How to display Arabic ligatures

Hi everybody, this might be a bit of a niche question but does anybody know how to generate and display Arabic letter combinations called “ligatures”. These are where two letters combine to make a modified form of the letters. They look really cool but you can’t get them in Google Translate!

You can copy them on this web page here https://symbl.cc/en/FC0C/ but when you paste it into Text Edit or the search field of a search engine on a browser you just get the ordinary non- ligature version! The ordinary non- ligature version of this example is … تح

Are there any Arabic speakers who can help with this? Any ideas would be great. Thanks!

Posted on Nov 30, 2025 2:37 PM

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azaksalmarzur28

Level 4

1,110 points

Posted on Nov 30, 2025 6:37 PM

Arabic ligatures like the one you linked are real Unicode characters, but most macOS text fields normalize them to standard letters. To display them, you must use a font that supports Arabic Presentation Forms (like Geeza Pro, Amiri, Noto Naskh), and use an app that allows advanced Arabic shaping (TextEdit Rich Text, Pages, Word, etc.). Browsers and search fields usually will not display them by design.

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26 replies

Dec 6, 2025 12:38 PM in response to Tom Gewecke

Thanks Tom. The end purpose of the project is I’m learning to read and write the Arabic scrip and I wanted to make a list of the ligatures in type for my own reference. The book I’m learning from only shows one ligature from each letter group. i.e. when numerous letters share the same basic shape …

So basically are you saying you can’t just copy and past the ligature from the webpage? You have just got to generate them within the text file by typing the individual letters in a font that supports the ligature? Anyway, I will see what ones I can get in Mishafi. It might not be all of them but it will certainly be more of them! Thanks again.

Dec 6, 2025 4:08 PM in response to Tom Gewecke

The URL was in my previous post » https://symbl.cc/en/FC12/

The book is TY Read and Write Arabic Script by Mourad Diouri. I tried to scan the page with the ligatues (page 212) but my printer/scanner has suddenly decided not to work! That was really annoying! Thanks again for all your help. This is a technical nightmare!

Dec 9, 2025 3:49 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

There were a few I missed actually. All of these are not generated by Mishafi.

عمب

غمب

خج

صجب

صج

ثحب

ثح

خحب

خح

ثخ

جخب

جخ

حخب

حخ

خخب

خخ

صخ

جهب

حهب

خهب

It’s not a big deal. At least I know how it works now. You can’t mark an answer as correct on this forum so I will just sign off by saying, I’m Ok now. Thanks for your help! :-)

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

122,046 points

Dec 9, 2025 10:27 AM in response to Gareth_Apple96

Gareth_Apple96 wrote:

That font is for Chinese isn't it?

Yes, I think it is mainly intended to provide comprehensive coverage the vast number of Chinese characters, but the authors included a large number of other Unicode ranges, some of which may have no other freely available font to represent them.

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

122,046 points

Dec 10, 2025 8:50 AM in response to Gareth_Apple96

Gareth_Apple96 wrote:

Note the dot under the letter H in Ḥā can not be used in Photoshop so the letters Ḥā and Hā are both just written as Hā!

What happens when you try to type it using the ABC Extended input source? Ḥ is option x then shift h or shift h then option shift x. Ḥ

However, there a further 3, of which one is pictured in the book, that I could not find online or make! There are Jīm, Ḥā and Khā Followed by Hā medial form. These must exist because Ḥā followed by a medial Hā, is pictured in the book!

Very interesting! That Ḥa Ha ligature shown in the book certainly doesn't seem to be findable anywhere on the internet. Maybe there is some forum of arabic script experts where one could ask about those.

Dec 1, 2025 2:40 PM in response to azaksalmarzur28

Thanks, Azak, in Text Edit it is Rich Text by default and even in Geeza Pro the ligatures don’t work! I’m just trying to work out what Tom is trying to explain below! Thanks again!

Dec 1, 2025 2:51 PM in response to Tom Gewecke

Thanks Tom, I see that you are displaying the ligature in your document but do you know how to do it in Text Edit?

Dec 3, 2025 2:37 PM in response to Tom Gewecke

Thanks Tom. I have made a Pages file now. How do you get that Typography window? Thanks again.

Dec 9, 2025 8:48 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

That font is for Chinese isn't it?

Dec 5, 2025 2:20 PM in response to Tom Gewecke

My OS is Monterey 12.7.6. I’m still having issues! I’ve got a list of letter combinations which have a ligature. It was originally in Geeza Pro. When I turned it into Al Bayan, some of the ligatures were generated automatically. I did not need to copy and paste them from that webpage.

However, there are numerous letter combinations which did not automatically generate ligatures in Al Bayan and I have not been able to copy and paste them from the website. For example this one https://symbl.cc/en/FC12/ …

ﰒ

When I paste it into my docuemt it always becomes Geeza Pro even if all the other text is Al Bayan and it's not even possible to change the font! Any advise or ideas would be great. Thanks again.

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

122,046 points

Dec 7, 2025 4:49 AM in response to Gareth_Apple96

Gareth_Apple96 wrote: I wanted to make a list of the ligatures in type for my own reference.

For a simple list of things that you take from the symbl.cc site, I think you can probably forget about all the typography stuff in my earlier posts. Sorry I did not grasp what you needed sooner. Below is my TextEdit with FC12 just copy/pasted from the site and the font changed to Courier New ( FSung-m should also work.)

You can also input those things directly by number if you activate the input source called Unicode Hex (in the Others category) and hold down Option while typing fc12 or whatever the code point is that you need for the list.

How to display Arabic ligatures