Newbie...how to print arabic 1256 using TTF?

[ismee]

i got a print, but the spec claimed that I need TTF font support 1256 arabic codepage to print arabic characters.
How do I know which TTF support that, and how to print them out by using hex value / unicode?

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

• Obtain from somewhere (e.g. use Google) a list of characters in the Arabic 1256 code page like this one for Latin Extended A
• ĀāĂ㥹ĆćĈĉĊċČčĎďĐđĒēĔĕĖėĘęĚě
  ĜĝĞğĠġĢģĤĥĦħĨĩĪīĬĭĮįİıIJijĴĵĶķĸĹĺĻļĽľĿŀŁł
  ŃńŅņŇňʼnŊŋŌōŎŏŐőŒœŔŕŖŗŘřŚśŜŝŞşŠš
  ŢţŤťŦŧŨũŪūŬŭŮůŰűŲųŴŵŶŷŸŹźŻżŽžſ
• Right-click in the Sample pane in MainType and select Edit Text Samples
• Create a new item for Arabic 1256 and paste the character set there
• Select the new sample from the drop list back in MainType and scroll through your fonts list to see which ones support it

I suppose it should be fairly easy to add a few more default character code pages to the default list. I don't recall if Latin Extended-A was there by default, or if I added it at some stage.