Added option to display Surah Header and Skip BismiLlah by samwids · Pull Request #20 · ashaltu/quran-video-maker-ffmpeg

samwids · 2025-12-27T17:04:31Z

Added a CLI option to display the Surah header, including its font size and top margin, in generated video, (below top margin for video in portrait mode 720x1280) e.g.:

CLI = --show-surah-header --surah-header-font-size 40 --surah-header-margin-top 200
config.json =
"surahHeaderFont": {
"family": "Alvi Nastaleeq",
"file": "fonts/Alvi Nastaleeq Regular.ttf",
"size": 50,
"color": "FFFFFF"
},

Added a CLI option to skip Bismillah. When skipping it, the Ayah number was missing from the first Ayah, so this was handled separately:

CLI = --skip-start-bismillah

…urah-header-margin-top 200 --skip-start-bismillah

ashaltu

Assalamu alaykum,

JazzakAllahu Khair for the changes and your patience, things are a bit untidy. Some other notes:

Update the README with the new CLI flags.
Include an [Unreleased] section in CHANGELOG.md. Here is an example commit (it doesn't have to be verbose like this, short and sweet is fine): 6cb9df1
Since there isn't complete testing setup, can you list out the different commands you ran to test edge cases. Screenshots are helpful too and save a bunch of time reviewing, otherwise I'll just manually re-run each command to verify.

ashaltu · 2025-12-28T07:46:23Z

Can we not include this in the repo? Imagine every language added in the future we have more than one font for it, it'll bloat the repo. Although, if this font is better in general for Urdu (in your opinion) than whats present, I'm fine if you replace it.

To be honest, this is related to a general problem that needs to be addressed, which is how much and what data to serve. Do you think including all fonts in the data.tar makes most sense rather than in the repo?

ashaltu · 2025-12-28T07:59:09Z

  "_comment": "Video dimensions and quality",
-  "width": 1280,
-  "height": 720,
+  "width": 720,


Could you keep the default as 1280x720?

ashaltu · 2025-12-28T07:59:59Z

+    "size": 70,
    "color": "FFFFFF"
  },
  "translationFont": {


Likewise keep English translation font as the default config.json values?

ashaltu · 2025-12-28T08:06:40Z


+	// Load surahHeaderFont configuration  
+	if (data.contains("surahHeaderFont") && data["surahHeaderFont"].is_object()) {  
+		cfg.surahHeaderFont.family = data["surahHeaderFont"].value("family", cfg.arabicFont.family);  


Using the default values in the config you provided shows an Urdu header:

But the fall back you wrote is to use the Arabic font for the Surah header, but it doesn't seem to be rendering properly:

Could you address this?

Removed the 'surahHeaderFont' section that was previously added in 'config.json'. The project now uses consistent Arabic Surah names as headers.

Added 'ar.json' in 'data/surah-names' for Surah headers. This fixes issues where Surah names were not rendering correctly due to text/font incompatibility.

ashaltu · 2025-12-28T08:20:13Z

+                                   const std::string& localAudioPath, 
+								   bool skipStartBismillah) {
+
+	if (skipStartBismillah) {  


Is this needed? From what it looks like, your changes in LiveApiClient.cpp alter the condition to be options.surah != 1 && options.surah != 9 && !options.skipStartBismillah, so skipStartBismillah here will always be false (except maybe in the unit tests).

Also, I'm not sure if the following problem is occurring because of this line or another line, but when I generate for Surah Fatiha using ./build/qvm 1 1 7 --skip-start-bismillah or any other verse range in that surah, it shows the verse number twice:

It should look like this:

Fixed an issue where two Ayah numbers were being displayed.

ashaltu · 2025-12-28T08:40:47Z

+
+		ass_file << "Dialogue: 0," << format_time_ass(header_start_time) << ","  
+				<< format_time_ass(total_video_duration)  
+				<< ",Translation,,0,0,0,,{\\an8\\pos(" << config.width/2 << "," << header_y_position << ")"  


You are using Translation here, so the final video shows the Translation font, this probably the source of the bug mentioned in the other comment. Did you mean to use the Arabic font, especially since there's a bunch of logic above where you write out the Surah in Arabic.

