Arabic Fonts
A few of my users have told me that they cannot see the Arabic words on my blog properly. This is despite the fact that I have chosen, after much wrangling, to post the material using Traditional Arabic Font. This, I thought, was installed by default on Windows XP systems.
If you do not see the Arabic properly on this blog please download the Traditional Arabic Fonts from here or here.
Once you have downloaded the font, go to the Fonts folder under C:\Windows (C:\WinNT in some systems), go to File menu and select “Install New Font”. Select the font file you have saved and click OK. Once installation is complete, restart your browser and revisit the blog. Do leave your results of this exercise here. I hope this helps the Windows users. I still have to come up with a solution for the Linux users since at least one person has told me that the fonts are not properly rendered on Linux based machines.
As for Linux users, they should download the PDF Files for this blog from the PDF Files page. I have tested these files on Ubuntu Linux 7.10 and the files were rendered correctly. This should take care of the blog not being rendered properly on the Linux machines issue, Insha Allah.
As of today [21st January 2008], I have found a nice solution to the problem where the Arabic Fonts are not rendered properly on Linux systems. What you need to do is browse to your Windows’ Fonts folder from your Linux system [if you have a dual boot machine, else just copy the tradbdo.ttf and trado.ttf on your machine], load up the Fonts Installer in KDE (I could not find one in GNOME) and point it to these two files. Make sure that you do this in Administrative mode so that the installation is done system wide. Simply click OK and the fonts will be installed on your Linux system. I have tried this on Ubuntu 7.10 and it works like a charm!
Internals 
as salamu alaykum.
i deleted my arabic fonts, and installed the one you mentioned here.
the font in the post doesn’t look right. But the font under the recent posts (right hand corner) looks fine..
what do you suggest?
Jazak Allah
It works!! Like, seriously!?! =P
Hafsa,
The font in “Recent Posts” is the defualt Font used to render when the system does not find anything else to use. Have you tried restarting your browser? If the font installation has been successful (which you can check by going to MS Word and looking in the Fonts dropdown)then the page should render fine. Which OS/Browser are you using?
Jazak Allah
Jazak Allah..
I had to switch setting to “right to left” (IE 6.0 – view -> encoding)
I’ve just started visiting your blog and it’s a great site! However, I’ve noticed that in many words you use Urdu letters instead of Arabic ones.
For example, I’ve noticed that you’ve been using Urdu “choti he” (ہ) in place of Arabic “ha’a” (ه). True, they both look the same in isolated form, however Urdu “choti he” does not look the same as Arabic “ha’a” when connected to another letter. I’m assuming this is also why some people cannot see Arabic properly (not all Arabic fonts support Urdu characters). For example, the “Nahw – حروف مشبّہ بالفعل – Particles resembling Verbs”. The title itself contains Urdu “choti he” in the word “مشبّہ”, when it should be “مشبّه”.
Another mistake that I’ve noticed, not that this might have anything to do with fonts, but rather linguistic differences, is that use also use “ha’a” in place of “ta’a marbuuta” in some cases. This is a common practice in Urdu and Persian as the “ta’a marbuuta” of Arabic was often converted to “ha’a”. However, in Arabic that is considered incorrect. For example, the “Nahw – The Anatomy of a Sentence – Part 3” section: I’ve noticed you’ve used the “haa’a” in place of the “ta’a marbuuta” in the word “ﺻﹻﻔﻪ”. It should be “صِفة”. I’ll also note that the problem with some people not being able to see Arabic fonts is because, as in the previous example, (this might be due to limitations of your software or fonts) you write words with broken letters so that they look correctly when forming a word. For example, let’s break up the last example, this is what it looks like connected: ﺻﹻﻔﻪ and this is what it looks like when broken up: ﺻ ﹻ ﻔ ﻪ It should look like this when broken up: ص ِ ف ة where each letter is in the independent form.
I love your blog, I’m very greatful that you’ve created it. But, those corrections are vital to people trying to learn Arabic.
Dijan,
I am grateful that you have taken time out to give feedback on my blog. Yours is defnitely a very good analysis of the fonts issue on my blog (or for that matter any multilingual blog invloving non-English characters).
I will take up the points raised by you one by one and will adress them , Insha Allah:
1) I use Microoft Word to type in the Arabic words. I use the Symbol dialog box to pick and enter the Arabic letters one by one (yes, that is very time consumung 🙂 )
2) The WordPress blog title field does not allow mrakup tags so I cannot use formatting for the Arabic words in title. Unfortunately, the ta’a marbuta character picked up from MS Word shows up as a sqaure in the title field for some reason. For the title field , therefore, I am forced to use an Urdu web-based text editor.
3) I agree with you about the haa’aa being used in place of ta’a marbuta. This is something I already realize but have been too lazy ( 😦 ) to stick to a common standard. I will, Insha Allah, be more diligent in future regarding this matter.
4) You have mentioned that because I use broken letters therefore some people cannot see the fonts properly. Actually, if you install the Traditional Arabic Font, which is available on my blog as well, the problem of rendering goes away.
Having said all this, on the same OS two different browsers render the same font differently, and example of which is FireFox and IE7 using the Traditional Arabic Font. Have spent professional time developing web sites I can assure you that this is a lingering problem with no solution working 100% of the time. I have also noticed that Linux systems do not render my blog properly at all.
