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Tamil Latha Font for MSWord (Office 2010) in Windows 10

Going from default Nirmala UI (Windows 10) to Latha

Thayumana Somasundaram     Tuesday, Aug 25, 2015.

தாயுமான சோமசுந்தரம், செவ்வாய் கிழமை, ஆகஸ்டு 25, 2015

Windows 7 and Microsoft Office 2010 (Word 14) and Tamil font Latha with NHM Writer 2.9

I have been using, for several years, my Windows 7 Home Premium PC with Office 2010 (MSWord 14 | MSWord 2010) with NHM Writer 2.9 (http://software.nhm.in) to type in Tamil (phonetic) and Hindi (phonetic) documents by selecting combinations of ALT+0 for English, ALT+2 for phonetic Tamil, and ALT+3 phonetic Hindi, etc., Typically when I typed in Tamil, MSWord used Latha font and when I typed in Hindi, MSWord used Mangal font. Of course when I typed in English there were multiple choices. Latha and Vijaya are typical fonts for Tamil Karthika for Malayalam, Mangal for Hindi, Vani for Telugu and Tunga for Kannda that are provided by Microsoft and many adhere to the Unicode (www.unicode.org) standards since Window 2000 or earlier.

In early August 2015, I upgraded my Windows 7 Home Premium PC with Office 2010 (MSWord 14) to the free version of Windows 10 Home. Soon I realized when I typed Tamil the default font in Word (actually in Windows 10) was NOT Latha but Nirmala UI. Even though it worked okay, I missed the Latha font since I had used it for many years.

The Internet search yielded one link and I will show how I got my Latha font back.

Window 10 Tamil font forum link

Windows 10 and Microsoft Office 2010 (Word 14) and Tamil font Nirmala UI and Latha with NHM Writer 2.9

As I mentioned above, the default font for தமிழ் in Windows 10 became Nirmala UI and I will show you how to get Latha font while still retaining Nirmala UI

Step 1

From Windows 10 Start Menu, select the Settings

Step 2

In the Settings window, select Time & Language

Step 3

In the Time & Language window, select Region & Language (left hand side panel)

Step 4

The default Tamil (தமிழ் நிர்மலா எழுத்துருவம்) font in Windows 10 for Microsoft Word 2010 (actually it is the operating system Windows 10 that specifies the font) Nirmala UI and NOT Latha

Step 5

Now from the Region & Language window (Step 3), select + Add a language

Step 6

This opens a new window with many language options. So scroll left until you see Tamil and select it

Step 7

The next window gives you an option Tamil (India) or Tamil (Sri Lanka). Select Tamil (India), I guess!

Step 8

This opens another window for Tamil language pack, click to download the pack

Step 9

The install will take few minutes complete (you need to be connected to the Internet, of course)

Step 10

Now if you look at the Region & Language panel, you will see Tamil language pack is installed

Step 11

Now if we open Microsoft Office and see, Latha Tamil font is now installed.

So here I have shown in steps how to install Latha and optionally Vijaya fonts in Microsoft Office under Microsoft Windows 10. As noted above, Windows 10 Home comes as a default Nirmala UI font for Tamil. Other Indic fonts are considered special and are NOT installed automatically when you upgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10.

The procedure shown above should allow you to add more Indic fonts like Latha, Vijaya, and others to Windows 10 Home.

Enjoy!

Windows 10 ல் இனிமேல் லதா எழுத்துருத்தில் எழுத முடியும்.

The same post in Adobe Acrobat PDF format.