HOW TO MAKE TAMIL ALPHABETS IN ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR HOW TO ADD WRITING DIRECTIONS ON TOP OF THE TAMIL ALPHABETS © 2014 Thayumanasamy Somasundaram | [email protected] | 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: