Balinese Computer Font

Balinese Computer Font

I am writing to express my gratitude to I Made Suatjana and I
Gusti Ngurah Sutjaja, who have brought the Balinese
script into the computer age (The Jakarta Post, Sept. 16).

As a Balinese, I learned how to read and write in the
traditional Balinese script at school and I know how dull and
boring the learning materials are.

The Balinese Computer Font, the brainchild of Suatjana, eases
the process of writing and publishing new materials in Balinese,
and will thus trigger the creation of contemporary articles and
short stories, or perhaps even interactive computer games and
tools that can be used to replace existing learning materials.

Students will start to enjoy studying the Balinese script,
which will result in increased proficiency levels and ensure it
will not be forgotten by future generations.

I would also like to inform readers of the Post about another
related endeavor that is taking place: The Balinese Encoding
project has been working to enhance the capabilities of the
Balinese Computer Font.

The current version of the font application lacks a basic
element known as the "coded character set" and the adoption of
the Unicode standard (http://www.unicode.org) is being planned to
provide the encoded character set for Balinese script.
Without an encoded character set, the font can't be processed
properly by the computer, and the computerization of the Balinese
script will be complete only after the encoded character set has
been composed and accepted by the Unicode Consortium.

The project team comprises computer scientists, linguists and
font designers, including Suatjana himself.

If you are interested in giving suggestions, helping out or
simply want to know more, please visit our website at
(http://www.babadbali.com/aksarabali/aksara_bali.htm) to check
out detailed activities of this project.

IDA BAGUS ADI SUDEWA, Denpasar