Inscript Keyboard Tutorials
Inscript Keyboard Tutorials for Indian Scripts

This section is a tutorial on the basics of Inscript keyboard layouts.

Introduction

Touch Typing Guidelines

Tutorials for the Languages can be found under the Help Menu.

Roman (Compulsory Script Included for Transliteration)


Inscript Keyboard Tutorials | Introduction
Introduction

For printing most of the Indian scripts, one needs hundreds of shapes, which may need to be overlapped with each other. The Matras can be attached on the top, bottom, left or right of a character. It is possible to create all this variety easily by hand. How easy would this be through a keyboard?

An English typewriter keyboard just had to provide for 26 keys for accommodating the lower-case and upper-case alphabet, and a few more for punctuations, numerals and special characters. A computer keyboard provides 47 keys for accommodating these English characters. Is it possible to provide an overlay on these keys, for typing characters in Indian scripts?

If a different overlay is required for each Indian script, how will a person be able to learn different overlays for typing the different scripts which he knows. Wouldn't this create a barrier in the use of different Indian scripts - hindering national integration itself?

The Inscript keyboard overlay has achieved, what was earlier thought as not possible. It allows all the Indian scripts, to be typed in a uniform manner. This means that a person knowing how to type in one script can immediately type in any other, since the keystrokes remain the same. The Inscript overlay allows generations of the hundreds or thousands of character combinations which may exist in a script, by typing just the basic alphabet which gets easily accommodated on an English keyboard.

The Inscript overlay could achieve this miracle, by making use of the fact that there are less than 70 basic letters in any Indian script. Although the exact number of letters may vary in each script, they are all similar, since they originated from the same ancient script: Brahmi. Brahmi letters, had the vowels and consonants, categorized on a scientific and phonetic basis.

Just the sequence of basic letters, spelt in the pronunciation order, is sufficient to determine the shape of the written word. From this "spelling" the computer software can display the word as accurately, as any human expert possibly can. This is possible, since the computer can store the hundreds of shapes which are required for displaying the variety in the script, and can use intricate logic for composing these basic shapes in an aesthetic manner on the display or paper.

When one can type in a word, in terms of its fixed spelling, the strain in composing the word disappears. It then become possible for a casual user or a touch-typist to type away, without having to check the screen continuously for proper composition. It now becomes possible for the user to remain in his thought plane, and allow his fingers to register his thoughts in an automatic fashion, just like what used to happen with the simple English script, with the English keyboard. All this is in sharp contrast, with the mechanical typewriters available for an Indian script. These had to compromise on the display quality, as only a limited number of character shapes could be directly typed through the keys. The user had to compose a word, in terms of the graphic shapes provided, bothering about the correct attachments. All this strained the person who used the language typewriters, while printouts were clumsy. As a result an English typist didn't want to work with the typewriters for other languages.

The Inscript overlay has proved that typing in any Indian script can be as simple as that for English; inspite of the sophistication of these scripts. This is because the layout of the overlay makes use of the scientific and phonetic nature of the Indian script alphabet. This allows the Inscript overlay to be learnt more easily than that of the scattered English alphabet. Inscript keyboard has evolved through the GIST card and terminals. GIST Technology started as a Department of Electronics (DOE), funded project at IIT Kanpur in 1983. In 1986 the technology was commercialized, and DOE published the Inscript keyboard standards [1] which evolved from the GIST. Since then the Inscript keyboard has been used throughout India, for a wide variety of applications in different languages. The common keyboard for all the scripts, has allowed grass-root missions like "Land Records" to be launched throughout the country. Today, the Inscript keyboard is part of the standards published by Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) [2]. Its usage is mandatory for all the electronic and communication media.

Brahmi has been a basis not only for the 10 Indian scripts, but for Sinhalese, Tibetan, Bhutanese, Burmese and Thai as well. GIST technology has shown how phonetic keyboards, based on principles similar to that of the Inscript keyboard, could do justice to these scripts.

In the fast changing world, everyone has to interact through computers - everyone has to be "keyboard literate". In this world English and the other scripts will have to co-exist. Unless these scripts can be typed as easily as English, their usage can fade. Inscript keyboard ensures that Indian scripts can proudly live along with English, in the Information Age.

For more information refer to :

1. 	"Report of the Committee for Standardization of Keyboard Layout for Indian Script Based Computers", Electronics-Information & Planning, Vol. 14, No. 1, October 1986.

