# Malayalam/Viewing the font

This guide is for configuring your computer to enable reading and writing Malayalam in Windows, and GNU/Linux and BSD operating systems.

## Microsoft Windows
### Configuring for reading

* Delete any old version of AnjaliOldLipi Font from Fonts directory which is often C:\WINDOWS\Fonts or C:\WINNT\Fonts.
* Download and copy AnjaliOldLipi.ttf to Windows\Fonts folder.
* Click Start, Control Panel, Internet Options, Fonts. Select Language Script Malayalam. Then select Web page font as AnjaliOldLipi. Press OK and OK.

### Configuring for Writing

Varamozhi Varamozhi Editor is a transliteration based Malayalam text Editor that runs on both Windows and Unix. That is, you can type in Manglish and you will see in real Malayalam.
Also, you can copy-paste any Malayalam article from some web site and that will be converted back to Manglish for correction, further editing or conversion to Unicode or another font.

### Language packs

You can install the Malayalam language pack for your operating system to see the Microsoft Windows GUI in Malayalam.

## GNU/Linux and *BSD*s

* All latest GNU/Linux distributions support Malayalam well. You may need to follow specific installation guides from Swathanthra malayalam Computing to configure it well
* You can see a how to to enable malayalam in your computer @ the Malayalam Computing Portal
Here are the steps to enable support.
* pango enabled firefox does provide good indic fonts support.In Debian GNU/Linux Iceweasel provides the best indic rendition.You can enable Gnome browser epiphany for pango support via gconf2 tool as epiphany also is based on gecko.
* If your distribution does not come with any indic font(here,Malayalam), you will need to install one.

### Installing Font in Gnome,Kde and X in general

* Download Malayalam Unicode fonts] and copy it to fonts:/// Directory
* All major distributions comes with malayalam fonts. Use apt-get install ttf-malayalam-fonts in Debian based distributions(Debian Ubuntu etc ) and yum install smc-fonts in fedora

### In Gnome

GNOME is a versatile Desktop Environment with native pango support which means better rendering in-built.
* In Gnome,drag n drop your font to nautilus window.before,nautilus should be in Fonts:/// directory(press CTRL+L,enter fonts:/// ).
Now press CTRL+ALT+BKSPACE to restart X and gdm.next time the font is available for local user and installed in ~/.fonts/ directory.

### Installing TrueType fonts in X in general and also for Gnome

* there are other ways to make font available to all users of the system in Gnome or X itself.I am taking Debian/Ubuntu as example,but works for any distro too.for redhat/fedora and Suse or most distros this works.rpm based distros got a tool called chkfontpath which is very useful.
Now,you need to use CLI or terminal for implementing this.firstly:
using apt package management tool or use Synaptic Manager. make a directory called malayalam and copy the Anjali font to there.
then go to /usr/share/fonts/truetype/malayalam/ -where font is installed. You need to be root user for installing fonts globally.for that in a terminal, su [press enter] <give your root password> or sudo [press enter] <give your local password> sudo is used in Ubuntu Linux by default.
then as root("~#" stands for root prompt,dont copy that),
now do a,
restart Display(X) or reboot.As /usr/share/fonts/truetype/ directory is already mapped in Xorg for fonts.(see /etc/X11/fs/config). Now the font can be used by every users.

### Kde Desktop Environment

Kde is the most used Desktop Environment in GNU/Linux and *NIX's too:
* In KDE Control Center (kcontrol), select System Administration -> Font Installer, and add the downloaded font
* You may need to logout and login back
* For Transliteration or manglish(type malayalam in English) in GNU/Linux and *BSDs,we can use a various inputs systems Swanalekha (Phonetic Keyboard using SCIM) or mozhi. otherwise you can compile from source the Varamozhi Transliteration tool for Malayalam.

### Download Packages to Enable malayalam support in GNU/Linux

You can download the software required to enable Malayalam support in the latest version of Ubuntu(7.10) and Debian GNU/Linux (etch) from http://malayalam.kerala.gov.in
Use the repositories of Swathanthra Malayalam Computing to keep updated. Swathanthra Malayalam Computing manages repositories for Fedora 6, 7, 8, 9 , CentOS5 and Debain etch, lenny and sid