മഞ്ജ­രി എന്നാൽ മു­ത്തു് എന്നർത്ഥം. മല­യാ­ള­ത്തി­ലെ ഒരു വൃ­ത്ത­ത്തി­ന്റെ പേ­രു­മാ­ണ­തു്. ചി­ലങ്ക കൈ­യെ­ഴു­ത്തു­ശൈ­ലി ഫോ­ണ്ടി­നു ശേഷം സന്തോ­ഷ് തോ­ട്ടി­ങ്ങൽ രൂ­പ­ക­ല്പന ചെയ്ത മഞ്ജ­രി ഫോ­ണ്ട് ഒരു വി­വി­ധോ­ദ്ദേ­ശ്യ ഫോ­ണ്ടാ­ണു്. സാ­ധാ­രണ കട്ടി­യി­ലും, കൂ­ടി­യ­തും കു­റ­ഞ്ഞ­തു­മായ കട്ടി­ക­ളി­ലും മു­ന്ന് തര­ത്തിൽ ഈ ഫോ­ണ്ട് ലഭ്യ­മാ­ണു്.

അക്ഷ­ര­ങ്ങ­ളു­ടെ വടി­വി­നു് സ്പൈരൽ ശൈലി ഉപ­യോ­ഗി­ക്കു­ന്നു എന്ന­താ­ണു് ഈ ഫോ­ണ്ടി­ന്റെ പ്ര­ത്യേ­കത. വര­ക­ളു­ടെ അറ്റ­ങ്ങൾ ഉരു­ണ്ട, ഒരേ കട്ടി­യി­ലു­ള്ള വര­ക­ളാ­ണു് ഉപ­യോ­ഗി­ച്ചി­രി­ക്കു­ന്ന­തു്. കൂ­ട്ട­ക്ഷ­ര­ങ്ങൾ പര­മാ­വ­ധി ഉൾപ്പെ­ടു­ത്തി­ക്കൊ­ണ്ടു­ള്ള ഒരു ലി­പി­സ­ഞ്ച­യ­മാ­ണു് ഈ ഫോ­ണ്ടി­ലു­ള്ള­തു്. മല­യാ­ള­ത്തി­നു പു­റേ­മേ ഇം­ഗ്ലീ­ഷ്/ലാ­റ്റിൻ അക്ഷ­ര­ങ്ങ­ളും ഈ ഫോ­ണ്ടി­ലു­ണ്ട്.

Manjari means pearl. It is also the name of a poetic metre in Malayalam. This is the second font after Chilanka handwriting font by Santhosh Thottingal. This is a multipurpose font suitable for body and titles. This font is available in regular, bold, thin style variants.

Malayalam script is known for its curly characters with beautiful loops. Encoded in unicode around 2001, it is relatively new to the digital age. The script has been evolving from rectangle shaped to oval shaped types of varying proportions. The popular culture is more of oval/ellipse shaped curves, mainly because writing methods using stensils or pens demanded less sharp corners. The character or ligature shapes has also been changing gradually towards the shapes that are easy with pens. The Manjari font takes that to another level by smoothening all curves to its maximum.

The curves are constructed along the spiral segments. The resulting shapes are extra smooth. The curve perfection resulted in whitespaces that aquired beautiful leaf and drop shapes between the bowls and loops of the script. The spiral smoothness of curves were complemented by rounded terminals which gives very soft feeling for the eyes. The design of the curves in Manjari are theoretically based on the PHD thesis by Raph Levien - "From Spiral to Spline: Optimal Techniques in Interactive Curve Design" . The Inconsolata monospace humanist latin font known for its clean lines and elegant design by Levien himself is based on this theory.

The curve strokes in Manjari were drawn in Inkscape using the spiral library written by Raph Levien himself and opentype feature compilation was done using FontForge.

തിരമൊഴി

The North Wind & The Sun

A dispute arose between the North Wind and the Sun, each claiming that he was stronger than the other. At last they agreed to try their powers upon a traveller, to see which could soonest strip him of his cloak. The North Wind had the first try; and, gathering up all his force for the attack, he came whirling furiously down upon the man, and caught up his cloak as though he would wrest it from him by one single effort: but the harder he blew, the more closely the man wrapped it round himself. Then came the turn of the Sun. At first he beamed gently upon the traveller, who soon unclasped his cloak and walked on with it hanging loosely about his shoulders: then he shone forth in his full strength, and the man, before he had gone many steps, was glad to throw his cloak right off and complete his journey more lightly clad.

Persuasion is better than force