Quickstart

This keyboard makes typing in Tamil straightforward for anyone familiar with a normal English keyboard. Consonants and vowels are arranged on the keyboard so that pressing an English letter displays the Tamil character which sounds closest to that letter. Some characters, however, representing sounds which do not exist in the English alphabet, are located on unused keys. Grantha consonants are also on the keyboard, and long vowels are typed by pressing the vowel key twice, or by pressing [S*]and the vowel key. For example, the vowel இ is typed by pressing i, while pressing ii or I produces the long vowel ஈ.

Most of the characters used in Tamil are combinations of consonants and vowels, and these do not appear on the keyboard. Combined consonant-vowel characters are entered by typing the consonant, then the vowel. To enter சா, which is a combination of ச் and ஆ, type s then A, and the combinant character will automatically be displayed. Pressing Backspace once will delete only the vowel component, so the character displayed on the screen will change back to ச், and change again if a different vowel is typed.

Examples

Language	Phrase	Meaning	Type the following keys
Tamil	தமிழ் அரிச்சுவடி<	"Tamil alphabet"	thamiz arissuvadi

Full Documentation

This keyboard uses a consonant-vowel order for text input, so the consonant character is always typed before the vowel, regardless of where (relative to the consonant) the vowel marker symbol appears. As syllables are typed, the characters entered are automatically converted to the appropriate consonant-vowel combinant. While only the combinant characters are displayed on screen, the consonant and vowel are both stored, so that pressing Backspace once after a combinant deletes only the vowel component. This means it is necessary to press Backspace twice to delete a combinant character. However, pressing the Delete key with the cursor in front of a combinant character removes the whole character with one keystroke.

The visible keyboard layout consists of the ten vowels அ ஆ இ ஈ உ ஊ எ ஏ ஒ ஓ (the vowels ஐ ஔ are typed with two keystrokes), the eighteen consonants க ங ச ஞ ட ண த ந ப ம ய ர ல வ ழ ள ற ன, the Grantha consonants ஸ ஜ ஹ க்ஷ (ஷ is typed with two keystrokes, and ஸ்ரீ with three) and the Aytham ஃ mark.

Consonants and Pulli Marks

Most of the consonants are arranged so that they can be typed with a single key. A few consonants which use the same English (Roman) letter as another consonant, or which have no equivalent English letter, must be typed with two keystrokes. See the complete keyboard chart for details.

This keyboard does not have a key for the Pulli mark ், which defines a standalone consonant. Instead, every consonant will display the Pulli mark when it is typed, and the Pulli mark will disappear when a vowel is typed. The implicit vowel அ thus needs to be typed, though it is not actually displayed when combined with a consonant.

The SRii Character

There are two ways of entering this character: Sri or Shri. Currently, some browsers support one, both or neither of these entry methods.

Vowels

Vowels are typed using the English vowel letters. Tamil distinguishes between short and long vowel sounds, and the keyboard is arranged so that pressing any vowel key once will produce the short vowel, while pressing it twice, or pressing [S*]together with the vowel key, will produce the long vowel. When typing, it is often more efficient to press the vowel key twice rather than using [S*]. The vowels ஐ and ஔ, which do not have equivalent single letters in English, are typed with two keystrokes as shown below.

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 க. The Grantha consonants use the same input method. Examples of these with the consonant ஜ are also given below.

Tamil Consonants					Grantha Consonants
Consonant	Vowel/Pulli	Combinant	Keystrokes		Consonant	Vowel/Pulli	Combinant	Keystrokes
க	்	க்	g		ஜ	்	ஜ்	j
	அ	க‍	ga			அ	ஜ‍	ja
	ஆ	கா	gaa			ஆ	ஜா	jaa
	இ	கி	gi			இ	ஜி	ji
	ஈ	கீ	gii			ஈ	ஜீ	jii
	உ	கு	gu			உ	ஜு	ju
	ஊ	கூ	guu			ஊ	ஜூ	juu
	எ	கெ	ge			எ	ஜெ	je
	ஏ	கே	gee			ஏ	ஜே	jee
	ஐ	கை	gai			ஐ	ஜை	jai
	ஒ	கொ	go			ஒ	ஜொ	jo
	ஓ	கோ	goo			ஓ	ஜோ	joo
	ஔ	கௌ	gau			ஔ	ஜௌ	jau

Typing Conventions

Aside from the alternate methods of typing long vowels described above, several other conventions are incorporated in this keyboard. These are not 'rules' which must be followed, rather they are shortcuts, or ways of increasing the efficiency of typing Tamil using English (Roman) letters. These conventions may not actually reduce the number of keystrokes needed for typing characters, but by largely avoiding [S*]combinations, they make typing Tamil easier and faster.

	ற் Consonant
		The consonant ற் is usually typed with R, while typing a lower-case r produces ர். Because ற் sometimes appears twice in succession, the keyboard has been arranged so that pressing dr or tr produces ற்ற், without needing to use [S*].
		Similarly, because ற் never appears after ன், pressing dr or tr after ன் produces ன்ற், again avoiding the use of [S*].
	ன் and ந் Consonants
		The consonant ன் is usually typed by pressing n, and ந் is produced by typing w or n-. However, if n is pressed after a space or a carriage return, it will produce ந்.
	ட், ன் and ண் Consonants
		Typing d (ட்) after ன் will change the ன் to ண் (otherwise typed with N). ட் can also be entered by pressing t, but this will not change the ன் character.
	ஞ் Consonant
		This character can be entered either by typing W or nj. When ஞ் is followed by ச் which is often typed with ch (though s is an alternate way of typing this character), the sequence njj will produce ஞ்ச்.
	த் Consonant
		This character can be typed using either T or th. In some words, this character is repeated twice in succession. Typing tth provides a shortcut to entering this.
	English words used in Tamil
		Some English words that can be written in Tamil script will not display correctly if typed exactly as they are written, as the keyboard automatically makes some of the changes listed above. To avoid this, it may be necessary to insert spaces when typing and delete these spaces afterwards.

Other Characters

This keyboard does not contain characters such as the symbols for day, month, year, etc., or the glyphs used as vowel modifiers. Some of the alternate Tamil keyboards do allow these characters to be typed.