| Zarnegar | |
| Developer: | SinaSoft Corporation |
| Latest Release Version: | Zarnegar 5.2 |
| Platform: | IA-32, x64 |
| Genre: | Word processor |
Zarnegar (Persian: زرنگار|zarnegār|goldscribe) is a commercial word processor developed by SinaSoft Corporation. It is specialized for Persian and Arabic languages, and their intricacies. The first version of Zarnegar, which ran on DOS, was released in April 1991. A Windows version was first made available in 2000.[1]
The name "Zarnegar" is a double entendre. Literally, it means "what writes with gold"; however, because the typefaces included with the first version of Zarnegar were Zar and Terafik, it can be taken to means "what writes with Zar". After the initial release, however, new fonts were added to Zarnegar every few months, which later became the source of most Persian fonts on Windows systems.
Before Zarnegar, several DOS-based text editors, like Safhe-Ara (Persian: صفحهآرا|safhe-ārā|paginator|link=no), a Persian-enabled Personal Editor 2 (a.k.a. PE2) and Pishkar (Persian: پیشکار|pish-kār|concierge|link=no, the first product of SinaSoft), were available for basic monospaced desktop publishing only.[2] [3] Zarnegar is the first word processor with specialized support for Persian and Arabic scripts, therefore, establishing new methods of desktop publishing and handling the alphabet in the digital environment.[4]
The main development of Zarnegar happened between 1991 and 1995, with the heaviest work done in 1993 and 1994.[5] In the 1990s, Zarnegar was more popular than the competitors, possibly because of the variety and beauty of the bundled fonts, ease of use, and paying attention to market needs, support and education.[5]
Zarnegar has been a pioneer in Persian desktop publishing with supporting a diverse set of features, some not found in the generic competitors. Notable features are:[6] [7]
Zarnegar has advanced support for Persian and Arabic paragraph justification, supporting the following options:
Zarnegar has employed two different character sets and file formats.[8]
Zarnegar used an Iran System-based character encoding system, named Zarnegar1, with text file formats for its early versions, up to the Zarnegar 75 version. The Zarnegar1 character set is a two-form left-to-right (visual) encoding, meaning that every Perso-Arabic letter receives different character codes based on its cursive joining form, but most letters receive only two forms, because of the limited code-points available.
With the Zarnegar 75 version, a new character encoding system was introduced, and the file format was changed to a binary format. The Zarnegar75 character set is a four-form bidirectional visual encoding, meaning that every Perso-Arabic letter receives a one, two, or four character code, depending on its cursive joining form, and these letters are stored in the memory in the semantic order.