[XeTeX] A typography question

[David Perry]

Hi Mike,

> The need for IPA coverage rules out a lot of fonts.
Check out Linux Libertine (works on all platforms, despite the name, and 
is open source).  It's a very nice font with IPA and lots of other 
things (but not Arabic).  It has a companion sans-serif, Linux Biolinum.

> But apart from that issue, does one try to match 
> an Arabic (Naskh) font to a Roman font?  Or do we just look for an 
> Arabic font that is "pretty"?
Attempts to match different scripts usually don't work very well.  I 
don't know much about Arabic, but Greek and Latin are often printed 
together.  Type foundries in the past tried to produce, e.g., Greek 
fonts that were based on Times New Roman.  They didn't work well at all. 
  Each script has its own organic forms and its own calligraphic and 
typographic traditions.  So I would experiment a bit and see what fonts 
look good together on a page in your layout.  I would probably not 
choose a very tall, narrow Roman font to put near Arabic which (to my 
eyes, anyway) seems to have a strongly horizontal, free flowing feel to 
it.  Beyond such basic considerations, go with what looks good and has 
the characters you need.

David