Alternatively, if you really do want the surah in the translation font, you can utilize the jsons in data/misc and data/surah-names. The util functions to access that stuff is in localization_utils.cpp.

2. Updates related to the new translation: * Updated 'quran_data.h' for French translation (id = 5). * Updated 'numbers.json' in 'data/misc'. * Updated 'surah.json' in 'data/misc'. * Added translation file 'fr-hamidullah-clean.json' in 'data/translations/fr/'. Translation got from tanzil.net 3. Added CLI parameter '--show-surah-header'. 4. Added CLI parameter '--surah-header-font-size'. 5. Added CLI parameter '--surah-header-margin-top'. 6. Added CLI parameter '--skip-start-bismillah'. 7. Added CLI parameter '--translation-font-size'. 8. Added CLI parameter '--translation-font-color'. 9. Updated 'ur-fatah-muhammad-jalandhari-simple.json' in 'data/translations/urd' to fix brackets and exclamation marks so they render correctly with the Urdu font. 10. Changed the default/fallback font from 'American Captain.ttf' to 'Roboto-Regular.ttf'. 11. Added 'Roboto-Regular.ttf' in 'assets/fonts' to be used as a common font for French, English, and other LTR languages. 12. Removed 'family' and 'size' from the 'translationFont' section in 'config.json'. These are now read from 'quran_data.h' depending on whether the translation language is LTR or RTL. 13. Removed the 'surahHeaderFont' section that was previously added in 'config.json'. The project now uses consistent Arabic Surah names as headers. 14. Added 'ar.json' in 'data/surah-names' for Surah headers. This fixes issues where Surah names were not rendering correctly due to text/font incompatibility. 15. Set the default video dimension and quality to '720x1280' (portrait), which was required for my use case (social media). 16. Changed the output MP4 filename format to: 'Surah - [SurahNumber]_[StartAyat]_[EndAyat] - [Surah Name] - t[TranslationId]_r[ReciterId].mp4' Example: 'Surah - 44_10_10 - Ad-Dukhan - t4_r25.mp4' 17. Fixed an issue where two Ayah numbers were being displayed.

…fmpeg

samwids · 2026-03-08T13:17:47Z

Salaam,

I sincerely apologize for getting back so late, as I did not get the time to work on this or properly follow your advice. Unfortunately, it is not feasible for me due to my extremely busy schedule, and I cannot provide any commitment at this time.

I used and modified this project for my specific requirements, but the changes may not meet your well-defined coding standards or documentation expectations. Also, I am not very well-versed in C++ anymore, as it has been over 15–20 years and many things have changed since then.

However, I have committed some of my enhancements and listed the functions and changes I added below. If you find any of them useful when comparing with your commits, please feel free to incorporate them in whatever way you think is best.

Also, feel free to let me know if I can help in any way. As mentioned, however, I may not be able to provide any firm commitment due to my current engagements.

Changes and additions:

Added French translation.
Updates related to the new translation:
- Updated 'quran_data.h' for French translation (id = 5).
- Updated 'numbers.json' in 'data/misc'.
- Updated 'surah.json' in 'data/misc'.
- Added translation file 'fr-hamidullah-clean.json' in 'data/translations/fr/'. Translation got from tanzil.net
Added CLI parameter '--show-surah-header'.
Added CLI parameter '--surah-header-font-size'.
Added CLI parameter '--surah-header-margin-top'.
Added CLI parameter '--skip-start-bismillah'.
Added CLI parameter '--translation-font-size'.
Added CLI parameter '--translation-font-color'.
Updated 'ur-fatah-muhammad-jalandhari-simple.json' in 'data/translations/urd' to fix brackets and exclamation marks so they render correctly with the Urdu font.
Changed the default/fallback font from 'American Captain.ttf' to 'Roboto-Regular.ttf'.
Added 'Roboto-Regular.ttf' in 'assets/fonts' to be used as a common font for French, English, and other LTR languages.
Removed 'family' and 'size' from the 'translationFont' section in 'config.json'. These are now read from 'quran_data.h' depending on whether the translation language is LTR or RTL.
Removed the 'surahHeaderFont' section that was previously added in 'config.json'. The project now uses consistent Arabic Surah names as headers.
Added 'ar.json' in 'data/surah-names' for Surah headers. This fixes issues where Surah names were not rendering correctly due to text/font incompatibility.
Set the default video dimension and quality to '720x1280' (portrait), which was required for my use case (social media).
Changed the output MP4 filename format to:
'Surah - [SurahNumber][StartAyat][EndAyat] - [Surah Name] - t[TranslationId]_r[ReciterId].mp4'
Example: 'Surah - 44_10_10 - Ad-Dukhan - t4_r25.mp4'
Fixed an issue where two Ayah numbers were being displayed.
Updated data.tar for new french translation and fixed Arabic surah names, compressed as data.zip

