Re: Re: Unicode Font Maker

["Thomas Milo" <t dot milo at chello dot nl>]

Meor Ridzuan Meor Yahaya wrote:
> So it seems that I misunderstood you earlier mail... Sorry for that.
>
>>
>> I am strongly in favour of ligatures, but against malfunctioning or
>> incomplete ligatures. Hence my somewhat sarcastic comment.
>>
>
> Anyway, I still don't quite get what you mean by saying the font it a
> tremendous improvement over MS "Arabic Typesetting" font? Is it
> because of it's feature, or it's look? I have to agree, that the look
> of Arabic Typesetting is not that great, but it does have more feature
> compare to those fonts by SIL.

The improvement is that by dropping all ligatures the designers have steered
clear of a complication they can't handle. The MS font does tackle the
problem, but the result is totally inept, because ligatures require serious
study of calligraphy, not tech features.

> I've sent to you a PDF file showing the font that I'm working on,
> basically without using a single ligature (I use different colors for
> each glyph just  to prove my point) and yet this preserved most
> alternate glpyh style (still not complete yet, but not sure how to
> further). S, what do you say about it? Of course , the font face is
> taken directly from the actual Madinah mushaf.

Your agenda is different from mine. I am interested in porting the Islamic
calligraphic tradition intact to the computing age. You are working on
maximal legibility for beginning muslims who appararently are not supposed
to have basic calligraphic skills to fall back on.

> Do you have ideas on arabic justification that you don't mind sharing
> with us?

Yes. Considering keshide or madd a justification aid does not do justice to
the art of calligraphy or typesetting. Keshide is an esthric device, not a
trick. It serves to change the general appearance of text, in other words,
you use them or you don't. If used, in calligraphy and well-executed
typesetting, keshide is bound to many contextual constraints, which, just
like the ligature system, are not generally know among computer
enthousiasts, with devastating consequences for the Islamic art of text
composition.

To sum it up: justification can very well be achieved by subtle variation in
intra-word and inner-word spacing. Only as a last resort keshide should be
used for justification.

t