Foreign Font in LibreOffice & Gimp

[pinnerite]

My daughter wants me to add a word in Hebrew characters to a logo.
I have dowloaded several typefaces in placed then
in /usr/share/fonts/truetype.

In LibreOffice Writer after I select one of them I get English
characters. What can I do to overcome this?

Ultimately I want to copy it to gimp and then curve it.

It sounds simple.

I might have to try Windows.

[Jeff Layman]

Post by pinnerite
My daughter wants me to add a word in Hebrew characters to a logo.
I have dowloaded several typefaces in placed then
in /usr/share/fonts/truetype.
In LibreOffice Writer after I select one of them I get English
characters. What can I do to overcome this?
Ultimately I want to copy it to gimp and then curve it.
It sounds simple.
I might have to try Windows.

Why don't you copy the characters from Character Map? I've just tried
copying several Hebrew characters from Character Map's Liberation Serif
into a new document in LO Writer and it copied them without problem. I
even checked them in print preview and they looked fine.

[Monsieur]

Post by pinnerite
My daughter wants me to add a word in Hebrew characters to a logo.
I have dowloaded several typefaces in placed then
in /usr/share/fonts/truetype.
In LibreOffice Writer after I select one of them I get English
characters. What can I do to overcome this?

That is normal, you're still typing in the Latin alphabet block. The
Unicode Hebrew block starts at U+0590, which is beyond the basic Latin
block. If you really want to "type" a Hebrew character in LibreOffice
Writer, just type its code point (for example: 05c6) immediately
followed by pressing alt-x.

The Hebrew code table is here: https://unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0590.pdf

You really don't need to download special fonts; most fonts already
contain the Hebrew code block.

Post by pinnerite
Ultimately I want to copy it to gimp and then curve it.
It sounds simple.
I might have to try Windows.

Windows uses the exact same method in Word. Type the code point, press
alt-x.

[pinnerite]

On Wed, 4 Sep 2024 20:26:42 +0200

Post by Monsieur

Post by pinnerite
My daughter wants me to add a word in Hebrew characters to a logo.
I have dowloaded several typefaces in placed then
in /usr/share/fonts/truetype.
In LibreOffice Writer after I select one of them I get English
characters. What can I do to overcome this?

That is normal, you're still typing in the Latin alphabet block. The
Unicode Hebrew block starts at U+0590, which is beyond the basic Latin
block. If you really want to "type" a Hebrew character in LibreOffice
Writer, just type its code point (for example: 05c6) immediately
followed by pressing alt-x.
The Hebrew code table is here: https://unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0590.pdf
You really don't need to download special fonts; most fonts already
contain the Hebrew code block.

I just tried 05E plus ALT-X and all I got was the chevron (above the
six). I tried it in a regular typeface set and in Heebo which is a
Hebrew character set. Yesterday I tried in two versions of MS Word
without greater success.

During the 1980's I watched an Israeli insurance broker typing on an
IBM system. He could switch from English (left to right) to Hebrew
(right to left) by presing ALT-Shift. Later on I was able to buy a
commercial add-on for Windows 98. It ran perfectly in Word (I cannot
remember which version) but became obsolete when Windows 95 came out. I
haven't really had the need again until this week.

Post by Monsieur

Post by pinnerite
Ultimately I want to copy it to gimp and then curve it.
It sounds simple.
I might have to try Windows.

Windows uses the exact same method in Word. Type the code point, press
alt-x.

[Monsieur]

Post by pinnerite
I just tried 05E plus ALT-X and all I got was the chevron (above the
six).

Yes, 05E is the chevron, that is still in the Basic Latin block. Hebrew
starts at 0590, so you need to type four numbers, not three. Try 05E9,
you'll get the ש. You'll see that Writer automatically switches the
writing direction to right to left and will automatically choose a
typeface that contains the Hebrew alphabet.


I tried it in a regular typeface set and in Heebo which is a

Post by pinnerite
Hebrew character set. Yesterday I tried in two versions of MS Word
without greater success.
During the 1980's I watched an Israeli insurance broker typing on an
IBM system. He could switch from English (left to right) to Hebrew
(right to left) by presing ALT-Shift.

Yes, there were codepages and other input methods then, but that all
changed when Unicode was first released in 1991. Its goal was to get rid
of this "codepage hell" and become a universal system that contained all
possible writing systems. That is mostly done, there are very few
writing systems that haven't made it into Unicode yet. Maybe that's why
they started adding hundreds of emoticons every year or so, probably
just to keep them busy.


Later on I was able to buy a

Post by pinnerite
commercial add-on for Windows 98. It ran perfectly in Word (I cannot
remember which version) but became obsolete when Windows 95 came out. I
haven't really had the need again until this week.

LibreOffice Writer does everything you need, and does it well. No matter
if you need to type in Hebrew or Chinese or Glagolitic, Writer can do it.