Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>]

Peter:

Because I wanted to read and write Hebrew on this computer, I have 
specifically Hebrew fonts included on this computer. That is beyond just a 
unicode basic font. I noticed that when I accessed Hebrew sites that include 
all the points, such as Snunit in Israel, that at least in Safari all the 
points, including cantillations, are rendered, and that correctly. (If these 
fonts are missing any points, that I wouldn’t know, as I usually read without 
any points at all.)

But I notice that sites that demand SBL fonts never render correctly. When I 
use a font other than SBL, the best I have gotten so far is some dots are 
incorrectly placed but the file is still readible. That is even when using 
fonts that rendered correctly on the other sites. If the SBL font is not the 
problem, then why do files asking for the SBL font not render correctly when 
using other fonts? Would the SIL Ezra font work even though the other fonts 
don’t? Why are dots such as dagesh and suruk misplaced, not just cantillation 
points, whereas on other sites not asking for SBL fonts have all dots 
properly placed? It is problems like this that make me question how well SBL 
fonts follow unicode standards.

Karl W. Randolph.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Kirk" <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
> 
> On 17/05/2005 23:42, Karl Randolph wrote:
> 
> > ...
> >
> >> From the above pattern, there is something going on that 
> >> whereever the SBL fonts are used to write and/or read a file, it 
> >> does not render correctly. Where the SBL fonts are not present, 
> >> I have few (Camino browser) to no problems with rendering 
> >> Hebrew. Now I may be missing something, but it certainly looks 
> >> as if the SBL fonts are the problem. Do you see how I came to 
> >> this conclusion?
> >
> >
> >
> Yes, Karl, I understand now. But your conclusion that there is 
> something wrong with the SBL Hebrew font does not follow from this, 
> although I am sorry that I called your conclusion a lie. For the 
> problem is very clear from the SBL Hebrew website, 
> http://www.sbl-site.org/Resources/default.aspx , from which I quote 
> the following:
> 
> > SBL Hebrew font is designed for use primarily with Windows 2000, 
> > Windows XP and later Microsoft operating systems. ... It is 
> > possible to install the font ... on Mac OS X. However, see the 
> > manual for information about limitations you may encounter on 
> > non-Windows systems.
> 
> 
> The problems which you are seeing are because SBL Hebrew is unable 
> to render Hebrew properly on your Mac system, something which it 
> was not designed to do.
> 
> I accept that there is a problem with websites which display only 
> using SBL Hebrew, in that they are usable only by Windows users. It 
> is a limitation of certain sites e.g. Chris Kimball's, 
> http://www.cvkimball.com/Tanach/Tanach.xml , that they do not make 
> it clear that they may work properly only with Windows.
> 
> -- Peter Kirk
> peter AT qaya.org (personal)
> peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
> http://www.qaya.org/

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