The evolving Story of Locale Support, part 9: Nastaleeq vs. Nastaliq? Either way, Windows 8 has got it!

Previous blogs from this series:

• part 8: [Finally] taking care of some [more] languages in Pakistan
• part 7: That would be a "call and a raise" for Hawaiian
• part 6 (Behind the Cherokee Phonetic layout in Windows 8)
• part 5 (...until the decision was made to not refuse to add it)
• part 4 (working beyond one's bugs, and the case for an MSKLC update)
• part 3 (working beyond one's bugs, the setup) 
• part 2 (raising the roof on keyboards) 
• part 1 (Some people don't want to double-d's)
• part 0 (The introduction)

So I've talked a lot about new keyboards and new locales and such, and everything I have talked about so far has four things in common:

1. They are all features of Windows 8 (and.Net 4.5, where applicable), and
2. They are all things that I think are really cool, and
3. They have all been a long time coming, and
4. I have been intimately involved with every of them.

Some casual (and not-so-casual) readers might assume that I am perhaps only going talk about stuff that meets all four criteria.

But today I'm going talk something that only the first three apply to; my involvement has been limited at best.

In other words, you can think of it as proof that I believe there are cool features in Windows 8 that I had very little to do with! :-)

I'll start with a blog of mine from this last March, Nastaliq is not just another script....

And the new Windows 8 font: Urdu Typesetting., a new member of the Arabic script font family:

It will be (and given how many people have or are installing the //Build Developer Preview of Windows 8, is) the first widely available Unicode font to support Nastaliq.

Here you can see it contrasted with Arabic Typesetting, a Naskh based font, for the same text:

That's in WordPad.

And here is in Notepad:

Now as I pointed out yesterday:

That Nastaleeq and not Naskh should be the writing style used for computers is also based on this misconceived “Nastaleeq or Naskh” notion – which in turn is an unfortunate legacy of Urdu word processing packages which supported one style or the other. So far as Unicode is concerned, for example word Pakistan would always comprise of characters Pay, Alef, Kaf, Seen, Tay, Alef and Noon.

The underlying text here is equivalent underneath, but the Nastaliq is quite simply overwhelming preferred by many people for use in Urdu documents -- like Urdu poetry, for example.

Anyway, if you have the Windows 8 Developer Preview, you can try out Urdu Typesetting to see how it works for you.

Keep in mind that it is mostly meant to be a Document font, not a UI font -- which should suit the needs of most of the people who have been asking for it, though I imagine people trying it out might try it many different places and at many different sizes. This is a font that really does need a little space -- you have been warned!

One caveat: a lot of work happened over the last few months to improve the font: lots of kerning was added, for example,and some compatibility work to fix minor bugs people found in Word vs. WordPad vs. Notepad. I was almost tempted to say nothing until beta, but someone would have stumbled on the font. Perhaps someone already has. So after talking to the owner of the font in MST, I decided to go ahead and write this up. I figured everyone understands about pre-beta vs. beta vs. release, and there are probably some people who would be very, very interested to find out about this long-requested feature -- now a part of Windows 8!

I have several people I'll be forwarding this blog to who have been asking for it over the years, and if you know people who have been looking for a good Nastaliq font you should do the same. Enjoy!

Special thanks to colleague and friend Irfan Gowani for loaning me some of his Urdu poetry for the screenshots -- I will probably be using them in another blog or two in the future....