Joining Group - Heth

Heth is a joining group that represents the Arabic letter ḥāʼ (ح) and its visual variants, primarily used in scripts derived from Arabic, such as Persian and Urdu. In text shaping, it defines how the character connects to neighboring letters, typically allowing a right‑to‑left connection while blocking a left‑to‑left join, which results in a gap on its left side. This behavior is crucial for correctly rendering words where Heth appears in initial or medial positions, as it influences the formation of cursive connections and the overall spacing within a word. It is one of many distinct joining groups that help determine the precise glyph forms and ligature patterns in complex script rendering systems.