2. 	"Indian Script Code for Information Interchange - ISCII", Bureau of Indian Standards document - IS 13194: 1991.


Inscript Keyboard Tutorials | Touch Typing Guidelines
Touch Typing Guidelines

Touch typing on Inscript overlay is similar to that of the English overlay, although it is much simpler to learn. The simplicity comes from the logical arrangement of the Indian script characters according to their classes as well as usage frequencies.

In one touch typing method a person has to strike the "B" character with left hand, in another one he has to strike it with the right hand. This however, does not matter as the essential point of touch-typing is that each finger operates only the keys allotted to it. By this means all hesitation is avoided, and speed can be built up gradually. Thus a person should not change over from a method he has learnt to another one.

The touch-typing method is dependant on the physical keyboard layout, and is not affected by whether one is using the English, Inscript or any other overlay. So a person who knows English typing, can master the Inscript overlay just by studying the arrangement of characters. A person knowing a mechanical typewriter layout for an Indian script, however, will have to keep it out of his mind as the character locations are quite different.

Touch Typing Technique

Touch Typing on the Inscript Overlay

Speedy Composition


Touch Typing Technique

The keyboard is divided into two pads: the left pad and the right pad, for use by the left and right hand respectively. Only the four fingers of each hand are used for stroking the keys. The right thumb is used for stroking the space bar; the left thumb is not used in touch-typing.

The first 3 rows of the keyboard are meant for touch-typing. It is not necessary to learn the 4th row, as it has infrequently used characters. The four fingers of a hand momentarily rest, or hover just above the four resting positions fixed for them in the Home row of their pad. There is a unique finger assigned for stroking each key on the keyboard. After stroking a key the finger should return back to its home position.

The vertical zone for each finger is indicated in the diagram. Amongst the four fingers, the 1st finger (Index finger) is the most capable and thus handles two columns of frequently used characters. The 2nd finger (Middle finger) has got only one column allotted to it, although these characters are the often used ones. The 3rd finger (Ring finger) has one column allotted to it containing characters with a lesser frequency. The 4th finger (Little finger) is the weakest of all the fingers, and has the least often used characters allotted to it.

As can be seen, the little finger of the right hand is a bit more loaded as it has to handle two columns of characters. Although each finger has different power, with practice, all of them can become equally adept in stroking the keys allotted to them.

A SHIFT key has to be held down for typing a character in the Shift position of a key. The SHIFT key has to be pressed before stroking the character, and released after it has been stroked. If the left hand is stroking the character, the little finger of the right hand should hold down the SHIFT key, and the vice-versa.


Touch Typing on the Inscript Overlay

A person who hasn't used any keyboard before, can master the Inscript layout much faster than the English layout. This is because the Inscript layout has been designed such that the scientific structure of the alphabet aids the touch-typing process.

The arbitrary layout of the English alphabet on the English overlay, requires extensive practice in the beginning. When the mechanical typewriters were introduced in the 1860s, their keys were prone to jamming, when typed fast. To reduce these incidences, the alphabet were scattered such that the often used combinations could not be typed fast enough. Dvorak, introduced in 1925, a simplified keyboard which had the most frequent characters in the Home row, with the 5 vowels on the left half of it. However, because of the well established nature of the Universal keyboard, the Dvorak keyboard could not make inroads.

In English touch-typing for every letter, one has to learn which SHIFT key needs to be simultaneously pressed by the other hand. In Inscript touch-typing, one can deduce the SHIFT key from the category of the letter being typed, like vowel or aspirated consonant.

The 4th row, which is the most difficult row, doesn't have to be learnt for Inscript touch typing. It contains some conjunct characters in the Shift positions, each of which give out two or three basic characters. It is easier to touch-type these basic characters from the first three rows themselves. Other characters in the 4th row have very low frequencies.

The Inscript overlay simplifies the learning process while facilitating fast typing, through alternate hand action. All this is accomplished by mirroring the scientific phonetic structure of the Indian script alphabet on the keyboard, in a logical manner.

It allows retention of the English keyboard habits for typing the common punctuations and numerals:

.	,	(	)	-	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0

The Vowel/Nasal Pad

First learn the positions of the Matras and the Halant sign in the Home row. For typing the corresponding vowels, press the right SHIFT key. The Home row contains the short vowels and Matras. A finger has to be just moved vertically up, for stroking the key containing the long vowel or Matra.

The often used Nasal signs and Nasal consonants are located in the bottom row.

