Tamil Typing software

Tamil Typing software for computers and mobile phones:

1. NHM Writer – The ultimate tamil typing software I recommend. Works in Windows only.

2. Ekalappai – One of the earliest and most used Tamil typing software. Now released as an open source software. Currently supports Tamil99, Phonetic, Typewriter, Bamini and Inscript keyboard layouts.

3. Mircrosoft Indic Language input tool – Microsoft Indic Language Input Tool helps you enter Indian language text easily into any application in Microsoft Windows or on any page on the Web. The primary input mechanism is transliteration. Additionally, it provides a visual keyboard to assist with editing words that do not transliterate properly. Supports typing in Bengali, Gujarathi, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu, Oriya, Punjabi and Tamil.

4. TamilKey (a) TamilVisai – Firefox extension for typing Tamil. Since it is browser based works on all operating systems but can only be used online and only inside the browser.

5. SCIM – For typing Tamil in Ubuntu.

I recommend using the Tamil99 keyboard for faster, easier, tiredness-free typing experience in the long term. You can practice Tamil99 Keyboard at http://wk.w3tamil.com

Software for typing Tamil in Android OS in mobile phones:

6. Tamil Visai – Android app for writing using transliteration, Tamil99 keyboard. Using this you can publish in Unicode font in websites. You can also send SMSes to other phones supporting Tamil display.

7. How to guide for writing in Tamil enabled Nokia mobile phones

Related post: கணினியில் தமிழில் எழுதுவது எப்படி?

Warning 1: Never use Google Indic transliterator

Warning 2: You can type Tamil for free in computer. Need not buy any paid software.

NHM writer – The ultimate Tamil typing software

NHM Writer is a never-seen-before tool for Tamil typing.

Features of NHM writer:

1. Free-of-cost
2. Downloadable software. An online version will be launched soon.
3. This makes your Windows system Tamil ready on installing this. So you will be able to read, write Tamil well in all Windows applications. This is cool, as every other software would require you to do some additional tweaks in the system.
4. Extendable. You can use NHM Writer to include new encodings, keyboards for any language of your wish. You just need to insert an xml file. To make this xml file, there is a developer kit which will be released soon.
5. Customisable. You can edit the existing keymap files to make changes according to your needs.
6. Visual keyboards. You have visual keyboards to guide you learn the layout for novice users.

And all this comes in a less than 1 MB software which is really nice.

Click here to download NHM Writer.

Related posts:

* Tamil font converters
* Tamil in Android mobile phones
* Tamil typing software
* Tamil software websites
* Tamil fonts download

Suggestions for Google transliteration scheme for Tamil

Congrats for the google team for coming up with an intuitive Tamil transliteration scheme.

Pros:

– Tamil transliteration tools have so far been completely user dependent to specify the correct keys to achieve the desired spelling whereas google transliteration guesses the word like a mobile phone dictionary servie. So a novice user need not remember, learn the traditional tamil transliteration scheme before typing in Tamil.

Cons:

– This can’t be used offline.

– May be they will embed this feature in other Google products too in future. But for typing in other websites and desktop applications we need to copy paste from the Google site again which is cumbersome. Also, if Yahoo and other big guys come with their own transliteration schemes, then the end user will be confused.

– Google guess work may be very useful for typing in mobile phones where we have limited keys and usually type only short messages, whereas in a computer we have enough keys it can be faster to type the correct keys than taking the time to pause and select the right word from the guesses. Also, this guess work will be tedious when you type long documents.

Bug:

The system is self-learning the guess work from the words we choose. But this will mess up things for words involving ர, ற, ந, ல, ள, ழ, ன, ண.

Suggestions:

1. For words involving ர, ற, ந, ல, ள, ழ, ன, ண we can get lot of different words for the same keystrokes and the Google suggestion is not always accurate. In these cases it is a pain to click on the word and to scroll down to pick the right word. Instead it can provide an option to use the down arrow key or page down key (instead of click) and press enter to pick the right word.

