Arabic text with custom fonts in iOS

Update:

As of iOS 7, you don't really need to use Core Text to render custom arabic font. You can use UILabel and/or UITextView with NSAttributedString. The results are the same as you get using Core-Text. However, depending on your requirements, using Core Text can still be a better option.

Update:

I've reported this as a bug to Apple, but i'm not sure when they'll add support for Arabic fonts. Currently, there's no easy way to do it. I ended up using the default system font, which is not very good.

Original Message

I did managed to build a Quran application that uses custom arabic font. I used known arabic font(s) with Core Text framework to get the desired results. You can see the results I got in the end by checking the application Quran Presenter for iPad, which is available on the App Store.

Here's some sample code to help you out:

- (CTFontRef)newCustomFontWithName:(NSString *)aFontName
                            ofType:(NSString *)type
                        attributes:(NSDictionary *)attributes {
    NSString *fontPath = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:aFontName ofType:type];

    NSData *data = [[NSData alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:fontPath];
    CGDataProviderRef fontProvider = CGDataProviderCreateWithCFData((CFDataRef)data);
    [data release];

    CGFontRef cgFont = CGFontCreateWithDataProvider(fontProvider);
    CGDataProviderRelease(fontProvider);

    CTFontDescriptorRef fontDescriptor = CTFontDescriptorCreateWithAttributes((CFDictionaryRef)attributes);
    CTFontRef font = CTFontCreateWithGraphicsFont(cgFont, 0, NULL, fontDescriptor);
    CFRelease(fontDescriptor);
    CGFontRelease(cgFont);
    return font;
}

- (CATextLayer *)customCATextLayer {
    NSDictionary *attributes = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:
                                [NSNumber numberWithFloat:24.f], (NSString *)kCTFontSizeAttribute,
                                [NSNumber numberWithInt:1], (NSString *)kCTLigatureAttributeName,
                                nil];

    CTFontRef font = [self newCustomFontWithName:@"PDMS_Saleem_QuranFont-signed" 
                                          ofType:@"ttf" 
                                      attributes:attributes];

    CATextLayer *normalTextLayer = [[CATextLayer alloc] init];
    normalTextLayer.font = font;
    normalTextLayer.string = NSLocalizedString(@"Sample", nil);
    normalTextLayer.wrapped = YES;
    normalTextLayer.foregroundColor = [[UIColor blackColor] CGColor];
    normalTextLayer.fontSize = 24.f;
    normalTextLayer.alignmentMode = kCAAlignmentCenter;
    normalTextLayer.frame = CGRectMake(0.f, 10.f, 320.f, 32.f);

    CFRelease(font);
    return [normalTextLayer autorelease];
}

- (void)viewDidLoad {
    [super viewDidLoad];

    CATextLayer *normalTextLayer = [self customCATextLayer];
    [self.customView.layer addSublayer:normalTextLayer];
}

Note that I'm using CATextLayer and CTFontRef. There are a few problems with this approach. 1. You'll have to live with the issues in the selected "custom arabic font". 2. You'll have to use the arabic text that uses the extended characters supported by the font.

HTH.

These classes will do the job :

https://github.com/Accorpa/Arabic-Converter-From-and-To-Arabic-Presentation-Forms-B

Download them, and I'm pretty sure that answers your question because I had the exact same problem before!

An example of the code :

ArabicConverter *converter = [[ArabicConverter alloc] init];
NSString* convertedString = [converter convertArabic:@"منذ دقيقة"];
infoText.font = [UIFont fontWithName:@"YOUARABICFONT" size:16];
infoText.text = convertedString;

Now infoText will display the font correctly :)

I first started learning iOS development back in mid 2012, and I've been searching everywhere on the Internet to find a proper solution for custom Persian fonts in iPhone, and could never come up with a proper solution. There was a Core Text library I tried once, and it didn't work always fine, specially that you have to make an additional subview to add your text with the custom font in it. I tried the Arabic Converter a while back and it worked alright, but with the new Xcode it wasn't making a change to the text at all, except in web views, and it only malfunctioned!

So... Anyways, I'm glad Apple is working out problems to support more languages. Now here's the very simple solution that works perfectly fine:

1. Go to your project's info.plist file,
2. Right click and select Add row,
3. Type Fonts provided by application in the new row,
4. Type in the desired font name as items for this key.

5. Drag and drop the font file into the project,
6. Apply it to the text you want:

UITextView *persianText; persianText.text = @"در جستجوی قهرمان نباشید \nبلکه خود قهرمان شوید"; persianText.font = [UIFont fontWithName:@"IranNastaliq" size: 12.0];

Annnd...! Build and run... Tadaaa! It works!