Consonant Pad

The primary consonant of each of the 5 Vargs, and the most frequent consonant are contained in the Home row, ordered according to their frequency.

Most Frequent Consonant	Primary Consonants

Assamese	»	 Y	»	Eõ	Tö	Jô	Oô

Bengali	Ì[ý	 Y	Ì[ý	Eõ	Tö	Jô	Oô

Devanagari	®ú	 {É	®ú	Eò	iÉ	SÉ	]õ

Gujarati	­÷	 ~É	­÷	Hí	lÉ	SÉ	`ò

Kannada	ÁÚ	 ®Ú	ÁÚ	OÚ	}Ú	^Ú	l

Malayalam	c	 ]	c	I	X	N	S

Oriya	eþ	 `	eþ	L	[	Q	V

Punjabi	j	 a	j	E	Y	M	S

Tamil	W	 T	W	L	R	N	P

Telugu	LRi	 xms	LRi	NRP	»R½	¿RÁ	ÈÁ

A secondary consonant key is just above that of the corresponding primary consonant, as each of the Vargs is kept in a vertical column. The aspirated consonant, corresponding to each of the primary or secondary consonants is kept in its Shift position. The left SHIFT key has to be held down while typing any aspirated consonant.

The rest of the Consonant pad contains the Non-Varg characters, Viram and the Nukta character.


Touch Typing Guidelines | Speedy Composition
Speedy Composition

High speed in composition can be obtained when the consecutive characters are located in separate pads, to be stroked by different hands. This can reduce the fatigue encountered in making composite characters in Devanagari.

All the conjuncts, except those involving the Nasal consonants in the left pad, are typed through "alternate hand action". The consonants located in the right pad, alternate with the Halant located in the Home row of the left pad. While typing these conjuncts the same hand does not have to type in two consecutive characters.

Matras and Anuswar, being located in the left pad, can be added on consonants, using the other hand.

Examples

(R = Right Hand	L = Left Hand)

