Please support Right To Left Languages!
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@webby RTL paragraph option added to build 1.0.026. The RTL mode must be enabled for a paragraph by selecting the Direction option.
This is still beta
Let me know if there are any issues.
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@vectoradmin I don't speak Arabic/Hebrew, but somebody in Affinity forum says:
https://share.getcloudapp.com/wbuwEY1r
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@vectoradmin There is a info about RTL rules here.
https://r12a.github.io/scripts/tutorial/part4#bidi
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@ash-f I'd encourage you to reach out to whoever made that post in the Affinity forum and have them get on this forum and share a ton of help/ That's the only way it's going to succeed. those who want it and use it natively need to do all they can to help get it right in VS
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@ash-f I post it here for now: there are some options that must be set for proper script in some languages:
- the paragraph direction must be set (I can't know from the post if it was).
- ligatures must be enabled.
- Medial Forms in Contextual features must be enabled in Typography panel.
- some (script specific) options may need to be enabled in the Character -> Typography panel.
- and the Script and Language is not selected automatically, these must be set to access the appropriate OpenType features.
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You can use RTL Fixer by ArtWayz on MacOS, Gives full RTL support including Hebrew and Arabic on VectorStyler. On Windows version it doesn't work so I sent a feature request.
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@ngmanageit said in Please support Right To Left Languages!:
RTL Fixer by ArtWayz
For the above captured example, what is missing in VS to get that without other tools?
I'd rather fix the issues. This is RTL (bidirectional) in VS according to the Unicode bidirectional algorithm:
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@vectoradmin said in Please support Right To Left Languages!:
L Fixer by ArtWayz
It is less complex in Hebrew, in Arabic there is the whole subject of grammar which requires that many letters change according to the letter before and after.
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@galmg said in Please support Right To Left Languages!:
in Arabic there is the whole subject of grammar which requires that many letters change according to the letter before and after.
Aren't those supposed to be handled by using OpenType contextual alternates and ligatures?
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@vectoradmin
Please check the image I uploaded, Do you know how to fix that?
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@galmg Send me that vstyler document by email containing both without and with fixer. I need to understand what is transformed there. Thanks!
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@galmg If you select the first (with RTL paragraph direction mode) and check the Medial Forms in the Text -> Typography panel, is it transformed?
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@vectoradmin There are some improvements to RTL language support in build 1.0.027, including better defaults.
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@vectoradmin
I was very excited to learn about VS and see that RTL is now supported, and tried it. It works (in a limited way) in Hebrew, but only for the letter forms (consonants). Vowels are small dots and dashes added to texts, similar to diacritics in other languages, I suppose. These require precise placement, and I tried in a variety of fonts and got inconsistent, but generally poor results.
As a professional Hebrew typesetter, this is not suitable for any work that I require.
Here is the bad (in red) and the manually corrected (green). This is using the public domain SBL Hebrew font: !
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@baruch-sienna That's really interesting to see (aside from it being helpful to improving RTL function in VS. It sounds like with your knowledge as a professional Hebrew typesetter you'll be able to add a lot of value and help to improving RTL function in VS
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@Boldline I'd be happy to help; I've done some font/ software development, too. Hebrew vowels (like in Arabic), and unlike in English, are not totally necessary in many texts; still, some texts require them, and many Hebrew fonts include vowels. It is up to the font designer to make sure that the glyphs match up (not an easy task), (I've designed a number of Hebrew fonts, and dread making them with vowels because it is quite an arduous task). Still, once the font is properly designed, the word processor (or in this case, graphic app) should display the vowel placement correctly. I'm happy to test future versions, or give you pointers on placement, on how it SHOULD look. Just finishing the final touches on a 200 page Hebrew/English volume.
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@baruch-sienna I'm just a VS enthusiast - but I am sure @vectoradmin, who is the developer, would appreciate you going through the current RTL features VS offers and initiating suggestions for improvement in whatever ways you can provide. He has always been very receptive to new ideas, improvements and the like. The VS community on this forum bring a variety of skillsets and ideas to the table and VS has benefited from that. Feel free to keep adding your thoughts to the mix
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@baruch-sienna I think there are still some improvements to be made in this area.
Is there some publicly available font (presumably OpenType) that has these features implemented.
It would be good to replicate (and fix) these issues.
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@vectoradmin I would suggest you look at the SBL font that has the full set of vowels and other diacritic marks. If you have that font working, then everything else should work!
They provide it as a TrueType font:
https://www.sbl-site.org/educational/biblicalfonts_sblhebrew.aspx
