Zarnegar
NOTE: See also Zarnegar (word processor) Wikipedia page.
Zarnegar (Persian: , zarnegār, meaning gold-depicting) is a commercial, stand-alone Persian/Arabic word processor program developed by SinaSoft Corporation for MS-DOS and Windows. The first version of Zarnegar (for DOS), was released in April-May 1991, and Windows versions have been available since 2000.
History
Before Zarnegar, DOS-based text editors, like Safhe-Ara (Persian: , safhe-ārā), a Persian-enabled Personal Editor 2 (a.k.a. PE2) and Pishkar (Persian: پیشکار, pish-kār, the first product of SinaSoft), were available which allowed basic monospaced desktop publishing.
Zarnegar was one of the first word processor applications with real support for the Persian alphabet (and Arabic script, in general), therefore, establishing new methods of desktop publishing and handling the alphabet in the digital environment.
The name, Zarnegar, a portmanteau, contains the word Zar (Persian: , meaning gold), the name of the very first typeface supported by this software. The first version of Zarnegar was released with two fonts: Zar and Terafik. After that, new fonts were added to Zarnegar every few months, which later became the source of most Persian fonts on Windows systems.
The main development of Zarnegar happened between 1991 and 1995, with the heaviest work done in 1993 and 1994. In the 1990s, Zarnegar was more popular than the competitors, possibly because of variety and beauty of the bundled fonts, ease of use, and paying attention to market needs, support and education.
Features
Zarnegar has been a pioneer in Persian desktop publishing with supporting a diverse set of features, some not found in the generic competitors. Notable features are:
-
Supporting calligraphy-based and handwriting-based Persian fonts.
-
Manual kerning for letters and manual positioning of diacritics, explicitly (per word) or as document settings (per font).
-
Type setting of math formulas, graphs, tables, and Persian poetry.
-
Alternate glyphs for letters with UI to select alternates per word, and manage rules to use alternates for line elongation/justification.
-
Alternate forms for digit zero (of Eastern Arabic numerals): round/diamond and solid/hollow shapes.
-
Special effects on text—such as shadows with custom angles, background and filling patterns, stroke width and color—with plug-in support for third-party features.
-
Persian/Arabic justification with advanced options (see following list for details).
-
Embedded Persian dictionaries (for various areas, like math, chemistry, physics, geography, proper names, computing, and one for etymology) for spell checking, with possibility of creating new dictionaries to share with other users.
-
Sorting and collation, per language (Persian/English) or using system language (in Windows, only).
-
On-screen measurement of rendered text, in both DOS and Windows versions.
-
Customizable keyboard layouts (Persian, Arabic and English).
-
Embedded phone book with network-based syncing functionality.
-
Import and export to/from popular formats, including RTF, Microsoft Word, HTML and Iran System.
-
Predefined (list) counter styles for Persian numerals, Persian alphabet, Persian abjad, Greek numerals, and English alphabet.
-
PostScript, PDF and EPS outputs, with CMYK support.
-
Advanced printing options in DOS and Windows versions.
-
Page layout options for publishing books, manuals and periodicals.
Paragraph Justification
Zarnegar has advanced support for Persian/Arabic paragraph justification, supporting the following options:
-
Manual insertion of Kashida character.
-
Length of Kashida character: short, medium, long, very long.
-
Length of Whitespace character.
-
Percentage of letter spacing reduction.
-
Percentage of using Kashida vs. Space character.
-
Per-word selection of elongation method (where to place Kashida in a word).
Encodings
Zarnegar has employed two different character sets and file formats.
Zarnegar1 Character Set
Zarnegar used an Iran System-based character encoding system, named Zarnegar1, with text file formats for its early versions, up to the Zarnegar 75 version. Zarnegar1 character set is a 2-form left-to-right (visual) encoding, meaning that every Perso-Arabic letter receives different character codes based on its cursive joining form, but most letters receive only 2 forms, because of the limited code-points available2 forms, because of the limited code-points available.
Zarnegar75 Character Set
With Zarnegar 75 version of the program, a new character encoding system was introduced, and the file format was changed to a binary format. Zarnegar75 character set is a 4-form bidirectional visual encoding, meaning that every Perso-Arabic letter receives one, two, or four character code, depending on its cursive joining form, and these letters are stored in the memory in the semantic order.
External links
-
Zar Negar from SinaSoft entry in The Multilingual PC Directory (via Wayback Machine)
-
python-zarnegar-converter, Converter for Zarnegar Encoding and File Format to Unicode Text