Hi Greg and Pierre, On 12/11/08, Gregory Pittman <gpittman at iglou.com> wrote: > Asif Lodhi wrote: >> ... links to FREE and/or Open Source Font Designing Software applications ... >> > ... Creating fonts is no trivial matter, ... > So I would think it might be a good idea to further investigate what > font design is all about and its difficulties first.
Thanks for the feedback. Here is what I have to say: I am a Pakistani and live in Karachi. There is NO free Urdu (Pakistan's national language which is 90% Hindi and 10% Persian+Arabic but with Persian/Arabic complex script/font) font available here - the free fonts which are available on the Internet look like they were created by some toddlers trying to learn how to write the Urdu the first time. Neither is there any free DTP (or wordprocessing ... or ANY!) software with Urdu (complex script) support. Most people use an Indian software (which has a price tag) for Urdu DTP needs. I believe free Urdu fonts/software can bring about a substantial change as far as education is concerned - it can bring a radical change to the lives of poor people. Lack of education is the primary cause of all problems in my country. Though I have not designed any fonts but I have drawn/painted lots of pictures/sceneries with pencils/crayons/water since my childhood. I feel I can do something with the FontDesigning software. I am completely clueless when it comes to terminology and technicalities of this domain but trying to learn font-designing to come up with a good free complex script Urdu font is less non-trivial than having to see the chaos created by the lack of education. I hope you can feel my frustration. I am willing to learn font designing and design a free complex script Urdu font whenever I can find time. I need to know whether FontForge can be used to develop complex script fonts. I would be thankful if anyone can tell me about more font designing resources. Thank you, -Asif
