Arabic document composition with TEX

Azzeddine LAZREK
University Cadi Ayyad, Faculty of Sciences

Department of Computer Science

Marrakesh - Morocco

[email protected]
http://www.ucam.ac.ma/fssm/rydarab

2008
Outline

1 Arabic text composition

Engines
Others packages
ArabTEX
Ω
Arabi

2 Arabic mathematical document composition

Mathematical font
RyDArab
CurExt

3 DadTEX  A full Arabic interface

Objective
Characteristics
 Engines
Arabic text composition Others packages
Arabic mathematical document composition ArabTEX
DadTEX  A full Arabic interface Ω
Arabi

Although the typesetting system TEX was originally designed

especially for composition of mathematical documents, it has
become a very ne system for typesetting documents in many other
elds. The Arabic alphabetbased scripts are some of the linguistic
contexts where the use of TEX has been progressively adapted.
TEX-XET - 1987: D. Knuth and P. MacKay, Department of
Near Eastern Languages and Civilization in University
of Washington, presented the basic principles of a
system of mixing LTR and RTL text based on TEX.
These principles of bi-directionality and inversion
character glyphs are appointed TEX-XET and viewed
throw dvi-ivd.
Primitives: \beginR, \endR, \beginL, \endL

Azzeddine LAZREK 3/25 Arabic document composition with TEX

 Engines
Arabic text composition Others packages
Arabic mathematical document composition ArabTEX
DadTEX  A full Arabic interface Ω
Arabi

TEX--XET - 1992: developed by Peter Breitenlohner under the

aegis of DANTE. It is an extended of TEX-XET
integrated in ε-TEX
bidi - 2007: developed by François Charette as an
extended of TEX--XET

ε-TEX ε-LATEX 1997: developed as part of the N T S project,

supported by DANTE, and compatible with TEX
http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/systems/e-tex/
MlTEX : developed by Michael Ferguson
XETEX : developed by Jonathan Kew, extended ε-TEX
http://scripts.sil.org/xetex

Azzeddine LAZREK 4/25 Arabic document composition with TEX

 Engines
Arabic text composition Others packages
Arabic mathematical document composition ArabTEX
DadTEX  A full Arabic interface Ω
Arabi

RTL capabilities

TEX programs with Right-to-Left capabilities, knowing the

primitives: \beginR, \endR, \beginL, \endL
? teTEX for UNIX/Linux: ε-TEX
? NTEX for UNIX: TEX--XET
? Web2C for Windows, the default TEX program in MikTEX
? DirectTEX for Older Mac OS: TEX--XET
? XETEX for Mac OS X, Linux and Windows
? TEX Live CD-ROMs distributed by TUG

Azzeddine LAZREK 5/25 Arabic document composition with TEX

 Engines
Arabic text composition Others packages
Arabic mathematical document composition ArabTEX
DadTEX  A full Arabic interface Ω
Arabi

Abandante packages
Fanton - 1990: Michel Fanton, INALCO in France,
experimente a system based on TEX-XET
ArabicTEX - 1994: developed by Y. Halalambous, integrated in
DOS-GUT then in Win-GUT GUTenberg interface.
ftp://ftp.gutenberg.eu.org/pub/GUTenberg/PC/WINDOWS/Documentation_supp/manuel.ps

Al-Amal - 1996: developed by Y. Halalambous allowing for

bi-directionality. It uses fonts (Naskhi) designed with
METAFONT and covering all Arabic characters
codied by Unicode. It is a part of ScholarTEX. It is
a system comprising: an extension of macros, a series
of fonts, a preprocessor, utilities (scholars) and
compilers for multiple languages (Arabic, Armenian,
Hebrew, Greek, . . . ).

