OTF? VOLT?

scooke · Post by **scooke** » 2008-01-16 12:06:45

What's the word on NWP or NWE working with otf fonts such as VOLT's Arabic Typesetting, Riwaj, TITUSCyberbit Basic?

I'd continue using these (I was a 6.5 user) if they worked with fonts like the ones above.

The crazy thing in my circumstance is that even though NW(P)(E) work with Apple AAT fonts (like all the Arabic fonts included in OS X), none of those fonts actually have the 3 or 4 letters the languages I work in use.

Thanks.

Elbrecht · Post by **Elbrecht** » 2008-01-16 12:55:59

Hi -

what special letters do you need? TITUS Cyberbit Basic is just a huge TrueType font - no OTFont at all. I would guess all different types get displayed, it's more a question how to enter, but then there is Ukelele from SIL anyone can customize his keyboard with: I did my German Extended. For OT features try the "Click Wheel: Typography" in FORMAT/FONTS/SHOW FONTS - I don't know about Leopard - still riding the Tiger...

HE

scooke · Post by **scooke** » 2008-01-16 19:59:36

Thanks for replying,

It's not just a few letters I need: the fonts I listed, as well as many others, simply don't seem to work in Nisus. I refer to the Arabic characters not joining; they appear as individual characters. Any font which works in Arabic in Mellel doesn't in Nisus. I like Mellel, and bought it, but honestly, if I could remain with Nisus I would.

I have searched the forums but can't find anything about possibly enabling certain Unicode fonts with Arabic letters to function.

Do Arabic Typesetting, Riwaj, and TITUSCyberbit work on your setup? If so, please tell me how!

Thank you.

Elbrecht · Post by **Elbrecht** » 2008-01-17 00:28:36

Well OK -

I am no RTL specialist - I don't know Arabic - no page to test. But I know for sure, that TITUS Cyberbit Basic definitely has no OT features - just a simple Basic TTFont. That's why I wonder - does TITUS really join Arabic in Mellel? Did you try the Typopgraphy specials to handle with the Click Wheel under FORMAT / FONTS / SHOW FONTS in NWP / NWE? Any help from orhers?

HE

scooke · Post by **scooke** » 2008-01-17 02:03:46

I appreciate your responses.

TITUS's not being OTF is not crucial (I should have put an "and" in my original post). It does join in Mellel.

I tried the Typography suggestion but there was no difference.

I include jpgs of screen shots of the situation:

Mellel.jpg - You can see almost all join properly except where the letter isn't in the font and is being substituted (the odd jarring dislocated letter in the middle of a word) UKIJ Zilwa and Arabic Typesetting look great.

NWE.jpg - Only Al Bayan, Nadeem, and Lucida Grande are joining, but suffer from many letters missing and being substituted. The real problem is that arabic Typesetting, UKIJ Zilwa, and TITUS Cyberbit aren't joining at all. If they did, I'd be a Nisus man all over again.

NWP.jpg - same as above

Elbrecht · Post by **Elbrecht** » 2008-01-17 02:39:05

Well thanks, now even I can see -

the fact that even TITUS Cyberbit Basic is joining in Mellel makes it clear to me, that joining Arabic is not a question of OT at all. You get just Plain Text with TITUS Cyberbit Basic - any joining is done by the Text Engine concerned, in this case Mellel got a clever Text Engine of its own - the app itself being RTL based - just doing what the Unicode slots concerned are asking for: JOIN THESE PLAIN LETTERS... There are two ways - to the best of my knowledge - to get it done: (1) using via linking precomposed joints (!) the font maybe offering alternatively or (2) more Unicode like: letting the Text Engine do the job of joining on the fly. (1) is done within a clever font itself, while (2) needs a clever text engine outside the font.

As I am not used to Arabic or any other RTL scripts - I hope other list members more competent will JOIN in this, not to forget about Martin - hey!

HE

Post by **martin** » 2008-01-17 18:30:32

Whether or not proper joining occurs for a particular font in NWP is really all up to Apple. We rely completely on their text engine to handle this part of text layout. Unfortunately if they aren't supporting a particular font there's little we can do.

One test you can run to eliminate the possibility of this being a bug in NWP: try to get the characters to join in TextEdit. If joining occurs there, but not in NWP, then this must be a bug on our part.

scooke · Post by **scooke** » 2008-01-18 01:07:52

Hm. I guess that is too bad. Mellel has its own fancy Text Engine then?

I wonder how many users of Arabic and similar languages use Nisus? And if any do, I wonder what fonts they use?

As I pointed out, the ones which join properly are missing key letters for me; the complete ones don't join in Nisus (Apple's fault). Unless/until Nisus gets its own Text Engine, or Apple improves it's own, or someone can recommend a few useful Unicode fonts with ALL letters n the Arabic range, I simply can't use NWE or P. Even though I want to.

Oh well.

Elbrecht · Post by **Elbrecht** » 2008-01-18 01:28:08

Well -

concerning Arabic fonts I would go to Alan Woods page: http://www.alanwood.net/unicode/index.html
Maybe there is what you are looking for, or a link to go. I would like to have a list of joining fonts missing what (?) letters for you, as well as a list of non-joing fonts with all letters you need - would be of help to maybe help you out somehow...

HE

Elbrecht · Post by **Elbrecht** » 2008-01-18 05:22:46

Again -

enjoy and keep on dreaming: http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/2 ... graphy.htm
and then: http://www.river-valley.tv/conferences/ ... acedesign/
That would be the way to go - wouldn`t it?

HE

Elbrecht · Post by **Elbrecht** » 2008-01-18 07:23:05

Well -

it's called "Tasmeem" and even works on Mac OS X - requirements are:

- InDesign CS3, Middle Eastern Version
- PowerPC® G4 or G5 or multicore Intel processor
- Mac OS X v.10.4.8
- 256MB of RAM (512MB recommended) for PowerPC based system; 512MB (1GB recommended) for Intel based system
- 1.6GB of available hard-disk space (additional free space required during installation)
- 1,024x768 monitor resolution with 16-bit video card
- DVD-ROM drive
- QuickTime 7 software required for multimedia features

From: http://www.winsoft.eu/products_solution ... asmeem.php

HE

Don't miss: http://www.river-valley.tv/conferences/ ... omas_Milo/

Elbrecht · Post by **Elbrecht** » 2008-01-18 07:30:11

Sorry again -

free demo version at: http://www.winsoft.eu/support/download- ... eative.php

that's as far as I can go - others please give it a try...

Back to work...
HE

Post by **martin** » 2008-01-18 14:20:27

Thanks for posting all those links Elbrecht! I wish I could help the original poster more, but I don't really know anything about Arabic fonts.

Hamid · Post by **Hamid** » 2008-01-19 02:27:26

scooke wrote:I wonder how many users of Arabic and similar languages use Nisus? And if any do, I wonder what fonts they use?

Could you specify what characters you need and which are missing or at least what Arabic script languages you want to use with NWE/NWP?

DXBLaw · Post by **DXBLaw** » 2008-12-11 07:47:02

I have been using Nisus to type Arabic for years, and I have not noticed any missing Arabic letters or problem joining the letters in Arabic fonts.

nisus.com

OTF? VOLT?

OTF? VOLT?

Not joining properly

http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200704/keyboard.callig

Arabic script

Re: OTF? VOLT?