21-12-2012, 04:53 PM
Creating Websites in Hindi
Creating Websites in Hindi.pdf (Size: 1.86 MB / Downloads: 348)
INTRODUCTION
The Defence Research and Development
Organisation (DRDO) has its website on the
internet, for the last few years. The website is
designed, developed and maintained by
Defence Scientific lnformation &
Documentation Centre (DESIDOC). The site
is currently publishing its contents in English.
Being a widely used site, efforts have been
made to create its Hindi version so as to
make it accessible to a larger number of
interested users. Creation of a website,
especially in Hindi, is a very complex task and
needs command over language in which
website will be designed, various fonts and
other related technologies; this article covers
the technical specifications and evaluation
criteria for the Hindi Website and increases
the curiosity to cruise into the technicality of
developing the website in Hindi.
TECHNICAL FEATURES
In delivering a multilingual website, apart
from translation of images and text, there are
also various technical considerations to take
into account when providlng multilinguak
content for visitor. One of the most important
consideration is to be aware of how the visitor
interacts with the site to find the information
he needs. If a visitor can fill out a contact
form, order items generated by a database,
one should make sure that he can find the
information that he needs for them, as well as
effectively respond to their inquiries.
Browsers and Font
Visitors can see only that text in a web
page, which uses those fonts, which are
installed on the visitor's computer. For those
pages published in English and other
European languages, Aria1 and Times New
Roman fonts are often used because they are
standard fonts supplied with Microsoft
Windows for PCs and also with Apple
Macintosh computers. These fonts also
support most European languages and the
user can set their browser to their own
language.
Font Downloading
One way to ensure that a web page is
displayed correctly is to allow the users to
download the required Hindi font in which the
website will be designed. The page publisher
can provide the Hindi font file for download or
a small program that will install the font
directly onto the user's computer. Once
installed, the page will be displayed in the
correct Hindi font whenever the user revisits
the page. With the font installed, the time it
takes for the browser to load the text is the
same as for any English language page.
Disadvantages
Some Hindi fonts are available in the
public domain and have been used by several
web publishers, but as there is no common
coding standard for Hindi fonts, it is possible
that several fonts will be required to view
various web pages published using this
method. So the users have to install many
fonts required for viewing correctly different
websites. It can take several minutes for the
user to download and install the required font.
Different versions of the font are required for
both Apple Macintosh ana PC platforms.
There is currently no Hindi font compafibles
on both systems.