tamil in 3b2

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srikrishnan

Hi All,

I want to typeset and make PDF for some articles in our language Tamil. Can Scribus support Unicode in Tamil? Or is there any other option to typeset in Tamil Using Scribus?

Thanks in Advance,
Srikrishnan

John_Jason_Jordan

Assuming you have fonts for Tamil it should work, although I don't know enough about Tamil glyph combinations to say that with certainty. Scribus does support Unicode. Scribus can also import text from OpenOffice.org Writer files.

You didn't say what operating system you are using. I would recommend the latest version, 1.4.0 RC2.

For others who may be unfamiliar with Tamil script, it is an abugida system, mostly a syllabary with combining glyphs resulting in a couple hundred combinations. It is written left to right.
Linguistics on Linux!

srikrishnan

Hi,

Thanks for your reply

I am using scribus 1.3.6 version in Windows XP. And I have tried tamil unicode font. All the characters are not appearing correctly. Plain alphabets and vowels appearing correctly whereas comibining characters are not appearing correctly.

Thanks,
Srikrishnan

John_Jason_Jordan

Quote from: srikrishnan on March 21, 2011, 08:05:33 AMI have tried tamil unicode font. All the characters are not appearing correctly. Plain alphabets and vowels appearing correctly whereas combining characters are not appearing correctly.

I was afraid of that.

I don't know how the combining characters work, so it's hard for me to suggest a solution, and there may not be a solution. Here are a couple of things to try:

1) Write some text in another program where the characters appear correctly. Select the text, copy to the clipboard, and paste into a text frame in Scribus.

2) Try different Tamil fonts.

3) if the combining characters appear below the baseline or above the top of the characters (as in Devanagari), perhaps you need to adjust the line spacing.

What programs do you normally use to write in Tamil?
Linguistics on Linux!

srikrishnan

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.

We are normally using microsoft word, Wordpad or notepad for typing and setting Tamil using unicode font. In Scribus when copied the text from notepad, It shows the text correctly in Story Editor, but in the pages it is not display the text as per in the Story Editor.

Here I have pasted the print screen for your reference.


Thanks,
Srikrishnan

[attachment deleted by admin]

John_Jason_Jordan

Quote from: srikrishnan on March 21, 2011, 09:22:55 AMWe are normally using microsoft word, Wordpad or notepad for typing and setting Tamil using unicode font. In Scribus when copied the text from notepad, It shows the text correctly in Story Editor, but in the pages it is not display the text as per in the Story Editor.

This is encouraging.

Microsoft Word and OpenOffice.org Writer have a "helpful" feature: If the font you are using does not have a glyph they will substitute a glyph from another font that you have installed on your computer. Unfortunately, they do not tell you that they are doing this. They also do not tell you which font they substituted the glyphs from.

Scribus, on the other hand, will not do this in canvas view or in printing or export to PDF. The reason Scribus does not do this is because it is designed for printing on a printing press by a print company. It would be a disaster if the print company does not have the same fonts installed because the final print job would have missing glyphs. However, Scribus does substitute in the Story Editor. Therefore, the experience you are describing tells me that the font you are using does not have all the glyphs and Scribus is substituting the glyphs from a different font for the Story Editor, but is refusing to do so in canvas view or in printing or export to PDF.

I am guessing that if you use different fonts that have a complete set of glyphs for Tamil the problem will resolve itself. Unfortunately, I do not have a way to test this for you. I suggest you search for other fonts and try them out. I know there are some free open source fonts designed for Tamil that you should be able to find on the internet.
Linguistics on Linux!

mrdocs

Quote from: srikrishnan on March 21, 2011, 09:22:55 AM
Hi,

Thanks for your reply.

We are normally using microsoft word, Wordpad or notepad for typing and setting Tamil using unicode font. In Scribus when copied the text from notepad, It shows the text correctly in Story Editor, but in the pages it is not display the text as per in the Story Editor.

Here I have pasted the print screen for your reference.


Thanks,
Srikrishnan

Scribus does not yet handle Tamil, but work is on-going in an experimental branch of 1.5.0. Handling glyph combining in Tamil, like Hindi or Arabic is difficult to do properly in the typographic sense.


SodiumBenzoate

Are there any updates for the experimental branch of 1.5.0 that may or may not include combined characters? I would like to use Scribus for our advert publishing, but I need a Korean and Arabic glyph combinations working :-)

a.l.e

hi sodiumbenzoate,

some work has been done to get indic language to work on scribus and the patches are being checked.

i don't know what the needs for korean are, but for arabic we still need help from contributors. and now we are getting ready to accept that help!
so, if you know somebody who is willing and has the skills to help out, i think that he or she will be very welcome!

have a nice evening
a.l.e

SodiumBenzoate

#9
Quote from: a.l.e on August 31, 2012, 06:20:04 AM
i don't know what the needs for korean are, but for arabic we still need help from contributors. and now we are getting ready to accept that help!

As I work in a multilingual school, I do know a few people who have vast knowledge of their respective languages and some background in publishing. If you can tell me what kind of information you would need contributed, I can try to enlist some of the masses here.

Thanks,
~SB

thiagarajan

Hai..
Pls update on this. Would be much helpful.

cmalatheef

Hi all,

I am latheef from India, also need help for using Malayalam unicode fonts. I am using Scribus 1.4.6 in windows 7 Ultimate. it seems copy paste from other editors also not working. Plz help.

a.l.e

the support for arabic and indic languages has been added to the development code of scribus.

the work has been done by the [url src="http://host-oman.blogspot.ch/"]HOST group in oman[/url].

- you can get the current development code build for linux, mac or windows or
- wait for the release of the develpment release 1.5.3 (will be very soon)
- wait for the release of the next stable version 1.6 (this will take some more time).

just be warned that development code is normally not meant for production.