matplotlib-users

Re: [Matplotlib-users] Arabic Character Support

[Mathieu L. <lep...@gm...>]

Hi all,

I have been trying to follow your tips regarding matplotlib and arabic support.

Indeed matplotlib with Latex and unicode work great together :

#-*- coding: utf-8 -*-
from pylab import *
from matplotlib import rcParams
rcParams['text.usetex']=True
rcParams['text.latex.unicode']=True
figure(1)
plot([1,2,3])
title(unicode(r'\textit{éèê}','utf8'))
show()

But then I came to the conclusion that Latex did not support Arabic.
This few lines generate a "missing def" error.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{ucs}
\usepackage[utf8x]{inputenc}
\title{éèê هه}
\begin{document}
\maketitle
\end{document}

Is it related to my installation ? (Ubuntu with package
texlive-latex-recommended)
I asked here : http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=5258457

Somebody pointed me out XeTeX, which has wider support for Unicode.
www.tug.org/TUGboat/Articles/tb27-2/tb87kew.pdf

I was wondering if there could be a way to get matplotlib work with XeTeX.

What do you think ? Is it the right track ? Should I switch to
grandpa's gnuplot :) ?

Thank you all,

Mathieu.


Michael Droettboom wrote:
> Unfortunately, I believe this is a fundamental incompatibility within
> matplotlib.  matplotlib uses a very simple algorithm for layout out a
> line of characters which assumes ltr order and all kinds of other things.
>
> That said, there is something you could try.  Matplotlib has a "usetex"
> mode which will do all text rendering using LaTeX.  Assuming you can get
> LaTeX to handle Arabic correctly, you can set the following in your
> .matplotlibrc file:
>
>        text.usetex : True
>        text.latex.unicode : True
>
> You'll need to install the LaTeX Unicode extension "ucs" (Ubuntu
> probably has packages for that.)  If you need to load any LaTeX packages
> to get arabic support, you can tell matplotlib about them in your
> matplotlibrc like so:
>
>        text.latex.preamble: \usepackage{foo}
>
> If Arabic-encoded-as-Unicode doesn't work, you could try setting
> "text.latex.unicode" to False, and then typing your Arabic strings using
>  one of the other Arabic encodings that LaTeX understands.
>
> Please let us know if you have success or hit another roadblock.
>
> Cheers,
> Mike
>
> Burhan Khalid wrote:
>> Hello All:
>>
>>   Having an issue with Arabic font support using matplotlib. When using
>> the correct font, Arabic characters are displayed, but are not joined
>> together
>> properly; and they are also not in the correct order (the font rendered is
>> ltr, but Arabic is a rtl language). Is this an issue with the render I
>> am using, or some incompatibility within matplotlib? Sample source code
>> used (please note, your email client should support utf8 to display the
>> code correctly).
>>
>> #-*- coding: utf-8 -*-
>> from pylab import *
>> figure(1) # the first figure
>> plot([1,2,3])
>> figure(1) # figure 1 current
>> title(u'برهان',name='Times New Roman') # figure 1 title
>> savefig('test.png')
>> savefig('test.eps')
>> show()
>>
>> Output when run from the command line:
>>
>> matplotlib data path /usr/share/matplotlib/mpl-data
>> $HOME=/home/burhan
>> CONFIGDIR=/home/burhan/.matplotlib
>> loaded rc file /etc/matplotlibrc
>> matplotlib version 0.90.1
>> verbose.level helpful
>> interactive is False
>> units is True
>> platform is linux2
>> numerix numpy 1.0.3
>> font search path ['/usr/share/matplotlib/mpl-data/fonts/ttf',
>> '/usr/share/matplotlib/mpl-data/fonts/afm']
>> loaded ttfcache file /home/burhan/.matplotlib/ttffont.cache
>> backend TkAgg version 8.4
>> Could not match Bitstream Vera Serif, New Century Schoolbook, Century
>> Schoolbook L, Utopia, ITC Bookman, Bookman, Nimbus Roman No9 L, Times
>> New Roman, Times, Palatino, Charter, serif, normal, normal. Returning
>> /usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-bitstream-vera/Vera.ttf
>>
>> This is on a clean Ubuntu Gutsy install, using python 2.5.1.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Burhan
>>
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc.
>> Still grepping through log files to find problems?  Stop.
>> Now Search log events and configuration files using AJAX and a browser.
>> Download your FREE copy of Splunk now >> http://get.splunk.com/
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Matplotlib-users mailing list
>> Mat...@li...
>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/matplotlib-users
>
> --
> Michael Droettboom
> Science Software Branch
> Operations and Engineering Division
> Space Telescope Science Institute
> Operated by AURA for NASA
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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>

Re: [Matplotlib-users] Arabic Character Support

[Michael D. <md...@st...>]

Mathieu Leplatre wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I have been trying to follow your tips regarding matplotlib and arabic support.
>   
> Is it related to my installation ? (Ubuntu with package
> texlive-latex-recommended)
> I asked here : http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=5258457
>   
I have no idea.  Try asking on a texlive forum, perhaps.

Do you have a real need for using "usetex", or are you just doing that 
given my suggestion from last October?

