Changing font in Hebrew Bible module created with Forge

R

Rokas

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11
Hi,

I want to make for myself another Hebrew+Greek module, since the included one doesn't contain accents for the Greek part. The Greek font I get is alright, but the Hebrew isn't acceptable at all:

bad.png


How can I turn the font into what TR module has (Ezra SIL it is I believe, and it looks awesome):

good.png


? I've tried changing font in the input file, but that didn't work.
 
Brandon,

It is hard to read the fonts in the navigation bar in the Strong's Hebrew Dictionary (and two lines below that also). Please see attached screenshot.

Can these be changed by the user? If not, could you make them either (1) the same as the font in the actual dictionary entry or (2) changeable by the user?

Thanks for all you do to help us.
SS 7.2.1.6 Hebrew fonts in Strong's Dictionary comments.png
 
Rokas said:
Hi,

I want to make for myself another Hebrew+Greek module, since the included one doesn't contain accents for the Greek part. The Greek font I get is alright, but the Hebrew isn't acceptable at all:

bad.png


How can I turn the font into what TR module has (Ezra SIL it is I believe, and it looks awesome):

good.png


? I've tried changing font in the input file, but that didn't work.
Click to expand...

You can force a particular font choice for a Bible module in Forge by adding this to the header section of the input file:

Code: 
; FONT: Ezra SIL

The problem will be what happens to the Greek text for the NT portion of your module. It will likely end up using font-fallback and the OS will internally substitute a Unicode font for the Greek portions of the text -- I don't know how it will end up looking but you can try it. Right now there is no way to specify a different font for OT and NT. There is internal stuff SS uses so that it "knows" to use Ezra SIL for the TR Old Testament but that's not exposed in Forge. I will see about adding a flag to Forge to allow for it to be used so you can get the same appearance as the TR module has.
 
Last edited:
Eric said:
Brandon,

It is hard to read the fonts in the navigation bar in the Strong's Hebrew Dictionary (and two lines below that also). Please see attached screenshot.

Can these be changed by the user? If not, could you make them either (1) the same as the font in the actual dictionary entry or (2) changeable by the user?

Thanks for all you do to help us.
View attachment 603
Click to expand...

There's not much to be done about the entry selector without completely overriding the display of that, which would mean also having to re-write all of the text selection/etc that would be lost. A lot of work for not much gain since the more legible font is visible just below. The entry selector is just using the system-wide font defined for that type of control.

The entry title portion of the panel could be changed more easily and I will add it to the to-do list, but it won't be a real high priority since it's not an error and the better font appears right below it. You can specify a serif-style font for the text panel like Times New Roman and it will use a nicer more "Biblical" looking font in that space; at least Windows Vista and later will.
 
Brandon Staggs said:
You can force a particular font choice for a Bible module in Forge by adding this to the header section of the input file:

Code: 
; FONT: Ezra SIL

The problem will be what happens to the Greek text for the NT portion of your module. It will likely end up using font-fallback and the OS will internally substitute a Unicode font for the Greek portions of the text -- I don't know how it will end up looking but you can try it. Right now there is no way to specify a different font for OT and NT. There is internal stuff SS uses so that it "knows" to use Ezra SIL for the TR Old Testament but that's not exposed in Forge. I will see about adding a flag to Forge to allow for it to be used so you can get the same appearance as the TR module has.
Click to expand...

Thank you!

I chose the font "SBL BibLit", which looks just as good (for me, anyway) and is a combination of "SBL Hebrew" and "SBL Greek", thus both Hebrew and Greek portions are rendered very nice.

But then I have another problem - the Hebrew text is a bit too small. Is there also some code to change font size? If that means changing font size for the whole module and not for Hebrew part alone, no problem - I don't mind having Greek a bit too big.
 
Rokas said:
But then I have another problem - the Hebrew text is a bit too small. Is there also some code to change font size? If that means changing font size for the whole module and not for Hebrew part alone, no problem - I don't mind having Greek a bit too big.
Click to expand...

No, a Bible module cannot control its display size; that has to be done with your settings in SwordSearcher.

I have exposed the Hebrew support I mentioned for Forge in the new build I just posted a few moments ago (3.2.1.1), see this post: http://forums.swordsearcher.com/threads/forge-3-2-1-1-for-swordsearcher.2773/

For the best operation of your module I recommend using the ; HEBREWOT flag rather than specifying a font. Here's the relevant section from the updated Forge documentation:


Optional Hebrew specification in header: (rarely used)


Code: 
; HEBREW
; HEBREWOT


Only use one. For SwordSearcher 6 and later, this indicates to SwordSearcher that the text should be displayed using the preferred Biblical Hebrew font (Ezra SIL) and always treated as right-to-left text. The ; HEBREW header flag is used if the entire text (Old and New Testament) is in Hebrew, and the ; HEBREWOT flag is used if only the Old Testament text should be considered Hebrew by SwordSearcher. The latter flag can be used to create a combined Hebrew/Greek module such as the TR module included in the Deluxe Library of SwordSearcher 6 and later. Although SwordSearcher will always properly display right-to-left Unicode text (regardless of these flags), these flags are helpful because they can improve the placement of the verse numbers in paragraph mode. Finally, these flags also make available the consonant search mode in the Search Bible dialog for the module. Using either of these flags with non-Hebrew text will have undesirable and unpredictable results, so don’t do that.​
 
Brandon Staggs said:
I have exposed the Hebrew support I mentioned for Forge in the new build I just posted a few moments ago (3.2.1.1), see this post: http://forums.swordsearcher.com/threads/forge-3-2-1-1-for-swordsearcher.2773/

For the best operation of your module I recommend using the ; HEBREWOT flag rather than specifying a font.
Click to expand...

Is this a coincidence, or is this some highest quality support ever seen going on??

I did try "HEBREWOT", and it worked perfectly - now I have my Hebrew+Greek module, displayed just like the TR one, with Greek accents and Hebrew cantillations!! I am so happy, thank you Brandon so much for making this possible so quickly!
 
Rokas said:
Is this a coincidence, or is this some highest quality support ever seen going on??
Click to expand...

Thanks, Brandon! I know you can't always add things this fast, but we know you're with us on all things SwordSearcher, and we really appreciate your responsiveness.
 
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