Can you see Sinhala fonts on this page?
If not click here to get Sinhala

Reading Sinhala

This site uses Sinhala Unicode fonts. To see them displayed correctly, follow the steps below. We recommend that you use Mozilla Firefox 13.0 or Internet Explorer 9.0 instead of Opera 11.0, which seems to have some rendering issues.

Get Sinhala

Can you see Sinhala fonts on this page?
If not click here to get Sinhala

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Windows

- - This information may not be useful since the fonts.lk is no longer operational; we recommend that you install Sinhala Unicode Support on your computer if your running Windows XP SP2 or SP3 English Version, Step by Step Information can be found at the bottom of the page ***

If you have Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or a later version running on Windows, simply install the Sinhala Pack and restart your computer.
Right click on your Desktop, choose Properties, go to Advanced/Appearance tab, click on Effects and choose ClearType as the method to smooth edges of screen fonts. (As stated in the linked wikipedia article on ClearType, you might prefer to keep the method to smooth edges of screen fonts at the default Standard setting if you are using a CRT monitor instead of a flat-panel).
Change Character Encoding to UTF-8 Unicode in your browser (VIEW-->ENCODING in most browsers).
Go to Tools--> Options, click on Fonts, choose Malithi Web as the default font.

or

If you use Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Netscape or an older version of Internet Explorer, please download the Malithi Web Sinhala Unicode font. Use your browser options to "Download Linked File". Look in your download area for FM-MalithiUW46.ttf. If the file name ends in .txt, delete it so that it ends ".ttf".
Install it on your computer. For Windows, simply copy the font to your Windows\Fonts folder.
In Windows, right click on your Desktop, choose Properties, go to Advanced/Appearance tab, click on Effects and choose ClearType as the method to smooth edges of screen fonts. (As stated in the linked wikipedia article on ClearType, you might prefer to keep the method to smooth edges of screen fonts at the default Standard setting if you are using a CRT monitor instead of a flat-panel).
Change Character Encoding to UTF-8 Unicode in your browser (VIEW-->ENCODING in most browsers).
Go to Tools--> Options, (--> Content in Firefox 1.5) click on Fonts, choose Malithi Web as the default font.

Linux

Most modern GNU/Linux distributions support Unicode Sinhala. However, in some cases the required software packages may need to be installed explicitly. For Debian, Fedora and Ubuntu distributions, refer to Enabling Unicode Sinhala in GNU/Linux .

Mac OS X

Mac OS Lion (10.7) comes with Sinhala Unicode support with phonetic and standard Wijesekara keyboard layouts, how ever there are some rendering issues.

For older version of Mac OS can run a version of Malithi Web is now available from Nicholas Shanks This font is not fully functional, but is a big improvement over the unmodified OpenType fonts. Also resontly ICTA has developed a version of there font [1] Bashitha that works on MAC OS with less issues then then Nicholas's Malithi version.

Alternatively, for 50 USD (about 5,400 rupees) a professional quality Sinhala font and keyboard layout can be purchased from Xenotype Technologies.

iPhone

Sinhala Unicode is officially provided for the iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch by Apple with iOS4 or higher. How ever if your using an older version of the iOS. Jailbroken iOS devices can now get Sinhala Support on all application by Installing a Modified Version of Apples Unicode Font on the iPhone.
Sinhala unicode is officially supported by Apple on iOS4 or later on all the iOS running devices.
However, to support typing you have to extend keyboards list with a full Sinhala supported unicode keyboard, you may install an app like Sanhinda, or Helakuru via Apple Appstore for this.

Android

A web browser app, SETT Browser is available for free with full Sinhala Unicode support for Android 2.2 & above. Read more about this app from this Sinhala blog post or from this English webpage.
Sinhala Unicode can be partially installed on Google Nexus One & on other android based phones by following the guide on this blog. However there are rendering issues to be addressed.