Here's the thing to keep in mind: matplotlib's built-in text layout 
algorithm is completely English-centric.  It assumes all text is left to 
right and doesn't deal with any of Unicode's complications like 
combining characters etc.  We really should be using a proper text 
layout engine like Pango or ICU TextLayout that has all these things 
worked out.  matplotlib in general avoids (L)GPL'd libraries for core 
functionality so Pango is probably out.  And ICU TextLayout doesn't 
appear to have Python bindings, adding another speed bump to its use.  I 
think it needs a highly-motivated developer to take it on.  
Unfortunately, I think many of us are in the head-in-the-sand about 
internationalization United States... ;)

So the trick here for matplotlib (ignoring the LaTeX/XeTeX issues for 
now), is to avoid its built-in text layout.  The Agg, Pdf and Ps 
backends are basically forced to use it by the nature of the format and 
implementations.  The Cairo backend could do it if we used pangocairo, 
but at the moment we use Cairo's "toy" text API which doesn't have all 
the Pango goodness.  It turns out that (basically by accident) the SVG 
backend *does* work, if you set "svg.embed_char_paths" to False.  In 
that mode, it outputs "real" SVG text as strings that appear (to my 
non-Arabic-reading eyes) to be interpreted correctly r-to-l in 
Inkscape.  Note, however, that matplotlib will get the length of the 
text wrong, so the text is slightly off-center.  But it's a start.

Now, on to the LaTeX-based solution.  I'm a bit out of my element here 
and only suggesting things that I might try next.  No guarantees of 
working at all.  I haven't spent much time with matplotlib's usetex code.
> Somebody pointed me out XeTeX, which has wider support for Unicode.
> www.tug.org/TUGboat/Articles/tb27-2/tb87kew.pdf
>
> I was wondering if there could be a way to get matplotlib work with XeTeX.
>   
I don't have XeTeX installed here (and don't have root access to my 
machine at work), so I can't easily try it.  You could experiment, 
however, by replacing

            command = self._get_shell_cmd('cd "%s"'% self.texcache,
                            'latex -interaction=nonstopmode %s > "%s"'\
                            %(os.path.split(texfile)[-1], outfile))

with

            command = self._get_shell_cmd('cd "%s"'% self.texcache,
                            'xelatex --no-pdf -interaction=nonstopmode 
%s > "%s"'\
                            %(os.path.split(texfile)[-1], outfile))

Make sure text.latex.unicode is set to False, so that the ucs packages, 
which are incompatible with XeTeX, are not loaded.

A couple of things may stand in the way -- xetex, with the --no-pdf 
option, outputs "xdv" (extended dvi), rather than "dvi".  matplotlib 
inserts LaTeX text by converting dvi to png or ps (with dvipng or dvips 
respectively).  I don't know how backward-compatible xdv is as a format 
and whether that's a show stopper.

If you get somewhere and get stuck again, please post your progress and 
all console output etc. here and I can try to get you unstuck again.
> What do you think ? Is it the right track ? Should I switch to
> grandpa's gnuplot :) ?
>   
Well, gnuplot does use pango, apparently, so it has that advantage, if 
nothing else... ;)