Azzeddine LAZREK 6/25 Arabic document composition with TEX

 Engines
Arabic text composition Others packages
Arabic mathematical document composition ArabTEX
DadTEX  A full Arabic interface Ω
Arabi

Maintened packages
Aleph - 2005: new engine combines the features of ε-TEX
and Ω. lamed is the LATEX format using Aleph.
http://www.tug.org/TUGboat/Articles/tb25-1/
bilotta.pdf
http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html
AlQalam 2006: developed by Hossam A. H. Fahmy
ARABXETEX - 2007: package developped by François Charette
for bidictional text. It provides a convenient
ArabTEX-like user-interface for typesetting languages
using the Arabic script, with exible access to font
features. It can be used in XELATEX and also with
any ε-TEX-based engine, notably pdfLATEX.
http://scripts.sil.org/TECkit

Azzeddine LAZREK 7/25 Arabic document composition with TEX

 Engines
Arabic text composition Others packages
Arabic mathematical document composition ArabTEX
DadTEX  A full Arabic interface Ω
Arabi

RTL script package developed by Klaus Lagally, University of

Stuttgart, 1990:
? Roman transliteration or Arabic encoding: ISO8859-6, UTF-8
? Important algorithm for Hamza position
? Contextual analyze by some TEX macros
? Confection of Naskh Arabic font
http://www.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/ifi/bs/research/arab_e.html
Example: .

Azzeddine LAZREK 8/25 Arabic document composition with TEX

 Engines
Arabic text composition Others packages
Arabic mathematical document composition ArabTEX
DadTEX  A full Arabic interface Ω
Arabi

Unicode enhanced version of TEX developed by John Plaice,

University of Sydney, and Yannis Haralambous, Fluxus Virus then
ENSTB, 1995:
? Unicode input
? Unicode processing
? Multi-lingual composition
http://omega.enstb.org/
Example: .
Process: .

Azzeddine LAZREK 9/25 Arabic document composition with TEX

 Engines
Arabic text composition Others packages
Arabic mathematical document composition ArabTEX
DadTEX  A full Arabic interface Ω
Arabi

Arabic and Farsi scripts package developed by Youssef Jabri, Oujda

University, 2005:
? used in any TEX engine supporting RTL directionality
? accepts input in several 8-bit encodings: UTF-8, ISO8859-6, CP1256
? is a pure LATEX/Babel approach to Arabic typesetting, so
contextual analysis is done in the fonts
http://theory.uwinnipeg.ca/scripts/CTAN/language/arabic/arabi.zip
Example: .

Azzeddine LAZREK 10/25 Arabic document composition with TEX

 Arabic text composition Mathematical font
Arabic mathematical document composition RyDArab
DadTEX  A full Arabic interface CurExt

Features of mathematical expressions w.r.t. regular text:

Specic
Z symbols:
√
, , ∇, . . .
variable sizes and
r shapes:
√ p a
a, a + b ,
b
Bi-dimensional:
1 0 0
 
a
, x, x , i
 0 1 0 
c +d
i

0 0 1

Azzeddine LAZREK 11/25 Arabic document composition with TEX

 Arabic text composition Mathematical font
Arabic mathematical document composition RyDArab
DadTEX  A full Arabic interface CurExt

Features of mathematical expressions w.r.t. regular text:

Specic
Z symbols:
√
, , ∇, . . .
variable sizes and
r shapes:
√ p a
a, a + b ,
b
Bi-dimensional:
1 0 0
 
a
, x, x , i
 0 1 0 
c +d
i

0 0 1

Azzeddine LAZREK 11/25 Arabic document composition with TEX

 Arabic text composition Mathematical font
Arabic mathematical document composition RyDArab
DadTEX  A full Arabic interface CurExt

Features of mathematical expressions w.r.t. regular text:

Specic
Z symbols:
√
, , ∇, . . .
variable sizes and
r shapes:
√ p a
a, a + b ,
b
Bi-dimensional:
1 0 0
 
a
, x, x , i
 0 1 0 
c +d
i

0 0 1

Azzeddine LAZREK 11/25 Arabic document composition with TEX

 Arabic text composition Mathematical font
Arabic mathematical document composition RyDArab
DadTEX  A full Arabic interface CurExt

Creating a mathematical font is a complex artistic and technical task

RamzArab .
Design and development of the OpenType font RamzArab that
tries to meet, as far as possible, the requirements of:
Homogeneity: designing symbols with the same feather for
homogeneous shapes, sizes, boldness, . . .
Completeness: regrouping most of the usual specic Arabic
symbols in use
Originality: observing the most of practical calligraphic rules

