# Displaying Arabic text

**URL:** <https://discourse.processing.org/t/displaying-arabic-text/6710>\
**Category:** Processing\
**Created:** [December 17, 2018, 5:20pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/displaying-arabic-text/6710 "2018-12-17T17:20:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Kata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kata](https://discourse.processing.org/u/Kata)\
**Post date:** [December 17, 2018, 5:20pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/displaying-arabic-text/6710/1 "2018-12-17T17:20:56Z")

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Hi  
Totally new and my first ever question in the forum .

I tried to find a way to have arabic text appear when running my small example.  
It does work, and the Arabic word is displayed when running the sketch.

But the thing is, when I am writing the sketch, the Arabic word appears in boxes inside text().

Would anyone Kindly advise if I am missing something ? .

```auto
PFont arabic ;
void setup() {
  size(400, 400);
  textAlign(CENTER, CENTER);
  background(0);
  arabic = createFont("Farisi-48",48);
  textFont(arabic);
  textSize(50);
  fill(255);
   // apparently, the arabic word is displayed here, but not in my sketch, it appears as boxes.
 text(" اهلا", width/2, height/2);
}

```

 ![image](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/uploads/processingfoundation1/original/2X/7/797c1d0432b93153c470e0472060110b4d1dc26b.png)

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**Author:** ![figraham](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.processing.org/figraham/32/4161_2.png) [@figraham](https://discourse.processing.org/u/figraham)\
**Post date:** [December 17, 2018, 8:22pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/displaying-arabic-text/6710/2 "2018-12-17T20:22:23Z")

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This means the font that the actual Processing IDE is using doesn’t support Arabic characters. Fortunately Processing lets you choose the font for the editor. Go to File \> Preferences and then select a different font. You might have to try a few to get one that works. Courier New was the first one that worked for me.

![preferences](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/uploads/processingfoundation1/original/2X/a/a44f3f6f3f91970731d4f8ee0b580e9ff407eaef.png)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Kata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kata](https://discourse.processing.org/u/Kata)\
**Post date:** [December 18, 2018, 10:28am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/displaying-arabic-text/6710/3 "2018-12-18T10:28:59Z")

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But of course ! Yes ! it worked.

Many Thanks 🙂