Cheers,
Mike
> Thank you all,
>
> Mathieu.
>
>
> Michael Droettboom wrote:
>   
>> Unfortunately, I believe this is a fundamental incompatibility within
>> matplotlib.  matplotlib uses a very simple algorithm for layout out a
>> line of characters which assumes ltr order and all kinds of other things.
>>
>> That said, there is something you could try.  Matplotlib has a "usetex"
>> mode which will do all text rendering using LaTeX.  Assuming you can get
>> LaTeX to handle Arabic correctly, you can set the following in your
>> .matplotlibrc file:
>>
>>        text.usetex : True
>>        text.latex.unicode : True
>>
>> You'll need to install the LaTeX Unicode extension "ucs" (Ubuntu
>> probably has packages for that.)  If you need to load any LaTeX packages
>> to get arabic support, you can tell matplotlib about them in your
>> matplotlibrc like so:
>>
>>        text.latex.preamble: \usepackage{foo}
>>
>> If Arabic-encoded-as-Unicode doesn't work, you could try setting
>> "text.latex.unicode" to False, and then typing your Arabic strings using
>>  one of the other Arabic encodings that LaTeX understands.
>>
>> Please let us know if you have success or hit another roadblock.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Mike
>>
>> Burhan Khalid wrote:
>>     
>>> Hello All:
>>>
>>>   Having an issue with Arabic font support using matplotlib. When using
>>> the correct font, Arabic characters are displayed, but are not joined
>>> together
>>> properly; and they are also not in the correct order (the font rendered is
>>> ltr, but Arabic is a rtl language). Is this an issue with the render I
>>> am using, or some incompatibility within matplotlib? Sample source code
>>> used (please note, your email client should support utf8 to display the
>>> code correctly).
>>>
>>> #-*- coding: utf-8 -*-
>>> from pylab import *
>>> figure(1) # the first figure
>>> plot([1,2,3])
>>> figure(1) # figure 1 current
>>> title(u'برهان',name='Times New Roman') # figure 1 title
>>> savefig('test.png')
>>> savefig('test.eps')
>>> show()
>>>
>>> Output when run from the command line:
>>>
>>> matplotlib data path /usr/share/matplotlib/mpl-data
>>> $HOME=/home/burhan
>>> CONFIGDIR=/home/burhan/.matplotlib
>>> loaded rc file /etc/matplotlibrc
>>> matplotlib version 0.90.1
>>> verbose.level helpful
>>> interactive is False
>>> units is True
>>> platform is linux2
>>> numerix numpy 1.0.3
>>> font search path ['/usr/share/matplotlib/mpl-data/fonts/ttf',
>>> '/usr/share/matplotlib/mpl-data/fonts/afm']
>>> loaded ttfcache file /home/burhan/.matplotlib/ttffont.cache
>>> backend TkAgg version 8.4
>>> Could not match Bitstream Vera Serif, New Century Schoolbook, Century
>>> Schoolbook L, Utopia, ITC Bookman, Bookman, Nimbus Roman No9 L, Times
>>> New Roman, Times, Palatino, Charter, serif, normal, normal. Returning
>>> /usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-bitstream-vera/Vera.ttf
>>>
>>> This is on a clean Ubuntu Gutsy install, using python 2.5.1.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Burhan
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc.
>>> Still grepping through log files to find problems?  Stop.
>>> Now Search log events and configuration files using AJAX and a browser.
>>> Download your FREE copy of Splunk now >> http://get.splunk.com/
>>>
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Matplotlib-users mailing list
>>> Mat...@li...
>>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/matplotlib-users
>>>       
>> --
>> Michael Droettboom
>> Science Software Branch
>> Operations and Engineering Division
>> Space Telescope Science Institute
>> Operated by AURA for NASA
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc.
>> Still grepping through log files to find problems?  Stop.
>> Now Search log events and configuration files using AJAX and a browser.
>> Download your FREE copy of Splunk now >> http://get.splunk.com/
>> _______________________________________________
>> Matplotlib-users mailing list
>> Mat...@li...
>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/matplotlib-users
>>
>>     
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>   

-- 
Michael Droettboom
Science Software Branch
Operations and Engineering Division
Space Telescope Science Institute
Operated by AURA for NASA

Re: [Matplotlib-users] Arabic Character Support

[Darren D. <dsd...@gm...>]

Hi Mathieu,

Are there perhaps some latex packages you could load using the 
text.latex.preamble rc setting? This setting is officially unsupported, but 
it would be much easier than adding an option to use the xetex executable 
(which would probably not be officially supported by mpl).