Assamese/Bengali

é[ý`ç×_	= 	[ý  	ê#  	`  	#ç  	_  	×#

 	   	R  	L  	R  	L  	R   	L

 	×[ýVîç	=	[ý  	×#  	V  	#Ë  	^	#ç

 	   	R  	L  	R  	L   	R  	L

 	ºyÝ	=	a  	#Ë  	Tö  	#Ë  	Ì[ý  	#Ý

 	   	R  	L  	R  	L   	R  	L

Devanagari

Ê´ÉtÉ	 	= 	´É	Ê#	nù	#Â 	ªÉ	#É

  	R	L	R	L 	R	L

ºjÉÒ 	= 	ºÉ	#Â 	iÉ	#Â 	®ú	#Ò

  	R	L	R	L 	R	L

º{ÉrùÉÇ 	= 	ºÉ	#Â 	{É	®ú	#Â 	nù	#Â 	vÉ	#É

   	R	L	R	R	L	R	L	R	L

Gujarati

Ê´ÉvÉ	= 	´É	Ê#	qö	#Ã	«É	#É

R	L	R	L	R	 L

»mÉÒ	=	»É	#Ã	lÉ	#Ã	­÷	#Ò

R	L	R	L	R	L

»~ÉuöÉÇ	=	»É	#Ã	~É	­÷	#Ã	qö	#Ã	yÉ	#É

R	L	R	R	L	R	L	R	L

Kannada

ÈæçËÛÆ	= 	ÈÚ	#æç	ËÚ	#Û	Ä	#Ý

   	R	L	R	L	R	L

É¥ÛÀ	=	ÈÚ  	#Ý 	 ¥Ú 	 #é 	 ¾Úß 	 #Û

 	R	L	R	L	R	L

Ò¡ðÞ	=	ÑÚ	#é	}Ú	#é	ÁÚ	#ÝÞ

   	R	L	R	L	R	L

Malayalam

hnZy 	= 	h	#n	Z	#v	b

 R	L	 R	L	 R

kv{Xo 	= 	k 	#v 	X 	#v 	c 	#o

 R 	L 	R 	L 	R 	L

kv]À² 	= 	k 	#v 	] 	c 	#v 	# 	Z 	#v 	[

  	R 	L 	R 	R 	L 	R 	R 	L 	R

Oriya

 	gÞ]ÔÐ 	=	 g	#Þ	]	#ç	¯Æ	#Ð

 	 R	L	R	L	R	L

 	±ÆÑ	=	j	#ç	[	#ç	eþ	#Ñ

 	R	L	R	L	R	L

 	¸¤^àÐ	=	j	#ç	`	eþ	#ç	^	#Ð

 	R	L	R	R	L	R	L

Punjabi

 	uS°av	= 	S	u#	a	#±	a	#v

 	  	R	L	R	L	R	L

 	o®v	= 	o	#±	j	#v

R	L	R	L

 	Fvhs	= 	E	#±	j	u#	h	#s

R	L	R	L	R	L

Tamil

Rªr	= 	R	U	#õ	Z	#ó

 	R	L	L	R	L

 	Lp®	=	L	X	#ó	Y	#õ

 	R	R	L	R	L

Telugu

\®ªsaSÖÁ	= 	ª«s	\Z%Á	aRP	%S	ÌÁ	%TÁ

R	L	R	L	R	L

 	{qsòQû	=	xqs	%`Á	»R½	%`Á	LRi	%UÁ

 	   	R	L	R	L	R	L

 	ª«sLibdP 	=	ª«s	%iLi	aRP	%UÁ

 	   	R	L	R	L


Roman Tutorial
Roman Script Transliteration

Refer back to Typing tutorials

The National Library at Calcutta standardized the diacritic marks to be used for romanization of Indian scripts, in 1988 ("The National Library Newsletter", June 1988).

As Nothern scripts do not have short Bà and +Éà, the long B and +Éä can also be rendered without diacritic mark as 'e' and 'o' respectively.

Unlike Sanskrit and Southern scripts, in the nothern scriptsthe implicit vowel "a" at the end of a word is not pronounced, and thus should be left out in the transliteration. Example: +¶ÉÉäEò= a¿°kaò, ®ú¨ÉhÉ= raman.This also applies for nasal consonant is preceded by a Nasal consonant belonging to the same Varg, Example: ¤ÉxvÉ= bandh, Eò¨{É= kamp. Words ending in other conuncts, still retain the implicit "a" vowel. Example: {ÉÖjÉ=putra, ®úÉ¹]Åõ= r¡À¶ra , Ê¨É¸É=  mi¿ra.

Vowels

+	+É	<	<Ç	=	>ð 	@ñ	Añ	±ÉÞ	±Éß

a	¡	i	¢	u	£ 	¤	¥	«	¬

Bà	B	Bä	Bì	+Éà	+Éä	+Éè	+Éì

e	®	ai	¯	o	°	au	²

Consonants

The Five Vargs

Eò	JÉ	MÉ	PÉ	Ró

ka	kha	ga	gha	´a

SÉ	Uô	VÉ	ZÉ	\É

ca	cha	ja	jha	µa

]õ	`ö	b÷	fø	hÉ

¶a	¶ha	·a	·ha	¸a

iÉ	lÉ	nù	vÉ	xÉ	xÉÃ

ta	tha	da	dha	na	ºa

{É	¡ò	¤É	¦É	¨É

pa	pha	ba	bha	ma

Non-Vargs

ªÉ	ªÉÃ	®ú	®ú	±É	³ý

ya	»a	ra	ra	la	½a

³Ãý	´É	¶É	¹É	ºÉ	½þ

¾a	va	¿a	Àa	sa	ha

Nukta Consonants

Fò	KÉ	NÉ	WÉ	Ró	gø	¢ò

qa	Áa	Âa	za	´a	Ãha	fa

Vowel Modifiers

Chandrabindu	#Ä	Ä

Visarg	#&	Å

Anuswar	#Æ	Æ

before Eò varg	´a

before SÉ varg	µa

before ]õ varg	¸a

before iÉ varg	na

before {É varg	m

otherwise	Æ

Notes

Añ, ±ÉÞ, ±Éß are used only in Sanskrit

Bà	= short B in Southern sripts

+Éà	= short +Éä in Southern scripts

Bì	= new vowel in Devnagri, as in "bat"

+Éì	= new vowel in Devnagri, as in "ball"

xÉÃ n	= ] in Tamil

ªÉÃ »a	= ^ in Bengali and Oriya, while ªÉ ya = Ì^.

®úÃ ¼a 	=Tamil (\),Telgu(àá), & Malyalam(d)

®ÂúÃ ¼ 	= ®úÃ in Marathi

³ý ! used in Marathi

³ý !	= Tamil ([), Malyalam (f), Telgu (ÎÏÁ) & Kannada (×Ú )

³Ãý ¾a 	= Tamil(Z), Malyalam(g)