Azzeddine LAZREK 12/25 Arabic document composition with TEX

 Arabic text composition Mathematical font
Arabic mathematical document composition RyDArab
DadTEX  A full Arabic interface CurExt

Unicode
The Unicode Standard provides a quite complete set of standard
mathematical characters. There is a good deal of symbols found in
Arabic mathematical handbooks that are not yet part of the
Unicode Standard and can't be obtained through a simple mirroring
nor through a simple implementation process. Some of such special
characters, designed in RamzArab, are proposed for inclusion into
the Unicode Standard and now are on discussion.
Until their adoption by Unicode, the symbols used in these tools
will be located in the Private Use Area E000-F8FF in the Basic
Multilingual Plane.

Azzeddine LAZREK 13/25 Arabic document composition with TEX

 Arabic text composition Mathematical font
Arabic mathematical document composition RyDArab
DadTEX  A full Arabic interface CurExt

RyDArab system preserves all the distinguished qualities:

a full numerical composition
a high typographical quality
oering several options to adapt it to areas and levels
generating documents in several formats (DVI, PS, PDF)
producing documents in format HTML with image based
mathematical expressions
towards transformation from/to OpenMath MathML
N

same commands structure in order to automatist translation

(Ar, En, Fr)
http://www.ucam.ac.ma/fssm/rydarab

.
Azzeddine LAZREK 14/25 Arabic document composition with TEX
 Arabic text composition Mathematical font
Arabic mathematical document composition RyDArab
DadTEX  A full Arabic interface CurExt

Conception of CurExt system designing some dynamic symbols.

The parentheses and Kashida symbols are representative of the
possible cases of horizontal and vertical curvilinear extensibility.
So, that can be easily generalized to other variable-sized symbols.
A lengthening of the straight line is not in conformity with the
Arabic calligraphy rules.
http://www.ucam.ac.ma/fssm/rydarab

.
Azzeddine LAZREK 15/25 Arabic document composition with TEX
 Arabic text composition Objective
Arabic mathematical document composition Characteristics
DadTEX  A full Arabic interface

Facilitate the use and understanding commands of TEX

Composer Arabic documents using only Arabic, and control,
characters (ex. \, $)
Avoiding problems due to bidirectional lines

Azzeddine LAZREK 16/25 Arabic document composition with TEX

 Arabic text composition Objective
Arabic mathematical document composition Characteristics
DadTEX  A full Arabic interface

Facilitate the use and understanding commands of TEX

Composer Arabic documents using only Arabic, and control,
characters (ex. \, $)
Avoiding problems due to bidirectional lines

Azzeddine LAZREK 16/25 Arabic document composition with TEX

 Arabic text composition Objective
Arabic mathematical document composition Characteristics
DadTEX  A full Arabic interface

Facilitate the use and understanding commands of TEX

Composer Arabic documents using only Arabic, and control,
characters (ex. \, $)
Avoiding problems due to bidirectional lines

Azzeddine LAZREK 16/25 Arabic document composition with TEX

 Arabic text composition Objective
Arabic mathematical document composition Characteristics
DadTEX  A full Arabic interface

The complex and indirect methods are still used.

Causes
RyDArab et CurExt are not suciently known
TEX ≡ dicult programming language
Language barrier

Solution
Arabization of TEX
DadTEX

Azzeddine LAZREK 17/25 Arabic document composition with TEX

 Arabic text composition Objective
Arabic mathematical document composition Characteristics
DadTEX  A full Arabic interface

The complex and indirect methods are still used.