Darren

On Wednesday 25 June 2008 09:02:41 am Mathieu Leplatre wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I have been trying to follow your tips regarding matplotlib and arabic
> support.
>
> Indeed matplotlib with Latex and unicode work great together :
>
> #-*- coding: utf-8 -*-
> from pylab import *
> from matplotlib import rcParams
> rcParams['text.usetex']=True
> rcParams['text.latex.unicode']=True
> figure(1)
> plot([1,2,3])
> title(unicode(r'\textit{éèê}','utf8'))
> show()
>
> But then I came to the conclusion that Latex did not support Arabic.
> This few lines generate a "missing def" error.
>
> \documentclass{article}
> \usepackage{ucs}
> \usepackage[utf8x]{inputenc}
> \title{éèê هه}
> \begin{document}
> \maketitle
> \end{document}
>
> Is it related to my installation ? (Ubuntu with package
> texlive-latex-recommended)
> I asked here : http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=5258457
>
> Somebody pointed me out XeTeX, which has wider support for Unicode.
> www.tug.org/TUGboat/Articles/tb27-2/tb87kew.pdf
>
> I was wondering if there could be a way to get matplotlib work with XeTeX.
>
> What do you think ? Is it the right track ? Should I switch to
> grandpa's gnuplot :) ?
>
> Thank you all,
>
> Mathieu.
>
> Michael Droettboom wrote:
> > Unfortunately, I believe this is a fundamental incompatibility within
> > matplotlib.  matplotlib uses a very simple algorithm for layout out a
> > line of characters which assumes ltr order and all kinds of other things.
> >
> > That said, there is something you could try.  Matplotlib has a "usetex"
> > mode which will do all text rendering using LaTeX.  Assuming you can get
> > LaTeX to handle Arabic correctly, you can set the following in your
> > .matplotlibrc file:
> >
> >        text.usetex : True
> >        text.latex.unicode : True
> >
> > You'll need to install the LaTeX Unicode extension "ucs" (Ubuntu
> > probably has packages for that.)  If you need to load any LaTeX packages
> > to get arabic support, you can tell matplotlib about them in your
> > matplotlibrc like so:
> >
> >        text.latex.preamble: \usepackage{foo}
> >
> > If Arabic-encoded-as-Unicode doesn't work, you could try setting
> > "text.latex.unicode" to False, and then typing your Arabic strings using
> >  one of the other Arabic encodings that LaTeX understands.
> >
> > Please let us know if you have success or hit another roadblock.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Mike
> >
> > Burhan Khalid wrote:
> >> Hello All:
> >>
> >>   Having an issue with Arabic font support using matplotlib. When using
> >> the correct font, Arabic characters are displayed, but are not joined
> >> together
> >> properly; and they are also not in the correct order (the font rendered
> >> is ltr, but Arabic is a rtl language). Is this an issue with the render
> >> I am using, or some incompatibility within matplotlib? Sample source
> >> code used (please note, your email client should support utf8 to display
> >> the code correctly).
> >>
> >> #-*- coding: utf-8 -*-
> >> from pylab import *
> >> figure(1) # the first figure
> >> plot([1,2,3])
> >> figure(1) # figure 1 current
> >> title(u'برهان',name='Times New Roman') # figure 1 title
> >> savefig('test.png')
> >> savefig('test.eps')
> >> show()
> >>
> >> Output when run from the command line:
> >>
> >> matplotlib data path /usr/share/matplotlib/mpl-data
> >> $HOME=/home/burhan
> >> CONFIGDIR=/home/burhan/.matplotlib
> >> loaded rc file /etc/matplotlibrc
> >> matplotlib version 0.90.1
> >> verbose.level helpful
> >> interactive is False
> >> units is True
> >> platform is linux2
> >> numerix numpy 1.0.3
> >> font search path ['/usr/share/matplotlib/mpl-data/fonts/ttf',
> >> '/usr/share/matplotlib/mpl-data/fonts/afm']
> >> loaded ttfcache file /home/burhan/.matplotlib/ttffont.cache
> >> backend TkAgg version 8.4
> >> Could not match Bitstream Vera Serif, New Century Schoolbook, Century
> >> Schoolbook L, Utopia, ITC Bookman, Bookman, Nimbus Roman No9 L, Times
> >> New Roman, Times, Palatino, Charter, serif, normal, normal. Returning
> >> /usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-bitstream-vera/Vera.ttf
> >>
> >> This is on a clean Ubuntu Gutsy install, using python 2.5.1.
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >> Burhan
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc.
> >> Still grepping through log files to find problems?  Stop.
> >> Now Search log events and configuration files using AJAX and a browser.
> >> Download your FREE copy of Splunk now >> http://get.splunk.com/
> >>
> >>
> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Matplotlib-users mailing list
> >> Mat...@li...
> >> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/matplotlib-users
> >
> > --
> > Michael Droettboom
> > Science Software Branch
> > Operations and Engineering Division
> > Space Telescope Science Institute
> > Operated by AURA for NASA
> >
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc.
> > Still grepping through log files to find problems?  Stop.
> > Now Search log events and configuration files using AJAX and a browser.
> > Download your FREE copy of Splunk now >> http://get.splunk.com/
> > _______________________________________________
> > Matplotlib-users mailing list
> > Mat...@li...
> > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/matplotlib-users
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Check out the new SourceForge.net Marketplace.
> It's the best place to buy or sell services for
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> _______________________________________________
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> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/matplotlib-users

Re: [Matplotlib-users] Arabic Character Support

[Mathieu L. <lep...@gm...>]

Well, I'll give a try towards another possibility :
 1 - use SVG output with rc setting : svg.embed_char_paths" to False
 2 - use cairo to export to PNG/JPG etc..

Step 1 works great natively with Arabic (at least viewing it with Inkscape).
Let's see if I have problems with step 2.

