Indian Language Keyboard Program
commercial package - for microsoft windows vista (with uac off), XP, 2000, NT 4.0, 98, 95, & 3.1
 
Software by: Avinash Chopde
Fonts by: Shrikrishna Patil

The What and Why of ILKEYB

This section describes the Indian Language Keyboard Program, which is a font + software program package that makes it easy to type text in Indian Language Scripts while still using the standard english keyboard.

Languages Available

List of supported languages, along with the ILKEYB Keyboard Map and Text Samples for each language.

Order Information

ILKEYB is available in two versions, and it now works under Windows Vista (with UAC off), Windows XP, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows 98 as well as Windows 95 and Windows 3.1.

Demo Download

If you know how to unzip and download and install programs and fonts on Windows systems, you can download this demo of the ILKEYB package.

Windows Vista Support

If needed, ILKEYB can be made to run on Vista, but this requires completely turning off the User Account Control mechanism in Vista.

Other Packages - Freeware

2004: There are many free Indian Language packages for Windows available on the web, do a search on the web to locate such packages.
Some links to other packages:
Baraha - for multiple languages
Note that these are external links, please contact the respective authors for questions about those packages.

The Indian Language Keyboard Program, ILKEYB

Use a font without ILKEYB: memorize 200+ key combinations!

If you have used fonts for Indian Languages in word-processors such as Word or WordPefect before, you know how clumsy it is to type text using any Indian Language font.

Directly using a font in any MS-Windows word-processor such as Word or WordPerfect requires memorizing 200+ key combinations to correctly typeset text in any Indian Language Script. Typing text requires the user to resort to ALT+nnnn keys or to use macros, and this makes the user's task extremely difficult and also discourages many people from typing text in any Indian Language.

Use a font with ILKEYB: memorize only 50 to 60 keys!

The Indian Language Keyboard Program ILKEYB makes it very easy to type text in any Indian Language Script.

The user just has to remember the basic consonants and vowels of any Indian Language, and the program automatically generates the 200+ characters (glyphs) required to correctly typeset text in any Indian Language Script. The program automatically displays the correct half-consonant, or consonant-conjunct, or dependent-vowel, as necessary. Since only 50 to 60 keys have to be assigned to the English keyboard, the keyboard assignment is largely mnemonic, and thus very easy to remember. Also, no more typing in ALT+nnnn keys!

This Indian Language Keyboard package contains a high quality TrueType font, and a software module that runs in the background under Microsoft's Windows Operating Systems. The software manages the mapping of the ASCII English keyboard to a particular Indian Language Script, and this software package allows the user to continue using his or her own favorite word-processor for typing text in any Indian Language Script!

Typing text in any Indian Language is now as easy as A-B-C!

Example (for Devanagari - Sanskrit/Hindi/Marathi):

Typing:
k  K  g  G  r  ku  kU  Ku  KU  ru  rU     (etc)

Results in:

Note that the single key ``u'' is sufficient to generate the three different characters (glyph codes) as required by the current consonant--- ku, Ku, or ru. Similarly for the key ``U''. This mechanism is used to simplify entering the more than 200 glyphs available for Devanagari, by using only the English keyboard letters.

Apart from choosing the correct dependent vowel glyph, the program also handles consonant conjuncts in a similar simple to use fashion.

Developers

Software developed by Avinash Chopde (avinash@aczoom.com), author of the ITRANS freeware package, which is available on the Internet.

Fonts designed by Shrikrishna Patil. He has been developing fonts for over a decade now, and his fonts are used in many print publications in the US and Canada. The fonts have been sold world-wide, including in India.

Languages Available, with Keyboard Maps and Text Samples

[If clicking on the .doc file does not work, you may need to add a Word 97 viewer to your system. If you do not have Word 97, you can still view the files using the free Microsoft Word 97 viewer, available at Microsoft's site, at the Office Update link or the Knowledge Base link. Note that this applies only to Microsoft Windows systems, it is quite possible that these .doc files may not be viewable on any other platform.]

• Devanagari (Hindi/Marathi/Sanskrit)       Devanagari Keyboard Map (.doc)
• Gujarati       Gujarati Keyboard Map (.doc)
• Telugu       Telugu Keyboard Map (.doc)
• Bengali       Bengali Keyboard Map (.doc)
• Tamil       Tamil Keyboard Map (.doc)
• Malayalam       Malayalam Keyboard Map (.doc)
• Kannada       Kannada Keyboard Map (.doc)

ILKEYB Order Info

Each Indian Language Keyboard package contains the ILKEYB program and one font and comes with the Keyboard Map documentation with examples, and an automatic install script. The package is made available through a web download, after the order with the check/money order is received.