Writing Sinhala

After following the above steps, you can use the Windows character map program to type in Sinhala.
On Android & iOS Mobile devices, you can use Helakuru Mobile Sinhala Keyboard to type in Sinhala. Helakuru is available as a free app on Google Play & Apple Appstore to download.

or

if you have Windows Vista or Windows 7/2008, you already have the Sinahla Unicode Support on your PC, you can install Windows 7/2008 IME to input Sinhala on Windows 7/2008.
If you have Windows XP English Service Pack 2 or 3, install the Sinhala Enabling Pack for XP by clicking here and Service Pack 3 - Beta.
This has been developed by Microsoft and endorsed by the Sri Lankan government.
Read the instructions before you install it, Step by Step Guide can be found at the bottom of the page.
It lets you toggle seamlessly between typing English and Sinhala using the language button on the task bar. This is, by far, the best solution. It uses the standard Wijesekera layout.
You can type in Unicode just as easily as you do with any other Sinhala or English font.

or

If you don't have Windows XP SP2 but have an older version of Windows and Microsoft Office XP, you can download the Sinhala Pack for Office XP here.
This lets you type Sinhala documents in MS Word. You can copy and paste what you write in Wikipedia. You will need to have your XP CD handy.

or

If you are using a version of Windows other than XP SP2, you can use the keyboard driver to type in Sinhala unicode.
It's a small background program that intercepts what you type and converts it to the Sinhala unicode format.
You can type in phonetics, Wijeysekara layout or Singlish (ea kiyanne mehema type karana eka) and the program will type it in Sinhala on any open window (MS Word etc).

or

You can use the online version of the Real Time Unicode Converter/යුනිකෝඩ් එසැණින් පරිවර්තකය by the UCSC language group (Language Technology Research Laboratory / භාෂා තාක්ෂණ පර්යේෂණාගාරය).

Simply type Sinhala using English letters (singlish).

or

You can use the online version of the Kaputa~UniGenie/Kaputa Uniwriter by Kaputa Dot Com (කපුටා.com)

or

You can use the Subasa Online Keyboard by the University Of Moratuwa).

or

You can use the Online Unicode Keyboard by the UCSC language group (Language Technology Research Laboratory / භාෂා තාක්ෂණ පර්යේෂණාගාරය).

This is a great tool if you have a Touch Screen Monitor

or

If you cannot type using a Sinhala keyboard, you can use a fonotic transcoder software like Singlish_Typewriter at Singlish - Sinhala Word Processor (New).msi to get Sinhala Unicode text for corresponding English letter combinations. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singlish_Typewriter ...

or

There is a version of software called Google IME that has a phonetic keyboard and works well on the Web and on the Windows PC's running windows XP, Vista or 7 witch comes with a natural phonetic input support. more information on installing it on this video

Still having problems?

Inform the other users about the problems you're having. Sinhala Unicode is relatively new and it may take a while to have universal support.
We have found Mozilla Firefox 3 & Sinhala Mozilla Firefox 3 on Windows XP Service Pack 2 to deliver the best results.
If you cannot read any Sinhala letters in the main page, correct the character encoding in your browser as we have explained.
If the letters appear rough, change to Cleartype as described above.

Why Unicode?

And not Kaputa or Kandy or eKottu? Unicode is the international standard for non-Latin scripts. It is Wikipedia's policy to use Unicode fonts in international sister sites. This is to ensure universal usability. You cannot use non Unicode fonts to search in Wikipedia. See other sister sites such as Tamil Wikipedia and Hindi Wikipedia to understand its capabilities.

Currently, Sinhala does not come built in with Windows XP unlike Tamil and Hindi. However, all versions of Windows Vista come with Sinhala support by default, and do not require external fonts to be installed to read Sinhala script.

There are also some complaints about the lack of pilis in Sinhala Unicode. This is a misunderstanding due to the fact that some modifiers such as yansaya and repaya are not explicitly included in the Unicode code chart. However, these modifiers are included in the glyph tables and can be typed into documents using the appropriate combination of characters. The Sinhala keyboard layout recommended by ICTA include keys for both these modifiers.

Current Sinhala enabling patch does not support touching letters and some composite characters.

Feel free to discuss these issues here.

External links