I will appreciate if my readers can pitch in to help solve this problem so that a minimum number of them have issues while reading the blog.
Jazak Allah!
how can i download arabic fonts?
Abu Saadiya,
The Arabic Fonts page has 3 links on it to download the Arabic Fonts, plus the instructions to install them. Hopefully you will be able to install these easily.
Jazak Allah!
!مَرحَباً وَالسَلامُُ عَلَيكُم والخَيرُ لجَميَعِكُم
Please forgive any Arabic spelling mistakes or grammatical errors I’ve made, I’m still new to Arabic and hope to continue learning!
But I noticed you said you have to hand-select the initial, medial, and terminal forms in Microsoft Word from a “Symbol” list when you write in Arabic. You shouldn’t have to do that! Look up the “Arabic ASDF” program on Google, and follow the instructions to install it and set up the keyboard. This tool allows you to type quickly in Arabic on a Western keyboard! (You just have to remember that خ, for example, is “X,” ع is “E,” ه is “o” but ح is “H,” &c.; you can make أ, tanween, diacriticals, etc. with other key-combinations and you switch back and forth between Arabic and English keyboards just by pressing Alt+[Left] Shift! Saturated letters are usually just capitals.)
This will allow you to focus on writing and maybe on what font you want to use (I have several, including the standard ones and even DecoType Thuluth), and will make working on your blog so much easier. There are also keys to lengthen your words/the distance between characters, and if you have any questions about key-combinations, etc., just e-mail me. Note that diacriticals use Right Alt+ A, I, U, O, etc., respectively, and that the proper name of God الله is recognized by Arabic ASDF as a special combination “allo” —
Try it out and tell me what you think, واللهُ معك
كوري
Hi.
where I can find (again) how to add Arabic text display support for
Internet explore5 it begins something like;
– custom setup
– start menu setup
– ctl panel etc
I need to install arabic and chinese – standard and simplified –
fonts and support on my laptop
pls urgent reply!!
I am just interested for the Arabic- Persian language, to read and write !!!
Nick,
If you install the fonts available on this page then IE5 will automatically pick them up and render the page correctly. Not sure what exactly the problem is, though
السلام عليكم
hello ,
I can helps any one . I speaks the arabic language and I from arabic country , if you want help , you can send in my email
myblogger@hotmail.com
i can helps any one if you want help, you can send in my email all urdu and arabic fonts
Abdullah,
Thanks a lot for your offer. I am sure that my readers will definitely find your experience helpful in learning the Arabic Language
Jazak Allah!
Assalam o Alaikum ,
Did you receive my email about arabic learning?
Thank you for that helpful post, it was great
ئئئئئ
Assalamualaikum
Why when I type the word rabbi رَبِّ (for example) in Linux I always get kasra under shadda, not the letter ba.
Wassalamualaikum
Andraysha,
This is not a Linux issue; that is the correct rendering of the font (shadda under kasra). I have not been able to find a font which does otherwise (i.e. put kasra under the letter).
Hope that helps,
Jazak Allah!
Jazaaka l-Laah
Yeah. I was Windows user and in Windows the sign kasra is always under the letter (unless if we first type shadda then kasra).
I usually quote quran’s ayahs so I confuse if the writing is not the same as what I used to see.
visit my blog at http://www.msrosyidi.com/
I use fonts: arabic typesetting or sakkal majalla to write the arabic character. With both mentioned fonts, kasrah is placed correctly in all conditions.
Other fonts you have to try are : Uthman font, me_quran, Scherezade, etc.
and now I use an open source font Amiri.
http://www.google.com/webfonts/earlyaccess
i recently found a usefull website for arabic fonts , you can upload, download hundreds of arabic free fonts from http://www.arafonts.com. hope this is usefull
the first link is broken like it do not open in the browser
Teachingquran,
Thanks for pointing out the error; the broken link has been removed now
Jazak Allah!
I am extremely inspired along with your writing talents and also with the layout for your weblog. Is this a paid subject matter or did you customize it yourself? Either way stay up the nice high quality writing, it’s uncommon to look a nice weblog like this one these days..
This is not paid content: it is free for anyone to use.
Thanks for the compliment about the writing talent: I believe it is what it is because my teacher is one of the best among those who are teaching Classical Arabic today.
Jazak Allah!
how can i get this font ‘traditional arabic’ without using html
السلام عليكم
Assalamo alaikum
Can you please tell me how you added traditional arabic font to this site? We want to use it on our site (www.icraa.org). I will be grateful if you can help me on this.
jazak’Allahu khair
I used the following HTML tags for writing Arabic text
<span style=”font-weight: bold; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 2; font-family: Traditional Arabic;”>
Hope that helps,
Jazak Allah!
Hi there to all, how is everything, I think every one is getting more from this
site, and your views are nice in support of new users.
Thanks a lot, this article is very helpful,i would love to add it to my info. keep sharing.
i recently found a usefull website for quran learning academy , you can upload, download hundreds of quran free fonts from http://www.quran-quran.com. hope this is usefull
Thanks a lot, this article is very helpful,i would love to add it to my info. keep sharing.
http://www.islam-islam.com
Thank you for that helpful post, it was great.
http://www.learnquranandtajweed.com