ILKEYB Versions Available:

Version 2.0 Minimum System Requirements: Microsoft Windows 3.1, Windows 95, or Windows 98. 8M RAM, 2M available space on Hard Drive. Word-processors such as WordPad or Word 6.x / 7.0 / 95 / 97 or WordPerfect 5.1. Demo download info Will not work with: Write or MS-Works or WordPerfect 6.x. Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista. This is a Win16 (16-bit) application.

Version 3.0 Minimum System Requirements: Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, or Windows 98. Tested with Wordpad on both Windows 2000 and Windows XP too, but - try the free demo before you buy! Tested with Microsoft Works on Windows Vista. Vista support requires turning off User-Account-Control entirely. With UAC turned on, ILKEYB will not work. A ``fast'' PC -- Pentium 200MHz or faster machine. 16M RAM, 2M available space on Hard Drive. Will work with most word-processors such as Word 6.x / 7.0 / 95 / 97 or WordPad or WordPerfect 5.1 / 6.1 / 8.0, etc. Demo download info This is a Win32 (32-bit) application.

Price list:

Example orders:

• Any one language with ILKEYB 3.0 is $19 + $0 (Web delivery) = $19
• ILKEYB 3.0 for Devanagari (a single language) with the Artistic Fonts package, and Web delivery is $19 + $35 = $54

ILKEYB Demo Package, Versions 2.0 and 3.0

You can try out this package by downloading a Demo version of the program. This Demo contains the program and one font and it includes an installer to automatically install the font and the executable.

ILKEYB 3.0 Demo, for 32-bit Windows --- Windows Vista (requires UAC turned off), Windows XP, Windows 2000, NT 4.0, Windows 98, or Windows 95
The demo is available in a self-installing archive, you can download it from here: ilkbdm32.exe (375 kbytes)
Documents included: readme.txt and NSnkDemo.doc. Please read the documents after installing the demo.

ILKEYB 2.0 Demo, For Windows 3.1, Windows 95, or Windows 98
The demo is available in a ZIP archive (font and executable have to be manually installed), you can download it from here: ilkbdm21.zip (99 kbytes)

The Demo archive contains an executable, a Demo TrueType Devanagari Font, plus documentation and help files.

Please note the restrictions on which word-processors can be used with ILKEYB, and minimum system requirements listed in the Order Information section.

ILKEYB 3.0 and Windows Vista

(There have been some reports that this applies to Windows 7 also - not confirmed. The same instructions below work on Windows 7, with minor changes. See disable UAC in Windows 7 on exact steps for Windows 7. With this change, it is likely that ILKEYB will continue to work on Windows 7.)

Here's how to turn off UAC in Vista:

Go to "Control Panel" -- "User Accounts"
Click on "Turn User Account Control on or off"
If the box next to "Use User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer" is not checked, then UAC is already disabled, and you can click on Cancel, and start using ILKEYB.
If the box is checked, thn uncheck it, click OK, and restart the computer.

Now ILKEYB will be able to send the correct keys and characters to Word, Works, and other editors.

Technical Details

ILKEYB uses a system-wide JournalPlaybackProc hook to send keys to Windows applications.

Windows Vista UAC control silently discards such key events, so when ILKEYB is enabled, typing keys in Word will display no characters at all.

Running ILKEYB with elevated privileges, by using "Run As Administrator" will not solve this problem, since UAC will still prevent any sending of keys from one process to another.

The only way an application can do this is by embedding a manifest with the attribute uiAccess=True in the application. That unfortunately requires yet another hurdle to be crossed - it requires the application be signed with Microsoft Authenticode Technology.

The next hurdle in that path is that it requires obtaining a digital certificate from a Microsoft-blessed vendor. The cost for getting such a certificate is in the hundreds of US dollars, payable each year.

Given the need to purchase a expensive certificate, there is no chance that ILKEYB will be digitally signed to support the UAC control in Vista. Therefore, the only option for those who need to use ILKEYB in Vista is to completely turn off UAC in Vista. This may not be such a bad thing after all, many people already run Vista without UAC turned on, in fact, quite a few people reported ILKEYB working fine in Vista, while a few reported it was not working. The reason this program was working for some in Vista was because they had turned off the UAC feature. There is a also lot of discussion on this topic on the web.

To summarize: turn off UAC in Vista to make ILKEYB work.