Ubuntu

Urdu Font Pak Nastaleeq Rendering Incorrectly

Asked by Noumaan Yaqoob

A Government funded agency Center of Excellence for Urdu Informatics, is working to develop an standard Urdu font that displays Urdu on computers in the standard Urdu Nastaleeq script. They have released a beta version of this font called Pak Nastaleeq. Now the problem is that this font doesn't render in Ubuntu. It works good on MS windows.

According to one of the developers the font uses a 'very advanced technology' something which is totally new and is not currently available in most linux distributions. These features are 'curs' 'Reverse Context Chaining' and 'Group Processing'.

Center of Excellence for Urdu Informatic's website:
http://www.nlauit.gov.pk/

Brief description of Pak Nastaleeq font development:
http://www.nlauit.gov.pk/ufd.htm

Pak Nastaleeq font:
http://www.nlauit.gov.pk/data/Pak Nastaleeq (Beta Release)/Pak Nastaleeq (Beta Release).ttf

Screenshot how ubuntu renders it:
http://base.google.com/base/a/1366390/D4572904065930593728

Screenshot how Windows renders it:
http://base.google.com/base/a/1366390/D2896806288229667470

What bothers me is the developer's claim that It is too advanced to be supported by most Linux distros. Since government and Microsoft are going to push this font I think it must render perfectly in Ubuntu. I want to know why this font doesn't in Ubuntu right now.

Note: I tested this font on Ubuntu and Kubuntu Dapper, on firefox, gedit, mousepad and open office writer. I have all required language support and language packs installed and other Urdu fonts work perfectly on my Ubuntu.

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Mohsin Shafeeque Hiajzee (m-hijazee) said : 		#1

Hello!
    I am the one who's working on the Urdu Nastaleeq font named Pak Nastaleeq which is accused by the gentlman of using
'very advanced technology'.
Basically, Ubunto is a very robust and easy to use distribution of Linux and its install base is growing exponentially.
Currently as the gentleman metioned earlier, Pak Nastaleeq is not being rendered properly, We will be very happy
if Ubantoo supports us to render this font within its applications.

At the start I would like to know:
1) What rendering engine Ubantoo utilzing? FreeType extensions or something else?
2) Is it stick to OpenType standards or only picks a sub-set of it?

This will help us to support this font on Ubantoo thus enabling a large number of users to
view and create Urdu docuements in Nastaleeq under the umbrella of Ubantoo.

Best regards,
Mohsin Shafeeque Hijazee
Senior Program Manager
Center of Excellence for Urdu Informatics
Goverment of Pakistan

Revision history for this message
Mohsin Shafeeque Hiajzee (m-hijazee) said : 		#2

Hello!
    I am the one who's working on the Urdu Nastaleeq font named Pak Nastaleeq which is accused by the gentlman of using
'very advanced technology'.
Basically, Ubunto is a very robust and easy to use distribution of Linux and its install base is growing exponentially.
Currently as the gentleman metioned earlier, Pak Nastaleeq is not being rendered properly, We will be very happy
if Ubantoo supports us to render this font within its applications.

At the start I would like to know:
1) What rendering engine Ubantoo utilzing? FreeType extensions or something else?
2) Is it stick to OpenType standards or only picks a sub-set of it?

This will help us to support this font on Ubantoo thus enabling a large number of users to
view and create Urdu docuements in Nastaleeq under the umbrella of Ubantoo.

Best regards,
Mohsin Shafeeque Hijazee
Senior Program Manager
Center of Excellence for Urdu Informatics
Goverment of Pakistan

Revision history for this message
Noumaan Yaqoob (noumaan) said : 		#3

Mohsin Shafeeque Hijazee writes:
http://www.urduweb.org/mehfil/viewtopic.php?p=105770#105770

Lastly, after seeing the image of Ubunto I've concluded that following OpenType features are missing

1) Contextual Mark Positioning
2) Cursive Attachments
3) Rendering engines does not support OpenType v1.4 specifications completely

Hope we can make them to implement these issues. Basically, OS designers at least agree on font technology
and that goes in our interest.

Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) said : 		#4

This question was expired because it remained in the 'Open' state without activity for the last 15 days.