Arabic Presentation Forms-B Unicode Block
The Unicode block "Arabic Presentation Forms-B" is a set of character encodings within the Unicode Standard that specifically caters to the representation of Arabic script ligatures and contextual forms used primarily in legacy computing systems. This block, which occupies the code point range U+FE70 to U+FEFF, was primarily designed to ensure compatibility with older text processing systems and documents that relied on specific Arabic presentations. It includes various ligatures, alternate forms of characters for joining scripts, and marks that were predominantly used in legacy systems or specialized text rendering scenarios. Its purpose was to ease the transition of Arabic script documents from older encoding systems to the broader, more universal Unicode Standard, which supports a wider array of languages and scripts with greater consistency.
Despite its utility in certain contexts, the use of the Arabic Presentation Forms-B block is generally discouraged in modern applications. This is because Unicode's design philosophy encourages the use of standard, non-presentation forms as it allows text rendering engines to consistently manage contextual forms and ligatures automatically, based on typography and layout rules. As such, text encoded using Arabic Presentation Forms-B may not always display correctly or optimally in systems that use advanced text processing and rendering techniques common in contemporary software. Instead, developers and content creators are encouraged to use basic Arabic characters, allowing software applications to handle presentation according to current text display standards, ensuring greater compatibility, and more efficient text processing across different platforms and languages.
View a range of fonts that support the Arabic Presentation Forms-B block.
Below you will find all the characters that are in the Arabic Presentation Forms-B unicode block. Currently there are 141 characters in this block.
