Printing Bidi text to an image

Question

I have some code in Python using PIL, that will print UTF-8 characters to an image.

I've noticed that for joining Bidi scripts like Arabic, the same code fails to connect characters correctly (the initial forms are only chosen, medial and final forms aren't utilized)

Can anyone recommend a method or technique for solving this particular issue?

I've just had a quick look at their website, and my guess is that the library doesn't have the ability to properly handle BIDI. They certainly don't advertise it if they do. — happy coder, Dec 10 '12 at 05:53
Is [this](http://pypi.python.org/pypi/python-bidi/) of any help? — happy coder, Dec 10 '12 at 05:55

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 12 '13 at 17:07

1

If you want to keep using PIL, use pyarabicshaping with pybidi or you might want to consider switching to pangocairo which uses HarfBuzz for text shaping.

answered Apr 12 '13 at 17:07

Shervin

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score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 08 '14 at 14:55

What I did is the following: Python +Wand(Python Lib) +arabic_reshaper(Python Lib) +bidi.algorithme(Python Lib). The same applies to PIL/Pillow, you need to use the arabic_reshaper and bidi.algorithm and pass the generated text to draw.text((10, 25), artext, font=font):

from wand.image import Image as wImage
from wand.display import display as wdiplay
from wand.drawing import Drawing
from wand.color import Color
import arabic_reshaper
from bidi.algorithm import get_display

reshaped_text = arabic_reshaper.reshape(u'لغةٌ عربيّة')
artext = get_display(reshaped_text)

fonts = ['C:\\Users\\PATH\\TO\\FONT\\Thabit-0.02\\DroidNaskh-Bold.ttf',
         'C:\\Users\\PATH\\TO\\FONT\\Thabit-0.02\\Thabit.ttf',
         'C:\\Users\\PATH\\TO\\FONT\\Thabit-0.02\\Thabit-Bold-Oblique.ttf',
         'C:\\Users\\PATH\\TO\\FONT\\Thabit-0.02\\Thabit-Bold.ttf',
         'C:\\Users\\PATH\\TO\\FONT\\Thabit-0.02\\Thabit-Oblique.ttf',
         'C:\\Users\\PATH\\TO\\FONT\\Thabit-0.02\\majalla.ttf',         
         'C:\\Users\\PATH\\TO\\FONT\\Thabit-0.02\\majallab.ttf',

         ]
draw = Drawing()
img =  wImage(width=1200,height=(len(fonts)+2)*60,background=Color('#ffffff')) 
#draw.fill_color(Color('#000000'))
draw.text_alignment = 'right';
draw.text_antialias = True
draw.text_encoding = 'utf-8'
#draw.text_interline_spacing = 1
#draw.text_interword_spacing = 15.0
draw.text_kerning = 0.0
for i in range(len(fonts)):
    font =  fonts[i]
    draw.font = font
    draw.font_size = 40
    draw.text(img.width / 2, 40+(i*60),artext)
    print draw.get_font_metrics(img,artext)
    draw(img)
draw.text(img.width / 2, 40+((i+1)*60),u'ناصر test')
draw(img)
img.save(filename='C:\\PATH\\OUTPUT\\arabictest.png'.format(r))
wdiplay(img)

Arabic typography in images

Printing Bidi text to an image

2 Answers2

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