[cairo] New to Cairo: advice on creating PDFs with Arabic text (via input from libotf or SIL graphite2)

[Graham Douglas]

Dear List

I'm new to Cairo and have just compiled Cairo 1.12.14 as a static
library under 64-bit Windows 7. I'm interested to create PDFs containing
Arabic text using the output of either libotf or SIL's graphite engine
to provide glyph IDs and positioning information. I know that there is a
library called Pango for advanced text layout but, at least initially,
I'd prefer to work  with libotf/graphite. I'm also not using harfbuzz or
anything as advanced as that (e.g., for bidi-work) having written my own
fairly basic Arabic-shaping "engine". Just to note that this is purely a
hobby project and probably something I'll write-up on my blog -- of
course I'll thank/mention any advice or help received here.

Would anyone be able to share a small snippet of C code, or point me to
an example, showing how I can get started with  the appropriate Cairo
API to generate PDFs containing Arabic text, assuming that all glyph and
positioning information is available to provide to Cairo's API calls?

With thanks in advance

Best wishes

Graham Douglas
http://readytext.co.uk