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FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) on Dynamic Fonts
Q.1 Do I really need dynamic fonts for creating Tamil websites?
NO. You do not need. If you host your site's pages in Unicode encoding (with the meta tag properly specified as given under Q.5), all your pages will be straightaway visible in Tamil to any visitor. You need not employ any dynamic fonts at all. No need for visitor to download any fonts too. Hence, please understand well that dynamic fonts are not necessary in the current scenario where UNICODE has become the universal standard for everything related to Tamil computing and information exchange in Tamil. Also, except Internet Explorer, other popular mozilla-based browsers like Firefox, Google Chrome, etc. do not support dynamic font technology at all - neither for Unicode nor for any other font encoding - nither in .eot format nor in .pfr format.
Q.2 What are the conditions under which I might still need to use dynamic Tamil fonts?
Q.3 What browsers support dynamic fonts?
Only Internet Explorer supports dynamic font technology (for any font encoding). All mozilla based browsers like Firefox, Google Chrome, etc. DO NOT support dynamic font technology at all - neither for Unicode nor for any other font encoding - nither in .eot format nor in .pfr format.
Q.4 What is 'Latha' font and will it be available in all systems by default?
'Latha' font is Microsoft's proprietary font for displaying Tamil Unicode characters. It will be present by default in all Windows operating systems (Win2K, Win2003, WinXP and above). It gets installed automatically upon OS installation. So, you don't need to acquire the font from somewhere for your use. Same is the case with the visitors of yours site too - they don't need to download the font from your site; they will be having it in their system already.
Q.5 We did create our pages in Unicode Tamil without using dynamic fonts but yet our site's pages are not visible in Tamil straightaway in 'Latha' font in certain systems. Why?
This happens if you did not specify the 'meta' tag relating to 'character set specification' in your web pages (OR) you specified that meta tag wrongly. The kind of meta tag you should specify at the top of all Unicode web pages is as follows:
<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
You may please view the source code of azhagi.com's docs.html page for a better idea of the above tag's placement in your web pages.
Note that the Unicode pages where you have not specified the meta tag properly can still be viewed by the visitors in Tamil if they click the 'View->Encoding' menu item of their browser and select 'Unicode (UTF-8)'.
Q.6 Apart from the 'meta' tag information, is there any other valuable tip which we can adopt for our Unicode web pages?
Yes, you can specify 'Latha' as the first font always in your font-specification tags so that even if in case in the future browsers start using some other font as default (other than 'Latha') for displaying Unicode content, your pages will still show up in 'Latha' font only so that the display layout and font sizes are not affected in any way.
Also, if you have intermixed content in your web pages, i.e. English and Tamil contents mixed up, then it's better to specify 'verdana' and thereafter 'Latha' in your font-specification tags (as shown below)
<div style="text-align:justify;font-size:10pt;font-family:verdana,Latha,Tscu_SaiIndira,Arial Unicode MS;padding:0;margin:0;">
so that the English texts appear more or less of the same size as that of the Tamil texts, thus maintaining uniformity in text size and height. For more information, see the font specification in the source of azhagi.com's docs.html page.
Q.7 If Firefox, Chrome, etc. do not support dynamic fonts, then how do they display Tamil Unicode websites correctly?
As stated earlier, dynamic fonts are not necessary to display Tamil contents of web sites/pages in Unicode. These websites are automatically displayed by these browsers (and Internet Explorer too) in Tamil, using the default 'Latha' font present in one's system.
Q.8 If Firefox, Chrome, etc. do not support dynamic fonts, then how do they display certain non-unicode (e.g. Tscii) Tamil websites too correctly?
This is possible if there is atleast one Tamil font of Tscii encoding already installed in visitor's system, by the visitor himself or through any other means (say by installing a software like Azhagi). Firefox does provide a free plugin to view webpages in Tscii Tamil straightaway, without the need of any font in user's system. If the visitor had already downloaded and installed such a plugin in his system, then it's the plugin which does the needful. If the aforesaid situation does not exist in visitor's system, Firefox, chrome, etc. WILL NOT show non-unicode websites in Tamil.
Q.9 What are the specific advantages of hosting a web site in Unicode?
Unicode is an "advanced" font encoding technology and it has lots of powerful advantages which are enlisted here. You may also read our detailed help documents on Unicode at http://azhagi.com/unihelp.html. Unicode is the "Universal Standard for now and the future". Unicode is the font encoding system totally recognised/supported by Microsoft and if your website is in Unicode, your website will be searchable in search engines like Google, Yahoo!, etc. If you are unaware that one can search in google in Tamil itself , then click here to see a screen snapshot. Google search in Tamil is possible only when you search in Unicode Tamil.
