[MontyP@thon]

This is a bit technical question so please bear with me. Shukran

As you know Mushafs (the Text of Qur'an) in general are hand-written by a well known calligrapher. Since calligraphy is carried out by a bamboo pens and ink on a paper, how is it possible that handwritten text undergoes a digital process of becoming a book in the end?

Initially I thought a photocopy of some kind would do the job, but I am not convinced about that at all. Because, no matter how perfectly I photocopy a text, there seems to be pixels running here and there. However, on printed Mushafs I don't see any imperfection; the text appears as if it is purely digital (i.e a fontography based print).

The second option that comes to my mind is that, first handwritten page is properly scanned, then the image is vectorized by some tracing software. This option is also not working for me. Although, I used almost all great tracing software available out there and tried this option over and over but to no avail. I simply don't get real life excellent results as it is on Mushafs.

Can a knowledgeable brother explain how it is done?

Here is a scanned page from a Mushaf (which is a handwritten masterpiece by the way). Now, the fonts may not seem crystal clear, however, it looks excellent on a physical Mushaf. The reason behind this technical question is to produce a perfect, resolution-free and high quality PDF Mushaf for everybody for free to use on their digital devices such as (itouch, iphone, kindle, ereaders etc.).

[thakitt]

Can you go through your second option step so that knowledgable brothers know what's wrong with your step? Perhaps, include dpi of scanner, software used, how big is the letter, etc.

[accelieda]

Assalaamu alaikum,

Brother, at the moment, it would not be possible, or rather, advisable to run a Qur'anic script through OCR ( Optical Character Recognition ) software. Especially the fact that OCRs need to be trained a LOT before they work properly with Arabic, Farsi or Urdu.

Given that the case, you might want to use Adobe Acrobate Pro, the PDF making software. To clean the pages, try using Adobe Photoshop's Image - > adjust -> Levels option to make the text stand out more. However, if the page posted above it how you have scanned it, it's really clear masha'Allah. So use a good PDF maker such as Adobe Acrobat Professional, or there are other softwares available too, like Image2PDF etc. Remember to keep the minimum Scanning Resolution to 300dpi for good text reading.

[accelieda]

oh, and also check out the "Live Trace" option on Adobe Illustrator, it changes the picture into a Vector drawing.

[HoniSoniproca]

When making a PDF file, you usually have to balance image quality with file size. The higher the DPI (dots per inch), the higher the file size. However, lower DPI means lower image quality. 300 DPI is the minimum that should be used for print (digital file size doesn'T really matter if you're planning on distributing hard copy!). Normal digital resolution (web pages etc.) is 72 DPI. Vector images are independent of resolution, as they do not comprise pixel-based data, but are literally a compilation of vectors (e.g. "point A to point B: 1 black line" - which is one piece of data as opposed to the pixel equivalent which would be a piece of data for each pixel in between point A and point B, and the amount of this data would increase as the line was lengthened).

Your initial question - how hand-written copy becomes a printed book - isn't actually very relevant to your purpose (a digital book). Print uses very high resolution and large file sizes (for images, which is what hand-written copy would be, unless written on a tablet like a Wacom!). For digital storage purposes, the trick is to optimize the file (Photoshop has a few nifty "save" options that help you with this) to balance image quality with size.

But first you want to start off with a really clean, clear, high-quality image in the first place. If you use a scanner, take the time to experiment with different scanning pre-sets and different DPI. If you use a digital camera, again take the time to experiment (I find a very brightly-lit page with no flash is best; 2-3 halogen desk lamps work for me). Once you have the image in your computer, use whichever software you are comfortable with (GIMP is ok if you don'T like Photoshop) to clean up smudges, unclear areas, dull colors, bad contrast, and so on. If your image looks perfect on a large monitor at high resolution, it's going to look crisp and clear whether printed or reduced in size for PDF.

If you are not very comfortable with Photoshop and the like, maybe you could ask for some of the SF members, or local friends, to pitch in and help for such a good cause. You could get a photographer friend to photograph the pages, then upload the files somewhere and ask people to help "clean them up", reduce them to a specific pixel size (say, 300 DPI, 21 mm x 29.7 mm), and send them back.

InshaAllah your project is successful.

[MontyP@thon]

Jazakumullahu khairan for all brothers and sisters who took their time to answer my question. May Allah reward you.

When making a PDF file, you usually have to balance image quality with file size. The higher the DPI (dots per inch), the higher the file size. However, lower DPI means lower image quality. 300 DPI is the minimum that should be used for print (digital file size doesn'T really matter if you're planning on distributing hard copy!). Normal digital resolution (web pages etc.) is 72 DPI. Vector images are independent of resolution, as they do not comprise pixel-based data, but are literally a compilation of vectors (e.g. "point A to point B: 1 black line" - which is one piece of data as opposed to the pixel equivalent which would be a piece of data for each pixel in between point A and point B, and the amount of this data would increase as the line was lengthened).

Your initial question - how hand-written copy becomes a printed book - isn't actually very relevant to your purpose (a digital book). Print uses very high resolution and large file sizes (for images, which is what hand-written copy would be, unless written on a tablet like a Wacom!). For digital storage purposes, the trick is to optimize the file (Photoshop has a few nifty "save" options that help you with this) to balance image quality with size.

