Since my old K3 firmware didn't support embedded fonts that replace Unicode ranges covered by code2000.ttf, I decided to get a PW2.
Unfortunately, Amazon still hasn't fixed this issue. While my K3 wouldn't display Arabic glyphs from embedded fonts at all, my PW2 does display Arabic glyphs right-to-left, but doesn't do glyph shaping at all.
Basically, it displays Arabic text like the text in the second line of this Wikipedia image (i.e. right-to-left, but with isolated letter forms instead of shaped letter forms):
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If I disable the Publisher Font option (by selecting Caecilia as the default font) Arabic text is displayed using the glyphs from the code2000.ttf fallback font, which are really hard to read.
It'd be great if someone with USB network access to their Kindle PW could do the following simple test:
1. Rename code2000.ttf to code2000.bak in the Kindle fonts folder.
2. Copy Arial Unicode MS (ARIALUNI.TTF) from your Windows machine to the Kindle fonts folder and rename it to code2000.ttf or modify whatever file in /etc/fonts/conf.d needs to be modified so that the replacement font is used instead of code2000.ttf for all glyphs not covered by the default fonts. (If you have a Linux machine, just use the old default Arial font (arial.TTF) from the Core fonts for the Web package, which come pre-installed with most distros.)
3. Copy my test file to the \documents folder on your Kindle, open it and disable the Publisher Fonts option or select Caecilia as the default.
If the Kindle then displays the Arabic text correctly with the glyphs from the Arial font, I'd really appreciate it, if someone could package a noob friendly font hack .bin file that'll automatically replace code2000.ttf with another user-defined fallback font.
I'm sure that many Kindle users who speak (or learn) languages that use the Arabic alphabet (e.g. Arabic, Persian, Sorani Kurdish, Urdu etc.) would be very grateful for this.
Unfortunately, Amazon still hasn't fixed this issue. While my K3 wouldn't display Arabic glyphs from embedded fonts at all, my PW2 does display Arabic glyphs right-to-left, but doesn't do glyph shaping at all.
Basically, it displays Arabic text like the text in the second line of this Wikipedia image (i.e. right-to-left, but with isolated letter forms instead of shaped letter forms):
If I disable the Publisher Font option (by selecting Caecilia as the default font) Arabic text is displayed using the glyphs from the code2000.ttf fallback font, which are really hard to read.
It'd be great if someone with USB network access to their Kindle PW could do the following simple test:
1. Rename code2000.ttf to code2000.bak in the Kindle fonts folder.
2. Copy Arial Unicode MS (ARIALUNI.TTF) from your Windows machine to the Kindle fonts folder and rename it to code2000.ttf or modify whatever file in /etc/fonts/conf.d needs to be modified so that the replacement font is used instead of code2000.ttf for all glyphs not covered by the default fonts. (If you have a Linux machine, just use the old default Arial font (arial.TTF) from the Core fonts for the Web package, which come pre-installed with most distros.)
3. Copy my test file to the \documents folder on your Kindle, open it and disable the Publisher Fonts option or select Caecilia as the default.
If the Kindle then displays the Arabic text correctly with the glyphs from the Arial font, I'd really appreciate it, if someone could package a noob friendly font hack .bin file that'll automatically replace code2000.ttf with another user-defined fallback font.
I'm sure that many Kindle users who speak (or learn) languages that use the Arabic alphabet (e.g. Arabic, Persian, Sorani Kurdish, Urdu etc.) would be very grateful for this.