This is a working document to enable a consensus to be established regarding a private use area to extend the Unicode arabic specification in order to support encoding the quran in a clear, simple and complete way. This document is not complete but details basic steps for moving forward. Encoding and Rendering We distinguish between encoding and rendering. The encoding should be clear and simple yet sufficiently powerful to allow a rich final representation. The characters used for encoding need not map one-to-one on the actual glyph/glyphs used as the rendering application can convert from the encoded form to the appropriate glyph sequence. Some recent mushafs even use colours for rendering these marks and this encoding scheme also provides easy support for that ability. Semantics and Glyphs We choose a method of encoding that is based on the semantic content of the text and not the particular local rendering of that. For instance, we create a codepoint for “ikhfaa'” إخفاء that is placed after a nuun نون or tanween تنوين rather than sequential fathas. For environments where the font technology is of low power, a secondary table of glyphs will be coded so that an attractive and authentic rendering can be achieved. This table of glyphs would slowly become redundant as OpenType technology and its successors become more common. Some extra codepoints Ikhfaa' إخفاء This codepoint, called Ikhfaa', would be represented in the font as a glyph that is not intended to be rendered such as a rectangle with the work ikhfaa' in it. It would be placed immediately after any letter that is required to be pronounced with ikhfaa', such as a nuun or tanween. These can be maftuuh مفتوح, madmuum مضموم or maksuur مكسور . In respect of tanween this is normally represented by staggering the strokes of the fathatayn or kasratayn, or writing the dammatayn as two sequential dammas. In respect of the nuun then in the current saudi mushaf this is represented by omitting the sukuun سكون (ra's alkhaa' رأس الخاء) over the nuun. Idhhaar إظهار This codepoint, called Idhhaar, would be represented in the font as a glyph that is not intended to be rendered such as a rectangle with the work idhhaar in it. It would be placed immediately after any letter that is required to be pronounced with idhhaar, such as a nuun or tanween. These can be maftuuh مفتوح, madmuum مضموم or maksuur مكسور . In the saudi mushaf idhhaar of the tanween is represented by leaving the tanween in its normal form and idhhaar of the nuun is indicated by displaying the sukuun over it. Iqlaab إقلاب This codepoint, called Iqlaab, would be represented in the font as a glyph that is not intended to be rendered such as a rectangle with the work iqlaab in it. It would be placed immediately after any letter that is required to be pronounced with iqlaab such as a nuun or tanween. These can be maftuuh مفتوح, madmuum مضموم or maksuur مكسور . This will normally be rendered as small meem, either over a nuun or as part of tanween. The muduud المدود Here further discussion needs to take place. Madd is classified in various ways, either by the reason for the madd or the length of the madd. I propose at this stage that we provide a flexible encoding that supports both categorisations. We allow any consecutive sequence of madd codes that are not mutually incompatible. For example we have مد جائز منفصل in يا أيها (the alif of the yaa). This can be read with the length of two, four or five harakaat depending on the school of thought. Normally we only would want to indicate a madd, but we could also encode in a following character the categorisation of madd which most renderers would ignore. How the extra codepoints will be rendered OpenType OpenType has sufficient algorithmic power to render a mushaf direct by passing in the proposed encoding – no further work would be required from the application itself, though of course work would required when constructing the font. TrueType The rendering application will need to convert the proposed codes into the appropriate glyphs or glyph combinations. For those glyphs that cannot be currently rendered using truetype the application will use a glyph from a secondary table in the private user area. This would contain codepoints for the so-called 'sequential tanween' etc. Bitmap Fonts Bitmap fonts cannot superimpose glyphs one above the other. Applications using this technology will have to convert the incoming encoding entirely into glyphs from the secondary table so as to render the quran. Abdulhaq
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mushaf.odt
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