We tried the following:
(we're embedding fonts in all cases, also we don't have require any input fields...we're just displaying Arabic)

-Copied Arabic text into a static text field...flash actually reverses the characters. So we copied reversed text a static field. Then when we published, it seems that the characters were not being displayed correctly. An arabic reader took a look at it and told us that the arabic characters didn't connect to each other correctly! It's as if you took English script characters and broke them apart!

We then tried a few more experiments...
- copy and pasted Arabic text (normal order) into a dynamic field...flash flipped it. But when you publish it for Player 8, the order of the text is correct, but the characters looked disjointed again.

-We published it for Player 7 and this time everything looked perfect. The order of the text was correct and the characters looked connected!!!

We basically have all the text assets in a separate .swf (published for Player 7) and we're using it as a runtime shared library. Our main app is published as Player 8.

Has anyone else seen this? Am I not doing something right here? I'm shocked that support for Arabic (and I'm assuming other RTL languages) took a step backwards from Player 7 to Player 8. I wonder what it is in Player 9.


-James


On Apr 16, 2007, at 7:10 AM, nik crosina wrote:

Thank you very much, Danny,


Yes I thought that this post sank without a trace, lucky you saw it!

Fro the moment I jsut needed to know if there were any issues, as I am
tendering for an English course DVD that will be sold in the Middle
East.

Do I remember seeing your name on Director forums a long time ago?


Nik Crosina


On 4/16/07, Danny Kodicek <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
 > HI,
>
> It now transpires that the project I am quoting for needs
> much of it done in Arabic. As it is my first multi language
> project in Flash are there any issues with that in Flash (I
> could write an encyclopedia full about Director and its
> characater set issues)

Just got back from holiday and noticed this post which doesn't seem to have
had any replies.

Arabic in Flash is possible but tricky. Exactly how tricky depends on what exactly you need to do. Just putting static Arabic text on screen is easy - no different from Roman. Dynamic text is essentially okay, but you need to watch out for RTL and Bidirectional issues. One major issue is that Flash behaves differently for embedded and non-embedded fonts. Text rendered using non-embedded fonts uses the OS-level text renderer, and so renders the text using the standard Bidirectional algorithm. For single-line text this is perfect (although we didn't test for a very wide range of OS's and browsers
- I suspect there might be some niggles on various combinations); for
multiple-line text you'll find that line breaks do not get added correctly (words get broken half-way across) so you'll need to add your line breaks directly into the dynamic text. Text rendered using embedded fonts does not render correctly: it has the same line-break issues as before, but also it renders LTR and fails to correctly interpret the Arabic characters into
their cursive variants (that is, join them correctly to give the
'handwritten' style that Arabic text should have). There are ways around this, including some code libraries (check out FlashRTL). Personally, I prefer this option as you're in more control - I hate leaving things to the
OS unless I absolutely have to!

Of course, the above also depends on the *source* of your dynamic text: if
you're in complete control, you can store the text directly as the
characters that will appear on-screen. But if it's coming from something like an external XML file or some other data source, you'll need to consider
these issues.

If you want input text, you're in a different kettle of crustaceans. We
managed to solve it, but it was a big job. There aren't currently any
available commercial solutions to this, but hopefully as soon as I'm
finished with my enormous globalisation job that's taken me the best part of
a year, we'll be releasing my solution in some form.

Danny

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