Using Tamil in Unicode Supported Applications
July 24, 2006 Tips & Tricks, Troubleshooting
I don’t know how many of you folks out there know about Unicode. So, here is a general description about the same.
Unicode is a Encoding technique with 64 bits of Character sets (allowing upto 18446744073709551616 characters possibility). It allows a lot of languages to be used by the same encoding without the need to switch between encodings. Find more on Unicode at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode
Now, coming back, most of the OSes today support Unicode natively. If you use Windows XP, then you can immediately know that it supports Unicode natively. But if you’re using any other OSes before Windows XP, you can’t just use this. To setup Unicode in Windows XP, follow the below steps:
- Go to Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Regional and Language Options
- Click on the Languages Tab
- Click on the Check Box in the Install files for East Asian Languages and click OK
- Windows will ask you to insert the OS CD-ROM. Insert it or select a backup location
- Restart the System
Tamil Typewriting has so far evolved in the following means:
- Tamil Manual Typewriter (the Oldest but Safest Way)
- Tamilnet99 Keyboard (the Tamil Nadu Government authorised Keyboard – 1999)
- TAM and TAB (the Tamil Nadu Government authorised Keyboard Schemes)
- Anjal Typewriter (the Ultimate Tamil Phonetics Keyboard)
Of all the types specified above, the Tamil Manual Typewriter and Anjal Typewriter are the most commonly used ones. I personally prefer Tamil Manual Typewriter as it enables high faster typing and in safer means (that is, it will allow you to ensure that what you’re typing is right). But the Anjal Typewriter is the far easiest one. It will allow you to type அம்மா by just typing Ammaa. It’s as simple as that.
So, decide your keyboard first, then follow the below steps:
If you prefer Tamil Manual Keyboard, follow the steps below:
The Tamil Manual Keyboard is still followed by a font called Bamini. The layout of this keyboard will be as shown in the following picture:
- For converting your keyboard strokes to Unicode characters, you need a Keyboard Driver Management software. For Tamilans, it has been made easy by an Open Source development called eKalappai which is based on the International Keyboard Driver Management software KeyMan.
- Download the eKalappai for Bamini Keyboard at: http://www.sripauljoseph.com/downloads/tamil/eKalappai_2.0b_Bamini.zip
- Extract the zip file using WinZip or WinRAR.
- Install the Thamizha! eKalappai 2.0
- You will now see a small icon in the System Tray with a little ‘k’ on it. Click on this icon to get the number of keyboards installed. Typically it will be, Suratha – Bamini2Tscii (TASCII – Tamil Standard Code for Information Interchange. Not all softwares support this) and Suratha – BaminiUni (Unicode version) with short cuts like Alt + 2 and Alt + 3.
- Now, open any Text editor (Notepad, Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk, MSN, etc…) and press the short cut key Alt + 3 to get Bamini to Unicode converter. Now, start typing, you will see the Tamil Letters. You can type English by just pressing Alt + 1 (No Keyboards). The default font for Tamil is Latha. You can change it by going to Internet Explorer -> Tools -> Options -> Fonts -> Language Script (Tamil) -> and the Font you have. You can download more Unicode Tamil fonts (and also TSCII fonts) at: http://www.tamil.net/tscii/tools.html
- Using this technique you can send Tamil language letters to anybody who’s having supported OSes and Unicode supported applications.
If you prefer Tamil Anjal Keyboard, follow the steps below:
- Follow the same steps as above. But in Step 3, download Anjal Keyboard at: http://www.sripauljoseph.com/downloads/tamil/eKalappai_2.0b_Anjal.zip
- As the provided Anjal Keyboard is not functioning well for Unicode, you need to install the special Unicode Keyboard once you installed the above file. This special Unicode Keyboard can be downloaded from: http://www.sripauljoseph.com/downloads/tamil/NewUniTamil.zip
- Other operation instructions are same as above.
If you prefer Tamilnet99 Keyboard, follow the steps below:
- Follow the same steps as above. But in Step 3, download Tamilnet99 Keyboard at: http://www.sripauljoseph.com/downloads/tamil/eKalappai_2.0b_TamilNet99.zip
