FontForge: kerning for Hebrew font does not work
by w1k0 from LinuxQuestions.org on (#5JPV4)
I designed a Paleo-Hebrew font using FontForge 20190801. It has two sections with the same glyphs: 1) ASCII between $" (ASCII 36) and z" (ASCII 122) and 2) Unicode from U+05D0 (aleph) to U+05EA (taw). So using the first section you can type Paleo-Hebrew using the standard keyboard layout, and using the Unicode section you can type using [Ctrl]+[Shift]+[U] and entering code like 05d0 for aleph.
In both of these sections, I implemented kerning for some pairs of characters. Kerning for ASCII section works - kerning for Hebrew section does not work. I tried various scenarios - I describe one of them below. In all cases, the result was the same: the kerning for the Hebrew section did not work.
Here is the Kern Pair Closeup window with a pair of glyphs U+05D2 and U+05DC and kerning -475. In this case, the result displayed by FontForge is incorrect because both glyphs overlap.
Attachment 36529
Here is the Kern Pairs window with four pairs defined. As you can see, displayed kerning is valid for both left-to-righ glyphs in the ASCII section and right-to-left glyphs in the Hebrew Unicode section, even though the previous window displayed the wrong result for the third pair of glyphs. So the images displayed by the different FontForge windows are inconsistent in this case.
Attachment 36530
Here is an OpenOffice Writer document using all four pairs of glyphs. As you can see, kerning works for the glyphs in the ASCII section, but not for the glyphs in the Hebrew Unicode section.
Attachment 36531
I have tried various methods to get FontForge to generate a Hebrew font using kerning, but all of them have failed with exactly the same result for the OpenOffice Writer document.
How can I get FontForge to generate the correct Hebrew font using kerning?
Attached Thumbnails
In both of these sections, I implemented kerning for some pairs of characters. Kerning for ASCII section works - kerning for Hebrew section does not work. I tried various scenarios - I describe one of them below. In all cases, the result was the same: the kerning for the Hebrew section did not work.
Here is the Kern Pair Closeup window with a pair of glyphs U+05D2 and U+05DC and kerning -475. In this case, the result displayed by FontForge is incorrect because both glyphs overlap.
Attachment 36529
Here is the Kern Pairs window with four pairs defined. As you can see, displayed kerning is valid for both left-to-righ glyphs in the ASCII section and right-to-left glyphs in the Hebrew Unicode section, even though the previous window displayed the wrong result for the third pair of glyphs. So the images displayed by the different FontForge windows are inconsistent in this case.
Attachment 36530
Here is an OpenOffice Writer document using all four pairs of glyphs. As you can see, kerning works for the glyphs in the ASCII section, but not for the glyphs in the Hebrew Unicode section.
Attachment 36531
I have tried various methods to get FontForge to generate a Hebrew font using kerning, but all of them have failed with exactly the same result for the OpenOffice Writer document.
How can I get FontForge to generate the correct Hebrew font using kerning?
Attached Thumbnails