Ubuntu Arabic, in print!

A beta of Ubuntu Font Family Arabic, in print as part of the testing and debugging process for the Arabic coverage. The Arabic script support will cover Arabic, Urdu, Pashto, Kashmiri and other written languages using the base Arabic script.

The magazine is an intriguing tri-lingual production published by the Cultural Office of Saudi Arabia in Germany with the layout prepared by Professor Rayan Abdullah’s team at Markenbau. The magazine starts with German and English articles using Latin script at one cover (reading left-to-right) and articles written in Arabic from the other cover (reading right-to-left).

Following on from the recent posts about adding Kashmiri/Pashto ringed characters and the Arabic update from the start of 2011, the most significant change to highlight is the that the diagonal dots (ʾiʿǧām / إعجام‎) have been changed to a horizontal layout.

The resulting arrangement is now closer to an equilateral triangle, and the dots closer to a circle.

(Thank you to Abdallah, Björn Ali Göransson, Chamfay, Masoud, Muhammad Negm, Nizarus, Reda Lazr and others who each took the time to comment and give feedback about the earlier diagonal dot angle).