Using Uniscribe to Process Complex Scripts (Windows CE 5.0)

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Uniscribe exposes an application programming interface (API) to support the display and editing of international text, including the complex rules of Middle Eastern and Asian scripts.

Using Uniscribe, applications need only manage a backing store of Unicode character codes. Text layout applications do not need to maintain any other buffer or mapping table to track character order. An application only needs to store and manage the order in which the characters were entered by the user, which is the same logical order as defined by Unicode. The application's backing store never changes as a result of layout operations. Uniscribe maintains an index from the reordered clusters to the original character boundaries passed by the application.

Note   In Windows CE, if your run-time image includes a proportional font for a specific font type and your application asks Uniscribe to search for a fixed-pitch font, Uniscribe will search for the fixed font. If Uniscribe is unable to locate the exact font type that was specified, it will return the first pitched-font type that is located during the search.

In This Section

  • Shaping Engines
    Provides an overview of the shaping engines Uniscribe uses to handle the shaping of different scripts.
  • Caching with Uniscribe
    Describes the concept of script caching and shows how to use Uniscribe programming elements to work with the script cache.
  • Text Display with Uniscribe
    Provides an overview of the text display concepts of Uniscribe. Includes step-by-step instructions on how to use Uniscribe to display and lay out text.
  • Related Processing for Complex Scripts
    Describes how to use the Uniscribe programming elements to perform various tasks, such as text justification, caret placement, and determining the height and width of a complex script.
  • Uniscribe Application Development
    Describes how to use Uniscribe to process complex scripts and how to use mirroring set the window layout for languages that require right-to-left (RTL) layout.

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