Tamil fonts.

Tamil fonts are of two types. The ones that occupy upper 128 locations and the ones that occupy the lower 128 ASCII locations. The ones that ocuupy the upper 128 locations (example Inaimathi) need a special inputting driver to enter Tamil script. I fyou try to enter these fonts without the special driver, they will look like odd characters. Whereas the ones that use the lower 128 locations (example Mylai) don’t need any special inputting driver program.

The other thing you need to know about Tamil fonts is the keymapping for a particular font. The keymapping tells you which Roman key to press to create which Tamil alphabet. The keymapping can be divided into three different types

1. Tamil typewriter (gif picture) print it

The keymapping is similar to the Tamil typewriter. So if someone is used to typing with the help of Tamil typewriter, they can select this type.

2. Phonetic (gif piture) print it

In this keymapping the consonents of Tamil alphabets are assigned keys on the right side of the keyboard and the Tamil vowels are assigned the keys on the left side of the keyboard.

3. The Romanized keyboard (gif picture) print it

Here the Tamil alphabets are assgned to the Roman alphabets that sound like the Tamil alphabets.

The typewriter and phonetic ones are used by speed-typists. An occasional writer may find it convenient to use the Romanized keymapping. Anjal and Mylai both use Romanized keymapping. Since Inaimathi uses the Tamil enabler program Anjal, it can be configured to work with all the three keymapping arrangements. Anjal alos allows you to input data in the format used by Mylai.

Mylai keymapping (pdf)
The fonts that use upper Ascii locations come with their own editor. These editors are not as powerful as the standard word processors. You can enter text into these editors and then copy and paste into any standard word processors. Most of the amil fonts can be used for personal use for free. Please let the author of the fonts know that you like their fonts.

Two keyboard drivers that let you use upper Ascii locations namely the keys and the keyman allow you to input these fonts in any windows application. They also allow you to select various keymapping scheme. These can be downloaded free of cost

This word (version 7) file (unzip) (100k) shows you how to install mylai font. This applies to all other fonts as well

The Adhawin convertor program allows you to convert documents created in transliterated format into Mylai and vice versa. Anjal also allows you to convert files created with different fonts into files with other fonts also.

A new addition to the font collection is Anangu series developed by Periannan Kuppuswamy. His font uses a program called Tamil ediotr. This program allows you to input any font in any keymapping style.

Many of the Indian magazines and newspapers that you see on the are created with different fonts. These fonts can be freely downloaded.

Once you get hold of these fonts you need to install them in the fonts directory to make them visible from within a program.

You can download Mylai from this site

Mylai-sri is an improved version of Mylai which can be downloaded from this site

Inaimathi font and the Anjal program can be downloaded from here

Anangu anjal which uses Ianimathi keymapping format can be downlaoded from here (self extracting)

After you download it, just click on it. it will install itself. Adhawin, the font converter can be downloaded from here Please install the adhawin font after you download and unzip the file.

Download keyman program form this site (486k).After you download it, click on it. It is a self-extracting and self-installing program. it will start off whenever you trun on your computer.

Download keys (self-extracting version) program from this site

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