Any e-ink kindle supports RTL properly?

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by RTL

It seems the RTL part is working correctly, and from my programming experience, I know those numbers in little squares are the Unicode (UTF-16) code of those Arabic letters. I replaced the code2000.ttf with an Arabic font. But I do not know how this weird problem comes out.

The little squares usually indicate a font problem. Try to replace your Arabic font with Arial. (I use ArialMT v6.85, which is the default Arial version that comes with Windows 8.x, but older versions should work, too.)

If that doesn't work either only NiLuJe can help you.

To exclude potential conversion errors I've also attached the .azw3 file that I used for testing.

[RTL]

Doitsu,

I replaced the font, used your azw3 file, but got the same result.

In the font-hack folder of the kindle, there is a text file named info.txt, which reads:

-----
$Id: info.txt 8953 2012-11-15 23:23:21Z NiLuJe $

Hello! If you're wondering what all this weird stuff on your Kindle is,
I'm a fonts hack! There's a good chance that I came from here:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=88004

I'm at version 5.6.N, so, if you wish to uninstall me, you'll at least need
the uninstaller from that version.

-- NiLuJe
-----

As I got this k4nt as it is, I have no idea if the font-hack it has is the most up-to-date version or not.

(I used the same mobi and your azw3 file on Kindle app on Android and iOS. Interestingly, the Android app works correctly while the iOS app is not.)

[RTL]

Questions for NiLuJe:

The font hack mainly uses I18N.ttf and code2000.ttf to handle Arabic. But these 2 fonts have valid glyphs for Arabic Unicode range (x0600---x06XX). Now my question is from which other font do the squared fallback glyps come? I checked almost all of the fonts on this font-hack folder and they either have some valid Arabic glyphs there or nothing at all (empty), but not any square-coded fallback glyphs.

[NiLuJe]

First, that font-hack is gloriously outdated, so that probably doesn't help ^^.

And the out-of-unicode-coverage glyphs should definitely come from code2000 (i.e., -> I18N.ttf), IIRC.

Keep in mind that there's an extra configuration step involved for the font-hack to affect KF8 (i.e., .azw3) files (something along the line of Browser/KF8 handling in KUAL). But first, upgrade, I'm not even sure your current version actually handles KF8 at all.

I'm a bit short on time right now, and my K4 is currently the only device *NOT* running the fonts hack, so it may take a while for me to get back to you on this .

----

The good news is, looking at the code, the KF8 handling definitely puts everything custom ahead of Code2000, so I'm pretty sure you'll get glyphs from custom fonts. The only remaining issue is whether they'll be properly shaped or not for complex layouts...

[NiLuJe]

And the answer is, yup, complex shaping is broken, as expected.

And for the record, here's Adobe RMSDK doing it mostly right on a Kobo H2O, and Kobo's ACCESS renderer doing it right (AFAICT) [provided an adequate font is side-loaded and selected, here, SIL Scheherazade].

----

I'll check if I can mangle FC like on FW 5.x, but the hack is really, really not designed for that so it might be tricky.

EDIT²: Nope, still no complex script shaping, even when very hackishly and quickly trying to replicate what works on FW 5.x. If anyone with more time on their hand wants to mess with FC, be my guest, but that's it for me .

On the plus side, I took the opportunity to check out Bookerly on small Pearl screens, and it looks very neat there ;p.

[RTL]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

First, that font-hack is gloriously outdated, so that probably doesn't help ^^.

Keep in mind that there's an extra configuration step involved for the font-hack to affect KF8 (i.e., .azw3) files (something along the line of Browser/KF8 handling in KUAL). But first, upgrade, I'm not even sure your current version actually handles KF8 at all.

How to upgrade the font hack? Do I have to uninstall the font hack and jailbreak first then to install new jailbreak and font hack, or just install a new font hack on top of that old hack?
Keep in mind that it is K4NT, FW 4.1.2

[NiLuJe]

@RTL: Nope, no need to uninstall beforehand, nor to update/reinstall your JB.

Not that updating will help much with your current conundrum, but, still, what you currently have installed is very old and potentially buggy, so it can't hurt to update .

[RTL]

After updating the font-hack and restarting, it seems the problem is solved.

Thank you all for your kind help.

[NiLuJe]

Well, my device is haunted then, or Amazon's FT build is even more weird than I thought (I was testing with a custom FT build).

Glad it's working for you, though .

[RTL]

New questions.

(1) Can I install these hacks on Kindle DX to display Arabic with diactrics correctly?
(2) Can duokan/duokan lite display Arabic with diactrics correctly?

Thanks.

[NiLuJe]

@RTL:

1/ Nope, the DX runs on FW 2.x, which does NOT support KF8. (And even though technically there have been crazy mostly successfull experiments at running 3.x on a DX, it's messy and outdated (ie., a 3.x version that also doesn't handle KF8)).

2/ No idea, Duokan's evil.

[eschwartz]

Duokan -- like, that thing which uses our jailbreak without accreditation (legal, no copyright, but hardly public-spirited) and mutually-exclusive developer certificates, rather than the agreed-upon public MR signing certs? Or the ones who provide closed-source hacks?

Perhaps KOReader handles Arabic well. Bonus -- integrated with KUAL and not a dual-boot, and the devs (some) hang out here and offer support.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Perhaps KOReader handles Arabic well. Bonus -- integrated with KUAL and not a dual-boot, and the devs (some) hang out here and offer support.

Unfortunately, it doesn't. At least not in ePubs, because Cool Reader doesn't support RTL. (When I still had my K3, I used an RTL patched version of fbKindle by Matan, however, he hasń't visited MR in a couple of years.)