Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 18/05/2005 02:55, Karl Randolph wrote:

> 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, perhaps you could tell me off-list which sites or web pages have a 
problem, and which ones are OK. (For Snunit, please give me the exact 
URL of a page with cantillated text, as I don't read modern Hebrew.) I 
can then investigate whether the problem is something to do with how the 
text is encoded, or to do with the font. If necessary I will take this 
up with the font designer.

I assume that you have checked that the sites which appear OK to you are 
fully pointed and cantillated. There is of course no problem with 
unpointed Hebrew on any system, and there will be very few problems if a 
site has (for some strange reason) cantillations but no points. And I 
know of very few sites which offer fully pointed and cantillated Hebrew. 
One of them is http://www.mechon-mamre.org/c/ct/c0101.htm. Does that 
look OK to you?

Is there any one particular point or combination which causes special 
problems?

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/



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