2008/6/25 Darren Dale <dsd...@gm...>:
> Hi Mathieu,
>
> Are there perhaps some latex packages you could load using the
> text.latex.preamble rc setting? This setting is officially unsupported, but
> it would be much easier than adding an option to use the xetex executable
> (which would probably not be officially supported by mpl).
>
> Darren
>
> On Wednesday 25 June 2008 09:02:41 am Mathieu Leplatre wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I have been trying to follow your tips regarding matplotlib and arabic
>> support.
>>
>> Indeed matplotlib with Latex and unicode work great together :
>>
>> #-*- coding: utf-8 -*-
>> from pylab import *
>> from matplotlib import rcParams
>> rcParams['text.usetex']=True
>> rcParams['text.latex.unicode']=True
>> figure(1)
>> plot([1,2,3])
>> title(unicode(r'\textit{éèê}','utf8'))
>> show()
>>
>> But then I came to the conclusion that Latex did not support Arabic.
>> This few lines generate a "missing def" error.
>>
>> \documentclass{article}
>> \usepackage{ucs}
>> \usepackage[utf8x]{inputenc}
>> \title{éèê هه}
>> \begin{document}
>> \maketitle
>> \end{document}
>>
>> Is it related to my installation ? (Ubuntu with package
>> texlive-latex-recommended)
>> I asked here : http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=5258457
>>
>> Somebody pointed me out XeTeX, which has wider support for Unicode.
>> www.tug.org/TUGboat/Articles/tb27-2/tb87kew.pdf
>>
>> I was wondering if there could be a way to get matplotlib work with XeTeX.
>>
>> What do you think ? Is it the right track ? Should I switch to
>> grandpa's gnuplot :) ?
>>
>> Thank you all,
>>
>> Mathieu.
>>
>> Michael Droettboom wrote:
>> > Unfortunately, I believe this is a fundamental incompatibility within
>> > matplotlib.  matplotlib uses a very simple algorithm for layout out a
>> > line of characters which assumes ltr order and all kinds of other things.
>> >
>> > That said, there is something you could try.  Matplotlib has a "usetex"
>> > mode which will do all text rendering using LaTeX.  Assuming you can get
>> > LaTeX to handle Arabic correctly, you can set the following in your
>> > .matplotlibrc file:
>> >
>> >        text.usetex : True
>> >        text.latex.unicode : True
>> >
>> > You'll need to install the LaTeX Unicode extension "ucs" (Ubuntu
>> > probably has packages for that.)  If you need to load any LaTeX packages
>> > to get arabic support, you can tell matplotlib about them in your
>> > matplotlibrc like so:
>> >
>> >        text.latex.preamble: \usepackage{foo}
>> >
>> > If Arabic-encoded-as-Unicode doesn't work, you could try setting
>> > "text.latex.unicode" to False, and then typing your Arabic strings using
>> >  one of the other Arabic encodings that LaTeX understands.
>> >
>> > Please let us know if you have success or hit another roadblock.
>> >
>> > Cheers,
>> > Mike
>> >
>> > Burhan Khalid wrote:
>> >> Hello All:
>> >>
>> >>   Having an issue with Arabic font support using matplotlib. When using
>> >> the correct font, Arabic characters are displayed, but are not joined
>> >> together
>> >> properly; and they are also not in the correct order (the font rendered
>> >> is ltr, but Arabic is a rtl language). Is this an issue with the render
>> >> I am using, or some incompatibility within matplotlib? Sample source
>> >> code used (please note, your email client should support utf8 to display
>> >> the code correctly).
>> >>
>> >> #-*- coding: utf-8 -*-
>> >> from pylab import *
>> >> figure(1) # the first figure
>> >> plot([1,2,3])
>> >> figure(1) # figure 1 current
>> >> title(u'برهان',name='Times New Roman') # figure 1 title
>> >> savefig('test.png')
>> >> savefig('test.eps')
>> >> show()
>> >>
>> >> Output when run from the command line:
>> >>
>> >> matplotlib data path /usr/share/matplotlib/mpl-data
>> >> $HOME=/home/burhan
>> >> CONFIGDIR=/home/burhan/.matplotlib
>> >> loaded rc file /etc/matplotlibrc
>> >> matplotlib version 0.90.1
>> >> verbose.level helpful
>> >> interactive is False
>> >> units is True
>> >> platform is linux2
>> >> numerix numpy 1.0.3
>> >> font search path ['/usr/share/matplotlib/mpl-data/fonts/ttf',
>> >> '/usr/share/matplotlib/mpl-data/fonts/afm']
>> >> loaded ttfcache file /home/burhan/.matplotlib/ttffont.cache
>> >> backend TkAgg version 8.4
>> >> Could not match Bitstream Vera Serif, New Century Schoolbook, Century
>> >> Schoolbook L, Utopia, ITC Bookman, Bookman, Nimbus Roman No9 L, Times
>> >> New Roman, Times, Palatino, Charter, serif, normal, normal. Returning
>> >> /usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-bitstream-vera/Vera.ttf
>> >>
>> >> This is on a clean Ubuntu Gutsy install, using python 2.5.1.
>> >>
>> >> Thanks,
>> >> Burhan
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >>
>> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >>- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc.
>> >> Still grepping through log files to find problems?  Stop.
>> >> Now Search log events and configuration files using AJAX and a browser.
>> >> Download your FREE copy of Splunk now >> http://get.splunk.com/
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >>
>> >> _______________________________________________
>> >> Matplotlib-users mailing list
>> >> Mat...@li...
>> >> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/matplotlib-users
>> >
>> > --
>> > Michael Droettboom
>> > Science Software Branch
>> > Operations and Engineering Division
>> > Space Telescope Science Institute
>> > Operated by AURA for NASA
>> >
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>>
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>

Re: [Matplotlib-users] Arabic Character Support

[Mathieu L. <lep...@gm...>]

Thank you Michael and Darren.

I'll keep your information for further polishing :

So far, I am not having problems with my two-steps solution :

1) SVG backend
2) rsvg + Cairo, code snippet :

svg = rsvg.Handle( filesvg )
width  = svg.props.width
height = svg.props.height
surface = cairo.ImageSurface (cairo.FORMAT_ARGB32, width, height)
cr = cairo.Context (surface)
svg.render_cairo (cr)
surface.write_to_png (filepng)

Thanks again for your assistance ! Long live sub-cultures and their
exotic writings !


