[XeTeX] Syriac in Polyglossia

[Fr. Michael Gilmary]

Sargon Hasso wrote:

> Thank you very much! I can't thank you enough and you are right it 
> does improve the output greatly.
> There was one glitch however and I was able to figure it out and fix 
> it rather easily (with little insight). The kashida was slightly 
> misplaced between characters above the base line with fonts I am using 
> with dramatic effects. I changed this line:
> \def\kashida{\zwj\nobreak \setbox0=\hbox{\ksh}%
> � �\leaders\hrule height\ht0 \hskip0pt plus 0.5em \zwj}
> to
> \def\kashida{\zwj\nobreak \setbox0=\hbox{\ksh}%
> � �\leaders\hrule height\ht0 \hskip0pt plus 0.0em \zwj}
> (\hskip0pt plus 0em from \hskip0pt plus 0.5em)
> (see attached image before and after).


I don't think your change allows the kashida to work ... if you're 
concerned about the jagged look on the screen results, you'll find that 
it prints fine. Jonathan told me the screen output looks choppy

> because the extension is being drawn using TeX "rules" rather than 
> actual glyphs from the font, and these are not subject to the same 
> hinting for screen display. But at sufficiently high resolution -- 
> such as on a good printer -- there should be no visible problem. 

You can also try \makebox[1.2\width][s]{syriac text goes here.} on short 
phrases on lines by themselves.

I hope that helps.


-- 
United in adoration of Jesus, 



fr. michael gilmary, mma

Most Holy Trinity Monastery
67 Dugway Road
Petersham, MA 01366-9725