Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Bekins <pbekins AT fuse.net>]

On Feb 4, 2008, at 1:30 AM, b-hebrew-request AT lists.ibiblio.org wrote:

> I've generated biblical Hebrew text with the SBL Hebrew font from  
> Open Office on Windows 2000 and exported it in both PDF (Thanks,  
> Karl) and ODF formats to Mac OS X 10.5.1.  Neither format  has  
> satisfactory rendering on Mac OS X.
>
> The result is comparable to Firefox 3.0b2's  HTML rendering.
>
> To get high quality rendering of biblical Hebrew text on Mac OS X  
> 10.5.1, simply buy VMware Fusion ($100) and the Microsoft operating  
> system of your choice ($200++), and operate virtually!
>
> Chris Kimball
> Redding, CT


I responded to Chris Kimball off-list, but he suggested that I also  
send a response to the list in case anyone is interested.

The issue with rendering the biblical Hebrew text with Masoretic  
pointing on Mac OS X is only indirectly related to the operating  
system, it is more specifically an issue with the fonts. Fonts such  
as SBL Hebrew and Ezra SIL were designed using Microsoft's OpenType  
format for the "typesetting" rules. Apple has its own "typesetting"  
format called ATSUI (Apple Type Services for Unicode Imaging).

These rules allow a font designer to specify where exactly the points  
should be placed for all the possible combinations. When you use a  
Unicode text in a native Mac application with one of these OpenType  
fonts the program can render the base forms of the letters and  
points, but it does not understand any of the rules of where to place  
the points in different contexts. Thus, holem will not be centered  
over a waw, shewa always occurs in the center of the glyph rather  
than under the "stem" of dalet or resh, accents will will be drawn on  
top of vowels if their default positions are the same, etc.

There are two solutions for Mac users. The first is to implement  
OpenType within a Mac application, which is what the creators of  
Mellel have done for us. The second is for someone to develop an  
ATSUI font similar to SBL Hebrew. There are a few fonts that ship  
with the Mac, such as Lucida Grande and Raanana, that seem to have  
some logic for placing the points, but neither are comprehensive nor  
do they look sufficiently elegant (IMHO) for rendering the biblical  
text.

As for pdf's, if the application that is creating the pdf is OpenType  
aware (which I believe Adobe products should be), SBL Hebrew should  
render correctly and appear correctly whether the file is opened on a  
PC or Mac. However, if you are creating the pdf from a file using a  
script or some other program that is not OpenType aware then the  
pointing will not be done correctly.

This is also an issue with Syriac and Arabic since these scripts use  
contextual characters based on where they occur within the word and  
what the surrounding letters are. The only Unicode font for Syriac  
that I am aware of, Estrangelo, uses the OpenType format and  
therefore doesn't render correctly on Mac unless you are using  
Mellel. Arabic is used widely enough to have an Apple font.

Peter Bekins
Grad Student - Hebrew Bible and Comparative Semitics
Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati, OH 
 
> From greifer AT hotmail.com  Tue Feb  5 09:36:43 2008
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Subject: [b-hebrew] Daniel 10:2
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Does Daniel 10:2 say "In those days, I, Daniel, was a mourner" or "In those=
days, I, Daniel, was mourning"?
=20
Kenneth Greifer
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