Indic Positional Category
Indic Positional Category is a character classification that defines how a glyph is positioned relative to the base consonant or vowel sign in Indic scripts, such as Devanagari, Bengali, or Tamil. It specifies whether a character acts as a pre-base vowel (placed before the consonant), a post-base vowel (after it), an above-base mark (like matras or vowel signs that sit atop), a below-base mark, or a nukta, among other specific positions. This category also covers conjunct-forming characters, reph (a raised form of ‘ra’), and aspects like left or right half forms, ensuring correct visual placement and reordering in complex text shaping. By grouping characters into these positional roles, the category enables rendering engines to arrange glyphs accurately, particularly when combining vowels, consonants, and diacritics, which is essential for legible and culturally correct display of South and Southeast Asian writing systems.
- Abbr
- Bottom
- Count
- 370
Bottom is a value indicating a character sits at the baseline, typically for vowel signs placed below a consonant.
- Abbr
- Bottom_And_Left
- Count
- 1
Bottom And Left is a value indicating a consonant's subjoined form attaches at the bottom left, used for certain South Asian scripts.
- Abbr
- Bottom_And_Right
- Count
- 4
Bottom And Right is a value meaning the character sits at the bottom and right edge of its glyph cell, often for combining marks in Indic scripts.
- Abbr
- Invisible
- Count
- 0
Invisible is how this value encodes a character’s expected placement within a syllable, shaping script rendering without visible marks.
- Abbr
- Left
- Count
- 70
Left is the Indic positional category for glyphs placed to the left of a base consonant, such as pre-vowel signs.
- Abbr
- Left_And_Right
- Count
- 24
Left And Right is a positional category indicating glyphs that attach to both sides of a base consonant, like reph and rakar forms.
- Abbr
- NA
- Count
- 309039
NA is used when a character has no defined Indic positional category, meaning it does not apply to syllable formation.
- Abbr
- Overstruck
- Count
- 10
Overstruck is a value indicating that a character's mark is placed directly over another base character, often merging visually with it.
- Abbr
- Right
- Count
- 316
Right is used for characters that appear to the right of a base consonant, often as dependent vowel signs or medial forms.
- Abbr
- Top
- Count
- 450
Top is a mark’s positional state indicating it appears above the base consonant, used for vowel signs or diacritics.
- Abbr
- Top_And_Bottom
- Count
- 10
Top And Bottom is a value indicating a character’s placement at the top and bottom of a syllable cluster, like vowel signs.
- Abbr
- Top_And_Bottom_And_Left
- Count
- 2
Top And Bottom And Left is a value indicating a vowel sign placed above, below, and to the left of a base consonant.
- Abbr
- Top_And_Bottom_And_Right
- Count
- 1
Top And Bottom And Right is used for vowel signs that attach above, below, and to the right of a base consonant.
- Abbr
- Top_And_Left
- Count
- 6
Top And Left is used for vowel signs that attach above and to the left of a consonant, like certain repha forms.
- Abbr
- Top_And_Left_And_Right
- Count
- 4
Top And Left And Right is a value indicating a character’s vowel sign attaches above, left, and right of the base consonant.
- Abbr
- Top_And_Right
- Count
- 15
Top And Right is a value indicating a character's mark sits above and to the right of its base consonant.
- Abbr
- Visual_Order_Left
- Count
- 19
Visual Order Left is a value indicating that a combining mark is positioned to the left of its base character in visual display.