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I use TexMaker and LyX in Ubuntu. I'd like to typeset Tamil/Telugu/Hindi text, and so far I've been unsuccessful.
Please suggest me a working TeX/LaTeX/variants setup for Indic languages, especially Tamil.
edit: XeTeX seems to have good Unicode support, and I read TexMaker has XeteX support too. I installed all XeTeX, latex-tamil packages etc. But couldn't make them work yet.
Documentations talk about Arabic or Korean text. Nothing mentioned about Tamil/Indic text.
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
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.
`, they'll be marked as code, as can be seen in my edit. You can also highlight the code and click the "code" button (with "{}" on it).
May 3, 2015 at 17:37
As of 2020, both babel and polyglossia support Tamil. This requires either LuaLaTeX with the HarfBuzz renderer (a version from 2020 or later should work) or XeLaTeX. The babel package supports more languages and engines, while the polyglossia package has a somewhat simpler user interface.
Either of these let you use any system font that supports Tamil. Any font you can use in your word processor should work.
Save as UTF-8.
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\babelprovide[import]{tamil}
\defaultfontfeatures{Scale=MatchLowercase}
\babelfont{rm}[Scale=1.0]{Latin Modern Roman}
\babelfont[tamil]{rm}{Latha}
\begin{document}
\foreignlanguage{tamil}{தமிழ் அரிச்சுவடி-தமிழ் மொழி}
\end{document}
This set-up is for the common case where you want to use a bit of Tamil in a multilingual document. You can also declare Tamil the main language, or set a section in Tamil with \begin{otherlanguage}{tamil}...\end{otherlanguage}. You can define \babelfont[tamil]{sf}{Some Font} to get a sans-serif font and \babelfont[tamil]{tt}{Some Font} to get monospace.
If you get warning messages about the font not supporting the language Tamil for the script Tamil, they’re harmless, but you can suppress them by adding the option \babelfont[tamil]{rm}[Language=Default]{Some Font}. What happened is that the selected font doesn’t add an OpenType language tag.
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{polyglossia}
\setdefaultlanguage{english}
\setotherlanguage{tamil}
\defaultfontfeatures{Scale=MatchLowercase}
\newfontfamily\tamilfont{Latha}[Script=Tamil]
\begin{document}
\texttamil{தமிழ் அரிச்சுவடி-தமிழ் மொழி}
\end{document}
You can also use the tamil environment for sections, and define \tamilfontsf and \tamilfonttt similarly to \tamilfont.
It would be nice if the last few holdouts added support for XeTeX (and, in the future, HarfTeX). Since some publishers still do not allow it, you might still need to fall back on a workaround such as LianTze Lim’s solution. If you need only a few short words or phrases in Tamil, another workaround is to compile them with XeLaTeX as tiny standalone PDFs, then insert the PDFs as images.
\usepackage[bidi=default]{babel} and \babelprovide[main, import]{english}, just write \usepackage[english]{babel} (Tamil is not an RTL script).
Jul 7, 2019 at 16:41
\babelprovide[import, main] line, because most requests I’ve seen for Tamil, Malayalam, etc. are about multilingual documents. I mentioned a few other use cases. I removed the unnecessary package option. Thanks for pointing that out!
english with \babelprovide. The standard method, as a package option, is still preferred.
Jul 8, 2019 at 13:14
[english] is preferred, I’ll change my MWE.
\babelfont[tamil]{rm}[Script=Tamil,Renderer=Harfbuzz]{Latha} should work fine then. See tex.stackexchange.com/a/493185/2388 for installation instructions.
Nov 11, 2019 at 10:04
[Note added on 7 July 2019] Please disregard this answer and use XeLaTeX/LuaLaTeX with polyglossia/babel instead, as explained in Davislor's answer. I'll leave this answer here for historical interest.
I was able to typeset Tamil using LaTeX on Ubuntu by installing the itrans and itrans-fonts packages via synaptic (or apt-get). It doesn't let you type in Tamil directly, rather you have to key in the ASCII transcription, then process it with itrans from the command prompt, then run (pdf)latex on the resultant file.
