What are your favorite Hebrew unicode+opentype fonts?

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jannuss
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Re: What are your favorite Hebrew unicode+opentype fonts?

Post by jannuss »

bluesdance wrote:Actually, that doesn't work. If you use a letter from one font with a vowel from another, OpenType doesn't know where to put the vowel, and it always ends up off to the side or something.
OK, I've learned something more from this discussion.

But, the point is still taken: you can get the Hadassah font you want and use a vowel from another font, if you like.

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Re: What are your favorite Hebrew unicode+opentype fonts?

Post by bluesdance »

OK, so, well, I finished my project.
Image

It's probably a terrible violation of TOS or something, but I really needed a font that looked like this: with modern letters, opentype, and extra-long kamatz katan and hataf kamatz vowels (to indicate "o" sound)

You're right about Hadassah, but what seems to be called "SBL Hebrew Balagan" is doing pretty well for me, and I didn't have to pay for it!
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jannuss
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Re: What are your favorite Hebrew unicode+opentype fonts?

Post by jannuss »

Well done!

I'd be curious to hear what the people at SBL say if you suggest this to them.

Have a good Pesach.

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Re: What are your favorite Hebrew unicode+opentype fonts?

Post by dewfather »

OK, so, well, I finished my project.
Bluesdance,

I've been working on getting SBL Hebrew to work in the same fashion you've seen to figure out, including kamatz katan and sh'va na, but the nikkud just seems to refuse proper alignment, or close to it. I've been using Type Tool 3 to attempt altering the font.

Would you mind forwarding me a copy of your work that I can work off of? I was also curious about how to type in the extra nikkud characters?

Chag Sameach,

Enon Avital.
http://www.enonavital.com
bluesdance
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Re: What are your favorite Hebrew unicode+opentype fonts?

Post by bluesdance »

i used FontForge. i think that TypeTool doesn't support OpenType (which places the nikudim and ta'amim). FontForge is a strange program like from the days of DOS, and it requires X11 which you might have to install from your Tiger CD, but once you've figured it out it's not hard.

if you want me to send you the compiled font file "SBL Hebrew Balagan" email me at Image
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Re: What are your favorite Hebrew unicode+opentype fonts?

Post by raymond »

Only a tinny comment.
In Hebrew the singular and the plural is always Nikud.
Nikudim is somethine else.
ניקודים = ) לחם יבש, לחם מפורר, לחם מעופש, לחם ישן, לחם לא טרי, לחם תפל

If you can I wish to have a copy of your "SBL Hebrew Balagan"

Thanks in adavance

Raymond
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Re: What are your favorite Hebrew unicode+opentype fonts?

Post by bluesdance »

like i said, if you want it, you have to email me at the address in this image: Image
thanks for the correction reg. the use of "nikud" vs. "nikudim." i'm not sure i understand what the word "nikudim" means from your example (types of bread?) but at least i know not to use it to refer to vowels.
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Re: What are your favorite Hebrew unicode+opentype fonts?

Post by pitman »

I am looking for a font in Rashi script for Mellel. The only one that I have found is from Masterfont, sold by http://www.myfonts.com. It is $65 and I was wondering if anyone knew of a cheaper one. I have sent an email to Kabbalah Software, but the email is getting sent back. Thanks.

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Re: What are your favorite Hebrew unicode+opentype fonts?

Post by jannuss »

pitman wrote:I am looking for a font in Rashi script for Mellel. The only one that I have found is from Masterfont, sold by http://www.myfonts.com. It is $65
If you google Rashi font, you'll find a number of sites offering Aaron D. Schmiedel's free Rashi font. As far as I can tell, it's a True Type font without vowels. Give it a try and tell us what you think of it.

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Re: What are your favorite Hebrew unicode+opentype fonts?

Post by pitman »

I download the font and can't seem to get it to work. I also tried it on a PC and I couldn't get it to work there either. I'll keep at it and see what happens.
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Re: What are your favorite Hebrew unicode+opentype fonts?

Post by jannuss »

pitman wrote:I download the font and can't seem to get it to work.
Too bad. I don't know another free Rashi font.
$65 for a purchased one isn't bad.

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Re: What are your favorite Hebrew unicode+opentype fonts?

Post by kveldalf »

pitman wrote:I am looking for a font in Rashi script for Mellel. The only one that I have found is from Masterfont, sold by http://www.myfonts.com. It is $65 and I was wondering if anyone knew of a cheaper one. I have sent an email to Kabbalah Software, but the email is getting sent back. Thanks.

Michael P.
Michael,
I took the plunge and got some Kabbalah Software fonts. I have found them to be very inconsistent in behavior and/or the vowel points are not consistently set (metrics and/or kerning).

Shoot me an email offline if you'd like examples of something.
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Re: What are your favorite Hebrew unicode+opentype fonts?

Post by pitman »

From their website it seems like they have the intention to make unicode fonts for Mac, but none of my emails would go through to ask them how they are progressing on that front.
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Re: What are your favorite Hebrew unicode+opentype fonts?

Post by bluesdance »

when you get a hebrew font that doesn't seem to work, that's probably because the letters aren't in the right part of the font according to unicode standard. try typing in that rashi font with english letters and see if the Hebrew comes up -- if it does, then there's your problem. (this is the issue with all Davka fonts.) the way to fix it is to download FontForge (free), install X11 (from your Tiger disk if you're on Tiger), open the file in FontForge, and cut & paste the letters down to where they belong. Figuring out FontForge and Unicode might take a while if you haven't done it before, but once you figure it out you'll be a much more knowledgeable person.
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Re: What are your favorite Hebrew unicode+opentype fonts?

Post by mwdiers »

i found a cheaper solution: I installed X11, downloaded FontForge, and figured out how to copy Ezra's Kamatz Katan glyph into SBL Hebrew. It doesn't line up 100% perfectly but it's pretty darn close.
In Fontforge, you can correct alignment problems with anchors. Look at Ezra SIL to see what I mean. Open a character in the outline editor. You will see all sorts of anchor points at the bottom of every letter. Those correspond to specific 0-width characters, which are tagged to use one of those anchors. If you can find an anchor that corresponds to the width of your new diacritical marks, you can just switch your new characters to that anchor point, and everything will line up properly.

Worst case, you would have to create a new anchor, and individually position it for every character, then assign your new marks to that anchor. A tedious process to say the least.

My hats off to the creators of Ezra SIL for such a meticulous job.
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