Support Farsi(Persian)/Arabic fonts in Android

[Amirr Karimi]

I wanna open for instance www.bbc.co.uk/persian
I am really surprised that Google does not seem to have a great
support page for their product!!!
Is there any application for make persian/Arabic font reader on
Android...
Would anyone can a persian reader application on Android?

[Keyhan]

I have had this problem for a long time. This is something that works
in Iphone from day one, but Android has managed to miss this even for
Android 2.3. some of the manufcturors has tried to fix the problem by
themselves, so for example samsung firmware for middle east can handle
arabic alphabet, but the real solution will come with Android 2.4 I
guess (the one after gingerbread for mobile phones).

For browsing the internet and writing sms there are though
applications that can show the text correctly. Try persian browser and
persian soft keyboard on android market.

On 3 mar, 07:07, Amirr Karimi <amirr.kar...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I wanna open for instancewww.bbc.co.uk/persian

[Shachar Shemesh]

On 03/03/11 16:35, Keyhan wrote:
> I have had this problem for a long time. This is something that works
> in Iphone from day one, but Android has managed to miss this even for
> Android 2.3. some of the manufcturors has tried to fix the problem by
> themselves, so for example samsung firmware for middle east can handle
> arabic alphabet, but the real solution will come with Android 2.4 I
> guess (the one after gingerbread for mobile phones).
>
> For browsing the internet and writing sms there are though
> applications that can show the text correctly. Try persian browser and
> persian soft keyboard on android market.
>

The fonts are supposed to be there (only regular, sadly). There are bidi
problems, and the system does not perform shaping, but things should, at
least, be somewhat readable. Of all the things you need to read Farsi,
the fonts are the one thing you do have.... :-)

Shachar

--
Shachar Shemesh
Lingnu Open Source Consulting Ltd.
http://www.lingnu.com

[Keyhan Hadjari]

hi shachar. the problem is that the fonts are either disconnected from
each other and sometimes worse, they are shown from left to right. As
said samsung has for example a rom for israel and middle east where
arabic and persian is also supported, so i guess other manufacturors
have also solved the issue. the question is why their solution is not
used in vanila android till the full bidi support has been
implemented.

KH

--
-----------------------
Keyhan Hadjari
http://keyhansworld.blogspot.com

[Shachar Shemesh]

On 05/03/11 15:30, Keyhan Hadjari wrote:
> hi shachar. the problem is that the fonts are either disconnected from
> each other and sometimes worse, they are shown from left to right. As
> said samsung has for example a rom for israel and middle east where
> arabic and persian is also supported, so i guess other manufacturors
> have also solved the issue. the question is why their solution is not
> used in vanila android till the full bidi support has been
> implemented.
>
> KH
>

The letters not joining is not a font problem, but a display shaping
problem. The fonts do have the necessary glyphs, but the engine does not
do a good enough job of asking for them when it needs to.

The local distributers' BiDi solutions are either based on proprietary
solutions, are of insufficient technical quality, and in some cases,
both. They are often based on the CyanogenMod solution, so if you simply
need a working BiDi, you can use a CM build.

[Amirr Karimi]

Hi there,
What is BiDi application?
I dont have access to android market because my tablet is'nt in Google
Android suporrted List:(
Do you have any Direct Link For these applications?
I Know the language problems solved with rooting on the phone, and
then copy/replace the persian fonts and library in System/Library and
fonts! but i do'nt have any permission for it? why? i dont know?
somebody told me: this problem Solved By ADB programm on the PC, but
it does'nt Detect my Tablet(Creative ZiiO7)!!

Do you have any opinion for this problems?


Regards
Amirreza Karimi

[Guoyong Guo]

Hi Shachar,

    Thank you for you tips.For the first, I just add fonts for the android platform, now i know it's not essence of the problem.it's about bidi,engine and so on.BTW, if i want to my android support RTL , which things should we change on the android sourcecode, looking forward to your reply. 

[Keyhan]

BIDI is bidirectional text, like in Persian where the alphabet is
written from right to left but the digits are written from left to
right. It puts more complexity on how to edit and display text.

About the applications, I really do not know if you can download them
from anywhere else than the android market, but you can always google
for them and see if you can find a link. The keyboard seems to need
android 2.2 though since I could not find it in the market when my
phone was running 2.1.

Schachar I am running latest Desire HD ROM, you know if the rom that
you wrote about is available for this model and if it is possible to
install it without rooting the phone?

Also I think 99.99% of people do not care if the solution is not
perfect as long as they can do basic reading and writing.

[Vizinoz]

Hi Amir,

I have gone through the same soul searching than you.
My wide is persian and she has had difficulty reading emails and sms'
ever since she moved to an android platform smartphone.

I have found a Persian specific web browser that you might to try
out...
http://www.androidzoom.com/android_applications/communication/persian-browser_jxpa.html

Let me know how you go with this, I would be interested.

I am still looking for a simple plug-in which will help read sms' and
emails though so if anyone comes across something which does not
involve any geeky twigging, this would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers
Yves

On Mar 3, 5:07 pm, Amirr Karimi <amirr.kar...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I wanna open for instancewww.bbc.co.uk/persian

> I am really surprised that Google does not seem to have a great
> support page for their product!!!

> Is there any application for makepersian/Arabic font reader on

[Shachar Shemesh]

On 07/03/11 10:14, Keyhan wrote:
> Schachar I am running latest Desire HD ROM, you know if the rom that
> you wrote about is available for this model and if it is possible to
> install it without rooting the phone?
>

You cannot change the system's behavior without rooting the phone.

> Also I think 99.99% of people do not care if the solution is not
> perfect as long as they can do basic reading and writing.
>

In the default Android implementation up to Honeycomb, numbers written
after Hebrew letters would appear from right to left. This is a very
difficult problem to not care about. I've heard stories of people
waiting at the wrong end of a street due to the address being sent via SMS.

I seem to remember that this problem does not happen for numbers that
follow Arabic letters, but looking at the Unicode Bidi Algorithm I see
no reason for such a difference (there are other subtleties where there
is, though, so it's not completely impossible). If that is the case, it
might not affect you, in which case the built-in BiDi might, actually,
be good enough. At least in Israel, it is quite impossible to use an
Andoird phone without patching its BiDi.

Shachar

Found an unpatched phone and checked. For some reason, the numbers,
indeed, do not get reversed after Arabic like they do after Hebrew. I
have no idea why that is, as, like I said, they should get the same
levels under the same circumstances.