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Arabic Script
Arabic script is a cursive writing system used for the Arabic language. Over the centuries it has been adapted to write a large number of other languages. Some of these languages employ additional or modified letters. Specific font pages are provided for those that differ significantly: Kurdish, Pashto, Persian, Sindhi, Uighur, and Urdu.
Arabic script is written from right-to-left but numbers are written from left-to-right. Numerals vary by language and Unicode has set aside two ranges for Arabic script numbers: "Arabic-Indic digits" (U+0660 - U+0669) for use with the Arabic language and "Eastern Arabic-Indic digits" (U+06F0 - U+06F9) for use with all other languages that employ Arabic script.
Since Arabic script is cursive, the appearance of a letter changes depending on its context/position: isolated, initial (joined on the left), medial (joined on both sides), and final (joined on the right). Arabic codepoints in the U+0600 - U+06FF range represent all of the letters without regard to their position. It is up to the font to show the letter with the proper appearance. For compatibility with existing standards, Unicode also defined codepoints with explicit positions for most letters (ARABIC PRESENTATION FORMS-A & -B), although use of these characters is discouraged. Likewise, explicit ligatures are also encoded in the PRESENTATION blocks.
Arabic Supplement block
Unicode version 4.1.0 added the Arabic Supplement block (U+0750 - U+077F) which contains additional, extended Arabic letters mainly for languages used in Northern and Western Africa (such as Fulfulde, Hausa, Songhoy and Wolof). On Windows, a new version of the Uniscribe engine (usp10.dll) is required for the Arabic Supplement letters to join properly. Refer to SIL's "Replacing your Uniscribe dll" page.
Assume the fonts shown here do not support the Arabic Supplement block unless it is noted in the font's "Support" line.
Berber
Berber languages are spoken across North Africa and include Kabyle, Tamajeq, Tamasheq, and Tamazight.
They are written in a variety of ways: Arabic script, Tifinagh, and the Latin alphabet.
Assume the fonts shown here do not support Berber unless it is specifically noted along with Arabic script in the Support line.
Also, because the alphabets vary between Berber languages, a font noted as supporting "Berber" may or may not have all of the letters for a specific language.
Comorian
Comorian is written in both the Latin alphabet and Arabic script.
Assume the fonts shown here do not support Comorian unless it is specifically noted along with Arabic script in the Support line.
Hausa Ajami
Hausa is usually written with the Latin alphabet. Prior to the 20th century a version of Arabic script called "Ajami" was used. Ajami is still occasionally used for Hausa and other languages.
Assume the fonts shown here do not support Hausa Ajami unless "Ajami" is noted along with Arabic script in the Support line.
Also, because Ajami has never been standardized, a font noted as supporting "Ajami" may or may not have all of the letters for a specific language.
Malaysian Jawi
Malay is usually written with the Latin alphabet. Prior to the 20th century a version of Arabic script called "Jawi" was used. In some places it is still used.
Assume the fonts shown here do not support Malaysian Jawi unless "Jawi" is noted along with Arabic script in the Support line.
