Can't write in Arabic in Latex using "arabluatex" package

Question

I found this previous post and followed the first answer. I made this script:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[novoc]{arabluatex}
\linespread{1.25}

\begin{document}
    \newfontfamily\arabicfont[Script=Arabic]{Aref Ruqaa}
السلام عليكم

\end{document}

But I am getting these errors:

Package arabluatex Error: lualatex needed. ... of `arabluatex' for further information.}

Unknown option `novoc' for package `arabluatex'. \linespread

Undefined control sequence. \newfontfamily

Undefined control sequence. \newfontfamily\arabicfont

Although I have manually downloaded the package zip file from its page and copied and pasted these files into the same directory where my latex main file is located:

-   `arabluatex.sty`
-   `arabluatex-patch.sty`
-   `arabluatex.lua`
-   `arabluatex_voc.lua`
-   `arabluatex_fullvoc.lua`
-   `arabluatex_novoc.lua`
-   `arabluatex_trans.lua`

But this did not solve the problem. Can you please help me compile arabic text and be able to use Arabic fonts similar to the script I posted?

I also prefer to not manually paste the package files. Is there any way I can install them within Latex? I use TexStudio as editor and it uses pdflatex as compiler.

Answer 1

arabluatex has changed somewhat since the answer you cite, and you’re missing \txarb{...}. Use it this way:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[novoc]{arabluatex}
\newfontfamily\arabicfont[Script=Arabic]{Aref Ruqaa}
\begin{document}
\txarb{السلام عليكم}
\end{document}

However, you cannot make this package work with pdftex; see the manual for setting the compiler to luatex in TeXstudio.

(I can’t tell you how to install particular packages, since you don’t say whether you’re using TeX Live or MiKTeX or some other distribution, but there are many questions tagged installing, and there’s nothing peculiar about arabluatex that would require an unusual method.)

If your heart is set on Aref Ruqaa in particular, output is far better with lualatex-dev than with lualatex:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[novoc]{arabluatex}
\newfontfamily\arabicfont[Renderer=Harfbuzz,Script=Arabic]{Aref Ruqaa}
\begin{document}
\txarb{السلام عليكم}
\end{document}

See https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/493185/ for details on this approach, which requires an up-to-date distribution.