Balaram Font Family for Apple Mac computers with OSX
I do not know if devotees with Mac computers are able to install the Balaram font, which is the font that is used by Bhaktivedanta Archives in their Bhaktivedanta Vedabase. Actually they have many other fonts, all based on the same character encoding as the Balaram font. This font was produced by replacing some of the European characters with the Western characters plus the diacritical marks. It is not very standard. In more recent years, since the introduction of Unicode fonts which can store a practically unlimited number of characters in them, now we have standard unicode codes for all of the Sanskrit diacritical characters and many fonts are supporting the Diacritical marks now. Of course the character encoding is quite different but Pratyatosa Prabhu has provided us with a nice utility to convert the Balaram format fonts to Unicode and the Unicode or UTF-8 format back to the Balaram format. This font utility is available at:
Anyhow, I have recently become a “Mac person” and just yesterday I noticed that you can not install the Balaram font on Apple Mac computers. There is an error and it refuses to install, at least on Mountain Lion. So I do not know what other devotees do. And I do not know about the other fonts in the Balaram family. But anyhow I have created a Mac Balaram Font family which you can just click on and that will very easily and painlessly install the Balaram font on any Mac computer running OSX.
I will check the other fonts also used by Bhaktivedanta Archives in their Folio Vedabase and include them here also as Mac font families soon.
Click the following link to download the Balaram font family for Mac:
Please let me know by commenting on this post if you have any problems installing this font on your Mac computer, etc.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
About the Author
Madhudvisa dasa My first contact with a Hare Krishna was a most merciful Mataji in Oxford Street, London who sold me a "Higher Taste" cook book in 1984 while I was on holidays there. I started seriously reading Srila Prabhupada's books in Australia 1985 and by 1986 Srila Prabhupada had convinced me "Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead" and "we should surrender to Krishna." I joined the Hare Krishnas in Perth, Western Australia in 1986. Since then I have been chanting Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, reading and distributing Srila Prabhupada's books and preaching as much as I can. That's my life and full-time occupation now really. I like it more than anything I've ever experienced before. Srila Prabhupada's books are so amazing... Even after reading them all many times they're still fresh and new. They are truly transcendental! That's it really. Now I'm just hankering to once again see the world chant Hare Krishna, dance and feast and float away in the ecstasy of Lord Caitanya's Sankirtana movement as it did in Srila Prabhupada's physical presence. Let the whole world drown in the ecstatic flood of love of Krishna!
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I have Mac OS 11.6 big Sur — When I downloaded your Balram font file (.suit file) — and I placed in FONTS folder, it did not work.
I also tried with FontBook app but that app does not even accept .suit files.
Please help prabhuji.
Yes. It may well have changed on newer versions of OSX. But you can use the normal fonts that come with VedaBase on Mac. They have got the Balarama encoding, there are many available although today mostly they are using unicode fonts. But in publishing, book printing, we are still using Balaram encoded fonts. And they work on the mac, no problem. They are standard true type fonts, but have a non-standard character encoding, putting the Sanskrit characters where the European diacritic characters are normally in ascii fonts.
Pratyatosa Prabhu has a webpage with lots of Balaram encoding fonts for download:
https://pratyatosa.com/?P=41
That is the place where you will find all fonts, mostly he has got the new unicode fonts but you will find a link to download balarama encoding fonts at the bottom of his page. Direct download is:
http://causelessmercy.com/fonts/FontsFromVedaBase2003.zip
Thank you so much prabhu 🙏, it solved my problem instantly. I was able to find .TTF file for Balaram font and added to the Font Book on my Mac book and it simply did the magic, both I and my daughter were very happy to see all the nice sanskrit diacritics in my PPT file.
Hare Krsna Madhudvisa Prabhu.
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
When I try to install the Balaram font from Pratyatosa.com or from causelessmercy.com I get the warning message that problems have been found with font validation and the error prompt shows (“kern” table structure and contents”). It also says that there is a possibility of the system to crash when the font is installed. I’m a brand new Mac user and still learning how to go about. Do you recommend me to go ahead with the install? Please advise.
Your servant,
Narahari Dev das
You can always uninstall it if your system crashes.
It is up to you to decide.
Hare Krsna prabhu ji, dandavat pranam,
I am trying to convert some ebooks in pdf (Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur books downloaded from iskcondesiretree) to kindle paper white format.
However no matter what i try the converted pdf comes out as corrupt. The issue is due to balaram font.
I am wondering if you have successfully converted the pdf into kindle format
Ys
Nitaipremadas
Balaram font you can not use in ebooks. You have to convert it to the Unicode font. So there is a webpage that does this:
http://pratyatosa.com/?P=3w
So you can use that webpage and then after it is converted to Unicode fonts it can be converted into epub or kindle formats.
thanks Prabhu, that Blaram font from ur website is accepted into Font Book without a problem.
Lets see if that works when I sync balramfont texts with my iPad.
Because that has been my problem, that I compile texts with balaram font on my macbook in “Evernote” and when I sync with Evernote of my iPad the balarama fonts are all garbled.
Hare Krishna pr
I want to purchase Mac Pro laptop therefore just wanted to know can I install vedabase folio into it. I read somewhere that I have to first install crossover.
Kindly guide and if possible could you pls also mention the step to install it.
Yes
Hare Krishna Shallesh
Folio is a Windows program and there is no Mac version of Folio. But on a Mac computer there are many ways that you can run windows programs and folio is a simple windows program that can be run in any of the ways that the Mac supports for running windows programs.
You can use crossover. That is a commercial package. It is a commercial version of a Linux program called Wine. With crossover you do not actually have to install Windows on your Mac. It provides a windows environment that enables many, but not all, windows programs to run on a mac. Folio does work with crossover. And the process to install is you just install it from a windows install disk through crossover.
We do have a free download of a version of folio for the mac at:
http://www.krishnapath.org/free-ebooks-audiobooks-of-srila-prabhupada/the-bhaktivedanta-vedabase-with-original-authorized-books/
That version should run on a mac without having to install anything else at all.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna prabhuji
PAMHO AGTSP
How can I get Balaram font for iPhone 5?
Kindly revert
ys
Devaki nandan das
Hare Krishna Devaki Nandana Prabhu
There is no Balaram font for iPhone 5 as far as I know. You need to use the text in the unicode fonts as you can get it from the Prabhupada eBooks on http://www.KrishnaStore.com for example.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
I installed the Balaram font on my mac with no problem. You get a notice saying that it might not work, but it does work. I installed all the Vedabase fonts. I do have some problems though. There’s a devanagari font that I don’t seem to have for some of the SB verses. Also, the Bengali fonts display correctly in the Folio, but if I copy it to Word, I can’t figure out which font it needs to display. Anyone got any ideas?
I use Linux Ubuntu -operating system… Recommended for everyone wanting to step away from the clutches of evil Microsoft and the likes. It is actually free also, +all the software to it :o)
Hare Krishna!