History

With the introduction of microcomputers in the early eighties, Sri Lanka too
embarked on the use of computers with local language input and output. The
University of Colombo developed a Sinhala screen output for television displays
and went on to provide election result displays in the three languages Sinhala,
Tamil and English within a few years. However, the requirement for a standard
code was identified and steps were taken by the Computer and Information
Technology Council of Sri Lanka (CINTEC) to establish a committee for the use
of Sinhala & Tamil in Computer Technology in 1985, soon after its inception.
This committee quite correctly took steps to meet the immediate need to agree on an acceptable Sinhala alphabet and an alphabetical order. Thus this committee joined with a committee appointed by the Natural Resources, Energy and Science Authority of Sri Lanka (NARESA) to form the Committee on Adaptation of National Languages in IT (CANLIT), which agreed on a unique Sinhala alphabet and alphabetical order. As for Tamil, no immediate action was taken due to the work being undertaken in India. CANLIT consisted of experts in the Sinhala language as well as IT.
It is of historic importance that a major set back for the development of Sinhala
language computing was averted when an injunction on the development of
Sinhala word processors taken by one developer against another based on a
disputable patent was settled out of court after years of litigation.

Appointment of a Committee on Unicode Compatible Sinhala Fonts

The CINTEC Internet Committee agreed that one of the major impediments to the development and use of the Internet in Sri Lanka, especially into rural areas is the lack of local language content. The Committee agreed that the availability of a high quality, free, and standards-conformant Sinhala font would enable content providers to create Sinhala language content.As a first measure, the Internet Committee decided that a Committee on Unicode Compatible Sinhala Fonts should be formed.

This Committee would define the basic minimum requirements for Unicode compatible Sinhala fonts; define the essential features which should be present in a Sinhala character set, character combinations and their input, address the requirements for a standard Sinhala keyboard, key board stroke sequences, and issues relating to the glyphs and keyboard drivers.

Malithi Web

Source: Part of the free download of the "Sinhala for Windows XP Beta". Stats: Version 4.004 2004 has 296 glyphs and 1 kerning pairSupport: Sinhala OpenType Layout Tables: Sinhala

Potha (potha3.ttf from the 'Fonts' folder of SinhalaKitOffice 0.5.zip)

Potha (potha3.ttf from the 'Fonts' folder of SinhalaKitOffice 0.5.zip)

Warning: This is a beta version.Note: Includes VOLT tables. Source: Part of the free download of the Sinhala Kit for MS Office beta. Stats: Version 0.04 2003 has 588 glyphs and no kerning pairsSupport: Sinhala OpenType Layout Tables: Sinhala

KaputaUnicode2

Source: Free download from the Sri Lanka Web Community Center. Stats: Version 1.000 2004 has 306 glyphs and no kerning pairsSupport: Sinhala OpenType Layout Tables: Sinhala

KandyUnicode

Source: Free download from the Sri Lanka Web Community Center. Stats: Version 1.000 2004 has 306 glyphs and no kerning pairsSupport: Sinhala OpenType Layout Tables: Sinhala

Iskoola Pota

Warning: This is a beta version. Source: Part of the installation of the free "Sinhala Kit for MS Office on Windows XP" Beta (SinhalaXP0.4.zip). You must install the Kit to obtain this font since iskpota.ttf is not in the zip file.Installing the Sinhala Kit also installs DinaminaUniWeb (Sinhala font), Malithi Web (Sinhala font), Kartika (Malayalam font), and an advanced version of the Uniscribe engine (USP10.dll, after reboot). Stats: Version 0.81 has 769 glyphs and 69 kerning pairsSupport: Sinhala, Latin OpenType Layout Tables: Sinhala