MYLAI TAMIL FONT - KEYMAPPING

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Mylai Tamil Font - Introduction
Mylai is a Tamil font created by Dr. K.Kalyanasundaram primarily as a medium for archiving and distributing tamil electronic texts on the Internet. The font is available in identical format - truetype form for use on Windows Pcs (3.11 and even Windows 95!) and postscript form for use on Macintosh PCs. Once installed in the system, the tamil font can be used on almost all applications supported by Windows (3.1, 95, NT) and Macintosh operating systems (OS): word processing such as Word/Word Perfect, graphics such as Coral Draw, database such as Excel and so on). The mylai tamil font can be obtained FREE OF COST for the personal use of individuals and non-profit organizations. Consult the web page on Mylai Distribution for conditions and for downloading a copy of the font and associated (keymap info. ) files.
Mylai font uses the standard 128 ASCII keys to compose the entire 256 tamil characters and the common sanskrit/grantha characters. So tamil files created using this font can be exchanged electronically (via email) in plain text form without loss of accuracy. The receipient at the other end simply has to open the file/mail on his word-processor and change the font to Mylai to be able to read the email locally in Tamil. The font is of the "proportional" type and hence bilingual Web pages can be set up where a fixed font such as Times can be used to english/roman texts and the proportional font (Mylai) to display the tamil materials.

Keymapping :
Unlike most of the commercial fonts that use the classical tamil typewriter keymap, Mylai keymapping is phonetically linked to english/roman keyboard. Thus you type k to get letter ka, ka for kaa, ki for ki, kI for kii, mi for mi etc. The following table gives the combination of roman letters to be typed to get various tamil vowels ('uyir'), consonants ('mei') and compound ('uyirmei') characters.
If you have Mylai tamil font already installed on your computer, select the fonts section within the preferences of your web browser and choose mylai to be the proportional font. Then you can see the entire table in tamil letters.
... a aa/A i ii u U/oo e E ai o O/oo Oq q/ah
vowels ` ~ ; : u U ' " _ o O Oq #
k k ka ki kI K P ek Ek Ak eka Eka ekq kf
ng g ga gi gI g< g> eg Eg Ag ega Ega egq gf
c c ca ci cI C V ec Ec Ac eca Eca ecq cf
NY w wa wi wI W W\ ew Ew Aw ewa Ewa ewq wf
d d da FG D YD ed Ed Ad eda Eda edq df
N ] ]a (±) ]i ]I } }\ e] E] A] (^]) e]a E]a e]q ]f
th/dh t ta ti tI T T\ et Et At eta Eta etq tf
nN/n^ n na ni nI N N\ en En An ena Ena enq nf
p/b p pa pi pI p< p> ep Ep Ap epa Epa epq pf
m m ma mi mI M YM em Em Am ema Ema emq mf
y y ya yi yI y< y> ey Ey Ay eya Eya eyq yf
r r ra ri rI R YR er Er Ar era Era erq rf
l l la li lI L L\ el El Al (^l) ela Ela elq lf
vv va vi vI v< v> ev Ev Av eva Eva evqvf
z/zh z za zi zI Z YZ ez Ez Az eza Eza ezq zf
L q qa qi qI Q YQ eq Eq Aq eqa Eqa eqq qf
R b ba ($) bi bI B B\ eb Eb Ab eba Eba ebq bf
n [ [a (�) [i [I { {\ e[ E[ A[ (^[) e[a E[a e[q [f
grantha
hh ha hi hI hH hJ eh Eh Ah eha Eha ehq hf
jjja ji jI jH jJ jh Ej Aj eja Eja ejq jf
Ss sa si sI sH sJ es Es As esa Esa esq sf
shx xa xi xI xH xJ ex Ex Ax exa Exa exq xf
sri +

Special notes for Mylai users:
Classical/old style characters no longer on use can be found under the following Roman characters: Raa is under $, Naa is under � (ALT + 0177), naa is under � (ALT + 0167). The forward hook as in lai, nai, Nai, Lai is under ^. Note that these special characters are placed outside the standard 128 ASC II set and so the text files containing these characters will be altered when sent via standard email (7-bit transmission): Naa at position 177 will be replaced by character at position 39 (177-128) and so on!
The letters eh (as in eli/rat) and Eh (as in ENi/ladder) are placed under single (') and double (") quotes. So for these characters to appear properly on the screen and during printing, it is essential that the option "special quotes" in most word-processing programs (that gives curly quotes instead of plain quotes) be TURNED OFF. Otherwise you will see only blank squares in these places.

Return to the web-page on Mylai Tamil Font
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Dr. K. Kalyanasundaram,
Institute of Physical Chemistry,
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology,
CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
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