Some of the changes are specific to my own requirements and may not be suitable for the main project (for example, portrait video mode or the output filename format I use for my automation). Please feel free to ignore those if they are not relevant.

e.g. CLI

Urdu
./build/qvm.exe 44 10 13 --reciter 25 --translation 4 --translation-font-size 55 --translation-font-color FFFFFF --show-surah-header --surah-header-font-size 50 --surah-header-margin-top 100 --skip-start-bismillah

./build/qvm.exe 1 1 7 --reciter 25 --translation 4 --translation-font-size 55 --translation-font-color FFFFFF --show-surah-header --surah-header-font-size 50 --surah-header-margin-top 100 --skip-start-bismillah

French
./build/qvm.exe 44 10 13 --reciter 25 --translation 5 --translation-font-size 35 --translation-font-color FFFFFF --show-surah-header --surah-header-font-size 50 --surah-header-margin-top 100 --skip-start-bismillah

…mes, compressed as data.zip

samwids and others added 3 commits December 27, 2025 02:48

Added CLI options --show-surah-header --surah-header-font-size 40 --s…

907949a

…urah-header-margin-top 200 --skip-start-bismillah

Update config.json surahHeaderFont

0be2f78

Added Urdu Font for Surah Header

bfb54cc

ashaltu added the enhancement New feature or request label Dec 28, 2025

ashaltu requested changes Dec 28, 2025

View reviewed changes

samwids added 5 commits March 8, 2026 16:27

Merge branch 'main' of https://github.com/samwids/quran-video-maker-f…

547f223

…fmpeg

Remove unused font, Formatted file whitespace

3599c43

Remove unused font, Formatted file whitespace

0648d3b

Merge branch 'main' of https://github.com/samwids/quran-video-maker-f…

2eb8ca1

…fmpeg

samwids added 2 commits March 8, 2026 17:55

Updated data.tar for new french translation and fixed Arabic surah na…

3c4fde2

…mes, compressed as data.zip

append Arabic surahname in output filename

3bf45e7

Provide feedback

Saved searches

Use saved searches to filter your results more quickly

Added option to display Surah Header and Skip BismiLlah - #20

Added option to display Surah Header and Skip BismiLlah#20
samwids wants to merge 10 commits into
ashaltu:mainfrom
samwids:main

samwids commented Dec 27, 2025 •

edited

Loading

Uh oh!

ashaltu left a comment

Uh oh!

ashaltu Dec 28, 2025

Uh oh!

ashaltu Dec 28, 2025

Uh oh!

ashaltu Dec 28, 2025

Uh oh!

ashaltu Dec 28, 2025

Uh oh!

samwids Mar 8, 2026

Uh oh!

ashaltu Dec 28, 2025

Uh oh!

samwids Mar 8, 2026 •

edited

Loading

Uh oh!

ashaltu Dec 28, 2025

Uh oh!

samwids commented Mar 8, 2026 •

edited

Loading

Uh oh!

Reviewers

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Development

Uh oh!

2 participants

Conversation

samwids commented Dec 27, 2025 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

ashaltu left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

ashaltu Dec 28, 2025

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

ashaltu Dec 28, 2025

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

ashaltu Dec 28, 2025

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

ashaltu Dec 28, 2025

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

samwids Mar 8, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

ashaltu Dec 28, 2025

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

samwids Mar 8, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

ashaltu Dec 28, 2025

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

samwids commented Mar 8, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Reviewers

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Development

Uh oh!

2 participants

samwids commented Dec 27, 2025 •

edited

Loading

samwids Mar 8, 2026 •

edited

Loading

samwids commented Mar 8, 2026 •

edited

Loading