}, for example. Testing above table with {{transl}} instead:
Wikitext | Result |
---|---|
The Panchatantra (pañcatantra) is a nītiśastra | The Panchatantra (pañcatantra) is a nītiśastra |
The Panchatantra ({{transl|sa|IAST|pañcatantra}}) is a {{transl|sa|IAST|nītiśastra}} | The Panchatantra (pañcatantra) is a nītiśastra |
Yup. So it needs fixing elsewhere. Shreevatsa ( talk) 22:04, 31 January 2009 (UTC)
The font selection for terms using the IAST template is very poor. I have researched the fonts that include all the IAST characters quite a bit, and the choices here are sloppy and in some cases broken. On the Windows and Linux systems I have used, they are all switched over to god-awful monospace fonts with terrible legibility, that often do not even contain all of the IAST characters (!), when standard sans-serif fonts are readily available on all major platforms for every IAST character. This should be changed in Wikipedia, but I do not know where the code is for it, or how I can reach it. It would only take a little work to make peoples' lives easier here, and to improve the appearance of Wikipedia's articles that utilize IAST.
The choices IAST fonts are really quite clear for every major OS, and I can go into much, much more detail with all sorts of other fonts that also support every IAST character, but it shouldn't be necessary. Someone, please, please, please tell me where I can go to fix this. I can put together CSS font-family lists that will work gracefully on these major platforms and blend well with the rest of Wikipedia's text. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tengu800 ( talk • contribs) 05:47, 22 December 2009 (UTC)
Italics are typographically correct for transliteration. The issue raised five years ago above (transliterated characters may display strangely or be spaced wrongly in italics) is surely not an issue for most present-day computers. Please restore italics to this template. Wareh ( talk) 16:33, 7 August 2010 (UTC)
A few people (such as myself) have commented on the general awfulness of the font appearances in Firefox for the IAST template. Just wanted to let others know that this font selection is made in the following file: MediaWiki:Common.css/WinFixes.css. In this file, it is the "Unicode" class that effectively makes the decision. Since MediaWiki:Common.css/WinFixes.css is a sub-page of MediaWiki:Common.css, the best place to discuss this is probably MediaWiki talk:Common.css, which will have more eyes looking at it, and more people able to help (hopefully). I have proposed some font code in CSS that hopefully can improve things and make transliterated Indic terms actually look nice and harmonize with the rest of the text. Tengu800 ( talk) 02:12, 24 August 2010 (UTC)