[SOLVED] Some arabic letters missing in firefox.

AmrLou · 2024-02-24 11:23:40

Hi everyone! The letter ve from Arabic language (https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%DA%A4) doesn't show in firefox, epiphany has the same problem. But every other program shows the letter properly, including gnome's text editor and other writing programs. I've installed every Arabic font from here. A solution was to force websites to use my defined fonts which contain this letter, but this is not a real solution since some websites use their predefined unique fonts which I like, it's also that the defaults are fonts that contain ve. Also a weird behavior shows with the default choices in firefox, that the same letters are missing while showing in another part in the same page (like this). Thanks in advance.

Last edited by AmrLou (2024-03-01 08:32:31)

seth · 2024-02-24 14:01:38

fc-list :charset=06a4

same letters are missing while showing in another part in the same page

solution was to force websites to use my defined fonts which contain this letter

Think about that…
What font does firefox resolve by default (use the webinspector to check the CSS) for the missing glyph?

AmrLou · 2024-02-24 15:43:16

seth wrote:

What font does firefox resolve by default (use the webinspector to check the CSS) for the missing glyph?

It shows Arial. It also shows these ("TwitterChirp", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif) on Twitter. Although that is weird since I actually have Lateef as a default for Arabic in firefox. I also have a local font configuration which chooses Lateef for system-wide Arabic:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "urn:fontconfig:fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
  <!-- Fallback fonts preference order -->
  <alias>
    <family>sans-serif</family>
    <prefer>
      <family>Lateef</family>
      <family>Open Sans</family>
      <family>Droid Sans</family>
      <family>Roboto</family>
      <family>Tholoth</family>
      <family>Noto Sans Arabic</family>
    </prefer>
  </alias>

What it makes it even weirder, when I manually delete Arial from the inspector, it switches to Ubuntu Arabic font.

seth · 2024-02-24 15:46:40

fc-match Arial # correlate that w/ the output of "fc-list :charset=06a4"
FC_DEBUG=4 pango-view --font="Arial" -t "ڤ" | grep family:

Fwwi, this is just resolved from DejaVu Sans for me

AmrLou · 2024-02-24 15:49:24

Unfortunately it didn't for me.

seth · 2024-02-24 15:52:35

Unfortunately what didn't for you?
Please post the ouput of the commands I posted if you want more informed comments on your situation.

AmrLou · 2024-02-24 16:06:32

Oh! I'm sorry for not explaining, it shows this with this output (It's very long so I made a paste)

seth · 2024-02-24 16:12:00

Whatever your Arial is claims to support that glyph, but probably doesn't.

Get rid of that font, replace it with a better™ version of arial or redefine Arial

<alias>
    <family>Arial</family>
    <prefer>
        <family>Lateef</family>
    </prefer>
</alias>

The fontconfig you posted is btw. illegal, it's not closing the <fontconfig> tag and mozilla uses its own, way less tolerant, fontconfig parser.
If that's a literal copy and not just a clerical error on the forum, you need to fix that.

AmrLou · 2024-02-24 16:52:21

seth wrote:

The fontconfig you posted is btw. illegal, it's not closing the <fontconfig> tag and mozilla uses its own, way less tolerant, fontconfig parser.
If that's a literal copy and not just a clerical error on the forum, you need to fix that.

It's a snippet, the original file is well closed. However, I deleted all of my system Arial fonts and the situation seems to be better, at least in epiphany which now utilizes my choices in fontconfig. Firefox is now using what seems to be ubuntu arabic ui, even though both twitter and wiki still show the same fonts used. Isn't there any way to just make sites use their own fonts? Since as I know most sites nowadays bring their fonts from servers and not dependent on the user. It's also worth noting that I've had installed (firefox-i18n-ar) package before and deleted it, but no changes after.

seth · 2024-02-24 16:59:21

Since as I know most sites nowadays bring their fonts from servers

No? Or define "most sites", but the crucial question is whether the services you care about do.
If those do (correctly), those fonts would however be used over your local ones.

More importantly, though: do you still have problems displaying arabic text anywhere?

Fyi, the i18n package just translates the UI, it's irrelevant itr.

AmrLou · 2024-02-24 17:11:50

I meant the popular ones, or maybe my knowledge is limited.

seth wrote:

More importantly, though: do you still have problems displaying arabic text anywhere?

No, it's all working good in other applications. I even tried making a file with the letter ve and the system showed it properly.
Now my main problem is the ubuntu arabic font firefox is defaulting now for arabic.

seth · 2024-02-24 17:19:04

This here https://arbfonts.com/ubuntu-arabic-font-download.html ? Why is this a problem? Is it installed on your system?

fc-match Arial
fc-match sans-serif
FC_DEBUG=4 pango-view --font="sans-serif" -t "ڤ" | grep family:

AmrLou · 2024-02-24 17:19:13

Update: I deleted ubuntu arabic font, and it solved the problem. I still don't understand why was it the default for firefox. However, thanks seth for your help. I'm really very grateful for your responses, and I have to say that you are one of the best guys in this forum here, I can't count how many times I searched for a problem to find you offering some troubleshoot to it. Thanks so much!!

AmrLou · 2024-02-24 17:25:21

seth wrote:

This here https://arbfonts.com/ubuntu-arabic-font-download.html ? Why is this a problem? Is it installed on your system?

From here

seth wrote:

fc-match Arial
fc-match sans-serif
FC_DEBUG=4 pango-view --font="sans-serif" -t "ڤ" | grep family:

It properly shows the glyph. Thanks so much for your help!

Arch Linux

#1 2024-02-24 11:23:40

[SOLVED] Some arabic letters missing in firefox.

#2 2024-02-24 14:01:38

Re: [SOLVED] Some arabic letters missing in firefox.

#3 2024-02-24 15:43:16

Re: [SOLVED] Some arabic letters missing in firefox.

#4 2024-02-24 15:46:40

Re: [SOLVED] Some arabic letters missing in firefox.

#5 2024-02-24 15:49:24

Re: [SOLVED] Some arabic letters missing in firefox.

#6 2024-02-24 15:52:35

Re: [SOLVED] Some arabic letters missing in firefox.

#7 2024-02-24 16:06:32

Re: [SOLVED] Some arabic letters missing in firefox.

#8 2024-02-24 16:12:00

Re: [SOLVED] Some arabic letters missing in firefox.

#9 2024-02-24 16:52:21

Re: [SOLVED] Some arabic letters missing in firefox.

#10 2024-02-24 16:59:21

Re: [SOLVED] Some arabic letters missing in firefox.

#11 2024-02-24 17:11:50

Re: [SOLVED] Some arabic letters missing in firefox.

#12 2024-02-24 17:19:04

Re: [SOLVED] Some arabic letters missing in firefox.

#13 2024-02-24 17:19:13

Re: [SOLVED] Some arabic letters missing in firefox.

#14 2024-02-24 17:25:21

Re: [SOLVED] Some arabic letters missing in firefox.

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