HOW TO MAKE TAMIL ALPHABETS IN ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR

HOW TO MAKE TAMIL ALPHABETS IN ADOBE
ILLUSTRATOR
HOW TO ADD WRITING DIRECTIONS ON TOP OF THE TAMIL ALPHABETS
© 2014 Thayumanasamy Somasundaram | somabhanu@gmail.com | http://tamil.somasundaram.us
February 21, 2014 | This short write-up will show how to make Tamil alphabets using
Adobe Illustrator 15.0 (in my case it is part of Adobe Illustrator CS5) and add lines over the
letters. This procedure was done to show how to write the Tamil alphabets..
Keywords: Tamil alphabets, Tamil letters, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe CS 5, தமிழ் எ�த்�க்கள், தமிழ்
ெமாழி, தமிழ் உய�ெர�த்�க்கள், தமிழ் ெமய்ெய�த்�க்கள்.
OVERVIEW
This is the procedure for making Tamil alphabets in Adobe Illustrator with arrows
showing how to write the alphabet. This was done using Adobe CS5 Illustrator.
STEPS
Now I will detail the steps
TYPING THE ALPHABET
Open Adobe Illustrator
Open a new document with 240 x 150 pixel (W x H) dimensions
Start NHM Writer
Specify the Tamil phonetic alphabet in NHM Writer (ATL +2 in my case)
Open Adobe Illustrator (in my case it was Adobe Illustrator 15.0 from Adobe CS 5)
Select the ‘Type Tool’ in Adobe Illustrator
Ensure the font selected is ‘Latha’
Specify the font size to be around ‘60 pt’
Type the Tamil alphabet with ‘Stroke’ set to ‘none’ and ‘Fill’ selected to the color black
Arrange, align, and center the alphabets to the page
Save the document as ‘alphabets.ai’ or equivalent
ADDING THE LINE
Now switch to ‘Pen’ Tool
Select ‘Stroke’ to yellow color and ‘Fill’ to none
In ‘Stroke’ window specify weight to be ‘1 pt’
Draw a line
Select ‘Arrowhead’ for the ‘end point’
Make the ‘Arrowhead’ to be 50% in scale
If you need to draw straight line hold the ‘SHIFT’ key while drawing the line
To avoid continuous line, if you don’t want it, switch between ‘Pen’ tool and ‘Selection’
tool
If you need curved line, click your ‘Mouse’ at every point where you have change
direction
After final turn add an ‘Arrowhead’ for the endpoint and specify the ‘Arrowhead’s’ to be
50%
The finished product will look like the following: