Software:InPage

Short description: Indian word processor and page layout software

InPage

InPage 3 splash screen displaying Urdu text
Original author(s)	Concept Software
Developer(s)	InPage Team
Initial release	1994 (1994)
Stable release	3.61 / 2013 (2013)
Operating system	Microsoft Windows
Available in	English
Type	Desktop publishing software
License	Proprietary
Website	inpage.com

InPage is a word processor and page layout software by Concept Software Pvt. Ltd., an Indian information technology company. It is used for languages such as Urdu, Arabic, Balti, Balochi, Burushaski, Pashto, Persian, Punjabi, Sindhi and Shina under Windows and Apple Mac. It was first developed in 1994 and is primarily used for creating pages for Urdu, using the Nasta`līq (نستعلیق) ('hanging' calligraphic) style of Arabic script.

Overview

InPage is used on PCs where the user wishes to create their documents in Urdu, using the style of Nastaliq with a vast ligature library while keeping the display of characters on screen WYSIWYG. Overall, this makes the on-screen and printed results more 'faithful' to hand-written calligraphy than most other Urdu software on the market at the time of InPage's release. This faithfulness is achieved while keeping the operation easy, akin to that of earlier versions of standard English Desktop Publishing packages such as QuarkXPress and Adobe InDesign.

Before being used within InPage, the Noori style of Nastaliq, which was first created as a digital typeface (font) in 1981 through the collaboration of Mirza Ahmad Jamil TI (as calligrapher) and Monotype Imaging (formerly Monotype Corp.), suffered from two problems in the 1990s: a) its non-availability on standard platforms such as Windows or Mac, and b) the non-WYSIWYG nature of text entry, whereby the document had to be created by commands in Monotype's proprietary page description language.

In 1994, an Indian software development team - Concept Software Pvt. Ltd. (est. 1988 in Delhi), led by Rarendra Singh and Vijay Gupta, with the collaboration of a UK company called Multilingual Solutions led by Kamran Rouhi, developed InPage Urdu for Pakistan's newspaper industry, who up until that time had been using large teams of calligraphers to hand-write last minute corrections to text created under Monotype's proprietary system. The Noori Nastaliq typeface was licensed for InPage from Monotype and augmented for use as the main Urdu font in this software, along with 40 other non-Nastaliq fonts.

InPage is reported to be in use on millions of PCs in Pakistan and India (mainly illegal pirated version). It has also been widely marketed and sold legally in the UK and India since 1994.

InPage launched its Version 3 at ITCN exhibition Asia in Karachi, Pakistan, held in August 2008. This version is Unicode based, supports more Languages, and other Nastaliq fonts with Kasheeda have been added to it along with compatibility with OpenType Unicode fonts. In addition to Arabic, Saraiki, Urdu, Persian and Pashto, other languages of the region, such as Sindhi and Hazaragi can be handled in InPage.