Hyderabad, Nov. 9 -- For over a century, Urdu publishing remained tied to manual calligraphy as complex as the language, with flowing Nastaleeq script proving difficult to digitise. Early computer rendering struggled to match traditional calligraphic standards, resulting in awkward spacing and poor print quality that publishers found unacceptable. A Hyderabadi stepped in to solve the problem.

The man was Ashhar Farhan, the creator of the Urdu keyboard hardware, now standardised across different systems. For World Urdu Day, celebrated on November 9 every year, he spoke with Siasat.com about how it first came to life.

Born to Osmania University professor of Islamic Studies Anwar Moazzam and prominent Urdu fiction writer Jeelani Baano, Far...