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Character Requirements for African (Arabic script) Orthographies

Developing comprehensive fonts can be quite a challenge. There are over 340 characters in the Arabic Unicode blocks (not including the presentations forms). For many of those characters, there are up to 4 different forms. An Arabic script font can require many, many glyphs.

If a font supports all of the following characters, we believe that most languages using the Arabic script in West Africa would be well supported. Our hope is that all type designers who are designing Arabic script fonts for Africa will be willing to add these characters to their fonts. This would be a great service.

There are comments below about glyph variants that may be needed to support some languages.

The process for developing this list was based on the following:

  • Decision to include all Codepage 1252 and MacRoman characters
  • Decision to include many characters required for publishing (spaces and dashes)
  • Decision to support all languages from West Africa where the character requirements are known
  • Decision to support all characters in the Unicode Standard that are indicated as “African”
  • Decision to support all characters used by Arabic language (for borrowed words)

Feedback on the character repertoire is welcomed.

GraphicUSVNameComment
؀0600
؂0602
،060C
◌ؐ0610
◌ؑ0611
◌ؒ0612
◌ؓ0613
◌ؔ0614
؛061B
؞061E
؟061F
ء0621
آ0622
أ0623
ؤ0624
إ0625
ئ0626
ا0627
ب0628
ة0629
ت062A
ث062B
ج062CThere is a glyph variant for this character (see Glyph Variant for medial form of hah-like characters)
ح062DThere is a glyph variant for this character (see Glyph Variant for medial form of hah-like characters)
خ062EThere is a glyph variant for this character (see Glyph Variant for medial form of hah-like characters)
د062F
ذ0630
ر0631
ز0632
س0633
ش0634
ص0635
ض0636
ط0637
ظ0638
ع0639
غ063A
ـ0640
ف0641
ق0642
ك0643
ل0644
م0645There is a glyph variant for this character which is sometimes used in Africa (see Glyph Variant for U+0645).
ن0646
ه0647
و0648
ى0649
ي064A
◌ً064B
◌ٌ064C
◌ٍ064D
◌َ064E
◌ُ064FThere is a glyph variant for this character (see Glyph Variant for U+064F)
◌ِ0650There is a glyph variant for this character which is sometimes used in Africa (see Variant Behavior for Kasra (U+0650))
◌ّ0651
◌ْ0652There is a glyph variant for this character (see Glyph Variants for U+0652)
◌ٓ0653
◌ٔ0654
◌ٖ0656
◌ٗ0657There is a glyph variant for this character (see Glyph Variant for U+0657)
◌٘0658
◌ٚ065A
◌ٛ065B
◌ٜ065C
◌ٝ065D
٠0660
١0661
٢0662
٣0663
٤0664
٥0665
٦0666
٧0667
٨0668
٩0669
٫066B
٬066C
ٯ066F
◌ٰ0670
ٴ0674
ٻ067B
پ067E
ڃ0683There is a glyph variant for this character (see Glyph Variant for medial form of hah-like characters)
ڄ0684There is a glyph variant for this character (see Glyph Variant for medial form of hah-like characters)
چ0686There is a glyph variant for this character (see Glyph Variant for medial form of hah-like characters)
ډ0689
ڊ068A
ڋ068B
ڏ068FThere is a glyph variant for this character (see Glyph Variant for medial form of hah-like characters)
ژ0698
ڜ069C
ڞ069E
ڟ069F
ڠ06A0
ڡ06A1
ڢ06A2
ڤ06A4
ڥ06A5
ڧ06A7
ڨ06A8
ک06A9
ڪ06AA
ڮ06AE
گ06AF
ں06BA
ۀ06C0
ۆ06C6
ۈ06C8
ۉ06C9
ی06CC
ې06D0
ۑ06D1
ے06D2
۝06DDThere is a glyph variant for this character (see Glyph Variants for U+06DD)
ۥ06E5
◌ۨ06E8
ݐ0750
ݑ0751
ݒ0752
ݓ0753
ݔ0754
ݕ0755
ݖ0756
ݗ0757There is a glyph variant for this character (see Glyph Variant for medial form of hah-like characters)
ݘ0758There is a glyph variant for this character (see Glyph Variant for medial form of hah-like characters)
ݚ075A
ݛ075B
ݝ075D
ݞ075E
ݟ075F
ݠ0760
ݡ0761
ݣ0763
ݤ0764
ݥ0765
ݦ0766
ݧ0767
ݪ076A
ࢠ08A0
ࢡ08A1
ࢢ08A2There is a glyph variant for this character (see Glyph Variant for medial form of hah-like characters)
ࢣ08A3
ࢤ08A4
ࢥ08A5
ࢦ08A6
ࢧ08A7
ࢨ08A8
ࢩ08A9
ࢲ08B2
ࢶ08B6
ࢷ08B7
ࢸ08B8
ࢹ08B9
ࢺ08BA
ࢻ08BB
ࢼ08BC
ࢽ08BD
ࣃ08C3
ࣄ08C4
ࣅ08C5There is a glyph variant for this character (see Glyph Variant for medial form of hah-like characters)
ࣆ08C6There is a glyph variant for this character (see Glyph Variant for medial form of hah-like characters)
◌ࣴ08F4
◌ࣵ08F5
◌ࣶ08F6
◌ࣷ08F7
◌ࣸ08F8
◌ࣹ08F9
◌ࣺ08FA
◌ࣻ08FB
◌ࣼ08FC
◌ࣽ08FD
◌ࣾ08FE
‪202A
‫202B
‬202C
‭202D
‮202E
⁠2060
206C
206D
﴾FD3E
﴿FD3F
ﷲFDF2
𐻇10EC7

