ISCII (Indian Script Code for Information Interchange) is a character encoding standard developed specifically for representing Indian scripts on computers. It is primarily used for digitizing and exchanging information in various Indian languages, such as Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, and Gujarati, ensuring interoperability across different computer systems.
The ISCII standard assigns a unique numerical code to each character from the Indian scripts, allowing their representation in binary format. This simplifies communication, storage, and processing of Indian language data in electronic form. ISCII supports a wide range of characters used in various Indian languages, including vowels, consonants, numerals, punctuation marks, and special symbols.
In ISCII, each character is represented by a 7-bit code, allowing for a maximum of 128 unique characters. However, ISCII supports an extended version known as ISCII-8, which allows for an additional 128 characters, enabling the representation of a larger character set.
The ISCII standard enables Indian language script authors, software developers, and computer users to overcome the challenges of representing complex scripts with diverse characters digitally. It facilitates the development of Indian language software applications, text processing tools, and fonts that can accurately render Indian language texts, thereby promoting the use of technology in Indian language domains.
ISCII has played a significant role in bridging the digital divide and promoting multilingual computing in India, contributing to the preservation and dissemination of Indian language culture and knowledge through the electronic medium.
