Pāli Font Resources

I. ANSI Character Set Fonts

ANSI character set fonts are recommended for Windows 98 or earlier. Unicode fonts can be used on Windows 98SE or ME. Windows XP or 2000 is recommended.

To read a brief explanation on using my Pāli and Sanskrit Fonts, with an ANSI character set chart, and samples of my edited fonts from Serif™ Font Pack. RIGHT CLICK and choose Save target as… to download (575 Kbytes PDF file, updated 13/4/2003 with a new section on defining shortcuts for Word)

Pāli and Sanskrit Truetype Fonts from Serif™ Font Pack. (1.46 Mbyte) Though free, these fonts are still copyright, and must not be sold. Total of 88 typefaces including the individual typefaces listed below.

Skt Bamboo (25 Kybytes)

Skt Bodonoff Ultra (19.5 Kbytes)

Skt Casper Open (32 Kybtes)

Skt Centurion, 4 styles (94 Kbytes)

Hybrid Skt Garland, 4 styles (101 Kbytes)
Unicode Font, backwardly compatible with ANSI fonts

Skt Medieval (16.8 Kybtes)

Skt Monterez Regular and Bold (31 Kybtes)

Skt Palermo, 4 styles (81 Kbytes)

Skt Shotgun (24 Kybtes)

II. Unicode Fonts

Unicode is an international font encoding standard for most of the world’s languages. Some Unicode fonts are included with Windows ME and later versions of Windows. Windows CE, NT, XP, 2000, and Mac OS 9.2 support the Unicode standard more fully. Unicode version 3.1 supports all of the characters required for Pāli and Sanskrit. Download the latest PDF (updated 31/8/2003) too see the full character map (66 Kbytes)

Freeware Gentium Unicode font by Victor Gaultney, 2 Styles (295 K)
This comprehensive font has over 1,600 characters. Follow the link to learn more about it. Click on the graphic to download it. This font has all the characters needed for Romanised Pali and Classical Sanskrit.

Gentium Alternate, 2 Styles (297 K).

Gentium Alternate is a version of the font with redesigned diacritics (flatter ones) to make it more suitable for use with stacking diacritics, and for languages such as Vietnamese.

Indologist, Ulrich Stiehl, has developed Open Type versions of his URW Palladio fonts. »» Visit his website to request his Free, but copyrighted fonts by email.

Download a free Unicode Character Map — »» Babel Map — which includes a character search function.

To type Unicode characters in any application try »» Keyboard Pro.
New: Load this keyboard file in Perfect Keyboard Pro to type Pali.

My fonts are still evolving, so do not pass them on, but ask others to get the latest versions from this page.

Unicode Bamboo (37 Kbytes)

Unicode Bodonoff Ultra (31 Kbytes)

Unicode Centurion, 4 styles (95 Kbytes)

 (New Hinted Fonts 2/2/2005):
Elementary Regular and Bold (109 kbytes)

(Updated Hinted Font 21/3/2005):
Garland (4 styles, 234 Kbytes)

Unicode Hobbit (33 Kbytes)

 (New Hinted Font 26/1/2005):
Invite (67 kbytes)

Unicode Mondine (31 Kbytes)

Unicode Optimist (4 styles, 107 Kbytes)

Unicode Park (32 Kbytes)

Unicode Uncial (34 Kbytes)

Progress Report
Updated 29 March 2005

My latest Unicode fonts mark a transition to Font Creator 5.0, the latest version of this powerful Truetype font editor. The professional edition automates much of the process of adding composite characters to fonts. Character hinting is not yet supported, but will probably be added soon. The online manual gives an overview of what it can do.

The most recent fonts contain 1,030 characters (including spaces and diacritical marks), and now support most languages that use Latin scripts.

Ulrich Stiehl has kindly rehinted the new fonts for me. The files have now been updated. The filesize have increased due to the hinting, but the fonts should appear smoother on screen. Printing is not affected.

The Garland Unicode font has been updated (21/3/2005) to fix an error with the italic type style.

If you find any characters that are incorrectly designed, or want any more added, send me an explanation and an illustration of what you think is needed.

Select a linkBasic Latin, Latin 1Latin Extended ALatin Extended BDiacritics, Latin AdditionalPali, Latin AdditionalVietnamese & PunctuationSuperscripts, Currency, MathsGeometric ShapesMiscellaneous Symbols

Select a page from the list to see the range of characters covered by my new fonts. The character set is not finalised yet. Some symbols may be included in only a few core fonts to reduce my work load. Others may be added later.