Re: CUPS in Action (need help :)

[Ahmad Khalifa <ahmad at khalifa dot ws>]

Nadim Shaikli wrote:

> Sorry for the __VERY__ late reply, really am.  I was able to see the
> Arabic without issue using "ghostview" (gv-3.5.8), I just had to copy
> the font file (the .pfa file) in the same directory as the .ps I was
> displaying and it showed without issue.

better late than never :) and WOW! you can actually see the arabic ?
.PS files contain the font files within them, so I think something is
wrong with the .PS file that makes GV, GGV, CUPS (and all .PS readers)
not see the font. what you did -copying the font next to the .PS- cannot
be done with CUPS, so we still have a problem.
but hey, Thanks, now I can check the shaping/bidi until the .PS thing is
fixed, if it is ever!!

> The output that was displayed looked very odd, things were shaped but
> the spacing was all off (and this was not due to harakat either).  I'm
> attaching a small screenshot to show you what I mean and I'd be more
> than happy to mail you more detailed shots in private if you so desire.

yeah I know about that, its a problem with the font not being monospaced
every character has a different width and CUPS's texttops filter puts
every character at a constant distance from the previous character.
If you look in the .PS file you'll see that arabic characters are
written 1 by 1, each with its own coordinate.
In short, the solution is a monospaced arabic font like windows' Courier

> Hope that helps and keep up on this effort - I'm here to help/test.

I had given up on CUPS, but what you said was really helpful.
Thanks for the help.


ak.