Bitstream Panorama: a global text composition engine

Complex Scripts: Indic: Alternate Contextual Glyphs
In this example, the Unicode sequence begins with U+9015, U+094D, and U+0937. These correspond to the Ka + Halant + Ssha characters.

The second character, Halant, can change the appearance of the base character occurring before it: in this case, Ka.

Also, the changed base character itself can either change the appearance of the next character or connect to it. In this example, the base character Ka combined with Halant changes the appearance of the next character, Ssha.

The final output is Ksha. A good text composition engine must therefore interpret the three initial characters (Ka + Halant + Ssha) to compose the final output character, Ksha.

Images courtesy of Bitstream and C-DAC of Pune, India