Template:Script/Arabic/doc

This is a documentation subpage for Template:Script/Arabic.
It contains usage information, categories and other content that is not part of the original template page.

This template is to render properly Arabic-based scripts which don't use the main Arabic alphabet, also to ensure that Arabic diacritics appear properly.

Usage

{{Script/Arabic|موسوعة}} to give you موسوعة‎

The 1st parameter is mandatory and contains the text written in the Arabic script.
The optional style parameter can be used to override the generated style (for example another font size) or to specify additional CSS formattings (e.g. color).
The optional attributes parameter can be used for specifying additional HTML attributes (for example a descriptive title="...").

Use simple {{lang|ar|...}} for inline citation of Arabic language. Use {{rtl-para}} for entire paragraphs of Arabic text, however, they do not force choosing the fonts in that template.

Implementation

The template contains this phrase:

<span class="script-arabic script-Arab" dir="rtl" style="font-family:Scheherazade,Lateef,'Droid Arabic Naskh',Amiri,'Arabic Transparent',Arial,'Microsoft Sans Serif','Segoe UI','Sakkal Majalla','Microsoft Uighur','Arabic Typesetting',sans-serif,serif; font-size: 125%; font-weight: normal; {{{style|}}}" {{{attributes|}}}>{{{1}}}</span>&lrm;

The font size was fixed at 125% for better readability.
The style font-weight: normal is present to remove boldness, e.g. in section titles, because Arabic diacritics are best read only in normal weight, but also because some fonts do not exist in bold styles; without it, other fallback fonts would be used instead (possibly with lover coverage), or boldness may be synthetized from a non-bold font (making most diacritics unreadable).
Specifying the HTML attribute dir="rtl" in a span HTML element is sufficient to also activate on Wikipedia the unicode-bidi: embed style which is part of the site-wide CSS stylesheet; this HTML attribute also activates the CSS style "direction: rtl" (which should be implemented by default in browsers, but is also set in the site-wide CSS stylesheet).

Fonts information

Template intended to force following fonts if installed:

Droid Arabic Naskh (better at smaller sizes)
Scheherazade SIL International (lacks a bold weight)
Lateef SIL International (lacks a bold weight)
Amiri (does not display properly on Windows)

These fonts contain all Arabic character defined in Arabic Unicode for text in the various languages that use the Arabic script, but not all the redundant glyphs used in stylizing.

If the previous fonts are not installed, other fallback fonts would display:

Arabic Transparent, Arial (essentially look the same and lack a few characters)
Microsoft Sans Serif (lacks a few characters and lacks a bold weight)
Segoe UI (lacks a few characters and lacks a normal weight)
Sakkal Majalla
Microsoft Uighur (lacks a few characters and lacks a bold weight)
Arabic Typesetting (lacks a bold weight)

How to override fonts in user's preferences

Any user can use another font with a different size by writing the following on his custom CSS. (see Help:User style)

An example making the font size 105%, and choosing Droid Arabic Naskh to be the main font with Arial as an additional font : <source lang="css"> .script-arabic {

   font-size: 105% !important;
   font-family: 'Droid Arabic Naskh', Arial, sans-serif !important;

} </source>

Font names containing spaces (or any other character than a letter) need to be put between ' or ".

The list of fonts should always be terminated by the pseudo-font names "sans-serif" and/or "serif", to allow using the fonts defined in user preferences in their browser, or the fonts set by default in browsers.

You may choose to add the line-height phrase if you wanted to make lines in a paragraph more spaced from each other, or less spaced. line-height: 125%; Remember to put it before the }. The more number percentage, the more space is added. If you wanted to decrease the line height spacing, decrease the percentage. You may use any number (e.g. 85% or 140%) or use the special value "normal" which will properly use the minimum setting of the line-height recommended by each candidate font.

Some Arabic-based letters aren't rendered properly initially/medially by some old versions of Times New Roman : ېـ ـېـ ـې ې which is used in Pashto and Uyghur; the newest versions of the following fonts render it properly: 'Droid Arabic Naskh', Scheherazade, Lateef, 'Sakkal Majalla', 'Microsoft Uighur', 'Arabic Typesetting', 'Arabic Transparent', Arial, 'Microsoft Sans Serif', 'Segoe UI'. (The newest versions which are available free-of-charge online are marked as bold.)

A demonstration with 'Droid Arabic Naskh' added first at 105%: موسوعة.
A demonstration with Scheherazade added first at 175% (and the line-height set to the "normal" value, which is the minimum line-height recommended by each candidate font): موسوعة That font is freely available online, but if you chose to use it, you must increase the text size, because it shows it very small compared to other fonts.

Example: <source lang="css"> .script-arabic {

   font-size: 175% !important;
   /*
      The default line-height used by Wikipedia is 1.5 em, which can be lower or higher than the font default,
      reduce it to the minimum recommended for HTML by using the word normal or for example, use a percentage
      value, as 95%
   */
   line-height: 95%;
   font-family:
       /* The following fonts are recommended for best coverage fo the Arabic script: */
       Scheherazade, Lateef, 'Droid Arabic Naskh'     /* free fonts */
       'Sakkal Majalla',                         /* commercial font, also installed with recent versions of Windows */
       'Microsoft Uighur', 'Arabic Typesetting', /* commercial fonts installed with recent versions of Windows */
       /* Other fonts supporting the Arabic script with partial coverage: */
       'Arabic Transparent', /* Warning! Old versions may not support a few characters. */
       Arial,                /* Warning! Old versions may not support a few characters. */
       'Times New Roman',    /* Warning! Old versions may not support a few characters. The newest version doesn't join one of the Arabic characters properly */
       /* Default fallback fonts determined in the browser: */
       sans-serif /* No comma here! */
       /* Required at end to actually enable the override and make it work : */
       !important;

} </source>

The same example without the notes: <source lang="css"> .script-arabic {

   font-size: 175% !important;
   line-height: 95%;
   font-family: Scheherazade, Lateef, 'Droid Arabic Naskh', 'Sakkal Majalla', 'Microsoft Uighur',
              'Arabic Typesetting', 'Arabic Transparent', Arial, 'Times New Roman', sans-serif !important;

} </source>