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Lateef Alpha Version 1.280 (test release)

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@LornaSIL LornaSIL released this 16 Dec 21:41
· 623 commits to master since this release

We are happy to announce the release of Lateef Alpha 1.280. An alpha means that the font is not ready for production use, although you may find it useful already.

The purpose of this alpha is for us to receive feedback on the following:

  1. We have added a lot of new characters, improved designs, and changed the internals of how the font works. So, we want general feedback on design and behavior.

  2. An even more exciting piece of this alpha is that we are giving you a bold! We need feedback on how bold to go.

We really need people to install and use the font for about a month. We would like you to review and give us feedback (with screenshots) on anything unexpected that you encounter.

This release provides both regular and bold fonts with a complete set of all the Arabic script characters in the Arabic and Arabic-Supplement blocks as well as a few characters in the Arabic Extended-A block.

Please try to use both the Regular and the Bold typefaces so that you can see how they look and shape. Testing in InDesign, LibreOffice, Word, XeTeX, Paratext, Bloom, SAB, etc would be especially welcome. If you find inconsistencies in inter-word spacing keep a list of the problem pairs (like reh/jeem or waw/ain, etc). Screenshots of the problems you see will be especially helpful.

We really want feedback! Tell us if it all worked great. Tell us what apps you tested it in. Tell us what operating systems you were using.

The documentation folder in the .zip file describes all the characters the font supports and describes all the features the font supports. It includes how to use the features.

In a subfolder called Lateef Alpha 1.280 tests are some pdf files that we would like feedback on. Specifically, we are looking for feedback on the weight of the bold and the width of the space.

If you need to use TypeTuned fonts, those are currently available at a temporary URL. Go to: https://scripts.sil.org/ttw/fonts3go.cgi and select “Lateef Alpha 1.280”. Then, select the features you wish to turn on.

We would like to have all feedback by January 17. It would be most helpful for you to send in feedback as you find it rather than waiting until the deadline.

KNOWN ISSUES that we have not dealt with yet:

  • Combining marks above or below composite characters may not position correctly (e.g. If a character has nuktas above, the combining mark above may not position properly. If a character has nuktas below, the combining mark BELOW may not position properly.)
  • When text is kashida-justified in Word, the lam/alef ligature may break.
  • This version of the font does not have kerning (where characters may touch each other), so there is no need to report when a reh touches the following character, etc.
  • This version of the font has not had the linespacing values evaluated, so there is no need to report vertical linespacing issues.

IMPORTANT CHANGES to the font that we’ve made since the LateefGR 1.200 release (three and a half years ago).

  • Incorporated both OpenType and Graphite in the same font
  • Added Lateef Bold
  • Changed design of all Latin glyphs to use Crimson Pro
  • New Characters
    • Updated Latin script repertoire to support "Recommended characters for Non-Roman fonts" https://scriptsource.org/entry/gg5wm9hhd3
    • Added U+204F and U+2E41 for Sindhi language support
    • Added Arabic characters: U+0600..U+0605, U+0609..U+060B, U+060D..U+0613, U+0615..U+061A, U+0620, U+063B..U+063C, U+063E..U+063F, U+065F, U+0773..U+077F, U+08BE..U+08C2, U+08C7
  • Design
    • Redesign of some Arabic digits
    • Redesign of hook on heh-goal
    • Redesigned nuktas and variants to be more calligraphic and less geometric
    • Redesigned head of feh, qaf, waw
    • Redesigned U+06C5 for Kyrgyz language and added feature cv51, Kyrgyz OE, supporting the bar design
    • Redesigned U+0677 and U+06C7
    • Redesigned high hamza characters (U+0674..U+0678)
    • Harmonized design of many characters so that all characters in that family (eg seen, dal, feh, keheh, etc) would be consistent
    • Harmonized design of all terminals
    • Harmonized vertical stems
    • Harmonized design of small v and inverted small v characters (U+063D, U+065A, U+065B, U+0692, U+06B5, U+06C9, U+06CE, U+06EE, U+06EF, U+06FF, U+0756, U+0769, U+077E, U+08B2, U+08BE..U+08C2)
    • Harmonized design of punctuation used in Arabic script
    • Changed scaling for some quranic marks (combining) and adjusted weights
    • Revised side-bearings for many glyphs
    • Made space and nobreak space have the same width
    • Changed width of kashida
    • Many adjustments to position of anchors
    • Changed position of above nukat on U+06AD and U+06AC
    • Changed design of U+FDF2 (Allah) to include alef
  • Smarts
    • Implemented new Allah ligature rules
    • Implemented support for UNICODE ARABIC MARK RENDERING (UTR #53)
    • Added UI name strings for Graphite and OpenType features
    • Removed support for Sindhi-style heh when Sindhi language is selected
    • Removed support for Urdu-style heh when Urdu language is selected
    • Removed "Arabic U" feature
    • Removed "Show invisible characters" feature
    • Removed "Jeh hack" feature
    • Removed "Dotless head of Khah hack" feature
    • Added "Yeh hamza" feature for Kyrgyz language
    • Added Kyrgyz language support in Graphite and OpenType
    • Added Rohingya language support in Graphite and OpenType
    • Added support for Comma downward when Sindhi language is selected
    • Fixed End-of-Ayah rendering in OpenType