VedaPad is a system for typing Devanāgarī, the alphabet of Sanskrit, on Windows computers. A companion product, VedaType, runs on Macintosh computers.
VedaPad is designed for Sanskrit, including Vedic Sanskrit. It is not designed for Hindi, Marathi, or other modern Indian languages that use Devanāgarī, since these languages require special letters and ligatures that are not included in VedaPad.
VedaPad is very much like WordPad. WordPad is a simple word processor that is distributed free with Windows. The main difference between VedaPad and WordPad is in what they do with the keystrokes you type. In VedaPad, when you type in English keystrokes from the keyboard, Devanāgarī characters appear on the screen. For example, if you type “dharma” in VedaPad, you will see the Devanāgarī characters for this word on the screen.
You can save Devanāgarī text into an RTF file, which is a standard format, similar to a DOC file. You can highlight and copy Devanāgarī text into Word, PowerPoint, or any other program that uses Windows fonts. If you want to send a file to others for them to view, and they have VedaPad or VedaType installed on their machines, you can send the file directly to them. If they do not have VedaPad or VedaType, you can convert your file to a PDF file and send them the PDF file.
An easy way to convert any file into a PDF file is to use Primo PDF, a free program which works very well with VedaPad fonts. When you install PrimoPDF, it adds an entry to the list of printers. To create a PDF file, you “print” your document to this “printer” instead of to your usual printer.
VedaPad also allows you to type in Transliteration and English modes. Transliteration mode generates transliteration in a font based on Times New Roman. English mode allows you to type normally as you do in WordPad.
Sorry, no demo is available, but you can view or download the manual for free.
Purchase VedaPad (for Windows) for $25
VedaType is a set of fonts for typing Devanāgarī, the alphabet of Sanskrit, on Macintosh computers. A companion product, VedaPad, runs on Windows computers.
VedaType is designed for Sanskrit, including Vedic Sanskrit. It is not designed for Hindi, Marathi, or other modern Indian languages that use Devanāgarī, since these languages require special letters and ligatures that are not included in VedaType.
VedaType includes two fonts, a Devanāgarī font and a transliteration font, and a detailed manual.
If you have a choice, you may prefer to use VedaPad over VedaType. VedaType does not include the word processing software that is part of VedaPad. The software in VedaPad enables you to produce Devanāgarī by typing in a transliteration on your keyboard. In VedaType, on the other hand, you must type keystrokes corresponding to letter elements. Please see the VedaType manual for a detailed explanation.
Sorry, no demo is available, but you can view or download the manual for free.
View or download the VedaType manual • 200K
VedaTeX is a system for using the fonts and keystroke transliteration of VedaPad with TeX. VedaTeX has special corrections for the VedaPad fonts that improve the way these fonts display compared to other word processing software.
VedaTeX is included in VedaPad and VedaType. It can be separately downloaded for free, but it requires the fonts in VedaPad and VedaType.
Download VedaTeX • 1.6M ↖