How to Read and Write Text Books in Tamil Language
Tamil Nadu Text Book Font Free Download
If you are looking for a way to download and install Tamil fonts for reading and writing text books in Tamil language, you have come to the right place. In this article, we will explain what are Tamil fonts, why are they important for text books, what are the types of Tamil fonts, where can you find them online, how can you install them on your computer, and how can you use them for your text book needs. By the end of this article, you will have a clear idea of how to get started with Tamil fonts for text books.
tamil nadu text book font free download
Introduction
Tamil is an ancient and rich language that belongs to the Dravidian family of languages. It is spoken by more than 70 million people in India, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Mauritius, and other countries. It is also one of the official languages of India and Sri Lanka, and one of the classical languages of the world.
Tamil has a unique and complex script that consists of 18 consonants, 12 vowels, and several diacritical marks that modify the sounds of the letters. It is written from left to right in horizontal lines. It also has some special characters that represent numerals, fractions, symbols, and abbreviations.
Tamil fonts are digital representations of the Tamil script that allow you to read and write text in Tamil on your computer or mobile device. They are essential for creating and accessing text books in Tamil language, as well as other documents, websites, emails, messages, etc. Without Tamil fonts, you will not be able to view or type text in Tamil properly.
Types of Tamil Fonts
There are two main types of Tamil fonts that you need to know about: Unicode fonts and TACE16 fonts. They differ in the way they encode and display the characters of the Tamil script. Let us see what they are and how they compare with each other.
Unicode Fonts
Unicode is a universal standard that assigns a unique code point (number) to every character of every language in the world. It aims to provide a consistent and interoperable way of representing text across different platforms, applications, and devices. Unicode covers more than 150 scripts, including Tamil.
Tamil Unicode fonts are based on the Unicode standard and use the code points assigned by it. They have several advantages over other types of fonts:
They are compatible with most modern operating systems, browsers, applications, and devices.
They support all the characters and symbols of the Tamil script, including numerals, fractions, symbols, abbreviations, etc.
They allow easy conversion and exchange of data between different formats and encodings.
They enable cross-lingual search and indexing of text.
They facilitate multilingual communication and collaboration.
However, they also have some disadvantages:
They require software support for complex text layout (shaping), as some characters change their shape or position depending on their context.
They may not display correctly on some older systems or applications that do not support Unicode.
They may not match the style or appearance of some traditional or custom-made fonts.
TACE16 Fonts
TACE16 is an alternate standard that was developed by the Government of Tamil Nadu in 2009. It stands for "Tamil All Character Encoding - 16 bit". It is based on a 16-bit encoding scheme that assigns a unique code point (number) to every character of the Tamil script. It aims to provide a simple and efficient way of representing text in Tamil.
TACE16 fonts are based on the TACE16 standard and use the code points assigned by it. They have some advantages over Unicode fonts:
They do not require software support for complex text layout (shaping), as every character has a fixed shape and position.
They can display correctly on any system or application that supports 16-bit encodings.
They can match the style or appearance of some traditional or custom-made fonts.
However, they also have some disadvantages:
They are not compatible with most modern operating systems, browsers, applications, and devices.
They do not support all the characters and symbols of the Tamil script, especially numerals, fractions, symbols, abbreviations, etc.
They do not allow easy conversion and exchange of data between different formats and encodings.
They do not enable cross-lingual search and indexing of text.
They do not facilitate multilingual communication and collaboration.
Sources of Tamil Fonts
If you want to download and install Tamil fonts for reading and writing text books in Tamil language, you need to find a reliable source that offers free and quality Tamil fonts. There are many websites that provide Tamil fonts, but not all of them are trustworthy or updated. Here are some of the best sources of Tamil fonts that we recommend:
Tamil Virtual Academy
Tamil Virtual Academy (TVA) is a government website that provides various resources and services for learning and promoting Tamil language, culture, and heritage. It also offers free Tamil fonts and keyboard drivers for various operating systems, including Windows, Mac, and Linux. You can download both Unicode and TACE16 fonts from TVA, as well as converters, tools, and guides. To download TVA's Tamil fonts, follow these steps:Go to http://www.tamilvu.org/en/Tamil-Keyboard-interfaces-fonts.
Select "Fonts" from the menu bar.
Choose either "Tamil Unicode Fonts (New Version)" or "TACE16 Fonts" depending on your preference.
Click on "Download All Fonts (Zip Format)" to download a zip file containing all the available fonts.
Extract the zip file to a folder on your computer.
Google Fonts
Google Fonts is a web service that offers a collection of free and open source fonts for web and print use. It also includes a variety of Tamil fonts that support Unicode. You can browse, preview, and download Google's Tamil fonts from their website, or use them directly on your web pages. To download Google's Tamil fonts, icon next to each font name.
Click on the "Family Selected" tab at the bottom of the page.