| font sample * | font information |
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Andalus
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(andlso.ttf) Source: Comes with Microsoft's Windows XP and Windows 2000. Stats: Version 1.01 has 458 glyphs and no kerning pairs Support: Arabic script (Arabic, Persian), Latin OpenType Layout Tables: Arabic |
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Arabeyes AAHS fonts:
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Note: Only supports Arabic-Indic digits (U+0660 - U+0669). Contains no European (U+0030 - U+0039) nor Eastern Arabic-Indic (U+06F0 - U+06F9) digits. Source: Free download of Arabeyes TrueType Fonts #1 (ae_fonts1_ttf_1.1.tar.bz2). Be sure to keep the .tar.bz2 extension when you download the file. Note: Requires a program such as the free 7-Zip utility to extract files from the .bz2 download. Support: Arabic script (Arabic only), Latin OpenType Layout Tables: Arabic, Latin |
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Arabeyes AGA fonts:
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Note: Only supports Arabic-Indic digits (U+0660 - U+0669). Contains no European (U+0030 - U+0039) nor Eastern Arabic-Indic (U+06F0 - U+06F9) digits. Source: Free download of Arabeyes TrueType Fonts #1 (ae_fonts1_ttf_1.1.tar.bz2). Be sure to keep the .tar.bz2 extension when you download the file. Note: Requires a program such as the free 7-Zip utility to extract files from the .bz2 download. Support: Arabic script (Arabic only), Latin OpenType Layout Tables: Arabic, Latin |
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Arabeyes FS fonts:
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Note: Only supports Arabic-Indic digits (U+0660 - U+0669). Contains no European (U+0030 - U+0039) nor Eastern Arabic-Indic (U+06F0 - U+06F9) digits. Source: Free download of Arabeyes TrueType Fonts #1 (ae_fonts1_ttf_1.1.tar.bz2). Be sure to keep the .tar.bz2 extension when you download the file. Note: Requires a program such as the free 7-Zip utility to extract files from the .bz2 download. Support: Arabic script (Arabic only), Latin OpenType Layout Tables: Arabic, Latin |
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Arabeyes Kasr fonts:
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Note: Only supports Arabic-Indic digits (U+0660 - U+0669). Contains no European (U+0030 - U+0039) nor Eastern Arabic-Indic (U+06F0 - U+06F9) digits. Source: Free download of Arabeyes TrueType Fonts #1 (ae_fonts1_ttf_1.1.tar.bz2). Be sure to keep the .tar.bz2 extension when you download the file. Note: Requires a program such as the free 7-Zip utility to extract files from the .bz2 download. Support: Arabic script (Arabic only), Latin OpenType Layout Tables: Arabic, Latin |
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Arabeyes MCS fonts:
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Note: Only supports Arabic-Indic digits (U+0660 - U+0669). Contains no European (U+0030 - U+0039) nor Eastern Arabic-Indic (U+06F0 - U+06F9) digits. Source: Free download of Arabeyes TrueType Fonts #1 (ae_fonts1_ttf_1.1.tar.bz2). Be sure to keep the .tar.bz2 extension when you download the file. Note: Requires a program such as the free 7-Zip utility to extract files from the .bz2 download. Support: Arabic script (Arabic only), Latin OpenType Layout Tables: Arabic, Latin |
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Arabeyes Shmookh fonts:
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Note: Only supports Arabic-Indic digits (U+0660 - U+0669). Contains no European (U+0030 - U+0039) nor Eastern Arabic-Indic (U+06F0 - U+06F9) digits. Source: Free download of Arabeyes TrueType Fonts #1 (ae_fonts1_ttf_1.1.tar.bz2). Be sure to keep the .tar.bz2 extension when you download the file. Note: Requires a program such as the free 7-Zip utility to extract files from the .bz2 download. Support: Arabic script (Arabic only), Latin OpenType Layout Tables: Arabic, Latin |
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Arabic Transparent
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(artro.ttf and artrbdo.ttf) Source: Comes with Microsoft's Windows XP and Windows 2000. Was also part of the Arabic Language Support for Internet Explorer 5. Stats: Version 1.01 has 414 glyphs and no kerning pairs Support: Arabic script (Arabic only), Latin OpenType Layout Tables: Arabic |
