arabuntu.com uses pre-2010 branding

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

  https://launchpad.net/~a.b.

is broken?

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.

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?

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!

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.