arabuntu.com uses pre-2010 branding

[Paul Sladen]

The Arabuntu site at:

  http://www.arabuntu.com/

uses the pre-2010 branding and font. Ubuntu Arabic is currently in development and updating of the logo should be much easier once a recent snapshot of the Ubuntu Arabic is available.

[Paul Sladen (sladen)]

Ahmed: are the correct Ahmed? The Launchpad link to:

  https://launchpad.net/~a.b.

is broken?

[Khaled Hosny (khaledhosny)]

I'm not sure why I was subscribed to this bug, but I'm no longer the Ubuntu Arabic Translators team owner and this is the first time I hear about Arabuntu. Sorry for not being so much helpful.

[Paul Sladen (sladen)]

I heard from Bruno Maag (at Dalton Maag) that he believes that the Arabic is ready and finalised stylistically.

With that in mind I thought I'd have a play with how the Arabic might work "in the wild", in this case with the Arabuntu عربونتو name. (Don't fear, this is not recommending a design, I just wanted to have a play with a real test-subject).

Khaled: ah, my apologies, I saw your name listed on the front page—you're welcome to unsubscribe from this bug report (or I can do it while you're here).

Although while you /are/ here given your background. I'm intrigued around a couple of things (remember I'm not a native Arabic reader, I _don't_ know what looks/reads better):

  1. Does the kerning between رب matter? I tried tightening it up on the lower ones. Is this better, or worse?
  2. What about the dot placement under 'b', is it an issue if it's slightly to the side.
  3. Does lengthening the baseline on ain work?
  4. Should a starting-intermediate ain (as here) have a slight downstroke at the start to match the rest of the semi-Naskh baseline (see experiment 7). Is this better, or worse?

[Paul Sladen (sladen)]

Experiment with the Arabuntu logo to test the Arabic Ubuntu Beta in a real logotype example. I only have a six-month old .ttf so I've tried to re-apply some of the changes manually … and experimented with many other things too!

[Khaled Hosny (khaledhosny)]

I think experiment 4 is the best, the spacing is evenly distributed, but I think ون can use a tiny bit of +ve kerning.

The kerning between رب is important, else it would be mistaken for a space making it read like two words (ر is right joining only so it gets the same shape for middle and final position). The position of ب dot is a bit flexible as long as it is below the base and does not clash with other letters. The extended lower stroke of ع is rather ugly, usually the two strokes have nearly the same length.