[XeTeX] patach furtivum in biblical hebrew

[Carsten Ziegert]

I agree, this feature should be enabled by default.
Thanks for all answers and remarks!
Carsten

Am Donnerstag, den 16.09.2010, 15:41 +1000 schrieb David Purton:
> Hi Carsten,
> 
> On Tue, Sep 14, 2010 at 02:50:38PM +0100, Carsten Ziegert wrote:
> > Thanks, David, that works well with the Contextuals in SBL Hebrew.
> > 
> > Actually, it does not work with Cardo, xelatex says:
> > Package fontspec Warning: 
> >     OpenType feature 'Contextuals=Alternate' (+calt) not available
> >     for font "Cardo/ICU", 
> >     with script 'Hebrew',
> >     and language 'Default'.
> > 
> > So I conclude that it has to be defined in the font. On the other hand,
> > why does it work with Ezra SIL "out of the box"? maybe someone can
> > enlighten me:
> > There are fonts using contextuals by default, fonts which require an
> > option for fontspec and fonts which do not use contextuals at all. Is
> > this right?
> 
> hum! You can tell whether a font supports contextual alternates with
> otfinfo. e.g.,
> 
>     $ otfinfo --script=hebr -f SBL_Hbrw.ttf
>     calt    Contextual Alternates
>     ccmp    Glyph Composition/Decomposition
>     jalt    Justification Alternates
>     kern    Kerning
>     mark    Mark Positioning
>     rlig    Required Ligatures
>     salt    Stylistic Alternates
>     ss01    Stylistic Set 1
> 
> I don't have Cardo, but Ezra SIL only lists calt and ccmp. Perhaps it
> uses some other method for its layout (guess)?
> 
> I confess that it is not clear to me which OTF features are
> automatically enabled for a given font, and it was some time before I
> realised I needed to turn on calt for SBL Hebrew. This does seem like a
> feature that should be enabled by default though. And I only sort of
> understand what jalt does (It is hard to find info on the net :( ) So I
> don't know if I should enable this or not (or even if it is supported).
> 
> cheers
> 
> David
> 
> 
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-- 
Carsten Ziegert
Association SIL / Chad
mobile: +235 63.78.58.00
skype : carstenzi
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