Re: Help: Arabic fonts for Turklangs

Isaac Penzev wrote at 2005-02-06 22:39:25 (+0200)
 > Philip Newton wrote:
 >
 > > On Sun, 6 Feb 2005 03:02:21 -0500, Geoff Horswood
 > > <geoffhorswood@...> wrote:
 > > > Does anyone know where I can lay my hands on any of the modified Arabic
 > > > (modified Farsi??) fonts that are used for writing Turkic languages like
 > > > Kazakh, Kyrghyz and Uighur in NW China?
 > >
 > > I suggest you get a well-stocked Unicode-encoded font. For example,
 > > Code2000 (shareware, $5) or Arial Unicode MS both contain quite a
 > > number of such characters.
 >
 > Indeed those fonts include necessary characters, but their open tables are
 > not smart enough to make ligatures: the additional characters just remain in
 > isolated forms. Arial Unicode MS ignores *ALL* additional characters but
 > Farsi; Code2000 does not deel well with some of them. At least that is what
 > happens on my comp (under Win98).

What version of Code2000 do you have?  It's under continual
development, later versions may do better (I don't have it myself, so
I couldn't say).

Or it may indeed just be your platform.  Win98 isn't the most
sophisticated OS with regard to Unicode.

Could you give specific examples where Code2000 has problems?  I'm
using the font PakType Tehreer under Linux, and it seems to be able to
handle anything I can think of (at least in Pango apps) but my
knowledge of what _should_ happen is limited.

 > ----------
 > Tim May wrote:
 >
 >
 > > If it's simply a matter of being able to display Arabic script with
 > > the extended characters used in those languages, that's easily done.
 > > You just need a Unicode font that supports those characters in the
 > > Arabic range.
 >
 > As you see, it's not so easy. One needs fonts that would make ligatures
 > correctly.


A good point.  I should make it clear that by "supports" I include
having the necessary OpenType tables for the rendering of ligatures*.
And even given that, a successful outcome is contingent upon the
presence of suitable complex text rendering architecture on your
platform.


* Or equivalent - I forget what the Apple technology is called, for
  example.

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