[Tex/LaTex] Tamil Tex in windows

tamilwindows

I use TexniCentre and Miktex 2.8 in Windows XP. I would like to typeset Tamil text, and so far I've been unsuccessful.

Please suggest me a working TeX/LaTex/variants setup for Tamil language.

Thanks for any help in advance.

Best Answer

(Recommended) The XeLaTeX/LuaLaTeX way with polyglossia

You'll need a Tamil font installed on your operating system; I used Noto Serif Tamil and Noto Sans Tamil as example below.

\usepackage{polyglossia}
\setmainlanguage{tamil}
\setotherlanguage{english} %% OPTIONAL if you have some English text in your book

 %% Select fonts for Tamil
\newfontfamily\tamilfont[Script=Tamil]{Noto Serif Tamil}
\newfontfamily\tamilfontsf[Script=Tamil]{Noto Sans Tamil}

%% OPTIONAL; Select fonts for English
\setmainfont{Times New Roman}
\setsansfont{Arial}

Then compile the document with xelatex or lualatex.

The pdfLaTeX way with the itrans package

Typesetting Tamil is possible with the itrans pakcage, but it's not packaged properly in MikTeX. You will need to install it manually. Download itrans53-win32.zip from CTAN. After unzipping the contents (say C:\itrans53\), assuming <texmf> being your local TEXMF tree,

Move the contents of the lib folder into <texmf>\tex\latex\itrans
Move the contents of the fonts folder into the appropriate locations, i.e.
- *.mf in <texmf>\fonts\source\itrans
- *.afm in <texmf>\fonts\afm\itrans
- *.tfm in <texmf>\fonts\tfm\itrans
- *.pfb, *.pfa, *.pfm in <texmf>\fonts\type1\itrans
- *.ttf in <texmf>\fonts\truetype\itrans
Refresh the file name database (e.g. via MikTeX Options/Settings)

Then try out the minimal example I gave in my answer to this related question. You would need to evoke itrans.exe in the itrans53\bin folder. (However I'm not sure if it works in 64-bit Windows.)

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] LaTeX/XeTeX setup Tamil/Indic languages

I will give what I learned by trial and error. This is pertaining to Windows platform.

( I used the material given found here at the XeLaTeX wiki.)

The trick is to

use the fonts available in the system's font directory. (Windows7 provides Latha font for Tamil) and
compile your source file with xelatex, not pdflatex! (For this in Windows platform, 'Texworks' can be used as this is an unicode editor. Check whether your favourite editor can save your file in utf-8 format)

In the preamble include the following

\usepackage{fontspec}

\newfontfamily{\lathatam}{Latha}

The declaration in the first set of parentheses is the command to call Tamil encoding in the body of your document such as:

{\lathatam அய்யா வணக்கம்.}

I used Microsoft's Indic Tamil Input Method. (For downloading and installation see the relevant web site. You can also use Google's method).

Another Tamil font encoding is 'Arial Unicode MS'. To use this declare

\newfontfamily{\anothertam}{Arial Unicode MS}

in the preamble, and use it by doing:

{\anothertam நான் நலம். நீங்கள் நலமா}

When you compile with xelatex, you will see the difference between these fonts.

[Tex/LaTex] Is the Windows logo available

Indeed, there doesn't seem to be a Windows symbol neither in the comprehensive LaTeX symbol list nor in Unicode. This symbol is in the WingDings font, but it is not available everywhere. Hence it appears one must use an external logo.

The German Wikipedia has a nice outline, monochrome Windows logo. It can be converted to an .eps or .pdf and then included in the document:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{keystroke}

% Lower the picture a little to match the text baseline
\newcommand{\WindowsLogo}{\raisebox{-0.1em}{%
  \includegraphics[height=0.8em]{Windows_3_logo_simplified}}}
\newcommand{\WinKey}{\keystroke{\WindowsLogo}}

\begin{document}

Press \WinKey+\keystroke{E} to open Windows Explorer.

\end{document}

Result