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Arabic Typesetting
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(arabtype.volt.ttf) Note: Includes VOLT tables. Source: Available from the Microsoft VOLT users community. Once you sign up, download the "Volt supplemental files" self-extracting archive (voltsupplementalfiles.exe) listed under "What's New". A later, more complete version comes with Microsoft Office Proofing Tools 2003. Stats: Version 0.3 2001 has 1,901 glyphs and no kerning pairs Support: Arabic script (Arabic, Ajami, Azeri, Balochi, Berber, Brahui, Kazakh, Kirghiz Kurdish, Jawi, Pashto, Persian, Shahmukhi, Sindhi, Uighur, Urdu, Uzbek), Latin OpenType Layout Tables: Arabic (default, zz01) |
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Arial
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(arial.ttf, arialbd.ttf, arialbi.ttf and ariali.ttf) Source: Supplied with the Windows XP SP2 (service pack 2) update. Older versions were supplied with various Microsoft products and the Smart package of Microsoft's core fonts project. Stats: Version 3.00 has 1,674 glyphs and 909 kerning pairs Support: Arabic script (Arabic, Ajami, Azeri, Balochi, Berber, Brahui, Kazakh, Kirghiz Kurdish, Lahnda, Jawi, Pashto, Persian, Shahmukhi, Sindhi, Uighur, Urdu, Uzbek), Cyrillic (Russian plus other Slavic and non-Slavic languages), Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Vietnamese. Warning: Versions prior to 3.00 supported only the Arabic letters used for Arabic and Persian languages. OpenType Layout Tables: Arabic (default, MAR) |
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Arial Unicode MS
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(arialuni.ttf) Source: Comes with Microsoft's Office 2000, FrontPage 2000, Office XP and Publisher 2002. Stats: Version 1.00 has 50,377 glyphs and no kerning pairs Support: Arabic script (Arabic, Balochi, Persian, Shahmukhi, Urdu), Armenian, Cyrillic (all or most of range), Devanagari, Georgian (Mkhedruli and Asomtavruli), Greek (including polytonic and Coptic characters), Gurmukhi, Hebrew, IPA, Japanese (Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji/Han Ideographs), Kannada, Korean (Hangul only), Latin, Tamil, Thai, Vietnamese OpenType Layout Tables: Arabic (default, Farsi, Urdu), Devanagari, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Han Ideographic (default, Japanese, Chinese simplified, Chinese traditional), Kana (default, Japanese), Kannada, Korean, Tamil |
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Art fonts
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Fonts shown:
Source: Free download of the Arabic font pack from Microsoft (arafonts.exe). Click the download button (marked تحميل) to the left of the filename. Support: Arabic script (Arabic, Persian, Shahmukhi, Urdu) OpenType Layout Tables: Arabic (...) |
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A_Nefel_Adeti fonts
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Fonts shown:
Source: Click on the "Dakişîne" link for the free download of a_nefel_font.exe, which will install the A_Nefel fonts. Note that the installer seems to ignore your choice of directories. Stats: Version 1.01 has 641 glyphs and 264 kerning pairs Support: Arabic script (Arabic only), Latin OpenType Layout Tables: Arabic |
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A_Nefel_Serek fonts
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Fonts shown:
Source: Click on the "Dakişîne" link for the free download of a_nefel_font.exe, which will install the A_Nefel fonts. Note that the installer seems to ignore your choice of directories. Stats: Version 1.01 has 487 glyphs and 615 kerning pairs Support: Arabic script (Arabic, Persian), Latin OpenType Layout Tables: Arabic |
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B Arabic Style
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(BArabics.ttf) Note: Arabic glyphs for Arabic-Indic digits (U+0660 - U+0669) are also used for European (U+0030 - U+0039) and Eastern Arabic-Indic (U+06F0 - U+06F9) digits. Source: Free download from Borna Rayaneh. They also post additional fonts as "fonts of the month". Stats: Version 2.01 has 221 glyphs and no kerning pairs Support: Arabic script (Arabic, Persian) OpenType Layout Tables: Arabic |
