Use Kashida (Tatweel) to make mashq elongations

aliftype / raqq

Raqq (رَقّ) is a manuscript Kufic typeface

https://aliftype.com/raqq

GNU Affero General Public License v3.0

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Use Kashida (Tatweel) to make mashq elongations #22

Closed ClassicAJ closed 9 months ago

ClassicAJ commented 9 months ago

Perhaps you can code the font such that you can make the mashq elongation function more easily accessible by using the Tatweel character to say that the adjacent (elongatable) letter should be lengthened by one level.

khaledhosny commented 9 months ago

I have considered this, but it has several issues:

It would require adding around 50 more new glyphs for each glyph that can elongate (around 30 glyphs), so that 50 * 30 = 1500 more glyphs
It can’t handle isolated/final forms properly. E.g. how can one elongate the ص in قص or رص? Adding a tatweel after the ص will tern it into initial/medial form, قصـ and رصـ
It can’t handle shrinking

So it would too much work and still not be a suitable replacement/alternative to using font variations.

ClassicAJ commented 9 months ago

Oh. I might as well try to use something that supports per-rasm custom variables then.

khaledhosny commented 9 months ago

If it helps, I often try to apply the variation settings to a full calligraphic syllable (the smallest part of the word with all letters connected) and separate them by spaces e.g. write الدين as ا لد ين then apply the variations to the لد part. This prevents it from breaking shaping and the extra spaces enable the old-style line breaking inside the word seen in Kufic manuscripts.