Click on the "Download" icon at the top right corner of the page.
Save the zip file to a folder on your computer.
Extract the zip file to get the.ttf font files.
Other Websites
There are some other websites that offer free Tamil fonts for download, but you need to be careful about their quality and reliability. Some of them may contain malware, viruses, or spyware that can harm your computer or steal your personal information. Some of them may also have outdated or incomplete fonts that do not support all the characters or symbols of the Tamil script. Therefore, we advise you to use these websites at your own risk and discretion. Here are some of them:
How to Install Tamil Fonts
Once you have downloaded the Tamil fonts that you want, you need to install them on your computer so that you can use them for reading and writing text books in Tamil language. The installation process may vary depending on your operating system and the type of font that you have. Here is a general guide on how to install Tamil fonts on Windows, Mac and Linux computers.
Windows
If you are using Windows 7, 8, 8.1 or 10, you can install Tamil fonts using one of these methods:
Right-click the.ttf font file and choose "Install".
Double-click the Tamil Font.ttf file to open the font (preview mode) and click "Install".
Access Control Panel > Appearance and Personalization > Fonts and copy the font file to the "Fonts" folder.
Note: If you are using TACE16 fonts, you also need to install the Tamil keyboard driver from TVA or other sources. You can follow these steps:
Download the Tamil keyboard driver zip file from TVA or other sources.
Extract the zip file to a folder on your computer.
Run the setup.exe file and follow the instructions.
Restart your computer.
Select Tamil as your input language from the language bar or the settings menu.
Mac
If you are using Mac OS X or later, you can install Tamil fonts using one of these methods:
Double-click the Tamil Font.ttf file to open the Font Book app and click "Install Font".
Drag and drop the Tamil Font.ttf file to the Font Book app or the "Fonts" folder in your Library folder.
Open a Terminal window and type "sudo cp /path/to/font/file /Library/Fonts" and enter your password.
Note: If you are using TACE16 fonts, you also need to install the Tamil keyboard layout from TVA or other sources. You can follow these steps:
Download the Tamil keyboard layout zip file from TVA or other sources.
Extract the zip file to a folder on your computer.
Copy the .keylayout and .icns files to the "/Library/Keyboard Layouts" folder.
Restart your computer.
Select Tamil as your input source from the keyboard menu or the system preferences menu.
Linux
If you are using Linux, you can install Tamil fonts using one of these methods:
Open a Terminal window and type "sudo apt-get install fonts-taml" if you are using Ubuntu or Debian-based distributions.
Open a Terminal window and type "sudo yum install tamil-fonts" if you are using Fedora or Red Hat-based distributions.
Open a Terminal window and type "sudo cp /path/to/font/file /usr/share/fonts/truetype" and then type "sudo fc-cache -f -v" to refresh the font cache.
Open the Font Manager app and drag and drop the Tamil Font.ttf file to the app window.
Note: If you are using TACE16 fonts, you also need to install the Tamil keyboard layout from TVA or other sources. You can follow these steps:Download the Tamil keyboard layout zip file from TVA or other sources.
Extract the zip file to a folder on your computer.
Copy the .xkb and .png files to the "/usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols" and "/usr/share/X11/xkb/rules" folders respectively.
Edit the "/usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/evdev.xml" file and add the following lines under :<layout> <configItem> <name>tam</name> <shortDescription>ta</shortDescription> <description>Tamil (TACE16)</description> <languageList> <iso639Id>tam</iso639Id> </languageList> </configItem> </layout>
Restart your computer.
Select Tamil (TACE16) as your input source from the keyboard menu or the settings menu.
How to Use Tamil Fonts
After installing Tamil fonts on your computer, you can use them for reading and writing text books in Tamil language. Here is a brief overview on how to use Tamil fonts for text books:
Reading Text Books
If you want to read text books in PDF or other formats using Tamil fonts, you need to open them with a compatible application that supports Unicode or TACE16 fonts, depending on which type of font you have installed. Some of these applications are:Adobe Acrobat Reader
Mozilla Firefox
Google Chrome
Mozilla Thunderbird
Mozilla Sunbird
Mozilla Seamonkey
GIMP
Inkscape
To open a text book with one of these applications, follow these steps:Right-click on the text book file and choose "Open with".
Select one of the applications from the list or browse for it if it is not listed.
The text book will open in a new window with Tamil fonts displayed correctly.
Writing Text Books
If you want to write text books in Word or other applications using Tamil fonts, you need to select a suitable font and keyboard layout for typing in Tamil. i>Microsoft Excel
Microsoft PowerPoint
Google Docs
Google Sheets
Google Slides
To write a text book with one of these applications, follow these steps:
Open the application and create a new document or file.
