Keyboard Support

Contact and Search

Keyman.com Homepage

Header bottom

Keyman.com

On this page

Tamil Inscript (deprecated) Keyboard Help

Keyboard © 2008 Tavultesoft


Overview
Using this Keyboard
Keyboard Layout
Quickstart
Examples
Keyboard Details
Complete Keyboard Reference Chart
Troubleshooting
Further Resources
Related Keyboard Layouts
Technical Information
Authorship

Download this documentation in PDF format.

Overview

This keyboard is designed for the Tamil language and uses the standardised Inscript layout. The keyboard is designed for users who are familiar with both this layout and the Tamil script, and is intended for use with a normal QWERTY (English) keyboard.

Most computers will automatically download a special font if needed to display this language correctly.

Click here to see other keyboard layouts for Tamil.

Using this Keyboard

Keyboard Layout

Quickstart

The Inscript layout was designed to provide a unified input system using a QWERTY keyboard for all Indian scripts. There are separate keys for consonants, vowels and vowel components. Most of the characters used in Tamil are combinations of consonants and vowels, and these do not appear on the keyboard. Instead, the appropriate vowel component is typed after the consonant it is to be combined with.

For example, the standalone vowel is entered by typing F, but in combination with a consonant, the ி component (f key) is usually typed instead, after the consonant, and the consonant-vowel combinant will be displayed. Pressing Backspace once will delete only the vowel component, so the character displayed on the screen will change back to the consonant, and change again if a different component is typed.

Grantha letters, which are used for typing Sanskrit, appear on the keyboard and are treated as normal consonants.

Examples

LanguagePhraseMeaningType the following keys
Tamilதமிழ்Name of languagelcfBdlcfBd

Keyboard Details

The visible keyboard layout consists of the eighteen consonants க ங ச ஞ ட ண த ந ப ம ய ர ல வ ழ ள ற ன, the five Grantha consonants and SRiiஸ ஷ ஜ ஹ க்ஷ ஸ்ரீ, eleven vowels அ ஆ இ ஈ உ ஊ எ ஏ ஐ ஒ ஓ, a range of vowel components, the Pulli and Aytham marks, and the Tamil numberals, as well as various punctuation marks. The majority of characters are typed using a combination of keystrokes.

Vowels are arranged on the left side of the keyboard, and most consonants are on the right, to make typing faster. Some consonants can be typed with more than one key.

The Tamil numerals are typed using [C*][A*]and the number keys.

Although many Tamil characters are typed using separate keys for consonants and components, the characters that appear on screen will be combinants, which the computer sees as a single character. This means that while two (or more) keystrokes are required to display most consonant-vowel combinants, when you use the arrow keys to move the cursor through the text, only a single keystroke is needed to move past each character. Moving the cursor to the left of a combinant character and pressing Delete will erase the whole character, but if you move the cursor to the right of a combinant and press Backspace, only the last-typed component will be erased.

Vowels and Pulli Marks

The standalone vowel characters which are on the keyboard will produce that character and will not combine with consonants. Long vowels have their own keys. Vowel-consonant combinant characters are entered by typing typing the consonant and vowel components separately. Vowel components that combine with consonants are always typed after the consonants, whether the vowel component appears to the left or right of the consonant component.

Because the consonants contain the implicit vowel , to produce a pure consonant it is necessary to add the Pulli mark by typing d immediately after the consonant. In every case, a consonant-Pulli mark combinant behaves the same way as a consonant-vowel combinant when you use the arrow, Backspace and Delete keys. Any vowel component that is typed immediately after typing the Pulli mark will not be combined with the consonant.

The SRii Character

This character is entered by typing > (Shift+Dot or Shift+Period). Currently, some browsers do not display this character correctly. Click here if you are having difficulty entering this character.

Keystroke Examples

Note: for a complete table of characters and keystrokes, click here.

The following table gives specific examples of how to input characters based on the consonant . The Grantha consonants use the same input method. Examples of these with the consonant are also given below.


Tamil Consonants Grantha Consonants
ConsonantVowel/PulliCombinantKeystrokes ConsonantVowel/PulliCombinantKeystrokes
க்kd ஜ்pd
க‍k ஜ‍p
காke ஜாpe
கிkf ஜிpf
கீfr ஜீpr
குkg ஜுpg
கூkt ஜூpt
கெkz ஜெpz
கேks ஜேps
கைkw ஜைpw
கொk` ஜொp`
கோka ஜோpa
கௌkq ஜௌpq

Troubleshooting

Fonts

Some of the fonts included with Windows do not include all the Tamil characters that are available with this keyboard. In order to display every character correctly, we recommend you download and install Tamil fonts.

If the characters you type or those on the On Screen Keyboard do not appear to display correctly, please read the KeymanWeb troubleshooting guide.

Further Resources

Other Internet Resources

Tamil Writing System at Omniglot.com
Tamil Language at Wikipedia.org
Tamil Script at Wikipedia.org

Technical Information

System Requirements

It is recommended that you use an English QWERTY hardware keyboard with this keyboard.

Unicode Version

This keyboard complies with Unicode 5.2

Authorship

This keyboard was created by the developers. Tavultesoft gratefully acknowledges the contribution made by the authors in developing this keyboard and making it freely available for use with Keyman Desktop and KeymanWeb. Their effort assists in enabling people to communicate in their own language.

Copyright and Terms of Use

The Tamil Inscript Keyboard for KeymanWeb is Copyright 2008 Tavultesoft. It may be freely distributed and used, but must not be modified or adapted in any way without written permission from Tavultesoft.

All Documentation Versions