Geetanjali Keyboard — Complete Guide

The Geetanjali keyboard and font system has been the backbone of Assamese desktop publishing for over two decades. Learn how it works, where to get professional Geetanjali fonts, and how to use them in your DTP workflow.

What is Geetanjali?

Geetanjali is a legacy font encoding for Assamese and Bangla text, created specifically for desktop publishing. Unlike Unicode, which uses a standard character mapping, Geetanjali assigns Assamese characters to the positions of English letters on the keyboard.

When you type the letter "A" on your keyboard with a Geetanjali font active, the screen shows an Assamese character instead. This approach was necessary in the pre-Unicode era when operating systems didn't natively support Assamese script.

Geetanjali Keyboard Layout

The Geetanjali keyboard maps Assamese characters to standard QWERTY key positions. Key features of the layout:

• Vowels (স্বৰবৰ্ণ): Mapped to the top row and specific positions
• Consonants (ব্যঞ্জনবৰ্ণ): Distributed across the main typing area
• Vowel signs (কাৰ/মাত্ৰা): Accessible via Shift combinations
• Conjuncts: Automatically composed from consonant sequences
• Numbers: Assamese numerals available via NumLock or special keys

Geetanjali Fonts for Professional DTP

Jahnabi Pro Keyboard includes 500+ professional calligraphic Geetanjali-compatible fonts. These fonts are designed for:

• Book publishing: Elegant serif and display fonts for body text and headings
• Newspaper layout: High-contrast fonts optimized for newsprint quality
• Magazine design: Decorative and calligraphic fonts for creative layouts
• Government documents: Clean, legible fonts for official publications
• Educational materials: Clear fonts for study guides and textbooks

Geetanjali vs Unicode for Assamese

Aspect	Geetanjali	Unicode
Encoding method	Font-based (proprietary)	Standard (ISO 10646)
Requires font install	Yes — on every machine	No — built into OS
DTP compatibility	Excellent (PageMaker, old Word)	Modern applications
Web usage	Not usable on web	Universal web support
Print quality	Professional calligraphic	Good (depends on font)
Google searchability	No	Yes
Future viability	Declining but still used	Standard going forward

When to Use Geetanjali Keyboard

• Legacy DTP workflows: If your publishing house uses PageMaker with Geetanjali fonts
• Newspaper typesetting: Most Assamese newspapers still use Geetanjali in production
• Archive work: Working with existing documents that use Geetanjali encoding
• Specific font designs: When you need a calligraphic font only available in Geetanjali

Converting Geetanjali to Unicode

Need to use your Geetanjali text on the web or in modern applications? Use Rupantarak to convert Geetanjali to Unicode. It handles all characters including complex conjuncts with 100% accuracy.