2008/6/25 Mathieu Leplatre <lep...@gm...>:
> Well, I'll give a try towards another possibility :
>  1 - use SVG output with rc setting : svg.embed_char_paths" to False
>  2 - use cairo to export to PNG/JPG etc..
>
> Step 1 works great natively with Arabic (at least viewing it with Inkscape).
> Let's see if I have problems with step 2.
>
> 2008/6/25 Darren Dale <dsd...@gm...>:
>> Hi Mathieu,
>>
>> Are there perhaps some latex packages you could load using the
>> text.latex.preamble rc setting? This setting is officially unsupported, but
>> it would be much easier than adding an option to use the xetex executable
>> (which would probably not be officially supported by mpl).
>>
>> Darren
>>
>> On Wednesday 25 June 2008 09:02:41 am Mathieu Leplatre wrote:
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> I have been trying to follow your tips regarding matplotlib and arabic
>>> support.
>>>
>>> Indeed matplotlib with Latex and unicode work great together :
>>>
>>> #-*- coding: utf-8 -*-
>>> from pylab import *
>>> from matplotlib import rcParams
>>> rcParams['text.usetex']=True
>>> rcParams['text.latex.unicode']=True
>>> figure(1)
>>> plot([1,2,3])
>>> title(unicode(r'\textit{éèê}','utf8'))
>>> show()
>>>
>>> But then I came to the conclusion that Latex did not support Arabic.
>>> This few lines generate a "missing def" error.
>>>
>>> \documentclass{article}
>>> \usepackage{ucs}
>>> \usepackage[utf8x]{inputenc}
>>> \title{éèê هه}
>>> \begin{document}
>>> \maketitle
>>> \end{document}
>>>
>>> Is it related to my installation ? (Ubuntu with package
>>> texlive-latex-recommended)
>>> I asked here : http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=5258457
>>>
>>> Somebody pointed me out XeTeX, which has wider support for Unicode.
>>> www.tug.org/TUGboat/Articles/tb27-2/tb87kew.pdf
>>>
>>> I was wondering if there could be a way to get matplotlib work with XeTeX.
>>>
>>> What do you think ? Is it the right track ? Should I switch to
>>> grandpa's gnuplot :) ?
>>>
>>> Thank you all,
>>>
>>> Mathieu.
>>>
>>> Michael Droettboom wrote:
>>> > Unfortunately, I believe this is a fundamental incompatibility within
>>> > matplotlib.  matplotlib uses a very simple algorithm for layout out a
>>> > line of characters which assumes ltr order and all kinds of other things.
>>> >
>>> > That said, there is something you could try.  Matplotlib has a "usetex"
>>> > mode which will do all text rendering using LaTeX.  Assuming you can get
>>> > LaTeX to handle Arabic correctly, you can set the following in your
>>> > .matplotlibrc file:
>>> >
>>> >        text.usetex : True
>>> >        text.latex.unicode : True
>>> >
>>> > You'll need to install the LaTeX Unicode extension "ucs" (Ubuntu
>>> > probably has packages for that.)  If you need to load any LaTeX packages
>>> > to get arabic support, you can tell matplotlib about them in your
>>> > matplotlibrc like so:
>>> >
>>> >        text.latex.preamble: \usepackage{foo}
>>> >
>>> > If Arabic-encoded-as-Unicode doesn't work, you could try setting
>>> > "text.latex.unicode" to False, and then typing your Arabic strings using
>>> >  one of the other Arabic encodings that LaTeX understands.
>>> >
>>> > Please let us know if you have success or hit another roadblock.
>>> >
>>> > Cheers,
>>> > Mike
>>> >
>>> > Burhan Khalid wrote:
>>> >> Hello All:
>>> >>
>>> >>   Having an issue with Arabic font support using matplotlib. When using
>>> >> the correct font, Arabic characters are displayed, but are not joined
>>> >> together
>>> >> properly; and they are also not in the correct order (the font rendered
>>> >> is ltr, but Arabic is a rtl language). Is this an issue with the render
>>> >> I am using, or some incompatibility within matplotlib? Sample source
>>> >> code used (please note, your email client should support utf8 to display
>>> >> the code correctly).
>>> >>
>>> >> #-*- coding: utf-8 -*-
>>> >> from pylab import *
>>> >> figure(1) # the first figure
>>> >> plot([1,2,3])
>>> >> figure(1) # figure 1 current
>>> >> title(u'برهان',name='Times New Roman') # figure 1 title
>>> >> savefig('test.png')
>>> >> savefig('test.eps')
>>> >> show()
>>> >>
>>> >> Output when run from the command line:
>>> >>
>>> >> matplotlib data path /usr/share/matplotlib/mpl-data
>>> >> $HOME=/home/burhan
>>> >> CONFIGDIR=/home/burhan/.matplotlib
>>> >> loaded rc file /etc/matplotlibrc
>>> >> matplotlib version 0.90.1
>>> >> verbose.level helpful
>>> >> interactive is False
>>> >> units is True
>>> >> platform is linux2
>>> >> numerix numpy 1.0.3
>>> >> font search path ['/usr/share/matplotlib/mpl-data/fonts/ttf',
>>> >> '/usr/share/matplotlib/mpl-data/fonts/afm']
>>> >> loaded ttfcache file /home/burhan/.matplotlib/ttffont.cache
>>> >> backend TkAgg version 8.4
>>> >> Could not match Bitstream Vera Serif, New Century Schoolbook, Century
>>> >> Schoolbook L, Utopia, ITC Bookman, Bookman, Nimbus Roman No9 L, Times
>>> >> New Roman, Times, Palatino, Charter, serif, normal, normal. Returning
>>> >> /usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-bitstream-vera/Vera.ttf
>>> >>
>>> >> This is on a clean Ubuntu Gutsy install, using python 2.5.1.
>>> >>
>>> >> Thanks,
>>> >> Burhan
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> >>
>>> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> >>- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc.
>>> >> Still grepping through log files to find problems?  Stop.
>>> >> Now Search log events and configuration files using AJAX and a browser.
>>> >> Download your FREE copy of Splunk now >> http://get.splunk.com/
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> >>
>>> >> _______________________________________________
>>> >> Matplotlib-users mailing list
>>> >> Mat...@li...
>>> >> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/matplotlib-users
>>> >
>>> > --
>>> > Michael Droettboom
>>> > Science Software Branch
>>> > Operations and Engineering Division
>>> > Space Telescope Science Institute
>>> > Operated by AURA for NASA
>>> >
>>> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> > This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc.
>>> > Still grepping through log files to find problems?  Stop.
>>> > Now Search log events and configuration files using AJAX and a browser.
>>> > Download your FREE copy of Splunk now >> http://get.splunk.com/
>>> > _______________________________________________
>>> > Matplotlib-users mailing list
>>> > Mat...@li...
>>> > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/matplotlib-users
>>>
>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> Check out the new SourceForge.net Marketplace.
>>> It's the best place to buy or sell services for
>>> just about anything Open Source.
>>> http://sourceforge.net/services/buy/index.php
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Matplotlib-users mailing list
>>> Mat...@li...
>>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/matplotlib-users
>>
>>
>>
>