Say I have the following file nandri-pre.tex:
\documentclass{minimal}
\usepackage[preprocess]{itrans}
\newfont{\tmlb}{wntml12}
\newfont{\tmls}{wntml10}
\hyphenchar\tmlb=-1
\hyphenchar\tmls=-1
#tamilifm=wntml.ifm
#tamilfont=\tmlb
\begin{document}
Hi! {#tamil na^nRi #endtamil}
\end{document}
Process it with itrans:
$ itrans -i nandri-pre.tex -o nandri.tex
Then run (pdf)latex on nandri.tex, which is of course the file to edit if you have further text to add.
To use various indic languages in latex with texmaker I recommend following steps to be followed by viewers of this post.
Download latest version of MikTeX. Install it in your system. I use the C:/latex/ directory.
Download devnag developed by velthuis from CTAN. Install it in your system. I use the c:/latex/velthuis directory.
Open mycomputer->all programmes->miktex->miktex settings. Go to root tab and add c:/latex/velthuis directory and click OK.
Install TeXMaker and go to "user" tab and open "user command" and then "edit user command". Enter "devnagari" in menu item and commands
c:/latex/velthuis/bin/devnag.exe %.dn|c:/latex/miktex/bin/latex.exe -interaction=nonstopmode %.tex|"C:/latex/MiKTex/miktex/bin/yap.exe" %.dvi
in command field. Click OK.
Now devnagri will appear in dropdown in menu bar after arrow. You can add extra command using | having no space before and after |.
Now copy misspal file from c:/latex/velthuis/doc/generic/ folder in TeXMaker and save it as misspall.dn. Now run devnagri command and you will see out put in DVI preview in devnagari script. If you want write document in tamils then use itrans instead of devnag. It is also working with LaTeX and TeXMaker very well.
Remember %.dn means % denotes to filename without extension and .dn extension of file. Users must read doc or manual of devnag or itrans.
For Hindi, you can probably use the devanagari package for LaTeX. I've used it for Sanskrit. Just note that the "internal" codes for the script is a bit obtuse, so it is suggested that you follow the documentation and type in a more readable format, and then pass the source file through a preprocessor. (Included in the distribution.)
There are also language packages for Telugu and Tamil, but not having used either I cannot say more about them.
For my Ubuntu system I did as Lian Tze Lim suggested. Use the package manager to install the itrans and itrans-fonts packages. No muss No fuss.
For Windows and MiKTex 2.9 the set up process was more involved. Below is the batch file I created to facilitate the copying.
1) Install MiKTeX
2) Use the MiKTeX package manager to install the indic-type1 package and the devanagari packages.
3) download itrans53-win32.zip from http://www.aczoom.com/files/itrans/53/itrans53-win32.zip
4) extract itrans53-win32.zip to some temporary location. I used C:\temp\Tamil\ITRANS53.
5) Open a command window which is running as administrator. (many of the copies are into c:\program files\ and that requires the process be run with elevated privilege)
6) CD to the temporary location of ITrans (e.g. C:\temp\Tamil\ITRANS53)
7) execute the batchfile commands below.
8) close the command window
9) Right click on start->computer and select Properties.
10) Select Advanced System Settings->Environment Variables
11) add new system environment variable named: ITRANSPATH. See the batch file commands below for the exact value for this variable.
12) open a command window
13) The command:
itrans -I <filename>.itx -o <filename>.tex
will now work and (pdf)latex can resolve the packages, fonts, and commands referenced in the output from itrans.exe.