Q.10 We have come across Tamil Unicode texts displayed in 'Arial Unicode MS'? What is this font and will it be available in all systems by default?
'Arial Unicode MS' font is Microsoft's proprietary font for displaying not only Tamil Unicode characters but characters from many other languages as well - like Malayalam, Kannda, Telugu, etc. etc. It will NOT be present by default in all Windows operating systems. It will be present only in systems where the FULL INSTALLATION of Microsoft Office 2000 (or above) has been effected.
Q.11 We like the font style of 'Arial Unicode MS'? Can you provide a dynamic font for the same?
Dynamic font for Arial Unicode MS can't be (should not be) used by anybody for any of their websites, as it is the proprietary font of Microsoft.
Q.12 We don't like the font style of 'Latha' font for Unicode. Can you provide a dynamic Tamil Unicode font in a different font style?
Yes, I can (free of cost). The dynamic font which I give will be in the style of 'SaiIndira' font (which font gets installed automatically along with 'Azhagi' application). For e.g. see http://azhagi.com/docs-uts.html (you should view this page in Internet Explorer to see the page appearing in SaiIndira font style and in the correct font size and not in any other browser. Because, as stated earlier, Firefox, Google Chrome, etc. DO NOT support dynamic font mechanism at all). Please note that creating a dynamic font does not take a very long time but since I work simultaneously on very many things related to Indian language computing, I can't promise on any time frame on delivering the font to you. Hence, if your needs are urgent, you can contact any other entity which provides dynamic fonts.
Q.13 Can we see some sample Unicode sites employing 'Azhagi' dynamic Tamil font in 'SaiIndira' font style?
thamizham.net's unicode pages
You should view the above sites in Internet Explorer to see the pages appearing in SaiIndira font style and in the correct font size and not in any other browser. Because, as stated earlier, Firefox, Google Chrome, etc. DO NOT support dynamic font mechanism at all.
There are several other sites which started using 'Azhagi' dynamic fonts to display their websites in SaiIndira font style but later switched over to display their sites in the default 'Latha' font style, as they chose to prefer the same. A few samples below:
tamilantelevision.com
tamilvanan.com
tamil.tamilnadudentalcollege.com
Azhagi.com's docs.html also serves as an example for a Unicode web page in 'Latha' font style.
Q.14 Can we see some sample non-unicode sites employing 'Azhagi' dynamic Tamil font in 'SaiIndira' font style?
kaumaram.com
othuvar.com
The above sites employ 'Azhagi' dynamic font in Tscii (non-unicode) encoding. You should view this site in Internet Explorer to see the page appearing in SaiIndira font style and not in any other browser. Because, as stated earlier, Firefox, Google Chrome, etc. DO NOT support dynamic font mechanism at all.
Azhagi.com's docs-t.html also serves as an example for a non-unicode web page in SaiIndira font style.
Q.15 Can you give more particulars about 'Azhagi' dynamic Tamil fonts?
If you need more information on the above aspects of dynamic fonts, please feel free to call me or email me and I shall explain. To get my contacts, click here.
If you have visited this page looking for:
- Free Download of Azhagi software - Please click the picture below for downloading. Visit azhagi.com for knowing Azhagi's various unique features.
Azhagi-Setup.exe | Azhagi-Setup.zip
- FREE Tamil Fonts (100s of them - Tscii, TAB, TAM, Unicode, ...) - Click here.
- Free Dynamic Tamil Web Font - Read further down.
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) on Dynamic Fonts
Q.1 Do I really need dynamic fonts for creating Tamil websites?
NO. You do not need. If you host your site's pages in Unicode encoding (with the meta tag properly specified as given under Q.5), all your pages will be straightaway visible in Tamil to any visitor. You need not employ any dynamic fonts at all. No need for visitor to download any fonts too. Hence, please understand well that dynamic fonts are not necessary in the current scenario where UNICODE has become the universal standard for everything related to Tamil computing and information exchange in Tamil. Also, except Internet Explorer, other popular mozilla-based browsers like Firefox, Google Chrome, etc. do not support dynamic font technology at all - neither for Unicode nor for any other font encoding - nither in .eot format nor in .pfr format.
Q.2 What are the conditions under which I might still need to use dynamic Tamil fonts?
- If you wish to host your website in an encoding which is NOT unicode. For e.g. 'Tscii' encoding.
