[Pkg-fonts-bugs] ITP: Andika SIL -- Unicode sans serif font for literacy use

[Nicolas Spalinger]

Package: wnpp
Severity: wishlist

* Package name    : ttf-sil-andika
  Version         : 0.001
  Upstream Author : Victor Gaultney & Annie Olsen (SIL International)
* URL             : http://scripts.sil.org/Andika
* License         : Open Font License
  Description     : Unicode sans serif font for literacy use


Description:

Andika ("Write!" in Swahili) is a sans serif, Unicode-compliant font
designed especially for literacy use, taking into account the needs of
beginning readers. The focus is on clear, easy-to-perceive letterforms
that will not be easily confused with one another.

A sans serif font is preferred by some literacy personnel for teaching
people to read. Its forms are simpler and less cluttered than some serif
fonts can be. For years, literacy workers have had to make do with fonts
that were available but not really suitable for beginning readers and
writers. In some cases, literacy specialists have had to tediously
cobble together letters from a variety of fonts in order to get the all
of characters they need for their particular language project, resulting
in confusing and unattractive publications. Andika addresses those issues.

Two fonts from this typeface family are included in this release:

    * Andika Design Review A
    * Andika Design Review B (with 20 alternately designed glyphs)

So what's in the Basic Character Set? Close to 600 glyphs plus a small
number of common special characters. It is meant for testing purposes; a
more complete character inventory will be added once the review is
complete. Andika Design Review is a TrueType font, but without any
"smart font" code at this time. State-of-the-art font technology will be
incorporated with the full glyph inventory, as with other SIL Unicode
Roman fonts.

The principal purpose of this Design Review release is to get feedback
(http://scripts.sil.org/Andika_feedback) from the people who know
literacy font needs best. Please make your insights and observations
known to us.