[XeTeX] Hebrew in Xetex

[Jonathan Kew]

On 6 Feb 2008, at 11:14 am, Erwin Ochsenmeier wrote:

> I am trying to write RtL Hebrew in XeTeX (XeTeXk, Version  
> 3.141592-2.2-0.996 (Web2C 7.5.6)) using TexShop. Everything works  
> fine, except the Hebrew diacritic signs do not display properly  
> using SBL Hebrew but work fine using Cardo.

For Hebrew OpenType fonts, you need to use the "script=hebr" tag when  
loading the font; e.g.,

   \font\H = "SBLHebrew:script=hebr" at 16pt

to activate the right script-specific OpenType behavior.

In xelatex, it's generally better to use fontspec than direct \font  
declarations like this; with fontspec, you'd specify the  
[Script=Hebrew] option:

   \newfontfamily{\sbl}[Script=Hebrew]{SBLHebrew}

(see the fontspec documentation).

JK