Tamil Script Code for Information Interchange

Tamil Script Code for Information Interchange (TSCII) is a coding scheme for representing the Tamil script. The lower 128 codepoints are plain ASCII, the upper 128 codepoints are TSCII-specific. After long years of being used on the Internet by private agreement only, it was successfully registered with the IANA in 2007.^[1]

TSCII encodes the characters in visual (written) order, paralleling the use of the Tamil Typewriter.

Unicode has used the logical order encoding strategy for Tamil, following ISCII, in contrast to the case of Thai, where the visual order encoding grandfathered by TIS-620 was adopted.

The government of Tamil Nadu endorses its own TAB/TAM standards for 8-bit encoding and other, older encoding schemes can still be found on the WWW.

The free etext collection at Project Madurai uses the TSCII encoding, but has already started to provide Unicode versions.

History

The need for a common encoding for Tamil was felt by members of various mailing list based forums in mid-1990s, as there were multiple custom coded fonts were prevalent in those forums. While some of the commercial encodings were popular than the others, they were not accepted by wider community due to conflicting commercial interests. While Unicode was accepted by most as the future standard, most of the desktop systems at that time were still not capable of handling Unicode for Tamil language, and an interim 8-bit encoding was required.

A separate mailing list for discussion of such encodings (webmasters@tamil.net) was created in 1997 to initiate this discussion, starting with an email written by Dr.K.Kalyanasundaram to the popular Tamil author Sujatha who headed the committee for standardization of Tamil keyboard.^[2] This forum quickly attracted enthusiastic participants from across the globe, including several prominent Tamil scholars. Archives of these discussion are maintained by INFITT.^[3]

Subsequent to publishing TSCII, most of the members of webmasters@tamil.net mailing list became part of INFITT, which is a wider initiative to bring in standardization and continued development in various areas of Tamil computing.

Codepage layout

TSCII
	_0	_1	_2	_3	_4	_5	_6	_7	_8	_9	_A	_B	_C	_D	_E	_F
8_	௦ 0BE6 128	௧ 0BE7 129	ஸ்ரீ 0BB8 0BCD 0BB0 0BC0 130	ஜ 0B9C 131	ஷ 0BB7 132	ஸ 0BB8 133	ஹ 0BB9 134	க்ஷ 0B95 0BCD 0BB7 135	ஜ் 0B9C 0BCD 136	ஷ் 0BB7 0BCD 137	ஸ் 0BB8 0BCD 138	ஹ் 0BB9 0BCD 139	க்ஷ் 0B95 0BCD 0BB7 0BCD 140	௨ 0BE8 141	௩ 0BE9 142	௪ 0BEA 143
9_	௫ 0BEB 144	‘ 2018 145	’ 2019 146	“ 201C 147	” 201D 148	௬ 0BEC 149	௭ 0BED 150	௮ 0BEE 151	௯ 0BEF 152	ஙு 0B99 0BC1 153	ஞு 0B9E 0BC1 154	ஙூ 0B99 0BC2 155	ஞூ 0B9E 0BC2 156	௰ 0BF0 157	௱ 0BF1 158	௲ 0BF2 159
A_	NBSP 00A0 160	ா 0BBE 161	ி 0BBF 162	ீ 0BC0 163	ு 0BC1 164	ூ 0BC2 165	ெ 0BC6 166	ே 0BC7 167	ை 0BC8 168	© 00A9 169	ௗ 0BD7 170	அ 0B85 171	ஆ 0B86 172		ஈ 0B88 174	உ 0B89 175
B_	ஊ 0B8A 176	எ 0B8E 177	ஏ 0B8F 178	ஐ 0B90 179	ஒ 0B92 180	ஓ 0B93 181	ஔ 0B94 182	ஃ 0B83 183	க 0B95 184	ங 0B99 185	ச 0B9A 186	ஞ 0B9E 187	ட 0B9F 188	ண 0BA3 189	த 0BA4 190	ந 0BA8 191
C_	ப 0BAA 192	ம 0BAE 193	ய 0BAF 194	ர 0BB0 195	ல 0BB2 196	வ 0BB5 197	ழ 0BB4 198	ள 0BB3 199	ற 0BB1 200	ன 0BA9 201	டி 0B9F 0BBF 202	டீ 0B9F 0BC0 203	கு 0B95 0BC1 204	சு 0B9A 0BC1 205	டு 0B9F 0BC1 206	ணு 0BA3 0BC1 207
D_	து 0BA4 0BC1 208	நு 0BA8 0BC1 209	பு 0BAA 0BC1 210	மு 0BAE 0BC1 211	யு 0BAF 0BC1 212	ரு 0BB0 0BC1 213	லு 0BB2 0BC1 214	வு 0BB5 0BC1 215	ழு 0BB4 0BC1 216	ளு 0BB3 0BC1 217	று 0BB1 0BC1 218	னு 0BA9 0BC1 219	கூ 0B95 0BC2 220	சூ 0B9A 0BC2 221	டூ 0B9F 0BC2 222	ணூ 0BA3 0BC2 223
E_	தூ 0BA4 0BC2 224	நூ 0BA8 0BC2 225	பூ 0BAA 0BC2 226	மூ 0BAE 0BC2 227	யூ 0BAF 0BC2 228	ரூ 0BB0 0BC2 229	லூ 0BB2 0BC2 230	வூ 0BB5 0BC2 231	ழூ 0BB4 0BC2 232	ளூ 0BB3 0BC2 233	றூ 0BB1 0BC2 234	னூ 0BA9 0BC2 235	க் 0B95 0BCD 236	ங் 0B99 0BCD 237	ச் 0B9A 0BCD 238	ஞ் 0B9E 0BCD 239
F_	ட் 0B9F 0BCD 240	ண் 0BA3 0BCD 241	த் 0BA4 0BCD 242	ந் 0BA8 0BCD 243	ப் 0BAA 0BCD 244	ம் 0BAE 0BCD 245	ய் 0BAF 0BCD 246	ர் 0BB0 0BCD 247	ல் 0BB2 0BCD 248	வ் 0BB5 0BCD 249	ழ் 0BB4 0BCD 250	ள் 0BB3 0BCD 251	ற் 0BB1 0BCD 252	ன் 0BA9 0BCD 253	இ 0B87 254
	_0	_1	_2	_3	_4	_5	_6	_7	_8	_9	_A	_B	_C	_D	_E	_F

