urdu wordprocessing system

[dplukker at inter.NL.net]

>I am looking urgently for a good Urdu wordprocessing system. "Good" means it
>should be able to handle footnotes and provide a beautiful laser-printout in
>nastaliq-style (fonts scalable), suitable for publications (I know, I ask
>for too much!?).
>
>Martin Bemmann 
>
>
'Kaatib' is a free-ware, simple Nastaliq-wordprocessor, with scalable 
fonts. It is, however, not suitable for your ends (no footnotes, no indexing
etc., and no Roman).

There is a also commercial packet, Global Publisher, for DOS. 
I have only seen a brochure. It seems to have quite a lot of features 
(scalable fonts, Nastaliq *and* Roman, Keshidah for extended characters).
It is, however, rather expensive: cheapest version is L 595,00, versions
with more fonts L 795,00 and L 1595,00.
Contact: Inaam Alvi Computers, 1st Floor, Shelozon Centre,
Main University Road, Gulshan-e-Iqbal,
Karachi-74300. tel. 4963508, fax 6647815.

UK dealer: Ever Technology Computers, 218 Oldknow Road, 
Small Heath Birmingham BIO OHY, tel/fax 021-7666966.

Then there is prof. Klaus Lagally's ARABTEX; beautiful Naskh, and
with all TeX's typesetting capabilities. As far as 
I know, Lagally is working on the implementation of Nastaliq fonts.
At this moment Urdu/Nastaliq commands will produce Naskh.
Contact: Institut fuer Informatik, Univ. Stuttgart,
Breitwiesenstrasse 20-22, D-8000 Stuttgart 80.

Success, and please keep me informed,



    Dick Plukker
    India Institute, Amsterdam