arabic_text_justification 0.4.0

Flutter FFI plugin for Arabic text justification using HarfBuzz shaping and FreeType rasterization.

arabic_text_justification

A Flutter FFI plugin for Arabic text rendering with kashida-based justification using HarfBuzz and FreeType.

Ships two high-level line widgets plus the underlying shaping API. Supports both bitmap and vector outline rendering.

Demo

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How It Works

1. Text shaping — HarfBuzz applies Arabic letter forms, ligatures, and optional kashida justification.
2. Glyph processing — FreeType either rasterizes glyphs to a bitmap or extracts vector bezier outlines.
3. Word mapping — per-word bounding rectangles and glyph-to-word indices are returned for hit-testing and animation.

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Capabilities

Two line widgets — outline or bitmap

Both widgets take the same parameters. Pick based on your needs:

• JustifiedArabicLine — vector outlines (bezier Paths). Scales cleanly, supports per-character tints via colorSpans, and is best for sweep-style animation.
• JustifiedArabicBitmapLine — rasterized line blit once per layout. Lightest paint cost for mostly-static text; still supports highlights, tap routing, and WordProgress.

JustifiedArabicBitmapLine(
  words: ['ٱلْحَمْدُ', 'لِلَّهِ', 'رَبِّ', 'ٱلْعَٰلَمِينَ'],
  fontSize: 24,
)

Render a justified RTL line

JustifiedArabicLine(
  words: ['ٱلْحَمْدُ', 'لِلَّهِ', 'رَبِّ', 'ٱلْعَٰلَمِينَ'],
  fontSize: 24,
)

Set justify: false for natural-width rendering without kashida expansion.

Sizing — fixed, width-fit, or height-fit

Three mutually-exclusive modes:

JustifiedArabicLine(words: words, fontSize: 24)  // fixed
JustifiedArabicLine(words: words)                // auto-fit to width (fontSize: null)
JustifiedArabicLine(words: words, height: 48)    // auto-fit to height (fontSize ignored)

Align within the available width

When justify: false the widget reports its intrinsic (tight) size so you position it with a parent. Pass alignment if you want the widget itself to fill the width and place the content inside.

JustifiedArabicLine(
  words: ['ٱلْحَمْدُ', 'لِلَّهِ', 'رَبِّ', 'ٱلْعَٰلَمِينَ'],
  justify: false,
  alignment: Alignment.centerRight,
)

Tap a word — or a marker

Pass a marker string. Words containing it fire onMarkerTap instead of onWordTap.

JustifiedArabicLine(
  words: ['ٱلْحَمْدُ', 'لِلَّهِ', 'رَبِّ', 'ٱلْعَٰلَمِينَ', '۝٢'],
  marker: '۝',
  onWordTap: (i, w) => print('word: $w'),
  onMarkerTap: (i, w) => print('verse end: $w'),
)

Highlight words

JustifiedArabicLine(
  words: ['ٱلْحَمْدُ', 'لِلَّهِ', 'رَبِّ', 'ٱلْعَٰلَمِينَ'],
  highlightedWordIndices: {1, 2}, // لِلَّهِ, رَبِّ
  highlightColor: Colors.blue.withOpacity(0.2),
)

Color specific characters

WordColorSpan tints a character range inside a word (UTF-16 code-unit offsets). Useful for tajweed or any per-character coloring.

JustifiedArabicLine(
  words: ['ٱلْحَمْدُ', 'لِلَّهِ', 'رَبِّ', 'ٱلْعَٰلَمِينَ'],
  colorSpans: [
    // color ح م د inside ٱلْحَمْدُ
    WordColorSpan(wordIndex: 0, start: 3, end: 6, color: Colors.red),
  ],
)

Animate progress through words

WordProgress drives read-along / recitation animation. For any set of passed words + one active word, two independent effects apply — each opt-in:

• Background highlight via passedHighlightColor / activeHighlightColor
• Glyph tint via passedColor / activeColor

Two animation styles for the active word:

• .sweep — right-to-left partial fill driven by activeProgress (0..1). Good for continuous playback (audio-driven recitation).
• .whole — discrete on/off per word. Good for step-by-step advancement.

Example 1 — read-along with background sweep:

JustifiedArabicLine(
  words: ['ٱلْحَمْدُ', 'لِلَّهِ', 'رَبِّ', 'ٱلْعَٰلَمِينَ'],
  wordProgress: WordProgress(
    passedWordIndices: {0, 1},
    passedHighlightColor: Colors.grey.withOpacity(0.25),
    activeWordIndex: 2,
    activeProgress: 0.6,
    activeHighlightColor: Colors.grey.withOpacity(0.55),
    style: WordProgressStyle.sweep,
  ),
)

Example 2 — memorization / reveal with hidden words and glyph tints:

hiddenWordIndices hides glyphs, highlights, and tap hits for the listed words. Pair with marker so ayah markers stay visible while the verse body is progressively revealed.

JustifiedArabicLine(
  words: ['ٱلْحَمْدُ', 'لِلَّهِ', 'رَبِّ', 'ٱلْعَٰلَمِينَ', '۝٢'],
  marker: '۝',
  wordProgress: WordProgress(
    passedWordIndices: {0, 1},
    passedColor: Colors.black,
    activeWordIndex: 2,
    activeColor: Colors.blue,
    hiddenWordIndices: {3}, // still to reveal
    style: WordProgressStyle.whole,
  ),
)

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Example

• example/ — five tabs cover the Widget (taps, line height, font size), Bitmap, timer-driven progress animation, the memorization / reveal mode, and a regex-based tajweed demo.

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Acknowledgments

• DigitalKhatt — Arabic justification and font technology
• HarfBuzz — Text shaping engine (justification branch by DigitalKhatt)
• FreeType — Font rendering library

Portions of this software are copyright (c) 2023 The FreeType Project (https://freetype.org). All rights reserved.

See THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES for full license details.

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License

MIT — see LICENSE for details.