Guides
Four notes on setting Arabic on the web, each one tied to a number this site measured or to a section of the W3C Arabic Layout Requirements. No opinions about beauty.
RSS for new guides.
- What an Arabic webfont actually weighs Measured WOFF2 sizes for Arabic families, why the Arabic subset can be lighter than the Latin one, and what to do about it.
- Physical properties are the bug Why margin-left is a directional bug, what logical properties actually resolve to, and the cases where the physical value was right.
- Three families of numerals Western, Arabic-Indic and Eastern Arabic-Indic digits, which countries write which, and why the decision belongs to your formatter.
- Line height is not a matter of taste Arabic ascenders and descenders, vocalisation marks, and the clipping that happens when a Latin leading value meets an Arabic face.