Tamil Font Converter
Pick the encoding your text uses and the direction you need. Everything runs in this page, so nothing you paste is uploaded.
Prefer a page built around one direction? Use Unicode to Bamini, Bamini to Unicode, Unicode to Vanavil or Vanavil to Unicode.
Supported Tamil Encodings
Bamini
The most common Tamil font encoding in print and desktop publishing. Tamil is stored as Latin letters, so the text looks like jkpo; until the font is applied.
301 mapped clusters
Vanavil
Vanavil-Avvaiyar is a full code page: every consonant has its own pulli and u/uu forms, so fewer combinations are assembled from parts.
313 mapped clusters
Not listed?
TSCII, TAB and TAM are not supported yet. Tell us which one you need and send a short sample — encodings are added when their mapping table can be verified.
How to Identify the Encoding
Paste a single word into a plain-text field (Notepad, a browser address bar, a chat box) and look at what appears:
- Latin letters with semicolons, e.g.
jkpo;— Bamini. - Latin letters with accented or box-drawing characters, e.g.
j䜗 Vanavil. - Actual Tamil letters, e.g. தமிழ் — already Unicode; nothing to convert.
- Question marks or empty boxes — a missing font, not a different encoding. Install a Unicode Tamil font such as Noto Sans Tamil, or the Bamini font if the document is legacy text.
The same test works in reverse: if text looks like Tamil in Word but turns into Latin letters when pasted elsewhere, the document was typed with a legacy font.
One Engine, Several Encodings
Every encoding on this site is a data file: consonant codes, vowel signs, cluster overrides, literals and punctuation. The same converter reads them, so accuracy is tracked the same way for all of them — 135/135 self-test cases pass at build time, and 127 of those come from published key charts and the Open-Tamil reference tables.
Adding an encoding therefore means writing a mapping table and a test set, not changing the UI. That is also why unsupported encodings are listed as unsupported rather than shown with a “beta” label: an unchecked mapping produces text that looks plausible and is wrong.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I know which Tamil font my text uses?
Look at the characters, not the way they render. Bamini and Vanavil both store Tamil as Latin letters, so copy a word into a plain text box: jkpo; is Bamini, while Vanavil output contains accented characters such as jäœ. If you see real Tamil letters, the text is already Unicode and needs no conversion.
How do I convert a Tamil font to Unicode?
Choose the encoding your document uses in the “from” list, keep Unicode as the target, paste the text and copy the result. Switching the font in Word does not convert anything — the underlying characters have to be replaced, which is what this tool does.
Can it convert text inside a PDF or a scanned page?
Not directly. A PDF usually stores either embedded font glyphs or an image; neither is Bamini text, and copying from it gives characters that cannot be mapped back reliably. Convert the original Word or PageMaker file, or retype the passage.
Does it work for Excel and Google Sheets?
Yes — the converter only deals with characters, so the result can be pasted into any cell. Keep one column for the original and one for the converted text, and paste as plain text (Ctrl+Shift+V) so the destination does not reformat the characters.
Which encodings are supported?
Bamini and Vanavil today. TSCII, TAB and TAM are on the list but are not shipped yet: each one needs its own verified mapping table and test set, and publishing a half-checked table would produce wrong text silently. Check the character chart to see exactly what is covered.