I've just joined Arabeyes and have been testing Arabic editing/rendering using Gnome's gedit (v. 2.4.1) and the fonts available from the khotot page. (Thanks to all involved for making these fonts available.) I present below what I believe to be a few problems in Arabic rendering. I am _not_ an expert, so corrections and clarifications would be welcome. Please excuse me if these issues should be directed to a more specific audience.
**************
For everyday usage, I like the KacstBook.ttf font. It's legible and attractive, and the harakat (diacritics) come out, for the most part, where they should.
But I have noticed small problems involving the laam-alif ligature with harakat.
If I enter the following sequence of three characters:
0644 (laam)
064E (fatHa)
0627 ('alif)then I _should_ see the laam-alif ligature with the fatHa on top of the laam part. But what I currently see rendered is something roughly like the roman U (a naive linking of laam to 'alif) with a fatHa on top. This is not an acceptable rendering.
Note that entering the sequence
0644 (laam)
0627 ('alif)does cause the appropriate laam-alif ligature to be displayed.
****
Related problems:
If you enter the three characters
0644 (laam)
0651 (shadda)
0627 ('alif)then one _should_ see the laam-alif ligature with shadda on top of the laam-ish part. (What you see now is again the unacceptable naive laam-alif combination with shadda on top.)
And if one enters the four characters
0644 (laam)
0651 (shadda)
064E (fatHa)
0627 ('alif)Then one _should_ see the laam-alif ligature with a shadda on top of the laam-ish part and a fatHa on top of that. (What you see now is the unacceptable naive laam-alif combination with shadda on top, and fatHa on top of that.)
So somehow the font (or Pango rendering engine) should be fixed to display the laam-'alif ligature even if shadda or fatHa or shadda+fatHa are between the laam and 'alif. I don't know enough about TrueType fonts, or Pango, to know where the fix should or could be made.
****
Dagger-alif problems:
Spacing problem: If you enter the sequence
0644 (laam) 0651 (shadda) 0670 (dagger 'alif)
then the dagger 'alif is (properly) displayed above the
shadda, but it's not high enough. Now the dagger 'alif overwrites the shadda. It needs some air.
More serious: If you enter the sequence
0644 (laam) 0651 (shadda) 0670 (dagger 'alif) 0647 (haa')
(a sequence that appears in the name of God) then you should see laam, with shadda on top, with dagger 'alif
on top of the shadda, followed by a final-form-glyph haa' connected to the laam.
But what you see now is an isolated-form-glyph haa', not connected to the previous laam. This is not acceptable. The presence of the dagger 'alif is somehow blocking the proper linking of the laam to the haa'.
Note that for the sequence
0644 (laam) 0651 (shadda) 064E (fatHa) 0647 (haa')
the laam _is_ properly linked to the haa'. So however the fatHa is currently encoded/rendered, the dagger 'alif should be done the same way to get better rendering.
Ken
ken.beesley aT xrce DoT xerox DoT com
_______________________________________________ General mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.arabeyes.org/mailman/listinfo/general
