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.

1. Install Fontspec and Hyphenation packages

Install polyglossia and Indic hyphenation rules. In Fedora, the packages are texlive-fontspec, texlive-polyglossia and texlive-hyphen-indic

1. Install the fonts

For Malayalam, let us try to use Rachana. In Fedora, the package is smc-rachana-fonts.

1. Create your tex document

An example document is:

------------------8<----------------
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\usepackage{polyglossia}
\setdefaultlanguage{malayalam}
\setmainfont[Script=Malayalam]{Rachana}

\begin{document}
സീടെക്കിൽ മലയാളം ടൈപ്പ്സെറ്റ് ചെയ്തത്.
\end{document}
------------------8<-----------------

1. Compile the document using XeTeX

xelatex yourdocument.tex