[biblitfonts] Re: Ayin alt substitution

At 08:20 AM 2/12/2003, Bob Buller wrote:

I too would prefer to see two dots for the sin-holem combination. I think it makes the text easier to read, especially for the beginning student.

That seems to be the consensus, and is also my preference. Two dots it is.

With regard to the ayin variation, I have no objections for the aesthetic differentiation, but I do have one question relating to software. If I understand John correctly, the user will type in the same keystroke and the software will make the decision regarding which ayin to use based on context (i.e., the presence or absence of a vowel below the ayin). If this is correct, then I wonder (and here comes the novice part), will the typical word processors that our colleagues use be able to implement this flawlessly: MSWord? WordPerfect? Nota Bene? If the answer is no to any one of these, I would think that the variation would cause more problems than it's worth.

The substitution would be automatic in any software that uses standard Windows 2000/XP text processing calls to the Uniscribe DLL to render complex scripts. This includes all MS Office applications and some text editors and word processing applications from other developers. The substitution should also work in the Middle East versions of Adobe InDesign and Photoshop. We are, necessarily, working on the cutting edge here: the Unicode encoding and OpenType mark positioning used in the font are only going to work with the most recent and future software. Some of the shaping engine behaviour necessary for Biblical Hebrew is not enabled in the currently shipping versions of the Uniscribe DLL; I will be distributing a beta test version of a new Uniscribe provided by MS for use with the test font.

So: the ayin substitution will happen in any software that can also handle the Unicode text strings and OpenType Layout features on which the font relies.

I would like to keep this feature, not least because it is elegant and clever and none of the other Biblical Hebrew fonts I've looked at can do it: it puts the SBL font ahead of the (small) herd. I believe that this typographic feature can be found in a considerable number of quality printed Hebrew books, especially prior to the 19th century, although I have not examined enough examples to determine how widely used the convention was. I strongly suspect that it was a common feature of both manuscript and early typographic tradition that fell out of use due to technical limitations and laziness: the typography of many complex scripts is full of such features and, now that the technology permits and laziness is overcome by automation, there is an effort to rescue these venerable traditions.

As a teacher of Biblical Hebrew, Kent may have a point about the difficulty of introducing a second form of this letter. On the other hand, students must already learn variant final forms of many letters that are much more visually distinct.

I wonder that the Logos guys think? Bob? Eli?

I have a suggestion: let's keep the two Ayin forms and automatic substitution for the test font, so you can live with it for a bit. If everyone feels, in a few weeks, that they would prefer the single, short form, it is something that is fairly easy to change. I wouldn't like to give up something so elegant and clever based on a first impression.

Regards, John

Tiro Typeworks          www.tiro.com
Vancouver, BC           tiro@xxxxxxxx

It is necessary that by all means and cunning,
the cursed owners of books should be persuaded
to make them available to us, either by argument
or by force.      - Michael Apostolis, 1467


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