Template talk:IAST

message: Can we get rid of the italics on the text?  The use of italics on pretty much 90% of systems with some of the IAST characters (e.g. ṁ) results in wierd spacing because those letters are often substituted with other character (because mainstream fonts don't have all the IAST characters).  Sukh | ਸੁਖ | Talk 14:33, 18 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Italics 

message: It seems that using this template makes the font size smaller for some reason:
Wikitext                                                        	Result
The Panchatantra (pañcatantra) is a nītiśastra                  	The Panchatantra (pañcatantra) is a nītiśastra
The Panchatantra () is a 	The Panchatantra () is a
So using  makes it smaller and less readable. Can this be fixed? Shreevatsa (talk) 18:47, 31 January 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Font size 

message: The font selection for terms using the IAST template is very poor. I have researched the fonts that include all the IAST characters quite a bit, and the choices here are sloppy and in some cases broken. On the Windows and Linux systems I have used, they are all switched over to god-awful monospace fonts with terrible legibility, that often do not even contain all of the IAST characters (!), when standard sans-serif fonts are readily available on all major platforms for every IAST character. This should be changed in Wikipedia, but I do not know where the code is for it, or how I can reach it. It would only take a little work to make peoples' lives easier here, and to improve the appearance of Wikipedia's articles that utilize IAST.
* Windows: Arial Unicode MS, Microsoft Sans Serif. MSS is on every Windows system since XP, supports every IAST character, and is the same style as the Arial Wikipedia text seen by Windows users. Arial Unicode MS is basically identical in appearance to Arial and MSS, and is commonly found on Windows systems, but not on all.
* Mac OS X: Lucida Grande is the standard sans-serif font, and includes every IAST character necessary.
* Linux and Unix: FreeSans and DejaVu Sans are both very common sans-serif fonts that include every IAST character. DejaVu Sans is the most common font available on Linux in general.
The choices IAST fonts are really quite clear for every major OS, and I can go into much, much more detail with all sorts of other fonts that also support every IAST character, but it shouldn't be necessary. Someone, please, please, please tell me where I can go to fix this. I can put together CSS font-family lists that will work gracefully on these major platforms and blend well with the rest of Wikipedia's text.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tengu800 (talk • contribs) 05:47, 22 December 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Hi, I continue to be annoyed by this too. See the section directly above this one (Template talk:IAST#Font size), as well as Template talk:Transl#Font for translated words and MediaWiki talk:Common.css/Archive 7#Ugly fonts for transliteration templates. It seems that at least on Firefox, the problem is a browser bug, but if you find an alternative reason or way to fix this, it would be great. Shreevatsa (talk) 04:17, 8 January 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: I'd like to agree with the complaint about this template's poor font handling.  In the article Clay Sanskrit Library on my display (Firefox), the titles that use this template are ugly and poorly typeset, whereas the other titles are perfectly correct and elegant (italic formatted, and displayed in Gentium by my stylesheet).  Wareh (talk) 15:38, 30 July 2010 (UTC)
replies: text:  Not many people watch this page, so it's probably better to ask for this to be fixed either on the Firefox bug page (which will take years!), or on our Mediawiki css page. I've asked there now; see MediaWiki talk:Common.css#Get lang sa-latn to display in normal font. Shreevatsa (talk) 17:15, 30 July 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Font selection 

message: A few people (such as myself) have commented on the general awfulness of the font appearances in Firefox for the IAST template. Just wanted to let others know that this font selection is made in the following file: MediaWiki:Common.css/WinFixes.css. In this file, it is the "Unicode" class that effectively makes the decision. Since MediaWiki:Common.css/WinFixes.css is a sub-page of MediaWiki:Common.css, the best place to discuss this is probably MediaWiki talk:Common.css, which will have more eyes looking at it, and more people able to help (hopefully). I have proposed some font code in CSS that hopefully can improve things and make transliterated Indic terms actually look nice and harmonize with the rest of the text. Tengu800 (talk) 02:12, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Hasn't this been fixed already (see MediaWiki talk:Common.css#Get lang sa-latn to display in normal font)? To me they look the same as the rest of the text now. Shreevatsa (talk) 03:06, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: No, on Firefox in Windows with default settings, the font selection order is still bizarre. If you don't have any special Unicode fonts, it may be defaulting to Arial Unicode MS or Microsoft Sans Serif. Then it would look similar to the rest of the text body, and that is probably happening for you. However, if you have fonts such as Code2000, Free Serif, or any number of other large fonts, they will probably be picked first, and it can look ugly and unreadable. For example, in my situation, Free Serif is chosen, but its metrics are so different from the default sans-serif, that the text is tiny and illegible, due to its lack of font hinting. A sensible font stack is still needed that will ensure clear and smooth rendering for any Windows system. This is what I am trying to have fixed with the proposal, so everyone will have legible fonts chosen for IAST. Tengu800 (talk) 03:24, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
replies: text:  Ah I see, thanks. I don't have Free Serif or Code2000; so you're probably right about what's happening. Shreevatsa (talk) 03:57, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Wikipedia font selection CSS file for the IAST template