Select a Tamil font from the font menu. If you are using Unicode fonts, you can choose any font that starts with "Noto Sans Tamil" or "TAU". If you are using TACE16 fonts, you can choose any font that starts with "TAC".
Select a Tamil keyboard layout from the language bar or the settings menu. If you are using Unicode fonts, you can choose any keyboard layout that suits your preference. If you are using TACE16 fonts, you can choose the "Tamil (TACE16)" layout.
Type your text in Tamil using the keyboard. You can use the spacebar to insert a space between words, and the backspace to delete a character. You can also use the shift key to type capital letters or special symbols.
Save your document or file with a suitable name and format.
Conclusion
In this article, we have learned how to download and install Tamil fonts for reading and writing text books in Tamil language. We have seen what are Tamil fonts, why are they important for text books, what are the types of Tamil fonts, where can we find them online, how can we install them on our computer, and how can we use them for our text book needs. We hope that this article has helped you to get started with Tamil fonts for text books.
FAQs
Here are some frequently asked questions and answers about Tamil fonts for text books:
Q: What is the difference between Unicode and TACE16 fonts?
A: Unicode and TACE16 are two different standards that encode and display the characters of the Tamil script. Unicode is a universal standard that covers more than 150 scripts, including Tamil. TACE16 is an alternate standard that was developed by the Government of Tamil Nadu specifically for Tamil. Unicode fonts have more compatibility and functionality than TACE16 fonts, but TACE16 fonts have more simplicity and consistency than Unicode fonts.
Q: What are some of the best sources of Tamil fonts online?
A: Some of the best sources of Tamil fonts online are Tamil Virtual Academy (TVA), Google Fonts, and other websites that offer free and quality Tamil fonts. TVA is a government website that provides both Unicode and TACE16 fonts and keyboard drivers for various operating systems. Google Fonts is a web service that offers a collection of Unicode fonts for web and print use. Other websites may also offer free Tamil fonts, but you need to be careful about their quality and reliability.
Q: How can I install Tamil fonts on my computer?
A: You can install Tamil fonts on your computer by downloading them from a reliable source and copying them to the appropriate folder on your system. The installation process may vary depending on your operating system and the type of font that you have. For Windows, you can use one of these methods: right-click the.ttf font file and choose "Install", double-click the.ttf font file to open it and click "Install", or copy the.ttf font file to the "Fonts" folder in your Control Panel. For Mac, you can use one of these methods: double-click the.ttf font file to open the Font Book app and click "Install Font", drag and drop the.ttf font file to the Font Book app or the "Fonts" folder in your Library folder, or open a Terminal window and type "sudo cp /path/to/font/file /Library/Fonts" and enter your password. For Linux, you can use one of these methods: open a Terminal window and type "sudo apt-get install fonts-taml" if you are using Ubuntu or Debian-based distributions, open a Terminal window and type "sudo yum install tamil-fonts" if you are using Fedora or Red Hat-based distributions, open a Terminal window and type "sudo cp /path/to/font/file /usr/share/fonts/truetype" and then type "sudo fc-cache -f -v" to refresh the font cache, or open the Font Manager app and drag and drop the.ttf font file to the app window.
Q: How can I use Tamil fonts for reading and writing text books?
A: You can use Tamil fonts for reading and writing text books by selecting a suitable font and keyboard layout for your application. For reading text books in PDF or other formats, you need to open them with a compatible application that supports Unicode or TACE16 fonts, depending on which type of font you have installed. Some of these applications are Adobe Acrobat Reader, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Mozilla Thunderbird, Mozilla Sunbird, Mozilla Seamonkey, GIMP, Inkscape, etc. For writing text books in Word or other applications, you need to select a Tamil font from the font menu and a Tamil keyboard layout from the language bar or the settings menu. If you are using Unicode fonts, you can choose any font that starts with "Noto Sans Tamil" or "TAU". If you are using TACE16 fonts, you can choose any font that starts with "TAC". If you are using Unicode fonts, you can choose any keyboard layout that suits your preference. If you are using TACE16 fonts, you can choose the "Tamil (TACE16)" layout.
Q: What are some tips and tricks for typing in Tamil?
A: Here are some tips and tricks for typing in Tamil:If you are not familiar with the Tamil script or keyboard layout, you can use an online tool like Google Input Tools or Easy Tamil Typing to type in Tamil using English letters.
If you want to switch between English and Tamil quickly, you can use a shortcut key like Alt+Shift or Ctrl+Space to toggle between languages.
If you want to insert special characters or symbols like numerals, fractions, symbols, abbreviations, etc., you can use a character map tool like Charmap or BabelMap to find and copy them.
If you want to check your spelling or grammar in Tamil, you can use an online tool like SpellBoy or LanguageTool to find and correct your errors.
If you want to translate your text from English to Tamil or vice versa, you can use an online tool like Google Translate or Microsoft Translator to get an instant translation.