word processor
A word processor (WP) is a device or computer program that provides for input, editing, formatting, and output of text, often with some additional features.
Early word processors were stand-alone devices dedicated to the function, but current ...
and page layout software by Concept Software Pvt. Ltd., an Indian information technology company. It is used for languages such as
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
,
Pashto
Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani ().
Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official langua ...
and
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
under
Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ser ...
and
Apple Mac
The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and ...
. It was first developed in 1994 and is primarily used for creating pages for Urdu, using the Nasta`līq (نستعلیق) ('hanging' calligraphic) style of Arabic script.
Overview
InPage is used on PCs where the user wishes to create their documents in Urdu, using the style of Nastaliq with a vast
ligature
Ligature may refer to:
* Ligature (medicine), a piece of suture used to shut off a blood vessel or other anatomical structure
** Ligature (orthodontic), used in dentistry
* Ligature (music), an element of musical notation used especially in the me ...
library while keeping the display of characters on screen
WYSIWYG
In computing, WYSIWYG ( ), an acronym for What You See Is What You Get, is a system in which editing software allows content to be edited in a form that resembles its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product, such as a printed d ...
. Overall, this makes the on-screen and printed results more 'faithful' to hand-written calligraphy than most other Urdu software on the market at the time of InPage's release. This faithfulness is achieved while keeping the operation easy, akin to that of earlier versions of standard English
Desktop Publishing
Desktop publishing (DTP) is the creation of documents using page layout software on a personal ("desktop") computer. It was first used almost exclusively for print publications, but now it also assists in the creation of various forms of online ...
packages such as
QuarkXPress
QuarkXPress is a desktop publishing software for creating and editing complex page layouts in a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) environment. It runs on macOS and Windows. It was first released by Quark, Inc. in 1987 and is still owned and ...
and Adobe InDesign.
Before being used within InPage, the Noori style of Nastaliq, which was first created as a digital typeface (font) in 1981 through the collaboration of
Mirza Ahmad Jamil
Ahmad Mirza Jamil ( ur, ; 21 February 192117 February 2014) was a Pakistani calligrapher best known for creation of Noori style of Nastaliq, which was first created as a digital typeface (font, Noori Nastaliq) in 1981.
Awards and recognition
* ...
TI (as calligrapher) and
Monotype Imaging
Monotype Imaging Holdings Inc., founded as Lanston Monotype Machine Company in 1887 in Philadelphia by Tolbert Lanston, is an American (historically Anglo-American) company that specializes in digital typesetting and typeface design for use with ...
(formerly Monotype Corp.), suffered from two problems in the 1990s: a) its non-availability on standard platforms such as Windows or Mac, and b) the non-WYSIWYG nature of text entry, whereby the document had to be created by commands in Monotype's proprietary
page description language
In digital printing, a page description language (PDL) is a computer language that describes the appearance of a printed page in a higher level than an actual output bitmap (or generally raster graphics). An overlapping term is printer control la ...
.
In 1994, an Indian software development team - Concept Software Pvt. Ltd. (est. 1988 in Delhi), led by Rarendra Singh and Vijay Gupta, with the collaboration of a UK company called Multilingual Solutions led by Kamran Rouhi, developed InPage Urdu for Pakistan's newspaper industry, who up until that time had been using large teams of calligraphers to hand-write last minute corrections to text created under Monotype's proprietary system. The Noori Nastaliq typeface was licensed for InPage from Monotype and augmented for use as the main Urdu font in this software, along with 40 other non-Nastaliq fonts.
InPage is reported to be in use on millions of PCs in Pakistan and India (mainly illegal pirated version). It has also been widely marketed and sold legally in the UK and India since 1994.
InPage launched its Version 3 at ITCN exhibition Asia in Karachi, Pakistan, held in August 2008. This version is Unicode based, supports more Languages, and other Nastaliq fonts with Kasheeda have been added to it along with compatibility with OpenType Unicode fonts. In addition to Arabic, Saraiki, Urdu, Persian and Pashto, other languages of the region, such as Sindhi and Hazaragi can be handled in InPage.