Lorna | 21 October 2024

We are very pleased to announce a new release of Harmattan, an Arabic script font designed for use by languages in West Africa.

Changes

This release includes the following changes for this version:

New

  • Added:
    • U+0897 ARABIC PEPET
    • U+10EC2 ARABIC LETTER DAL WITH TWO DOTS VERTICALLY BELOW
    • U+10EC3 ARABIC LETTER TAH WITH TWO DOTS VERTICALLY BELOW
    • U+10EC4 ARABIC LETTER KAF WITH TWO DOTS VERTICALLY BELOW
    • U+10EFC ARABIC COMBINING ALEF OVERLAY
  • Added support for Kashmiri language
  • Added facility to override default language behavior through feature selection
  • Added support for cv76 (dagger alef) on spacing characters and tatweel

Improved

  • Enhanced positioning of U+06E2 ARABIC SMALL HIGH MEEM ISOLATED FORM next to adjacent vowel marks
  • Adjusted design of U+0883 ARABIC TATWEEL WITH OVERSTRUCK HAMZA
  • Improved alef+mark positioning to reduce collisions
  • Improved madda reordering to comply with UAX #53
  • Documentation enhancements

Known issues

  • Shaping for the newly added characters may not yet occur in applications.
  • Medial and final high hamza characters may have collisions (these likely do not occur).
  • Lam + high hamza alef ligature does not form as it likely does not occur.
  • In InDesign: some behaviors, such as the lam-alef ligature, raised kasra with shadda, and subtending marks, will not function correctly unless Ligatures is turned on in the Characters panel.

Both desktop and web fonts are provided in a single, all-platforms package on the Download page.