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B Davat
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(BDavat.ttf) Note: Arabic glyphs for Arabic-Indic digits (U+0660 - U+0669) are also used for European (U+0030 - U+0039) and Eastern Arabic-Indic (U+06F0 - U+06F9) digits. Source: Free download from Borna Rayaneh. They also post additional fonts as "fonts of the month". Stats: Version 2.01 has 221 glyphs and no kerning pairs Support: Arabic script (Arabic, Persian) |
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B Esfehan
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(BEsfhnBd.ttf) Note: Arabic glyphs for Arabic-Indic digits (U+0660 - U+0669) are also used for European (U+0030 - U+0039) and Eastern Arabic-Indic (U+06F0 - U+06F9) digits. Source: Free download from Borna Rayaneh. They also post additional fonts as "fonts of the month". Stats: Version 2.01 has 221 glyphs and no kerning pairs Support: Arabic script (Arabic, Persian) |
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B Fantezy
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(BFantezy.ttf) Note: Arabic glyphs for Arabic-Indic digits (U+0660 - U+0669) are also used for European (U+0030 - U+0039) and Eastern Arabic-Indic (U+06F0 - U+06F9) digits. Source: Free download from Borna Rayaneh. They also post additional fonts as "fonts of the month". Stats: Version 2.01 has 221 glyphs and no kerning pairs Support: Arabic script (Arabic, Persian) |
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B Majid Shadow
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(BMajidSh.ttf) Note: Arabic glyphs for Arabic-Indic digits (U+0660 - U+0669) are also used for European (U+0030 - U+0039) and Eastern Arabic-Indic (U+06F0 - U+06F9) digits. Source: Free download from Borna Rayaneh. They also post additional fonts as "fonts of the month". Stats: Version 2.01 has 221 glyphs and no kerning pairs Support: Arabic script (Arabic, Persian) |
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B Nasim
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(BNasimBd.ttf) Note: Arabic glyphs for Arabic-Indic digits (U+0660 - U+0669) are also used for European (U+0030 - U+0039) and Eastern Arabic-Indic (U+06F0 - U+06F9) digits. Source: Free download from Borna Rayaneh. They also post additional fonts as "fonts of the month". Stats: Version 2.01 has 221 glyphs and no kerning pairs Support: Arabic script (Arabic, Persian) |
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Bitstream Cyberbase
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(Cyberbas.ttf from Cyberbase.zip) Note: This is a subset of Cyberbit. It omits the Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters. Note: Contains no Eastern Arabic-Indic (U+06F0 - U+06F9) digits. Source: Free download available from this FTP site. Stats: Version beta 1.0 has 1,249 glyphs and 935 kerning pairs Support: Arabic script (Arabic only), Cyrillic (Russian), Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Vietnamese OpenType Layout Tables: Arabic (default, Arabic) |
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Bitstream Cyberbit
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(Cyberbit.ttf from Cyberbit.zip) Note: The Arabic range of this font is visually identical to "Bitstream Cyberbase". Note: Contains no Eastern Arabic-Indic (U+06F0 - U+06F9) digits. Source: Free download available from this FTP site. Stats: Version beta 2.0 has 29,934 glyphs and 935 kerning pairs Support: Arabic script (Arabic only), Chinese (Bopomofo only), Cyrillic (Russian), Greek, Hebrew, Japanese (Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji/Han Ideographs), Korean (Hangul only), Latin, Vietnamese OpenType Layout Tables: Arabic (default, Arabic) |
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BPG Glaho Arial V5 Big
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(BPG_Glaho_Arial_V5_big.ttf) Note: There is also a BPG-specific font called "Arial Unicode MS" (BPG_Glaho_Arial_Unicode_MS_V5.ttf) with similar Unicode range support as BPG Glaho Arial V5 Big. Source: Free download from either the shavlego file area or the bpgfonts file area. Stats: Version 3.00 has 1,757 glyphs and 1,172 kerning pairs Support: Arabic script (Arabic, Ajami, Azeri, Balochi, Berber, Brahui, Kashmiri, Kazakh, Kirghiz Kurdish, Lahnda, Jawi, Pashto, Persian, Shahmukhi, Sindhi, Uighur, Urdu, Uzbek), Cyrillic (Russian plus other Slavic and non-Slavic languages), Georgian (Mkhedruli), Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Vietnamese OpenType Layout Tables: Arabic (...), Latin |