Re: [Matplotlib-users] Arabic Character Support

[Michael D. <md...@st...>]

Thanks for the report.  It's a bit convoluted, but it is automatable, at 
least, and I'm glad to see it works for you.

I'd like to see a Cairo expert take on the task of upgrading our Cairo 
backend to use Pango.  That would make this a little cleaner and 
theoretically fix the text alignment problem with your method (i.e. the 
titles are not exactly centered since its width is based on a naive 
rendering of the text).  I have no concept of how much work that would 
be.  Though it's also possible that that would just run up against other 
assumptions that matplotlib makes about text.

Cheers,
Mike

Mathieu Leplatre wrote:
> Thank you Michael and Darren.
>
> I'll keep your information for further polishing :
>
> So far, I am not having problems with my two-steps solution :
>
> 1) SVG backend
> 2) rsvg + Cairo, code snippet :
>
> svg = rsvg.Handle( filesvg )
> width  = svg.props.width
> height = svg.props.height
> surface = cairo.ImageSurface (cairo.FORMAT_ARGB32, width, height)
> cr = cairo.Context (surface)
> svg.render_cairo (cr)
> surface.write_to_png (filepng)
>
> Thanks again for your assistance ! Long live sub-cultures and their
> exotic writings !
>
>
> 2008/6/25 Mathieu Leplatre <lep...@gm...>:
>   
>> Well, I'll give a try towards another possibility :
>>  1 - use SVG output with rc setting : svg.embed_char_paths" to False
>>  2 - use cairo to export to PNG/JPG etc..
>>
>> Step 1 works great natively with Arabic (at least viewing it with Inkscape).
>> Let's see if I have problems with step 2.
>>
>> 2008/6/25 Darren Dale <dsd...@gm...>:
>>     
>>> Hi Mathieu,
>>>
>>> Are there perhaps some latex packages you could load using the
>>> text.latex.preamble rc setting? This setting is officially unsupported, but
>>> it would be much easier than adding an option to use the xetex executable
>>> (which would probably not be officially supported by mpl).
>>>
>>> Darren
>>>
>>> On Wednesday 25 June 2008 09:02:41 am Mathieu Leplatre wrote:
>>>       
>>>> Hi all,
>>>>
>>>> I have been trying to follow your tips regarding matplotlib and arabic
>>>> support.
>>>>
>>>> Indeed matplotlib with Latex and unicode work great together :
>>>>
>>>> #-*- coding: utf-8 -*-
>>>> from pylab import *
>>>> from matplotlib import rcParams
>>>> rcParams['text.usetex']=True
>>>> rcParams['text.latex.unicode']=True
>>>> figure(1)
>>>> plot([1,2,3])
>>>> title(unicode(r'\textit{éèê}','utf8'))
>>>> show()
>>>>
>>>> But then I came to the conclusion that Latex did not support Arabic.
>>>> This few lines generate a "missing def" error.
>>>>
>>>> \documentclass{article}
>>>> \usepackage{ucs}
>>>> \usepackage[utf8x]{inputenc}
>>>> \title{éèê هه}
>>>> \begin{document}
>>>> \maketitle
>>>> \end{document}
>>>>
>>>> Is it related to my installation ? (Ubuntu with package
>>>> texlive-latex-recommended)
>>>> I asked here : http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=5258457
>>>>
>>>> Somebody pointed me out XeTeX, which has wider support for Unicode.
>>>> www.tug.org/TUGboat/Articles/tb27-2/tb87kew.pdf
>>>>
>>>> I was wondering if there could be a way to get matplotlib work with XeTeX.
>>>>
>>>> What do you think ? Is it the right track ? Should I switch to
>>>> grandpa's gnuplot :) ?
>>>>
>>>> Thank you all,
>>>>
>>>> Mathieu.
>>>>
>>>> Michael Droettboom wrote:
>>>>         
>>>>> Unfortunately, I believe this is a fundamental incompatibility within
>>>>> matplotlib.  matplotlib uses a very simple algorithm for layout out a
>>>>> line of characters which assumes ltr order and all kinds of other things.
>>>>>
>>>>> That said, there is something you could try.  Matplotlib has a "usetex"
>>>>> mode which will do all text rendering using LaTeX.  Assuming you can get
>>>>> LaTeX to handle Arabic correctly, you can set the following in your
>>>>> .matplotlibrc file:
>>>>>
>>>>>        text.usetex : True
>>>>>        text.latex.unicode : True
>>>>>
>>>>> You'll need to install the LaTeX Unicode extension "ucs" (Ubuntu
>>>>> probably has packages for that.)  If you need to load any LaTeX packages
>>>>> to get arabic support, you can tell matplotlib about them in your
>>>>> matplotlibrc like so:
>>>>>
>>>>>        text.latex.preamble: \usepackage{foo}
>>>>>
>>>>> If Arabic-encoded-as-Unicode doesn't work, you could try setting
