Arabic script

[anadc4]

I'm a digital profile artist in need of some help with Arabic script. Made some attempts at typing in Arabic but can't even master the basics of the Arabic keyboard let along work out issues such as font.

Had similar problems with Chinese but fortunately a Singaporean friend has stepped into to provide me with the correct characters as and when I need them. Part of the problem is that I am doing profiles of classic airliners of the 50s and 60s is the photo sources are to poor to reproduce with something such as paths. They are often little more than grainy smudges that only a native speaker can decipher.

David Carter

[adlabs6]

Have you tried Character Map? It's a font utility included with WinXP that lets you view and copy all the characters within a font to clipboard.

In the screenshot below, I've got the Arial font selected, and scrolled down to where there are some arabic type faces. If you know which you need, all you've got to do is copy them and paste into Photoshop as a real scalable font. Using this utility could also help figure out some of the grainy smudges in the photos, or at least narrow the options down so a native speaker could more quickly figure it out.

[anadc4]

Yes, been through it several times. Expect it is fine for people simply typing in Arabic but it doesn't solve the font problem. That said, it would be fine for the project I would like to complete except the Arabic on the plane seems to have some characters that are not on the character map - although these might be some garnishes of the signwriter who painted the plane.

In the days before laser cut decals there were wide variations in airliner signwriting, particularly once the factory finish had to be replaced or touched up. Ansett-ANA in Australia had three distinctly different "S" character, from a normal curved character to one was almost a Z backwards. Reckon the airline had three signwriters!!

David

[BurningBeard]

The problem with Arabic is that each can be written three different ways, depending on where the are in the word, initial, middle and end. Also Arabic calligraphy is considered an art and used a decoration. What you see typed usually only resembles the art. Type set is in straight lines as you would expect to see from a machine while the text done by a calligrapher tends to run toward the veritcle with the first letter of each word being the highest and the last the lowest with each word following the same pattern with the first letter being the same height at the first letter of the first word. so the text lays out in words written at an angle of 45 degrees or so from right to left.

Beard

[gamary]

I'm afraid I can't be of much help on this, but my first instinct would be to draw the stuff yourself and scan it. Have you tried that?