Localization/Indic - ArchWiki

Jump to content

# Localization/Indic

From ArchWiki
< Localization

Related articles

- Internationalization

This page explains how setup your Arch installation in order to input Indic languages.

## All Indic

### Fonts

The following packages provide fonts for a variety of Indic scripts:

- ttf-freebanglafontAUR - Font for Bangla
- ttf-indic-otf - Indic OpenType Fonts collection (containing ttf-freebanglafont), provides the character U+0CA0 "ಠ"
- lohit-fontsAUR - Indic TrueType fonts from Fedora Project (containing Oriya Fonts and more)
- ttf-devanagarifontsAUR - Devanagari TrueType fonts (contains 283 fonts)
- ttf-gurmukhi-fonts_sikhnetAUR - TrueType Gurmukhi fonts (gurbaniwebthick,prabhki)
- ttf-gurmukhi_punjabiAUR - TTF Gurmukhi / Punjabi (contains 252 fonts)
- ttf-gujrati-fontsAUR - TTF Gujarati fonts (Avantika,Gopika,Shree768)
- ttf-kannada-fontAUR - Kannada, the language of Karnataka state in India
- ttf-lklugAUR - Sinhala Unicode font
- ttf-tamilAUR - Tamil Unicode fonts
- ttf-urdufontsAUR - Urdu fonts (Jameel Noori Nastaleeq (+kasheeda), Nafees Web Naskh, PDMS Saleem Quran Font) and font configuration to set Jameel Noori Nastaleeq as default font for Urdu
- ttf-malayalam-fonts-metaAUR - Meta package providing all Malayalam Unicode Fonts released by Swathanthra Malayalam Computing packaged from upstream releases.

Note Some applications like Firefox and desktop environments will use ttf-font (ttf-dejavu, ttf-liberation, ttf-bitstream-vera, ttf-droid, gnu-free-fonts, noto-fonts, ttf-croscore, ttf-ibm-plex, etc.) by default. The gnu-free-font package does not have full support for Indic characters alignment. Thus, consider using noto-fonts over ttf-dejavu or gnu-free-fonts as a ttf-font source.

### Locale

Setting up the locale with the instructions from the dedicated page will ensure that applications use appropriate localization when available.

### Input methods

See Input method#List of available input method editors.

## Sinhalese

This section describes how to get Sinhalese Unicode support and Sinhalese Unicode input to work using IBus (sayura-ibus) or scim (sayura-scim).

### Fonts

For Sinhala support, you can install any of these fonts:

- noto-fonts - Noto Sans Sinhala, a sans serif font.
- gnu-free-fonts - FreeSerif, a serif font.
- ttf-lklugAUR - LKLUG, a serif font.

#### Guide to install Sinhala Unicode Font

Download https://sinhala.sourceforge.net/files/lklug.ttf[dead link 2025-08-15—HTTP 404] and place it in `/usr/share/fonts`.

Then Run the following command

    fc-cache -fv

And proceed to the below steps..

### Locale

Edit /etc/locale.gen. Uncomment following line

    si_LK UTF-8

Run following program

    locale-gen

Immediately you will be able to read Sinhala Unicode in your programs (If not You may need to restart the relavent programs. eg: Firefox)

### Input methods

See Input method#List of available input method editors.

## See also

- sinhala linux - sinhala linux's Official Homepage
- sayura-scim - sayura-scim's Official Homepage
- LKLUG - Lanka Linux User Group (Sinhala Linux Mailing List)
- Sinhala Unicode Group (සිංහල යුනිකෝඩ් සමූහය)
- Enabling Unicode Sinhala in GNU/Linux HOWTO

Category:

- Localization

Hidden category:

- Pages with dead links

Localization/Indic
Add topic