Fixed-width Arabic fonts.
March 21, 2009 2:52 PM Subscribe
There are a couple fixed-width Unicode Arabic fonts out there. The ones I've seen are pretty hard on the eyes, though, especially at small sizes. Any suggestions for a really readable one?
(The goal, FWIW, is to be able to work with mixed Arabic/Latin-alphabet text in a terminal window without going blind or blowing the Latin text up to a ridiculous size.)
(The goal, FWIW, is to be able to work with mixed Arabic/Latin-alphabet text in a terminal window without going blind or blowing the Latin text up to a ridiculous size.)
The classic Arabic fixed font I've seen is the ubiquitous Simplified Arabic Fixed that is a Windows standard.
I think DejaVu Sans Mono covers part of Arabic. I'm just not sure how much of it.
posted by Fortran at 4:27 PM on March 21, 2009
I think DejaVu Sans Mono covers part of Arabic. I'm just not sure how much of it.
posted by Fortran at 4:27 PM on March 21, 2009
Oop, I knew I forgot one. The old fogey Fixedsys Excelsior. As you can see from the sample image, the Arabic is...okay. I love it for its Fraktur!
posted by Fortran at 4:33 PM on March 21, 2009
posted by Fortran at 4:33 PM on March 21, 2009
Response by poster: I'm afraid I'm a Mac user, so I don't have all the standard Windows fonts — and it looks like Simplified Arabic Fixed isn't available for separate purchase. That Fixedsys Excelsior looks pretty okay for 11pt, though, and I don't need vowelled text, so it oughta work fine.
It looks like what SIL has for Arabic is this classy variable-width font — but, alas, nothing fixed-width. Thanks for the heads-up on their keyboard layouts, though.
posted by nebulawindphone at 6:58 PM on March 21, 2009
It looks like what SIL has for Arabic is this classy variable-width font — but, alas, nothing fixed-width. Thanks for the heads-up on their keyboard layouts, though.
posted by nebulawindphone at 6:58 PM on March 21, 2009
Yeah, those keyboard layouts are awesome. I've installed them on several of my linguist-friend's machines. If you have any Q's about it, drop me an email. Sometimes on a mac, the character palette and keyboard viewer can go missing, and I've found a working fix for it.
posted by iamkimiam at 7:02 PM on March 21, 2009
posted by iamkimiam at 7:02 PM on March 21, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by iamkimiam at 3:20 PM on March 21, 2009