Causes
RyDArab et CurExt are not suciently known
TEX ≡ dicult programming language
Language barrier

Solution
Arabization of TEX
DadTEX

Azzeddine LAZREK 17/25 Arabic document composition with TEX

 Arabic text composition Objective
Arabic mathematical document composition Characteristics
DadTEX  A full Arabic interface

Problems related to the bidi Unicode algorithm:

Text selection

Character position
Semantic

Azzeddine LAZREK 18/25 Arabic document composition with TEX

 Arabic text composition Objective
Arabic mathematical document composition Characteristics
DadTEX  A full Arabic interface

Problems related to the bidi Unicode algorithm:

Text selection
Character position

Semantic

Azzeddine LAZREK 18/25 Arabic document composition with TEX

 Arabic text composition Objective
Arabic mathematical document composition Characteristics
DadTEX  A full Arabic interface

Problems related to the bidi Unicode algorithm:

Text selection
Character position
Semantic
\catcode‘\ =11 H
.
\catcode‘\11= H
.

Azzeddine LAZREK 18/25 Arabic document composition with TEX

 Arabic text composition Objective
Arabic mathematical document composition Characteristics
DadTEX  A full Arabic interface

Advantages
Direct: based to TEX
Portable: works on all platforms
Extensible: adding new commands
Flexible: retranslation commands
Supercial: without any change in the kernel and packages

Limits
Adapted DadTEX to other systems (Arabi)
Using RyDArab with Omega into DadTEX
Advanced use of Arabic-Indic numbers
Localization of lenames
Example: .
Azzeddine LAZREK 19/25 Arabic document composition with TEX
 Arabic text composition Objective
Arabic mathematical document composition Characteristics
DadTEX  A full Arabic interface

Advantages
Direct: based to TEX
Portable: works on all platforms
Extensible: adding new commands
Flexible: retranslation commands
Supercial: without any change in the kernel and packages

Limits
Adapted DadTEX to other systems (Arabi)
Using RyDArab with Omega into DadTEX
Advanced use of Arabic-Indic numbers
Localization of lenames
Example: .
Azzeddine LAZREK 19/25 Arabic document composition with TEX
The End

Thank you!
 Arabic text composition Objective
Arabic mathematical document composition Characteristics
DadTEX  A full Arabic interface

ArabTEX example /
Source Result

test1 √ test1
 × √  ×
úÍð@ a éËðAm úÍð@ a éËðAm
a+b a+b
√ √
éJ
KA K b
 ×
éËðAm éJ
KA K b
 ×
éËðAm
test2 test2

Azzeddine LAZREK
1 22/25 Arabic document
1 composition with TEX
 Arabic text composition Objective
Arabic mathematical document composition Characteristics
DadTEX  A full Arabic interface

Ω example /
Source Result

test1 √ test1
 × √  ×
úÍð@ a éËðAm úÍð@ a éËðAm
a+b a+b
√ √
éJ
KA K b
 ×
éËðAm éJ
KA K b
 ×
éËðAm
test2 test2

Azzeddine LAZREK
1 23/25 Arabic document
1 composition with TEX
 Arabic text composition Objective
Arabic mathematical document composition Characteristics
DadTEX  A full Arabic interface

Ω process /

omega test.tex TEX

lambda test.tex LTEX
A

oxdvi test.dvi
odvips -o test.ps test.dvi
gv test.ps

Azzeddine LAZREK 24/25 Arabic document composition with TEX

 Arabic text composition Objective
Arabic mathematical document composition Characteristics
DadTEX  A full Arabic interface

Arabi example /

Source Result

Azzeddine LAZREK 25/25 Arabic document composition with TEX

 Arabic text composition Objective
Arabic mathematical document composition Characteristics
DadTEX  A full Arabic interface

RyDArab example /

Source Result

Azzeddine LAZREK 26/25 Arabic document composition with TEX

 Arabic text composition Objective
Arabic mathematical document composition Characteristics
DadTEX  A full Arabic interface

CurExt example /

Source Result

Azzeddine LAZREK 27/25 Arabic document composition with TEX

 Arabic text composition Objective
Arabic mathematical document composition Characteristics
DadTEX  A full Arabic interface

DadTEX example /

Azzeddine LAZREK 28/25 Arabic document composition with TEX

 Arabic text composition Objective
Arabic mathematical document composition Characteristics
DadTEX  A full Arabic interface

RamzArab Arabic mathematical symbols /

Azzeddine LAZREK 29/25 Arabic document composition with TEX