But, please be aware that it serves no useful purpose to host a site in a non-unicode encoding since Unicode is the universal standard for now and the future and your web pages will be searchable in Google in Tamil only if they are in Unicode.
- If you wish to host your website in Unicode but in a different font style other than the 'Latha' font style.
But again, please be aware that since Firefox, Chrome, etc. do not support dynamic font technology at all, whatever font style you might use dynamically for your web pages, browsers like Firefox or Google Chrome will still show your pages in the default 'Latha' font style only. And, if your dynamic font's texts at various font sizes do not match with that of Latha font, your pages while looking nice in Internet Explorer will look completely different (sometimes even awkwardly different) in Firefox, Chrome, etc. Hence, it again serves no useful purpose to host a site in Unicode using a dynamic font.
Q.3 What browsers support dynamic fonts?
Only Internet Explorer supports dynamic font technology (for any font encoding). All mozilla based browsers like Firefox, Google Chrome, etc. DO NOT support dynamic font technology at all - neither for Unicode nor for any other font encoding - nither in .eot format nor in .pfr format.
Q.4 What is 'Latha' font and will it be available in all systems by default?
'Latha' font is Microsoft's proprietary font for displaying Tamil Unicode characters. It will be present by default in all Windows operating systems (Win2K, Win2003, WinXP and above). It gets installed automatically upon OS installation. So, you don't need to acquire the font from somewhere for your use. Same is the case with the visitors of yours site too - they don't need to download the font from your site; they will be having it in their system already.
Q.5 We did create our pages in Unicode Tamil without using dynamic fonts but yet our site's pages are not visible in Tamil straightaway in 'Latha' font in certain systems. Why?
This happens if you did not specify the 'meta' tag relating to 'character set specification' in your web pages (OR) you specified that meta tag wrongly. The kind of meta tag you should specify at the top of all Unicode web pages is as follows:
<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
You may please view the source code of azhagi.com's docs.html page for a better idea of the above tag's placement in your web pages.
Note that the Unicode pages where you have not specified the meta tag properly can still be viewed by the visitors in Tamil if they click the 'View->Encoding' menu item of their browser and select 'Unicode (UTF-8)'.
Q.6 Apart from the 'meta' tag information, is there any other valuable tip which we can adopt for our Unicode web pages?
Yes, you can specify 'Latha' as the first font always in your font-specification tags so that even if in case in the future browsers start using some other font as default (other than 'Latha') for displaying Unicode content, your pages will still show up in 'Latha' font only so that the display layout and font sizes are not affected in any way.
Also, if you have intermixed content in your web pages, i.e. English and Tamil contents mixed up, then it's better to specify 'verdana' and thereafter 'Latha' in your font-specification tags (as shown below)
<div style="text-align:justify;font-size:10pt;font-family:verdana,Latha,Tscu_SaiIndira,Arial Unicode MS;padding:0;margin:0;">
so that the English texts appear more or less of the same size as that of the Tamil texts, thus maintaining uniformity in text size and height. For more information, see the font specification in the source of azhagi.com's docs.html page.
Q.7 If Firefox, Chrome, etc. do not support dynamic fonts, then how do they display Tamil Unicode websites correctly?
As stated earlier, dynamic fonts are not necessary to display Tamil contents of web sites/pages in Unicode. These websites are automatically displayed by these browsers (and Internet Explorer too) in Tamil, using the default 'Latha' font present in one's system.
Q.8 If Firefox, Chrome, etc. do not support dynamic fonts, then how do they display certain non-unicode (e.g. Tscii) Tamil websites too correctly?
This is possible if there is atleast one Tamil font of Tscii encoding already installed in visitor's system, by the visitor himself or through any other means (say by installing a software like Azhagi). Firefox does provide a free plugin to view webpages in Tscii Tamil straightaway, without the need of any font in user's system. If the visitor had already downloaded and installed such a plugin in his system, then it's the plugin which does the needful. If the aforesaid situation does not exist in visitor's system, Firefox, chrome, etc. WILL NOT show non-unicode websites in Tamil.
Q.9 What are the specific advantages of hosting a web site in Unicode?
Unicode is an "advanced" font encoding technology and it has lots of powerful advantages which are enlisted here. You may also read our detailed help documents on Unicode at http://azhagi.com/unihelp.html. Unicode is the "Universal Standard for now and the future". Unicode is the font encoding system totally recognised/supported by Microsoft and if your website is in Unicode, your website will be searchable in search engines like Google, Yahoo!, etc. If you are unaware that one can search in google in Tamil itself , then click here to see a screen snapshot. Google search in Tamil is possible only when you search in Unicode Tamil.
