Pune, Oct 21, 1999

C-DAC has released a new version of its Indian language interface software 'ISM (ISFOC Script Manager) Version 3.0 which is targeted to the burgeoning conventional publishing and web publishing, content creation and software application development market segments.

ISM Ver. 3.0 consists of a range of products, namely, ISM Publisher, ISM Soft and ISM Office. It is designed to cater to the needs of various segments like, Publishing, Home, Corporate and Government with the different price tags suited to their needs. ISM, a 32-bit Indian language interface allows computer users to work on any Indian language with applications such as MS Office, PageMaker, CorelDraw, PhotoShop, Quark Express, Adobe Illustrator etc. with a considerably large number of aesthetic fonts for Indian languages.

ISM currently supports Assamese, Bengali, Devnagari, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Oriya, Punjabi, Marathi, Sanskrit, Tamil and Telugu.

With the increasing thrust on adopting Information Technology for various applications in India, the use of Indian Languages on computers has acquired a new dimension. The applications involve online communication, websites, eCommerce, publishing, common software applications etc. One of the most effective ways to harness the power of the software tools is to have an edge, in the Indian context, by providing an Indian language interface. ISM Ver 3.0 has been developed by C-DAC to achieve this objective.

ISM Office makes it possible to work with the existing Windows based applications allowing use of Indian scripts with C-DAC's ISFOC (Indian Script Font Code) font standard., which has been widely accepted in the user community.

ISM is ideally suited for applications such as Communication through eMail, Conventional as well as Web Publishing, Multimedia CDs to be used for training, Software Applications to automate office functions, documents such as Annual Reports, Telephone Directories, Handbooks etc. The ISM software also comes with utilities for developing special applications for an organization.

Announcing the release of ISM Ver 3.0, Shri. R.K. Arora, Executive Director, C-DAC, said, " This is yet another innovative development of C-DAC in the form of a comprehensive product that enables a variety of users to adapt quite easily without much training, at the same time giving novel facilities and tools of Indian languages to conventional and web publishing, content creation and the software development segment."

"This is a considerably improved version of an earlier product, in that it offers different products like ISM Soft, ISM Publisher and ISM Office for different users and therefore with its 32 bit character code, opens up avenues for content developers on web, application software developers etc.," he added.

Salient features of the ISM Ver 3.0

Power packed utilities

• API - This is a set of Application Program Interfaces to enable software development using ISM Office
• bf handler - This makes it possible to browse, sort and create reports using Indian language databases
• Ntrans - allows translation of proper nouns in test files as well as databases
• Font previewer - This utility plays a vital role in efficient handling of all the Indian language fonts on the system. It does this by allowing a preview of the font to be selected or installed.
• Filters / Converters - There are a number of filters / converters to be able to use files created using different formats - of CDAC as well as of other manufacturers.
• Dictionary / Spellchecker - Another set of tools to increase the efficiency while using Indian languages
• ALP - This is an Indian language word processor on DOS. It allows quicker entry of text in Indian languages

Economical

• ISM Office comes with the provision to use all the languages simultaneously
• It has a number of utilities, which make it an invaluable resource for software development as well as data handling.
• It is also available for multiple user systems as Windows NT and Novell NetWare
• ISM has a big collection of fonts for Indian languages as well as for aesthetic borders and Symbols, Also it has a font previewer to manage the fonts well.

Language tools

• ISM Office has in-built tools to enhance the use of Indian languages.
• These include the administrative language dictionaries and spellcheckers for some languages.
• It also has a utility to translate proper nouns from English to Indian language of your choice.
• Other than this it also has DOS based editor - ALP for quicker data entry

Efficiency tools

• Converters to import files from other Indian language software available in the market. Comprehensive online help documentation
• Facility to open files prepared using GIST Card, GIST Shell, GIST Terminal, ALP etc