2. While new users will find it easy to use this service thousands of users who already use the traditional Tamil transliteration scheme, the Tamilnadu government specified Tamil99 keyboard users, Bamini keyboard users (mostly from Sri Lanka) and traditional Tamil typewriting keyboard users will find it difficult to use this Google service. I would highly suggest to include these keyboard layouts as a drop down option under Tamil tab in the Google transliteration service.

3. This can find more use if this could be made in to a Firefox extension which would work in all websites. Better still is if you could make it a desktop program so you can type in non-browser applications.

4. The self learning system is now browser cookie based which will not help users who switch between operating systems, browsers and computers in home and work places. So, this can be associated with Google username so one can use it anywhere without having to teach Google again and again.

Verdict:

I am not so excited to see this feature. Tools like these will not help Tamil online in the long run. What we need is a free desktop application that would work cross-platform and we need to include Tamil99 typing in school curriculum.

Tamil99 testimonials

Testimonials from friends who changed to Tamil99

I have already changed to tamil 99. it looks really intelligent keypad. Stopped using **** after reading your article. Very valid point that in future understanding tamizh in terms of english letters is equivalent to slow poisoning.சத்தியா

20 ஆண்டுகளாக பழகியிருந்த ஆங்கில தட்டச்சு முறைக்குக் கூடுதலாகக் கற்றுக் கொண்ட தமிழ்த் தட்டச்சு முறை இப்போது தன்னிச்சையாகி விட்டது. எண்ணம் போகும் வேகத்தில் தட்டச்சிட முடிகிறது. சராசரியாக நிமிடத்துக்கு 20 சொற்களுக்கு மேல் உள்ளிட முடிகிறது. இது நானாக எழுதும் கட்டுரைகளுக்கு. எதையாவது பார்த்து நகல் செய்தால் 30 சொற்களை எளிதாகத் தொட்டு விட முடிகிறது. ஒரு மணி நேரம் தட்டச்சிட்டால் 1200 சொற்கள் சுலபமாக உருவாகி விடுகின்றன.எண்ணிக்கையை விட கை விரல்களுக்குக் கிடைக்கும் ஓய்வு முக்கியமானது. தமிழ் 99 முறையில் தட்டச்சிட்டால் தமிங்கில முறையுடன் ஒப்பிடும் போது கை விரல்களுக்கு வேலை மிகவும் குறைவு. தமிங்கில முறையில் அடிக்கும் போது நமது மனம் சிந்தனைகளைத் தொகுக்கும் வேலையுடன். தமிழ் சொற்களை ஆங்கில எழுத்துக்களாக மாற்றும் வேலையையும் கூடவே செய்ய வேண்டியிருக்கும். அதனால் மூளையின் processing திறன் பிளவு பட்டு விடும். தமிழ்99 முறையில் தமிழில் சிந்தித்து இடைத் தரகு மொழி இல்லாமல் நேரடியாக தமிழிலேயே உள்ளிட்டு தமிழ்ப் படைப்புகளை உருவாக்கலாம்.
மா. சிவக்குமார்.

Tamil99 is the Keyboard I use for writing Tamil contents in computers and it is very good. Try it if you have not. -Sethu

Shortcuts / Syntax that Tamil99 users should know

Tamil99 users should be aware of some shortcuts / Syntax.

1. To write க்க just type க க in sequence. No need to press f after first க to bring the dot over க.

similarly, த+த = த்த, ம+ம = ம்ம.

2. For frequent combination of letters like ந்த, ஞ்ச, ன்ற, ண்ட, ங்க, ம்ப the same rule applies. Just press ந த in sequence to get ந்த. No need to press f after ந.

3. To write நத்தை, press ந+அ+த+த+ஐ.The அ after ந specifies that it is ந and not ந். If you just press ந+த you will get only ந்த. Similarly for தத்தம், தத்தை etc.,

4. Works only in Tamilkey firefox extension and NHM Writer – To write அஃது, எஃகு etc., – ஃ following a உயிர் or அகரமல்லா உயிர்மெய், you need not press SHIFT+f to get ஃ . Just pressing f would bring ஃ in these places. Because the natural key output for f, the புள்ளி cannot occur after உயிர் or அகரமல்லா உயிர்மெய் according to tamil grammar.

5. To write Tamil numerals, press ~ key followed by the number without any space in between.