Q.10 We have come across Tamil Unicode texts displayed in 'Arial Unicode MS'? What is this font and will it be available in all systems by default?
'Arial Unicode MS' font is Microsoft's proprietary font for displaying not only Tamil Unicode characters but characters from many other languages as well - like Malayalam, Kannda, Telugu, etc. etc. It will NOT be present by default in all Windows operating systems. It will be present only in systems where the FULL INSTALLATION of Microsoft Office 2000 (or above) has been effected.
Q.11 We like the font style of 'Arial Unicode MS'? Can you provide a dynamic font for the same?
Dynamic font for Arial Unicode MS can't be (should not be) used by anybody for any of their websites, as it is the proprietary font of Microsoft.
Q.12 We don't like the font style of 'Latha' font for Unicode. Can you provide a dynamic Tamil Unicode font in a different font style?
Yes, I can (free of cost). The dynamic font which I give will be in the style of 'SaiIndira' font (which font gets installed automatically along with 'Azhagi' application). For e.g. see http://azhagi.com/docs-uts.html (you should view this page in Internet Explorer to see the page appearing in SaiIndira font style and in the correct font size and not in any other browser. Because, as stated earlier, Firefox, Google Chrome, etc. DO NOT support dynamic font mechanism at all). Please note that creating a dynamic font does not take a very long time but since I work simultaneously on very many things related to Indian language computing, I can't promise on any time frame on delivering the font to you. Hence, if your needs are urgent, you can contact any other entity which provides dynamic fonts.
Q.13 Can we see some sample Unicode sites employing 'Azhagi' dynamic Tamil font in 'SaiIndira' font style?
You should view the above sites in Internet Explorer to see the pages appearing in SaiIndira font style and in the correct font size and not in any other browser. Because, as stated earlier, Firefox, Google Chrome, etc. DO NOT support dynamic font mechanism at all.
There are several other sites which started using 'Azhagi' dynamic fonts to display their websites in SaiIndira font style but later switched over to display their sites in the default 'Latha' font style, as they chose to prefer the same. A few samples below:
Azhagi.com's docs.html also serves as an example for a Unicode web page in 'Latha' font style.
Q.14 Can we see some sample non-unicode sites employing 'Azhagi' dynamic Tamil font in 'SaiIndira' font style?
The above sites employ 'Azhagi' dynamic font in Tscii (non-unicode) encoding. You should view this site in Internet Explorer to see the page appearing in SaiIndira font style and not in any other browser. Because, as stated earlier, Firefox, Google Chrome, etc. DO NOT support dynamic font mechanism at all.
Azhagi.com's docs-t.html also serves as an example for a non-unicode web page in SaiIndira font style.
Q.15 Can you give more particulars about 'Azhagi' dynamic Tamil fonts?
- 'Azhagi' dynamic fonts are both Unicode and Tscii compliant. i.e. the same font can support web pages hosted in either Unicode or Tscii. No need to use two different dynamic fonts for your Unicode and Tscii pages.
- The font style of 'Azhagi' dynamic font will be same as that of 'SaiIndira' font, which is the core font of 'Azhagi' software.
- 'Azhagi' dynamic Tamil font can be provided for one or more 'specific' sites of yours only. Please note that they must be "your own" sites.
- You have to let me know the 'url's (e.g. 'www.abcd.com') of your sites beforehand. Once the 'url's are known, dynamic font can be created and provided, which will work from your specified site(s) only, i.e. from 'abcd.com' (and other sites you specify) and all subfolders under it/them.
- Along with the dynamic font, I will also mail you 4 sample html pages and a 7-page document containing step-by-step, clear-cut instructions on how to load and use the dynamic font in your website(s). With these information, it will be a mere cakewalk to test the 'Azhagi' dynamic font in your site - within minutes of availing the dynamic fonts.
- Creating a dynamic font is a separate process for each site. i.e. it is a font created afresh, separately for every site (or group of sites) specified. Thus, this font is always 'specific' to a particular site (or sites). Becos of this reason, naturally, it is not possible to provide any ready-made free version of the 'azhagi' dynamic font.
- Creating a dynamic font does not take a very long time but since I work simultaneously on very many things related to Indian language computing, I can't promise on any time frame on delivering the font to you. Hence, if your needs are urgent, you can contact any other entity which provides dynamic fonts.
If you need more information on the above aspects of dynamic fonts, please feel free to call me or email me and I shall explain. To get my contacts, click here.
