The Communications of the TEX Users Group Volume 29 ... - TUG

Table 1 shows the MOS scores for individual words
of each font and the total average.
Table 1: MOS results for each font.
The results clearly show an increased comfort
with the parameterized font with respect to the other
popularly used fonts. One feature clearly distinguishing
the different fonts is kerning. This is very evident
in words 1, 3, 5, 6, 9, 11, 13, and 14 which had kerning
applied. The addition of smooth kashīdas for
extension also results in a large difference in scores
as with words 7, 10, and especially 12 which contains
a long kashīda. The results of word 15 show that the
use of complex ligatures is also an important feature
for the comfort of readers. We believe that more
work and collaboration with calligraphers can yield
even better results.
Meta-designing parameterized Arabic fonts for AlQalam
6 Conclusion
The work covered in this paper is just a small step
towards the realization of a system to produce output
comparable to that created by Arabic calligraphers,
and much more work is still needed. We need to complete
our design and finish all the required shapes.
There is a strong need for non-engineering research
on the readability and legibility of the different
kinds of Arabic fonts comparable to the many studies
conducted on Latin letters. It is important to
categorize the different calligraphers’ writing styles
as well as the regular computer typefaces: are they
easy and fast to read in long texts, or not? Which
are better to use in titles or other ‘isolated’ materials,
and which are better for the running text?
By presenting our effort, we hope to open the
door for future exciting work from many researchers.
References
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[3] Mohamed Jamal Eddine Benatia, Mohamed
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[4] Donald E. Knuth. Computer Modern Typefaces,
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[5] Mahdy Elsayyed Mahmoud. al-khatt al-‘arabi,
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[6] Thomas Milo. Arabic script and typography:
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[7] Ameer M. Sherif and Hossam A. H. Fahmy.
Parameterized Arabic font development for
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[8] Ahmad Sabry Zayed. ahdath al-turuq leta‘leem
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TUGboat, Volume 29 (2008), No. 3 — Proceedings of the 2008 Annual Meeting 443