Complex Text Layout languages (frequently referred to as CTL languages) are languages whose writing systems require complex transformations between text input and text display for proper rendering on the screen or the printed page. In other words, for these languages there may be a difference between the way text is stored and the way it is displayed. The term is used in the field of software internationalization. A writing system, also called a script, is used to visually record a language with symbols. ... Internationalization and localization are means of adapting products such as publications or software for non-native environments, especially other nations and cultures. ...

Examples of CTL languages are Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi, and Thai. Arabic is a Semitic language, closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic. ... The Modern Hebrew language is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family. ... Hindi (हिन्दी) is a language spoken in most states in northern and central India. ...

The main characteristics of CTL language complexity are:

• Bi-directional text, where characters may be written from either right-to-left or left-to-right direction.
• Context-sensitive shaping, where character may changes its shape, depends on its location and/or surrounding characters. For example, a character in Arabic script can have four different shape forms, depending on context.
• Ordering, the displayed order of the characters is not the same as the logical order. For example, in Hindi, which is written from left to right, the matra for "short i" appears to the left ("before") the preceeding vowels. To translate this effect into Roman characters, it is as if "hindi" was written "ihndi" but still alphabetized with other words beginning with "h".

Bi-directional text - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ... The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing the Arabic language, which is the language of the Quran, the holy book of Islam. ...

See also

• CJK
• Unicode
• Typography

CJK can also stand for Centre Jeunes Kamenge. ... In computing, Unicode is the international standard whose goal is to provide the means to encode the text of every document people want to store in computers. ... Typography (from the Greek words typos = form and grapho = write) is the art and technique of selecting and arranging type styles, point sizes, line lengths, line leading, character spacing, and word spacing for typeset applications. ...

External Links

• Complex Text Layout (http://www.opengroup.org/desktop/ctl/) - The Open Group's Desktop Technologies
• Supporting Indic Scripts in Mozilla (http://www.mozilla.org/projects/ctl/), also other CTL scripts
• CTL Architecture in Solaris (http://developers.sun.com/techtopics/global/products_platforms/solaris/reference/whitepapers/#ctl) - Solaris Globalization Whitepapers
• Complex Scripts (http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/DrIntl/faqs/Complex.mspx) - Microsoft Global Development and Computing Portal
• Theppitak's Homepage (http://linux.thai.net/~thep/) - information about Thai language processing