From my last trip to Bibliotheca Alexandrina’s Calligraphic Center :)

This is third release in the alpha series, another bug fix release. Download from the usual place, and check the release notes (in Arabic).

This is second release in the alpha series, mainly a bug fix release. Download from the usual place, and check the release notes (in Arabic).

I just uploaded the first release of Amiri, an alpha release.

* Only alphabetic characters:
    * no vowel marks
    * no punctuation
    * no numbers
* Only Arabic languages is supported:
    * no support for other Arabic script languages, though the underlying structure is all there
    * no support for special Koranic marks
* No proper spacing, there is some primitive kerning that needs more work.
* Dot positioning still needs more work
* Some combinations need more work

We now also have a web site, which also acts as a showcase for the font.

Now basic dot positioning for Arabic is done (with preliminary other Arabic script based languages), and basic spacing (no kerning yet). No vowel marks yet, almost no punctuation and no numbers, still it looks beautiful :)

Since I've been promising a release for ages, expect an alpha soon. I just need to do some clean-up, steal a front page design from somewhere and make a public launch :)

Since the first public announce of the XITS font, there have been 6 beta releases and I think the font is now more or less ready for more widespread use. The font is derived from STIX fonts and is thus under OFL, the development repository is hosted on githup. So all wonderful distribution packagers out there, please let me know if there is anything that needs to be done to facilitate packaging (anything but make files, patches are welcomed, though).

Thanks to the separation of dots and base glyphs approach, Amiri font can be easily extended to cover all additional characters required for other Arabic script using language. For example, here are all Arabic Wikipedia logos set in Amiri:

Getting out of my Amiri cave, just to tell you Amiri is there, it is real, it is no longer vapourware ;)

Well, the is actually the only readable phrase that can be written with the font right now, and no, there is no download link this time too :P

Last Friday, the long awaited (more than 10 years now?) STIX fonts were released. However, the release disappointed many people who want to typeset mathematics with STIX fonts, as they neither released LaTeX support files nor supplemented the fonts with the new OpenType MATH extension, ruling out any quality math typesetting engine.

Trying to make a joke of the continuous delay and missed milestones, I promised to provide an OpenType enriched version of the fonts ''within a week of its release, provided that I'm still alive and able to use computers'', of course not believing they would ever release it. Now they proved me wrong and actually released the fonts, so I'm pleased to announce the first beta release of XITS font.