XeTeX

XeTeX

XeTeX is an extension of TeX with built-in support for Unicode and OpenType. For more details see http://scripts.sil.org/xetex

Creating documents using XeTeX

1. Install TeX Live.
   Install latex and xetex. For ease of installation and configuration, we suggest to use a TeXLive version 2012 or above - either standalone TeXLive distribution or install from your distribution's package manager. Windows and OSX versions are also available.
   In Fedora, you can install the packages texlive-latex and texlive-xetex.
2. Install Fontspec and Hyphenation packages.
   Install polyglossia and Indic hyphenation rules.
   In Fedora, the packages are texlive-fontspec, texlive-polyglossia and texlive-hyphen-indic
3. Install the fonts.
   For Malayalam, let us try to use Rachana.
   In Fedora, the package is smc-rachana-fonts.
4. Create your tex document.
   An example document is:
   

   \documentclass{article}

   \usepackage{fontspec}

   \usepackage{polyglossia}

   \setdefaultlanguage{malayalam}

   \setmainfont[Script=Malayalam]{Rachana}

   \begin{document}

   സീടെക്കിൽ മലയാളം ടൈപ്പ്സെറ്റ് ചെയ്തത്.

   \end{document}

5. Compile the document using XeTeX

   xelatex yourdocument.tex

In Debian/Ubuntu install following

sudo apt-get install texlive texlive-latex3 texlivexetex texlive-latex-extra