Syed Manzar Hasan Zaidi

Early life

Eldest among his six brothers and younger to his only sister, Syed Manzar is endowed with a keen interest in computer technology. Born on 15 October 1969 (3 Shaban شعبان) in Mumbai, an island city of Maharashtra state in India. The industrious son of a well-known businessman, Syed Mukhtar Hasan Zaidi (Abu Bhai), Manzar accomplished his master's degree in computer application (MCA) quite early in his life, while still doing 12th standard, as a part-time course from APTECH institute of the city.

Being an Urdu medium student who did his schooling from Anjuman Khair-ul-Islam, Manzar had a deep feeling for Urdu as the language suffered from many of the handicap in its printing technology. This love for the language blossomed into versatile Urdu Unicode Fonts, developed by Manzar and his core team of professionals that helps Urdu publishing houses in multifarious ways.

Philanthropy

A man with a rare philanthropic temperament, Manzar at times go out of the way to bail out his friends and even strangers from thorny situations. In 21'st century where competition is the buzzword, Manzar still believes in co-operation and collaboration. Philanthropy may have become a style statement of today's elites but Manzar, in his own inimitable style, is practising it since his adolescence, much ahead of what business magnates Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are doing today, albeit, this may be a peanut compared to the latter altruistic endeavour on global scale.

Recognition

He had created most of the fonts used in InPage software, arguably world's best Urdu software as far as page-making in Urdu is concerned. InPage was honoured by Urdu Academy Delhi in 2006. Later, on 1 May 2009, Syed Manzar received an award underlining his achievements and excellence in Urdu computing at a function felicitating people of high repute in the field of art and language by Pasbaan-e-fun – an organisation of artists, calligraphers and painters, for his contribution in Urdu printing technology in the textile town of Maharashtra, Malegaon. They recognised the services of Urdu Fonts, calligraphic fonts developed by Syed Manzar and his small team of researchers. The new fonts, especially Faiz Nastaliq and Manzar Indo-Pak Naskh, were greatly appreciated by the eminent judges on the panel.

2012: Unique Educational Society in Mumbra, Thane district, Maharashtra, India conferred on him Digital Calligraphy Award for his contribution to digitise Urdu script. He was honoured by Nationalist Congress Party MLA, Jitendra Awhad on behalf of the society.

2012: Abu Huraira Model School Society, Firozabad, UP, India in recognition to his work on digital Urdu calligraphy honoured him with Moulana Mohammad Ali Johar Urdu Computing Award. Dr Noor Mohammad, IAS (Indian Administrative Service) handed over the award on behalf of the society.

2012: Maharashtra State Urdu Sahitya Academy, a government headed literary forum, conferred Special Award for his promotion and digitisation of Urdu language. Honourable Chief Minister of Maharashtra Mr Prithviraj Chavan himself handed over the award to him.

Axis SoftMedia (Center for Research in Digital Calligraphy)

Syed Manzar established Axis SoftMedia Pvt. Ltd. (Center for Research in Digital Calligraphy – Perso-Arabic), a font-developing research-lab based in Mumbai, India that primarily develops fonts that have Perso-Arabic origin. The company was established in 1992 to cater to the needs of the Perso-Arabic Publishing Market and the computing world. The company develops all fonts of InPage except Noori Nastaliq. Axis SoftMedia is the first of its kind in the sub continent to develop such fonts. It also creates customised fonts.

It is the first company in India which has worked on Urdu TrueType & OpenType fonts *(1). The company primarily focused on Urdu fonts and calligraphy research. In due course it has emerged into a full-fledged Perso-Arabic calligraphic research center, inviting the best calligraphers from across the globe to contribute.

Published works

InPage اِن پیج

Syed Manzar worked on Urdu fonts since 1993. By the end of 1994 forty (40) ASCII based True type Urdu fonts were developed which was launched with InPage1.0 in 1994. This has virtually catapulted Urdu into the league of other Indo-Aryan languages.

Urdu Unicode/ASCII System for broadcasters

Many Urdu News Channels employed this technology to bring about quality improvement in news presentation. Unlike news channels in other languages, Urdu channels suffered from (Urdu) font handicap. ETV – Urdu, Hyderabad desperate to resolve the stalemate got in touch with Syed Manzar. He, along with ETV's technical team worked out a solution that has brought Urdu on a par with other major languages. This enabled ETV to run its tickers, headlines, graphics and teleprompting exclusively in Urdu language. Later, Doordarshan, Sahara TV, Munsif TV and scores of other news broadcasters too used the expertise to do away with similar hiccup. A plethora of international news channels too employed this to beautify their presentations.

Sunsilk Cosmetics

The cosmetic company that develops a battery of skin care and hair products was launching its worldwide campaign to boost the popularity of its product – Sunsilk shampoo in 2010. The advertisement used dotted fonts in every major global language. Manzar was roped in to develop similar fonts in Urdu and Bengali languages which he did quite effectively.

Faiz Lahori Nastaliq فیض لاہوری نستتعلیق

The Urdu publishing and computing world has long been looking for a new font. A font that is not only aesthetically fine but also technically supportive by developing Faiz Lahori Nastaliq. In 2006, He developed a most flexible font called Faiz Nastaliq with the help of Dr. Rehan Ansari and Aslam Kiratpuri. Faiz Nastaliq is considered as a panacea for Urdu publishing world.

Faiz Nastaliq 1.0 is specially created for those who are fond of Lahori Nastaliq. It not only enriches InPage Version 3 but also makes it the most comprehensive Urdu typesetting and designing tool in publishing industry. Faiz Nastaliq gives the designers and publishers the most indispensable high-quality typesetting for literary academic production. It provides ligatures to shape writing of different genre, poetry, prose, blank verse, etc. It is a delight of designers. It will help them enhance the designs of the magazines, hoardings, posters, advertisement and newspapers. Corporate users will be pleased to discover Faiz Nastaliq effective protection of their investment in proprietary typography.

What is Faiz Nastaliq? : Faiz Nastaliq is a dream comes true. The type face is designed on the rules & scales of Lahori Nastaliq script set by Late Faiz Katib (1912–1986). Faiz Nastaliq is an innovative set of Fonts for InPage Version 3 that has been specifically developed for Urdu publishing world. It integrates traditional calligraphy with modern typefaces, giving designers the freedom they need to remain creative in today's world. By adding Faiz Nastaliq, InPage Version 3 truly becomes the most comprehensive Urdu typesetting and designing tool in the industry.

Why Faiz Nastaliq? : Urdu typography has been a great challenge for the printing and publishing industry. Because it is composed of complex and shifting letters, typesetting technology based on letter analysis could not render the richness of the script. It is for this reason that Syed Manzar, has developed Faiz Nastaliq by analysing individual penstrokes and creating a clear and limited set of rules. Faiz Nastaliq is a true breakthrough in Urdu typography as it allows InPage Version 3 users to fully express the enormous variability of Urdu letters. Faiz Nastaliq returns to the sources of the Urdu script traditions, providing today's generation of high-tech designers with greater freedom and offering them a real Urdu-friendly design environment. The ingenious interface and set of Urdu-related features are ideal to create richer, more complex Urdu typography. Faiz Nastaliq let you work better and faster than ever.

Why it is unique? : Urdu typography, so far, was devoid of 'Kashish'* feature of words & ligature. Faiz Nastaliq Kasheeda enriches the publishing world with this beautiful feature and blesses the documents & published data with true flavour of Urdu calligraphy. All the unique ligatures that are used in the font are without 'Nuqta' and 'Aeraab' unlike other Nastaliq fonts. It covers up to 10% less space* than available Nastaliq fonts and looks extremely attractive in 'Kashish' with kerning*.

Manzar.in – a personal electronic library

It's a free digitised multi lingual library of rare books that you seldom find in regular libraries and bookstores across Indian subcontinent. This hi-tech library enables users to search titles/authors/publishers/translators in minimal possible time. Thus saves your time, cost and energy.

One may wonder why should there be yet another website for library as there is already a glut of sites for the same on internet. The most positive aspect of this library is that your reference to a particular book you are consulting is saved for your future reference. For example, if you are going through the author Ayatullah Sistani' Tauziul Masael, 'Fiqh' and left the book after flipping through 26 pages, this would be saved for your next reference. So if you log-in again after some time you need not bother to search the book and its pages you referred to in your previous session again. You will automatically get down to the page you left unread in your earlier session that is page number 26 in the example here.

Besides this, Manzar also provides short notes space where you enjoy the liberty to air your views on the books you read.

The list includes major India languages including lingua franca, English. Right from the titles on history, politics, economy, geography, literature, oceanography, geology, and astronomy to spiritualism, theology and vast shades of religious doctrines, the list includes books on almost every discipline a person can conceive of.

The library intends to include over point one million titles in Urdu, Arabic and Persian ranging from 17th century onward. Moreover, it will also include rare manuscripts which one seldom find in general libraries or elsewhere.