Read Searchfor Design Print Tamil Ezines

Introduction

The computers and the Internet were foremost developed for the English users. Due to the high investment and technological requirements, developing a parallel Tamil computing environment is difficult, and requires innovation. Thanks to many Tamil computing pioneers, today we can read, print, search and design Tamil Ezines. The purpose of the essay is to bring together some basic know-how as to how we can read, print, search, and design Tamil Ezines. (I assume that you know the computer and Internet basics in the English environment.)

Reading Tamil Ezines

Evolution 1

The HTML that is used to design web pages has a standard English font. But, in order to display Tamil on the website, the early Tamil page designers used Tamil fonts. The user must download the exact or same type (TSC, TAM or TSCII) of tamil fonts, and install the fonts before the user can view the Tamil pages. Sometimes, the user may need to adjust the browser setting in order to view the Tamil pages.

  • How to download tamil fonts?
  • What type of Tamil fonts exist?
  • How do you install Tamil fonts?
  • How do you adjust Browser setting?

    Evolution 2

    The users were irritated with the routine of downloading and installing countless fonts in order to view the web pages. Thus a newer and easier method was introduced, Dynamic Fonts. Here, the fonts are automatically downloaded, so to speak. The main requirement for the reader is that you use MSIE 4.0+ or Netscape Navigator 4.0+. The trouble is that not all Tamil web page designers use dynamic fonts.

    Evolution 3

    The Internet is evolving to be universal and accommodative of the other languages. The Unicode Standard was developed by the The Unicode Consortium to enable the use of most languages in the Internet. If the standard is developed properly, then the major hardware and software vendors who are members of the Unicode Consortium will support it, and the end user benefits.

    Unfortunately, there have been strong disagreements over the allocation of spaces for Tamil in the Unicode Standard. You have to ensure that you have IE 4.0+ or Netscape 4.7+ to view the pages based on Unicode Standard. If your computer is very old (before 98!), then Unicode Standard may not be supported. If the Tamil website was designed using the Unicode Standard and your computer and browser are relatively new versions, then you can read Tamil ezines without any adjustments. Many feel Unicode Standard will be the way of the future.

    (Will Continue)

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