How To Install fonts-sil-harmattan on Debian 9

In this tutorial we learn how to install fonts-sil-harmattan on Debian 9. fonts-sil-harmattan is Arabic script font for West African languages

Introduction

In this tutorial we learn how to install fonts-sil-harmattan on Debian 9.

What is fonts-sil-harmattan

fonts-sil-harmattan is:

Harmattan, named after the trade winds that blow during the winter in West Africa, is designed in a Warsh style to suit the needs of languages using the Arabic script in West Africa.

Harmattan does not cover the full Unicode Arabic repertoire. It only supports characters known to be used by languages in West Africa.

Harmattan makes use of state-of-the-art font technologies to support complex typographic issues. Font smarts are implemented using OpenType and Graphite technologies.

Harmattan provides a simplified rendering of Arabic script, using basic connecting glyphs but not including a wide variety of additional ligatures or contextual alternates (only the required lam-alef ligatures). This simplified style is often preferred for clarity, especially in non-Arabic languages, but may be considered unattractive in more traditional and literate communities.

There are three methods to install fonts-sil-harmattan on Debian 9. We can use apt-get, apt and aptitude. In the following sections we will describe each method. You can choose one of them.

Install fonts-sil-harmattan Using apt-get

Update apt database with apt-get using the following command.

sudo apt-get update

After updating apt database, We can install fonts-sil-harmattan using apt-get by running the following command:

sudo apt-get -y install fonts-sil-harmattan

Install fonts-sil-harmattan Using apt

Update apt database with apt using the following command.

sudo apt update

After updating apt database, We can install fonts-sil-harmattan using apt by running the following command:

sudo apt -y install fonts-sil-harmattan

Install fonts-sil-harmattan Using aptitude

If you want to follow this method, you might need to install aptitude first since aptitude is usually not installed by default on Debian. Update apt database with aptitude using the following command.

sudo aptitude update

After updating apt database, We can install fonts-sil-harmattan using aptitude by running the following command:

sudo aptitude -y install fonts-sil-harmattan

How To Uninstall fonts-sil-harmattan on Debian 9

To uninstall only the fonts-sil-harmattan package we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get remove fonts-sil-harmattan

Uninstall fonts-sil-harmattan And Its Dependencies

To uninstall fonts-sil-harmattan and its dependencies that are no longer needed by Debian 9, we can use the command below:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove fonts-sil-harmattan

Remove fonts-sil-harmattan Configurations and Data

To remove fonts-sil-harmattan configuration and data from Debian 9 we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y purge fonts-sil-harmattan

Remove fonts-sil-harmattan configuration, data, and all of its dependencies

We can use the following command to remove fonts-sil-harmattan configurations, data and all of its dependencies, we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove --purge fonts-sil-harmattan

Dependencies

fonts-sil-harmattan have the following dependencies:

References

Summary

In this tutorial we learn how to install fonts-sil-harmattan package on Debian 9 using different package management tools: apt, apt-get and aptitude.