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List:       koffice-devel
Subject:    Nastaliq (Arabic script style) font handling broken
From:       mutlu_inek <mutlu_inek () yahoo ! de>
Date:       2008-11-23 17:40:49
Message-ID: 239920.9230.qm () web28507 ! mail ! ukl ! yahoo ! com
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Dear KOffice developers,

In early spring 2008 I reported what I considered a Qt bug concerning Arabic font \
handling I had encountered in KWord. My investigation had shown that the problem was \
not only visible in KOffice, but KDE-wide. It has been accepted as a bug in the Qt \
tracker: http://trolltech.com/developer/task-tracker/index_html?method=entry&id=199262
 Unfortunately, while it was initially scheduled for 4.4.x, it has been relegated to \
'some future release.'

I just took the time to compile KOffice from SVN (rev. 886915) to check whether any \
progress has been made, but, alas, the bug is still there.

The basic issue is this: KOffice's KWord does not properly display most Arabic True \
Type fonts in the Naskh script. Worse, however, it completely fails to display or \
maybe even load any of the even more complex fonts in Nastaliq script that are used \
for the Urdu language and in some cases also Persian. The fonts for the latter kind \
of script (Nastaliq) position characters relative to each other rather than on a \
horizontal line. Openoffice Writer perfectly displays some of these fonts, including \
Nastaliq fonts.

I have created a number of screenshots to showcase the problem.

http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/9567/ooowriternastaliqhz1.png : This is a perfect \
rendering of the Alvi Nastaleeq font by Openoffice Writer.

http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/1010/kwordnastaliqat5.png : This is what KWord \
(and all other KDE apps) currently show. The font seems to not even be loaded, but \
replaced by a fallback font that does not properly render Arabic in Qt/KDE.

http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/6268/kwordnaskh24ptgj3.png : This is the same text \
in the font Paktype Tahreer, the only font rendered correctly.

http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/3875/kwordnaskh12ptmg7.png : This displays a \
problem even with Paktype Tahreer. The line spacing does not change with the font \
size.

http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/2613/ooowriternaskh12ptql1.png : Openoffice Writer \
does the line spacing well at 12 pt.

Also, I attached the text I if anyone would like to test it. I attached an "Example \
text.odt", an OOo-generated ODF file, and "Example text.rtf", the same text as an \
RTF.

The font used to display Nastaliq script is Alvi Nastaliq.ttf. It is freely available \
from here: http://alvi.urdushare.net/blog/200811/download-alvi-nastaleeq/

This bug will make KOffice, KDE and even Qt unusable for millions (130 million \
according to Wikipeadia) of native Urdu speakers in India and Pakistan. I hope the \
priority of this issue could be reconsidered.

Thank you for your great work,

mutlu




      


["Example text.odt" (application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text)]
["Example text.rtf" (application/rtf)]

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