Enabling Sinhala and Tamil Unicode

Last updated: 2007-12-05
This blog has content in Sinhala lanaguage. This is an example: මේ සිත් සටහන තුල සිංහල බසින් ලියවුන ලිපි ඇත. Preceeding text would appeat to you as question marks or small boxes if you do not have Sinhala support in your computer.

Fortunately, enabling your computer for reading and writting Sinhala (and Tamil) with Unicode is really easy. Here are some instructions for getting started…

Please note that you need administrative privileges for this.
If you do not, please bug/harass the person who has until he/she relents and do this for you.

Generally, if you can install programs in your computer
If you are using Windows XP

1. Make sure that you have Windows XP Service Pack 2.
   • Right click on “My Computer” and select “Properties”.
   • In the “General” tab, under “System” it should say “Service Pack 2″.
   • If not, install “Service Pack 2″. You may download it from here.
2. Download the Sinhala and Tamil enabling pack from this link:
   http://www.siyabas.lk/files/SinhalaTamilKit_XP.exe (15.8 MB)
3. After closing all open programs, run the downloaded “exe” file.
4. After the automatic installer completes, restart the computer.

That’s it, you are good to go!

If you want to make your Sinhala text look better:

1. Use “Clear Type” font smoothing.
   • Write click on desktop and get “Properties”. (This brings up the “Display Properties” dialog)
   • From “Apperence” tab, Click on “Effects…” button.
   • Check “Use following method to smooth edges of screen fonts:” and select “Clear Type”. (This is best for LCD displays and high resolution CRT displays)
2. Download and install the MalithiWeb Unicode font.
3. Specify “Malithi Web” as the default font for Sinhala (or complex script) from your web browser.
   1. For example, in IE6: Tools –> Internet options … –> click on the “Fonts …” button (at the bottom)
   2. Select “Sinhala” from the “Language script” list box.
   3. For “Web page font” select “Malithi Web”

Other Sinhala Unicode fonts that you can use are Kaputa Unicode, Kandy Unicode.

If you followed these directions but still run into trouble, please post a description of the problem as a comment to this page. I would be glad to help. On the other hand, if you do get it working, I would still love to hear from you…

If you are using Windows 98 or Windows 2000 (and have Internet Explorer 6 or greater):
Download the Sinhala enabler for IE6 from this link:
http://www.siyabas.lk/english/files/Sinhala%20IE1.0.exe (1.5MB)
Run the downloaded exe file.
This allows you to read, but not write in Sinhala.

If you are using Windows Vista:
Windows Vista already supports Sinhala and Tamil.
However, you may need to download the “Vista Fix” from http://www.siyabas.lk/files/VistaQuickFix.exe (2.3 MB) and install it.

If you are using Linux:
Please refer to the excellent guide at http://www.nongnu.org/sinhala/doc/howto/sinhala-howto.html