We believe that any Arabic script font should include a core set of Roman characters for mixed script use as well as for common punctuation requirements in Arabic script text. The characters in the two lists below are our recommendation for a basic set of characters. The combined lists include the union of Windows CP1252 and Mac-Roman.

These are characters often required in regular Arabic text (not necessarily mixed script). Because these are normally used in Arabic text, these characters should be designed to match the design style of the Arabic script characters listed above.

GraphicUSVNameComment
0020
!0021
"0022
&0026
'0027
(0028
)0029
+002B
,002C
-002D
.002E
/002F
00030
10031
20032
30033
40034
50035
60036
70037
80038
90039
:003A
;003B
<003C
=003D
>003E
?003F
@0040
[005B
\005C
]005D
{007B
|007C
}007D
«00AB
»00BB
×00D7
÷00F7
‌200C
‍200D
‏200F
‘2018
’2019
“201C
”201D
‹2039
›203A
⁅2045
◌25CC
⹁2E41

These are other characters from Codepage 1252 and/or Mac-Roman used in mixed script (Latin and Arabic script) text and publishing.

GraphicUSVNameComment
#0023
$0024
%0025
*002A
A0041
B0042
C0043
D0044
E0045
F0046
G0047
H0048
I0049
J004A
K004B
L004C
M004D
N004E
O004F
P0050
Q0051
R0052
S0053
T0054
U0055
V0056
W0057
X0058
Y0059
Z005A
^005E
_005F
`0060
a0061
b0062
c0063
d0064
e0065
f0066
g0067
h0068
i0069
j006A
k006B
l006C
m006D
n006E
o006F
p0070
q0071
r0072
s0073
t0074
u0075
v0076
w0077
x0078
y0079
z007A
~007E
 00A0
¡00A1
¢00A2
£00A3
¤00A4
¥00A5
¦00A6
§00A7
¨00A8
©00A9
ª00AA
¬00AC
­00AD
®00AE
¯00AF
°00B0
±00B1
²00B2
³00B3
´00B4
µ00B5
00B6
·00B7
¸00B8
¹00B9
º00BA
¼00BC
½00BD
¾00BE
¿00BF
À00C0
Á00C1
Â00C2
Ã00C3
Ä00C4
Å00C5
Æ00C6
Ç00C7
È00C8
É00C9
Ê00CA
Ë00CB
Ì00CC
Í00CD
Î00CE
Ï00CF
Ð00D0
Ñ00D1
Ò00D2
Ó00D3
Ô00D4
Õ00D5
Ö00D6
Ø00D8
Ù00D9
Ú00DA
Û00DB
Ü00DC
Ý00DD
Þ00DE
ß00DF
à00E0
á00E1
â00E2
ã00E3
ä00E4
å00E5
æ00E6
ç00E7
è00E8
é00E9
ê00EA
ë00EB
ì00EC
í00ED
î00EE
ï00EF
ð00F0
ñ00F1
ò00F2
ó00F3
ô00F4
õ00F5
ö00F6
ø00F8
ù00F9
ú00FA
û00FB
ü00FC
ý00FD
þ00FE
ÿ00FF
ı0131
Œ0152
œ0153
Š0160
š0161
Ÿ0178
Ž017D
ž017E
ƒ0192
ˆ02C6
ˇ02C7
ː02D0
˘02D8
˙02D9
˚02DA
˛02DB
˜02DC
‎200E
‐2010
‑2011
‒2012
–2013
—2014
―2015
‚201A
„201E
†2020
‡2021
•2022
…2026
‰2030
⁄2044
⁴2074
€20AC
™2122
FEFF
FFFC
�FFFD

This article formerly appeared on ScriptSource.