How to write Malayalam, Hindi or Tamil on a PDF
Open Add text, type the words in your own script, tap the page where they go and press Write it on. Your browser draws the letters so they join and shape correctly, and the same words go in invisibly underneath, so a search finds them and copying gives them back.
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How to do it
- Open Add text and add the PDF.
- Switch your keyboard to Malayalam, Hindi or your language, and type the words in the What to write box.
- Choose Small, Medium or Large, and black, blue or red.
- Tap the page where the words go, and drag them into place.
- Press Write it on and save the new copy.
Why Indian scripts trip up PDF tools
PDF tools usually write with the fonts built into the PDF format, and those fonts only know English letters. Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil and the other Indian scripts need a font that has their letters and a program that joins them: a consonant and a vowel sign become one shape, and conjuncts stack or merge. Without both, you get empty boxes, or letters in the wrong order.
Here, words those built-in fonts cannot draw are drawn by your own browser, which already shapes Malayalam and Hindi correctly on every web page you read, and placed on the page as a sharp picture of the words. Underneath it, the same words are written as invisible text in your script, so the PDF can still be searched, and copying from it gives back exactly what you typed.
Typing in your script
On an Android phone, Gboard and most other keyboards can add Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil and other Indian languages in their settings, including layouts where you type the sound in English letters and pick the word in your script. On a computer, Windows and macOS both let you add Indian-language keyboards in their language settings. Or copy the words from any message or document and paste them into the box.
What you paste must be real text in that script, the kind a phone keyboard types. Words typed years ago in older typing software, which stored Malayalam or Hindi letters under English keys, paste as a jumble of English letters and come out that way on the page.
What it looks like
The letters are drawn in the Malayalam or Hindi font your device already uses, so they look the way your phone or computer shows those scripts everywhere else; a phone and a laptop may draw them in slightly different styles, and both read correctly. The picture is drawn larger than it shows on screen, so it stays clear when the page is zoomed. Small, Medium and Large set the size, and the colour can be black, blue or red.
A line that mixes scripts, such as an English name inside a Malayalam sentence, is drawn the same way. Lines entirely in English letters and numbers go in as ordinary PDF text instead. The rupee sign is not in the built-in fonts either, so a line with ₹ in it is drawn by the browser too, and still searches.
Other places your script works
For forms with real fields, Fill in a form keeps a Malayalam or Hindi answer as real words in the field and shows a picture of them inside the box. To change words already printed on a page, Edit text draws the new words the same way. A watermark, a header or footer and your own words on a stamp in Mark up take any script too.
A worked example
A temple committee in Thrissur keeps its donation receipt as a PDF with blank lines for the donor’s name and the offering. Anitha opens Add text, adds the receipt, switches her phone keyboard to Malayalam and types the donor’s name. She chooses Medium and black, taps just above the name line and drags the words into place. She taps above the next line, which puts a new piece of text there, and types the offering, പുഷ്പാഞ്ജലി, over it. She presses Write it on and sends the copy. In the saved file, searching for the name finds it, and copying it gives back the Malayalam she typed.
Common mistakes
Placing words on the printed line rather than just above it, so the line runs through them: on a phone, pinch to zoom in first. Typing a long paragraph as one piece, which runs off the edge of the page; press Enter in the box to break it into lines, or place it as several pieces. And expecting to edit the words after saving: they become part of the page, so check them before you press Write it on. Your original is always left as it was.
Questions people ask
Can people search and copy what I wrote?
Yes. The words are written invisibly under the picture of them, in your script, so a reader’s find and copy work on them.
Is anything I type sent anywhere?
No. The words are drawn and written into the PDF in your browser, on your device, and never leave it.
Which scripts work?
Any your device can show: Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi, Urdu, Arabic and more.
Will it look the same on someone else’s phone?
Yes. The words are a picture inside the PDF, so every reader shows exactly what you placed, whatever fonts it has.
Can I change the words after saving?
Not in the saved copy. Start again from your original, which is never changed.
Your file stays on your device. Foolscap does the work inside your browser, so nothing is uploaded and there is nothing for anyone to keep. How you can check