>>>>> "text.latex.unicode" to False, and then typing your Arabic strings using
>>>>>  one of the other Arabic encodings that LaTeX understands.
>>>>>
>>>>> Please let us know if you have success or hit another roadblock.
>>>>>
>>>>> Cheers,
>>>>> Mike
>>>>>
>>>>> Burhan Khalid wrote:
>>>>>           
>>>>>> Hello All:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>   Having an issue with Arabic font support using matplotlib. When using
>>>>>> the correct font, Arabic characters are displayed, but are not joined
>>>>>> together
>>>>>> properly; and they are also not in the correct order (the font rendered
>>>>>> is ltr, but Arabic is a rtl language). Is this an issue with the render
>>>>>> I am using, or some incompatibility within matplotlib? Sample source
>>>>>> code used (please note, your email client should support utf8 to display
>>>>>> the code correctly).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> #-*- coding: utf-8 -*-
>>>>>> from pylab import *
>>>>>> figure(1) # the first figure
>>>>>> plot([1,2,3])
>>>>>> figure(1) # figure 1 current
>>>>>> title(u'برهان',name='Times New Roman') # figure 1 title
>>>>>> savefig('test.png')
>>>>>> savefig('test.eps')
>>>>>> show()
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Output when run from the command line:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> matplotlib data path /usr/share/matplotlib/mpl-data
>>>>>> $HOME=/home/burhan
>>>>>> CONFIGDIR=/home/burhan/.matplotlib
>>>>>> loaded rc file /etc/matplotlibrc
>>>>>> matplotlib version 0.90.1
>>>>>> verbose.level helpful
>>>>>> interactive is False
>>>>>> units is True
>>>>>> platform is linux2
>>>>>> numerix numpy 1.0.3
>>>>>> font search path ['/usr/share/matplotlib/mpl-data/fonts/ttf',
>>>>>> '/usr/share/matplotlib/mpl-data/fonts/afm']
>>>>>> loaded ttfcache file /home/burhan/.matplotlib/ttffont.cache
>>>>>> backend TkAgg version 8.4
>>>>>> Could not match Bitstream Vera Serif, New Century Schoolbook, Century
>>>>>> Schoolbook L, Utopia, ITC Bookman, Bookman, Nimbus Roman No9 L, Times
>>>>>> New Roman, Times, Palatino, Charter, serif, normal, normal. Returning
>>>>>> /usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-bitstream-vera/Vera.ttf
>>>>>>
>>>>>> This is on a clean Ubuntu Gutsy install, using python 2.5.1.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>> Burhan
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>>
>>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>> - This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc.
>>>>>> Still grepping through log files to find problems?  Stop.
>>>>>> Now Search log events and configuration files using AJAX and a browser.
>>>>>> Download your FREE copy of Splunk now >> http://get.splunk.com/
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>>
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> Matplotlib-users mailing list
>>>>>> Mat...@li...
>>>>>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/matplotlib-users
>>>>>>             
>>>>> --
>>>>> Michael Droettboom
>>>>> Science Software Branch
>>>>> Operations and Engineering Division
>>>>> Space Telescope Science Institute
>>>>> Operated by AURA for NASA
>>>>>
>>>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>> This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc.
>>>>> Still grepping through log files to find problems?  Stop.
>>>>> Now Search log events and configuration files using AJAX and a browser.
>>>>> Download your FREE copy of Splunk now >> http://get.splunk.com/
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> Matplotlib-users mailing list
>>>>> Mat...@li...
>>>>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/matplotlib-users
>>>>>           
>>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> Check out the new SourceForge.net Marketplace.
>>>> It's the best place to buy or sell services for
>>>> just about anything Open Source.
>>>> http://sourceforge.net/services/buy/index.php
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>> Mat...@li...
>>>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/matplotlib-users
>>>>         
>>>
>>>       
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-- 
Michael Droettboom
Science Software Branch
Operations and Engineering Division
Space Telescope Science Institute
Operated by AURA for NASA