Farsi

If this isn't the word Farsi: فارسی, in Farsi then your computer probably doesn't have a Farsi Unicode font installed and you will have problems reading the Farsi section of this site.

Following are instructions for getting Farsi Unicode to display properly on various computer operating systems.

Microsoft Windows

Windows XP and Windows 2000

The best Microsoft font for Farsi is the Tahoma font which is shipped with Windows XP and Windows 2000.

Microsoft Office 2000 and Microsoft Office XP

If you have a copy of Microsoft Office 2000 or Microsoft Office XP, or Microsoft Publisher 2002, and Farsi is not displaying properly then you can install the Arial Unicode MS font which is distributed by Microsoft with these products.

If you are unsure how to install Arial Unicode MS from CD then follow these instructions for installing Arial Unicode MS.

Alternatively, please consult the Microsoft Help and Support website — try searching for "Arial Unicode".

Windows 98, Windows ME and Windows NT 4.0

Windows 98, Windows ME and Windows NT 4.0 are not distributed with the Tahoma font or the Arial Unicode MS font, so you will need to install an alternative Farsi font.

Nesf is a Unicode font based on Nimrooz, suitable for Farsi web pages. To install it please download the font here:

To install the font, use the font utility in the Control Panel. There are more detailed instructions on our installing fonts page. Alternatively, simply copy the .ttf file into your Windows \fonts directory.

Nesf is a font by Mehran Mehr and is made available as part of the The FarsiWeb Project.

Upgrading Internet Explorer

If you have installed the font and it is still not displaying properly this might be because you have an old version of Internet Explorer, if you are using a version older than version 5.5 then you will need to update it. To find out which version you are using select Help, About Internet Explorer.

The easiest way to upgrade is to use the Windows Update icon in your start menu, alternatively you could go straight to the Windows Update Website or you could go straight to the Internet Explorer Downloads Web site.

Windows 95

Microsoft no longer supports Windows 95. If you are running Windows 95 then instructions above for Windows 98 might work.

Mac OS X

Farsi is supported out-of-the-box in Mac OS X v10.2.4, but problems have been reported using Internet Explorer v5.2.2. Try using Apple's KDE-based browser Safari.

Further help is available from the Iranian Mac User Group http://www.irmug.org/

Farsi letter Ye

There are well known problems with the Farsi letter Ye on Windows systems. In the first version of the keyboard layout in Windows 2000 it was not possible to type the Farsi letter Ye: it typed the Arabic version instead. Also, in the first version of the fonts the letter Ye would not combine correctly when used in the middle of a word.

Most problems were corrected in Windows 2000 Service Pack 2.

You can find more information and help about the Farsi letter Ye at the Persian Word Processing website and on the Open Road support site.