In the table above 80 is U+0BE6 TAMIL DIGIT ZERO, which has been accepted in Unicode version 4.1. A0 is the NO-BREAK SPACE. The codes AD and FF are unassigned.

Conversion Tools

You can convert UTF-8 encoded documents to TSCII using the GNU iconv tools as follows,

$ iconv -f utf-8 -t tscii hello.utf8 > hello.tscii

Whereas conversion from TSCII to UTF-8 is done by interchanging -f and -t flags.

References

External links

Character encodings

Character sets

Early telecommunications	ASCII ISO/IEC 646 ISO/IEC 6937 T.61 BCDIC Baudot code Morse code (Telegraph code Wabun code) Special telegraphy codes: Non-Latin, Chinese, Cyrillic

ISO/IEC 8859	-1 -2 -3 -4 -5 -6 -7 -8 -9 -10 -11 -12 -13 -14 -15 -16

Bibliographic use	ANSEL ISO 5426 / 5426-2 / 5427 / 5428 / 6438 / 6861 / 6862 / 10585 / 10586 / 10754 / 11822 MARC-8

National standards	ArmSCII CNS 11643 GOST 10859 GB 18030 HKSCS ISCII JIS X 0201 JIS X 0208 JIS X 0212 JIS X 0213 KOI-7 KPS 9566 KS X 1001 PASCII SI 960 TIS-620 TSCII VISCII YUSCII

EUC	CN JP KR TW

ISO/IEC 2022	CN JP KR CCCII

MacOS code pages ("scripts")	Arabic Mac OS Celtic CentEuro ChineseSimp / EUC-CN ChineseTrad / Big5 Croatian Cyrillic Devanagari Dingbats Farsi Gaelic Greek Gujarati Gurmukhi Hebrew Iceland Japanese / ShiftJIS Korean / EUC-KR Roman Romanian Symbol Thai / TIS-620 Turkish Ukrainian

