Yup. It's that easy. I had wandered the lonely road of installing tons of fonts and messing with browser setting, keyboard layout and drivers etc.., just to type and communicate in Tamil. Finally,
Unicode came to rescue. And it is pretty much supported on any computer.
[Hint: You can type emails in Tamil and others can read it without installing or adjusting anything. Just like in English.]And it's easy to type in Tamil too.
Why? Because there is a phonetic keyboard maping. So, if you type in English, it turns into tamil (type
amma in keyboard -> you will see அம்மா on the screen). Just like that.
How? Install this free Keyboard Mapper [
eKalappai 1.0 MB download;
More Info].
Which? Press
Alt+ 2 keys together to type in say, Notepad or Email etc.
[More Help in 6 Easy Steps]What? See the Keyboard Map below? Yup. You don't need to remember anything. This is more for reference. Like,
| உயிரெழுத்துக்கள் |
| மெய்யெழுத்துக்கள் |
| கிரந்த எழுத்துக்கள் |
| அ - a |
| க் - k, g |
| ஜ் - j |
| ஆ - aa, A |
| ங் - ng |
| ஷ் - sh, ch, Z |
| இ - i |
| ச் - c, s |
| ஸ் - S |
| ஈ - ii, I |
| ஞ் - nj, X |
| ஹ் - h |
| உ - u |
| ட் - t, d |
| க்ஷ் - ksh, kch, kZ |
| ஊ - uu, U |
| ண் - N |
| ஸ்ரீ - sr |
| எ - e |
| த் - th, dh, T |
|
|
| ஏ - ee, E |
| ந் - w, n- |
|
|
| ஐ - ai |
| ப் - p, b |
|
|
| ஒ - o |
| ம் - m |
|
|
| ஓ - oo, O |
| ய் - y |
|
|
| ஔ - au, oLa |
| ர் - r |
|
|
| ஃ - q |
| ல் - l |
|
|
|
| வ் - v |
|
|
|
| ழ் - z |
|
|
|
| ள் - L |
|
|
|
| ற் - R |
|
|
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| ன் - n |
|
|
And bingo!! You can type, and read tamil in any application (word, email, webpages, etc). Just like that. உங்களுக்கும் பிடிக்கும் என்று நினைக்கிறேன். Or you can do cute
google searches in தமிழ் like
this or
this or
that.
P.S:
Keyboard mapping inspired from Anbudan group