Alreq shadow

1. Characters and Words

1.1 Punctuation

Issue 1

List of non-ASCII punctuation and description of usage and frequency.
Use and positioning of punctuation marks in the sentence.
Use of paired punctuation marks.

1.2 Text Segmentation

Issue 2

Should all ligatures be selectable as a single unit, or as individual parts corresponding to the underlying characters?

1.3 Positioning diacritics relative to base characters

Issue 3

Some applications allow adjustment of the distance between the diacritics and the base character. Is this a requirement for most text systems?
What about adjustment to the horizontal position of the diacritic?
Should it be possible to influence whether a font places the kasra below the base character or immediately below the shadda, when combined with the latter?

1.4 Letter-spacing

Issue 4

Is this really letter-spacing, or is it seen as something different?
Can we codify any rules for how the elongation happens? Are they the same rules as for justification? (Probably not, in the case of mimicking voice.)

1.5 Handling oblique and italicised text in Arabic

Describe the problem here.

Issue 5

Which way should oblique/italic text slant in Arabic?

Issue 6

Misuse of generic font styles.

1.6 Considerations for mixed-script text

Issue 7

What are the font-size aspects that must be considered in mixed text scenarios?

1.7 Numbers

1.7.1 Families of Numerals

As a consequence, the following sentences, having the similar content, result in a very different ordering in a right-to-left context:

Five is written ۵ in Iran and ٥ in Egypt.

Five is written ۵ in Iran and 5 in Morocco.

Issue 8

What is the origin of this decision. More important, what is the observed effect of these differences in normal Arabic script text?

1.7.2 Arabic number in other uses

/ [U+002F SOLIDUS] is used for fractions or ratio notation. Fractions are noted for one-half, say, 2/1 or ٢/١, mostly in RTL mode. There is no standard approach, however, and some region/author may write 1/2 for European digits.
Issue 9
May be use image for examples.
Notation with Solidus sign " / " are used in:
- Dates (2017/06/24, ٢٠١٧/٠٦/٢٤)
  Issue 10
  Look for evidence for some examples

Other issues

Issue 11

How to know that a sign (space, comma ...) is a separator or a sign within a number? +12 34 56 78 90 is a phone number or a sequence of digits? Which may be inverted in RTL. A tip is to use a syntax like 12.34.56.78.90 or 12-34-56-78-90 for phones.

Issue 12

Maybe mention the Decimal Separator Key Symbol " ⎖ " (U+2396), used with keyboards (resembles an apostrophe)

Old text below

Arabic script uses non-European digits for numbers in certain locales and situations.

Arabic digits are also used for counters (see ).

Issue 13

Describe the arabic-indic digits, and when they are used, including the distinction between arabic-indic and eastern-arabic-indic digits.

Issue 14

Provide resources and guidelines on how to choose the right set of numerals based on the language.

2. Lines and Paragraphs

2.1 Line breaking

Issue 15

In Urdu words are not necessarily bounded by spaces. What method is used for determining appropriate break points in this case?
What other characters besides SPACE constitute break points for automatic line wrapping?
What are the rules for hyphenation in Arabic script text?
The CSS Text spec says "When shaping scripts such as Arabic are allowed to break within words due to hyphenation, the characters must still be shaped as if the word were not broken." The example shows Uighur text with a hyphen at the end of a line and with shaped characters at line end and start. Is this normal in Arabic and Persian text also?
In some styles of CJK typesetting, English words are allowed to break between any two letters, rather than only at spaces or hyphenation points. Are the rules different form Arabic script text?
The CSS spec says "When shaping scripts such as Arabic are allowed to break within words due to break-all, the characters must still be shaped as if the word were not broken." Is this true?
The CSS hanging-punctuation property allows the arabic comma and arabic full stop to hang in the margin, rather than wrapping them to the next line. Is this appropriate?

2.1.1 Characters that cannot end or start a line

Issue 16

What are they?
Are the rules language specific?
What's the usual course of action to avoid incorrect placement?
Are the rules applied consistently everywhere?

2.1.2 Hyphenation

Issue 17

Does Arabic script text use hyphenation? If so, is the use of hyphenation language-specific?
What are the rules? Are there any general rules that transcend all languages?

2.2 Justification

Issue 18

Drop “elongation” from title of this section. It’s one of the mechanisms used for justification.
Make sure “elongation,” “kashida,” and “tatweel,” have correct definitions in our glossary.
Improve the images.

Note: Notes, Links, …

Discussion at ALReq meeting on 28 June, 2016
Justify Just or Just Justify
Arabic text justification
Thomas Milo’s “Arabic script and typography: A brief historical view”
Tasmeem Manual
Justifying Text using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) in Internet Explorer 5.5

Issue 19

What are the rules for elongation of inter-character baselines, and how do they differ from one font style to another?
When is it appropriate to use which method?
Is the tatweel character useful?
What should happen if an application uses a Ruqʻah font as a fallback, which cannot allow for word elongation? Does the application need to automatically know that it should not stretch words when using this font style?
How does an application or person decide which methods to use, and where, to justify text?
The CSS Text spec says: that, apart from elongation, applications "must assume that no justification opportunity exists between any pair of typographic letter units in cursive script (regardless of whether they join). " Is this correct? InDesign, for example, allows alterations of gaps in the middle of a word where one character doesn't join with the following character.
Should the CSS letter-spacing property have any effect on Arabic script text?

2.3 Paragraph and line alignment

Lines of Arabic script text are normally right aligned within the page.

Issue 20

When a list on an Arabic page contains an item that is completely composed of LTR text, should the list item be right- or left-aligned on the page?
If a list item is left-aligned on an Arabic page because it contains only LTR text, should the list item counter be to the right or to the left?
Is it common to indent the first line of a paragraph? How much?

2.4 Tab settings

Issue 21

What is there to say?

2.5 Styling the initial text in a paragraph

Issue 22

Does this apply? If so, is there an equivalent to first-letter styling or is it word-based?
Is the line initial punctuation included?

2.6 Counters, lists, etc

Arabic script text may use special counter styles for lists, numbering headings, pages, etc., based on Arabic script characters.

Issue 23

List the main counter sequences, and how they work. Cf. the ready-made counter styles for CSS.
how to choose the right set of numerals based on the language?

2.7 Special cases

Issue 24

poetry, math, vertical text, etc?

2.7.1 Vertical text

2.7.1.1 Upright vertical Arabic text

Issue 25

We need to establish whether this is a standard approach or just an oddity. The items in the list above are important to note, however, we need to check whether isolated forms are always used, and the direction is always top to bottom when upright letters are used.