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Code2000
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(code2000.ttf) Source: Download this shareware font ($5) from James Kass's webpage. Stats: Version 1.16 has 61,864 glyphs and 239 kerning pairs Support: Arabic script (Arabic, Baluchi, Kirghiz, Persian, Shahmukhi, Sindhi, Uighur, Urdu, Uzbek), Armenian, Bengali, Braille, Canadian Syllabics (all syllabaries, all characters), Cherokee, Chinese (Bopomofo only, including Extended), Cirth, Coptic, Cyrillic (all or most of range), Devanagari, Ethiopic (including supplement and extended blocks), Ewellic, Georgian (Mkhedruli and Asomtavruli), Greek (including polytonic and Coptic characters), Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Hebrew, IPA, Japanese (Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji/Han Ideographs including Extension A), Klingon, Korean (Hangul only), Lao, Latin, Limbu, Mongolian, N'Ko, Ogham, Phaistos, Runic, Syriac, Tamil, Telugu, Tengwar, Thaana, Thai, Tifinagh, Vietnamese, Yi OpenType Layout Tables: Arabic, Armenian, Bengali, Buhid, Cyrillic, Devanagari, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Han Ideographic, Hangul, Hangul Jamo, Hebrew, Khmer, Korean, Lao, Latin, Malayalam, Mongolian, Myanmar, N'Ko, Tamil, Telugu, Thai |
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Courier New
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(cour.ttf, courbd.ttf, courbi.ttf and couri.ttf) Source: Supplied with various Microsoft products. Stats: Version 2.90 has 1,318 glyphs and no kerning pairs Support: Arabic script (Arabic, Persian), Cyrillic (Russian plus other Slavic and non-Slavic languages), Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Vietnamese OpenType Layout Tables: Arabic |
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DejaVu Sans
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(DejaVuSans.ttf, DejaVuSans-Bold, DejaVuSans-Oblique.ttf, and DejaVuSans-BoldOblique.ttf from dejavu-ttf-version.zip) Note: The "DejaVu Sans Condensed" font is also available. Source: Free download from DejaVu project on SourceForge. Stats: Version 2.10 has 3,932 glyphs and 2,558 kerning pairs Support: Arabic script (Arabic, Persian), Armenian, Braille, Cyrillic (all or most of range), Greek (including polytonic and Coptic characters), IPA, Latin, Vietnamese OpenType Layout Tables: default, Arabic, Armenian, Cyrillic (default, Macedonian, Serbian), Greek, Hebrew, Lao, Latin (default, Dinka) |
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Diwani fonts
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Fonts shown:
Source: Free download of the Arabic font pack from Microsoft (arafonts.exe). Click the download button (marked تحميل) to the left of the filename. Support: Arabic script (Arabic, Persian, Urdu) OpenType Layout Tables: Arabic |
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Diwani outline fonts
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Fonts shown:
Source: Free download of the Arabic font pack from Microsoft (arafonts.exe). Click the download button (marked تحميل) to the left of the filename. Support: Arabic script (Arabic, Persian, Urdu) OpenType Layout Tables: Arabic (...) |
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Farsi Simple fonts
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Fonts shown:
Source: Free download of the Arabic font pack from Microsoft (arafonts.exe). Click the download button (marked تحميل) to the left of the filename. Support: Arabic script (Arabic, Persian, Urdu) OpenType Layout Tables: Arabic |
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Homa
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(homa.ttf) Source: Free download (farsifonts-0.4.zip) from the FarsiWeb Project. Stats: Version 2.902 2003 has 261 glyphs and 47 kerning pairs Support: Arabic script (Arabic, Persian) OpenType Layout Tables: Arabic |
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This page was last updated on 2009-03-13