But first you want to start off with a really clean, clear, high-quality image in the first place. If you use a scanner, take the time to experiment with different scanning pre-sets and different DPI. If you use a digital camera, again take the time to experiment (I find a very brightly-lit page with no flash is best; 2-3 halogen desk lamps work for me). Once you have the image in your computer, use whichever software you are comfortable with (GIMP is ok if you don'T like Photoshop) to clean up smudges, unclear areas, dull colors, bad contrast, and so on. If your image looks perfect on a large monitor at high resolution, it's going to look crisp and clear whether printed or reduced in size for PDF.

If you are not very comfortable with Photoshop and the like, maybe you could ask for some of the SF members, or local friends, to pitch in and help for such a good cause. You could get a photographer friend to photograph the pages, then upload the files somewhere and ask people to help "clean them up", reduce them to a specific pixel size (say, 300 DPI, 21 mm x 29.7 mm), and send them back.

InshaAllah your project is successful.

Mashallah Kayra, would mind me asking how did you acquire this vast knowledge? It took me years to learn all of these things regarding the digital editing..

So, you are saying for Mushaf prints, publishers are using powerful photocopy techniques.. That makes sense. However, there are things that I still don't understand. For example, how did they were able to produce a PDF like this:

http://qalifba.googlepages.com/ayet-el-kurs.pdf

Obviously, this is handwritten Ayats from Qur'an by a calligrapher from Diwan.

When I analyze the PDF, I see that you use their own special fonts. How did they convert handwriting into such beautiful fonts in the first place? I mean, converting an image into fonts is easy, but you loose lots of from its original shape during the conversion method. The option of Watcom won't work here, because these of digital tablets lack enough sensitivity to produce such excellent results.

The solution to my quest, If I understood it from your hints, is:

1. Properly scan the page.
2. Clean and clear the page via Photoshop (or similar software)
3. Then "live trace" to convert it to vector graphics. For trace, I tried variety of software such as Adobe Illutrator, Inkscape, VectorMagic, Carel Draw..

Well I did with all fine tunings and adjustments. But don't get as good results as that PDF provided above.

[HoniSoniproca]

Brother, that looks like a beautifully-designed professional Arabic calligraphy font to me =)

Thus, after purchasing one of these exquisite fonts online, you can get pretty much the same effect in MS Word, after loading the font into MS Office.

The Arabic calligraphy fonts available for free download aren't all that impressive (have a look at freearabicfonts.com for an idea). It's worth investing in a one-of-a-kind professional one.

How do they make these calligraphy fonts in the first place? With a program like Macromedia Fontographer. Each letter of the alphabet is loaded into a font-forming database, either as a pixel or vector image. But it's very tricky to make an entire alphabet by drawing each letter of the alphabet with a "matching", uniform, elegant style. At least for the first few attempts!

[HoniSoniproca]

Brother, did you ever solve your PDF issue?

In case Fontographer is a bit out of your budget, you could check out FontForge (here is a tutorial to give you an idea of how it works) or Fontifier ($9, but really simple to use!). There is an app called Arabic Calligrapher but I have no idea if it's any good or not.

[MontyP@thon]

Kayra abla

for the link. I remember making use of that calligrapher.

I am able to produce similar PDF's via special software called al-Yaqout from Diwan. Here is an example of a magnificent Dua of Sakinah produced with the same software, al-Yaqout.

My recent find is that, Arabic is best written and produced with:

1. Qurancomplex software al-Nashir al-Maktabi specifically for Qur'anic script. (It is free)
2. al-Yaqout or al-Nashir al-Shafi -Qur'anic script, general naskh and thuluth. (commercial)
3. Tasmeem under InDesign -for Naskh and Thuluth style calligraphy. (commercial)

now I am about to explore more on Fontographer and FontForge. The only thing I didn't like about FontForge is that it requires Linux Operating System or at least Cygwin on Windows, which I dislike to work on.

My aim is to digitalize Huseyin Kutlu's handwriting to produce truetype or opentype fonts such as these:

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pi...GQ3YzcwNzNjMzE

[boiffrona]

Asalamu Alaikum Brother,

Did you ever end up putting the PDF together? Can it be downloaded somewhere?

JAK.

[MontyP@thon]

Asalamu Alaikum Brother,

Did you ever end up putting the PDF together? Can it be downloaded somewhere?

JAK.

You mean for the entire Mushaf? Unfortunately I didn't.

[ulw7A8Po]

ASWW
Just a quick suggestion. Any chance of you or the person writing directly on the graphics tablet rather than on paper. I know South African publishers of Mushafs etc are going really high tech. High end digital tablets will really make your work stand out I promise with added bonuses of time saving and space too. InshAllah. Networking will also allow for quciker and easier completions of projects.
Just a thought...... RMIY Duas.

[MontyP@thon]

ASWW
Just a quick suggestion. Any chance of you or the person writing directly on the graphics tablet rather than on paper. I know South African publishers of Mushafs etc are going really high tech. High end digital tablets will really make your work stand out I promise with added bonuses of time saving and space too. InshAllah. Networking will also allow for quciker and easier completions of projects.
Just a thought...... RMIY Duas.

In itself this is a great idea. However, all those digital tablets that I used couldn't handle the job. Part of the problem is with digital tablets; they are way behind the skillful human hands. I am not sure if there is any super high tech tablet, but I haven't seen one. Another problem is, traditional handwriting is carried out with special bamboo pen, special ink and a good paper. Digital tablets require you either to use their tablet as a paper, or their pen.

Do you have sample of South African high tech sample page?