I can now process LaTeX files in both Ubuntu and Windows 7 and have the source files (.Tex, .ITX, etc.) under revision control
The batch file is:
echo off
rem Record where is MikTeX is installed
set MiktexRoot=C:\Program Files\MiKTeX 2.9
rem copy itrans.exe to a directory already within the path environment variable
rem namely the path adjustment made by the installer for MiKTeX which puts
rem all of the MiKTeX installed tools on the PATH variable
rem
rem for 32-bit windows systems remove the x64 suffix
copy ".\bin\*.exe" "%MiktexRoot%\miktex\bin\x64\*.*" /Y /V
rem Create the directories within the MikTeX structure used or referenced by the itrans package
mkdir "%MiktexRoot%\doc\itrans"
mkdir "%MiktexRoot%\doc\itrans\contrib"
mkdir "%MiktexRoot%\fonts\source\public\itrans"
mkdir "%MiktexRoot%\fonts\type1\public\itrans"
mkdir "%MiktexRoot%\fonts\tfm\public\itrans"
mkdir "%MiktexRoot%\fonts\afm\public\itrans"
mkdir "%MiktexRoot%\fonts\truetype\public\itrans"
mkdir "%MiktexRoot%\tex\latex\itrans"
mkdir "%MiktexRoot%\tex\latex\itrans\fonts"
rem Copy itrans package files into the MiKTeX structure
rem used http:\\tex.stackexchange.com\questions\1754\tamil-tex-in-windows
rem and the installation script for Tamil-Omega as guides for the copy commands
rem Listed below
rem
rem Copy Documentation files
copy ".\doc\*.*" "%MiktexRoot%\doc\itrans\*.*" /Y /V
copy ".\contrib\*.*" "%MiktexRoot%\doc\itrans\contrib\*.*" /Y /V
rem copy Font Files
copy ".\lib\fonts\*.mf" "%MiktexRoot%\fonts\source\public\itrans\*.*" /Y /V
copy ".\lib\fonts\*.pfa" "%MiktexRoot%\fonts\type1\public\itrans\*.*" /Y /V
copy ".\lib\fonts\*.pfb" "%MiktexRoot%\fonts\type1\public\itrans\*.*" /Y /V
copy ".\lib\fonts\*.pfm" "%MiktexRoot%\fonts\type1\public\itrans\*.*" /Y /V
copy ".\lib\fonts\*.tfm" "%MiktexRoot%\fonts\tfm\public\itrans\*.*" /Y /V
copy ".\lib\fonts\*.afm" "%MiktexRoot%\fonts\afm\public\itrans\*.*" /Y /V
copy ".\lib\fonts\*.ttf" "%MiktexRoot%\fonts\truetype\public\itrans\*.*" /Y /V
rem copy all of the ITRANS Lib structure into MiKTeX structure.
copy ".\lib\*.*" "%MiktexRoot%\tex\latex\itrans\*.*" /Y /V
copy ".\lib\fonts\*.*" "%MiktexRoot%\tex\latex\itrans\fonts\*.*" /Y /V
rem post installation commands to rebuilt the font name database ans to process all of the font MAPping files.
texhash
updmap
rem
rem With the above copies MikTeX can now find the ITRANS fonts and resolve references created by the itrans.exe preprocessor
rem
rem But the preprocessor cannot be run from the command line because itrans.exe is expecting to find a
rem specific ITRANS structure somewhere on the disk via the environment variable: ITRANSPATH
rem instruct the user about this environment variable requirement
rem
echo "Set the environment variable: ITRANSPATH"
echo "ITRANSPATH=%MiktexRoot%\tex\latex\itrans;%MiktexRoot%\tex\latex\itrans\fonts"
If you're using OverLeaf, you could follow the example at https://www.overleaf.com/latex/examples/how-to-write-multilingual-text-with-different-scripts-in-latex/wfdxqhcyyjxz
\usepackage{fontspec}
\usepackage{xunicode} %% loading this first to avoid clash with bidi/arabic
%%% For language switching -- like babel, but for xelatex
\usepackage{polyglossia}
\setmainlanguage{english}
\setotherlanguages{tamil} %% or other languages
% Main serif font for English (Latin alphabet) text
\setmainfont{Noto Serif}
\setsansfont{Noto Sans}
\setmonofont{Noto Mono}
% define fonts for other languages
\newfontfamily\tamilfont[Script=Tamil]{Noto Serif Tamil}
Write your Tamil text like \begin{tamil}நன்றி, அருமை\end{tamil}.
