- Introduction
- Download and Install fonts
- Windows XP SP2
- For visually pleasing rendering
- Microsoft Typography Help
- Complex Script Support in XP SP2
- Windows Vista and 7
- Windows 98, ME, 2000
- Gnu/Linux Desktops
- For Gnome
- For KDE
- Mac OS X
- Setting up the Browsers
- Google Chrome
- Internet Explorer 6.x
- Firefox 3.x
- Opera 10.x
- All Browsers
- Mobile Phones
http://malayal.am proudly uses GPL'd font Meera Unicode. In most of the modern browsers, you would be able to view the content error free. But if you are using Google Chrome, you may need to manually install the fonts and set up the browser properly.
- Download Meera Unicode font by clicking here.
- Copy the downloaded font and paste it in Start > Control Panel > Fonts folder. (Alternatively, you could specifically install the font by selecting Install New Font from File menu of the Fonts folder and specifying the path to which, you have downloaded the font.)
For visually pleasing rendering:
- Goto Start > setting> controlpannel> Display > Appearance > Effects...
- Check mark 'Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts:'
- Select ClearType
- OK > OK
More help
Enable complex script support in Windows XP SP2
- Go to Start >> Control Panel.
- If you are in "Category View" select the icon that says "Date, Time, Language and Regional Options" and then select "Regional and Language Options".
- If you are in Classic View select the icon that says "Regional and Language Options".
- Select the "Languages" tab and make sure you select the option saying "Install files for complex script and right-to-left languages (including Thai)" by putting a tick mark on it.
- A confirmation message should now appear - press "OK" on this confirmation message. If no such message appears, press "Apply" and then press "OK".
- You may be asked to provide Windows CD. Load the CD and allow the OS to install necessary files. Reboot if prompted.
- If it just happens that, you misplaced the licenced version of your Windows XP CD, go to this third party website , download IComplex installer and double click to install it. It will automatically perform all the steps as above. (This software is developed to support Bangla language community and http://malayal.am has no connection with them. Use this option at your own risk. We are not responsible for any copyright violation of Microsoft EULA and you hereby undertake sole responsibility of the action and its aftermath.)
Windows versions older than XP Service Pack 2 does not support Unicode.Though Windows 98, ME, and 2000 contain no inbuilt support for Indic scripts, Chintha web magazine provides an FAQ section that helps to install and setup Malayalam Unicode support with Rachana font. As Malayal.am is designed to be viewed in Meera, you would feel aesthetically lost if you specify Rachana to be used with this site. Those who uses such outdated versions of Windows Operating System should only use Internet Explorer 6.0 to make sure that the font rendering is correct.
For Windows XP SP2 or later, it is better to enable complex script support to ensure that the font rendering is correct.
Absolutely, nothing should be done in any new Gnu/Linux distros. Almost all of the .deb (debian, ubuntu, linux mint) and .rpm (redhat, fedora, trisquel ) based systems comes preloaded with meera and rachana fonts.
In some age old systems, you may need to manually do it. There are multiple ways in doing the same. The easiest way is to dowlnoad the file, open konqueror (for KDE) or nautilus (for gnome), type "fonts:///" in the address bar excluing the qoute, and paste the downloaded font in it. In case, you find two folders namely system and personal in the the fonts folder, open personal and paste the font in it. This way, the user can install the font without disrupting the system wide settings.
For Gnome: (Depricated)
What is written below is only for very old releases. Modern distros do not need this. Instead, just copying the files to fonts:/// folder either through GUI or through command line will be enough. Refer the general help.
Create a directory for meera font, say, /usr/local/share/fonts/ttfmeera
mkdir /usr/local/share/fonts/ttfmeera
cp meera_04-2.ttf/usr/local/share/fonts/ttfmeera
ttmkfdir -o fonts.scale
cd /usr/local/share/fonts/ttfmeera
head -1 fonts.scale > fonts.dir
tail +2 fonts.scale | tac >> fonts.dir
cp fonts.dir fonts.scale
xset +fp /usr/local/share/fonts/ttfmeera
To verify that the font is installed properly,
xset q
xfontsel
Start 'KDE Control Centre' (K Icon). Under 'System Settings', there is a 'Font Installer' utility in Computer Administration tab. An ordinary user could install the font locally using this facility.
If you are a Mac OS X user, though you might be able to read the content of this website, the rendering of Malayalam characters will not be perfect. This is because, popular Malayalam unicode fonts does not contain Mac tables in them. But you could get
- Rachana Mac version from here
- Dharani Unicode font based upon Anjali Old Lipi from here.
- If you are ready to pay for the font, you could buy other Unicode fonts with Mac tables enabled from here.
It is better to use Mozilla Firefox browser rather than the default Apple Safari browser to view Malayalam content in Mac.
Now the next part is to make your browser auto select Meera to view Malayalam content. Install or Enable Malayalam (Script) support on your web-browser software:
- Start Google Chrome
- Click the spanner image at the right top corner and go to Options > Minor Tweaks tab > Change Font And Language Settings> Fonts and Encoding > Select Meera for Serif, Sans-Serif and Fixed-Width Font. Select default encoding as Unicode (UTF-8)
- In some versions of Google Chrome, instead of Minor Tweaks, you would find Under the Hood tab. Select it and select Change Font And Language Settings and do as instructed above.
- Click OK, Click Close.
- Go to Tools > Internet options >Fonts, choose Malayalam in Language script, and choose Meera in the Web page font box. Restart Internet Explorer.
- Go to Tools > Options > Content tab > Fonts and colors section > Advanced button > Select "Malayalam" and set Meera as font for serif/san-serif/monospace.
- If Indic Scripts are still appearing incorrectly, you may then use the latest version of usp10.dll on your system.
- Go to Tools > Preferences > Advanced tab > Fonts > International fonts > Malayalam. Select Meera as default font. In most of the cases, Opera automatically detects if you have enabled Unicode support and installed fonts, so you may not require this step.
[Opera 10.4 support perfect Malayalam rendering in Windows. But Gnu/Linux version of this browser still lacks pango rendering engine support which in turn derails the correct rendering effort.]
- Go to your web-browser's "view" menu and set the "character encoding" or "encoding" feature to: Unicode (UTF-8).
In most of the cases, you may be able to view the website out of the box without even having the font installed on your system. But we are not in a position to ensure the compatibility of this website across older versions of popular browsers. We encourage to use the latest version of whichever browser, you are comfortable with.
Most of the new generation smart phones are internet ready. But most of these handsets and the operating systems they use, including android, iphone, windows mobile, symbian S60 etc have not been tuned to support the complex script rendering of Indic Languages.
Still, if you have the latest version of opera mini browser on your smart phone (or you manage to download and install opera mini on your phone), you can enable complex script rendering in it. To enable complex script rendering in mini opera, enter opera:config in the address bar (No www or http stuff please).
You will be taken to advanced configuration page of operamini. Enable 'render complex script fonts in server' in the page and click 'save' . You will now be able to see complex text scripts in opera mini even if your phone doesn't have those complex script language fonts.
Beware that this is a bit expensive in bandwidth since text is downloaded as images.
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