DOS code pages	100 111 112 113 151 161 162 163 164 165 220 300 301 437 449 620 667 668 708 709 710 711 720 737 770 771 772 773 774 775 776 777 778 790 808 848 849 850 851 852 853 854 855 856 857 858 859 860 861 862 863 864 865 866 867 868 869 872 874 876 877 878 881 882 883 884 885 891 895 897 898 899 900 903 904 906 907 909 910 911 925 926 927 928 929 932 934 936 938 941 942 943 944 946 947 948 949 950/1370 951 966 991 1004 1034 1039 1040 1041 1042 1043 1044 1046 1086 1088 1090 1092 1093 1098 1108 1109 1114 1115 1116 1117 1118 1119 1125 1126 1127 1131 1139 1161 1162 1167 1168 1351 1361 1362 1363 1372 1373 1374 1375 1380 1381 1385 1386 1391 1392 1393 1394 17248 Kamenický Mazovia CWI-2 KOI8 MIK Iran System

IBM AIX code pages	367 371 806 813 819 895 896 901 902 912 913 914 915 916 919 920 921 922 923 952 953 954 955 956 957 958 959 960 961 962 963 964 965 970 971 1006 1008 1009 1010 1011 1012 1013 1014 1015 1016 1017 1018 1019 1020 1029 1036 1089 1111 1124 1129 1133 1163 1350 1382 1383

IBM Apple MacIntosh Emulations	1275 1280 1281 1282 1283 1284 1285 1286

IBM Adobe Emulations	1038 1276 1277

IBM DEC Emulations	1021 1023 1100 1101 1102 1103 1104 1105 1106 1107 1287 1288

IBM HP Emulations	1050 1051 1052 1053 1054 1055 1056 1057 1058

Windows code pages	874/1162 (TIS-620) 932/943 (Shift JIS) 936/1386 (GBK) 950/1370 (Big5) 949/1363 (EUC-KR) 1169 1174 1200 (UTF-16LE) 1201 (UTF-16BE) 1250 1251 1252 1253 1254 1255 1256 1257 1258 1261 1270 54936 (GB18030)

EBCDIC code pages	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37/1140 38 39 40 251 252 254 256 257 258 259 260 264 273/1141 274 275 276 277/1142 278/1143 279 280/1144 281 282 283 284/1145 285/1146 286 287 288 289 290 293 297/1147 298 310 320 321 322 330 351 352 353 355 357 358 359 360 361 363 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 410 420/16804 421 423 424/12712 425 435 500/1148 803 829 833 834 835 836 837 838/1160 839 870/1153 871/1149 875/9067 880 881 882 883 884 885 886 887 888 889 890 892 893 905 918 924 930/1390 931 933/1364 935/1388 937/1371 939/1399 1001 1002 1003 1005 1007 1024 1025/1154 1026/1155 1027 1028 1030 1031 1032 1033 1037 1047 1068 1069 1070 1071 1073 1074 1075 1076 1077 1078 1079 1080 1081 1082 1083 1084 1085 1087 1091 1097 1110 1112/1156 1113 1122/1157 1123/1158 1130/1164 1132 1136 1137 1150 1151 1152 1159 1165 1166 1278 1303 1364 1376 1377 JEF KEIS

Platform specific	ATASCII Atari ST BICS CDC CPC DEC Radix-50 DMCS/NRCS ELWRO-Junior FIELDATA GEM GEOS GSM 03.38 HP Roman Extension HP Roman-8 HP Roman-9 HP calculators LICS LMBCS NEC APC NeXT PETSCII TI calculators WISCII XCCS ZX80 ZX81 ZX Spectrum

Unicode / ISO/IEC 10646	UTF-1 UTF-7 UTF-8 UTF-16 (UTF-16LE/UTF-16BE) / UCS-2 UTF-32 (UTF-32LE/UTF-32BE) / UCS-4 UTF-EBCDIC GB 18030 BOCU-1 CESU-8 SCSU

Miscellaneous code pages	ABICOMP APL Cork HZ JOHAB TRON UTF-5 UTF-6 WTF-8

Related topics	Control character (C0 C1) CCSID Character encodings in HTML Charset detection Han unification Hardware ISO 6429/IEC 6429/ANSI X3.64 Mojibake

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