For new Hatra texts, I think it would be easier to [1] create a short right-to-left paragraph “CBA” by running the macro with “ABC” selected, [2] select “CBA” by double clicking on “CBA” and [3] begin to type. With the base paragraph “CBA” registered in a glassary, you can insert it easily.useeger wrote:Imagine that you have to write an English text from right to left and then take it with a macro in the correct order. Is that practical?
Another thought. I’m not sure if this will work as expected but I tend to think it to be possible to convert your Hatra font into a fake Hebrew font so that it works as a font of right-to-left language, by assigning “Hatra A” to U+05D0 (alef), “Hatra B” to U+05D1 (bet), and so on.
I noticed that Hatra font contains two sets of alphabets, one without ring and the other with ring. For the latter set, I think it would be practical to use an OpenType feature called “liga” so that alphabetical letters followed by “ring” are displayed as those having ring above, using glyphs made by you. In that case, you have to add U+030A (Combining Ring Above) — perhaps it would be safer to assign it to a codepoint of a certain Hebrew diacritical mark — to the font, create a conversion table like the one below and add it to the font. That is not difficult with a font editor supporting OpenType fonts, like FontLab Studio.
Code: Select all
feature liga {
script ;
sub alef ringcmb by alefring;
sub bet ringcmb by betring;
sub gimel ringcmb by gimelring;
[and so on]
} liga;
BTW You can do the sama with characters such as “d with a line under and a dot under the line” by adding something like this to “liga” table.
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sub d macronbelowcmb dotbelowcmb by d sub d_macronbelow_dotbelow
⁰: U+2070
¹: U+00B9
²: U+00B2
³: U+00B3
⁴: U+2074
⁵: U+2075
⁶: U+2076
⁷: U+2077
⁸: U+2078
⁹: U+2079
؟: U+061F (Arabic Question Mark)
⸢: U+2E22 (Top Left Half Bracket)
⸣: U+2E23 (Top Right Half Bracket)
〈: U+3008 (Left Angle Bracket)
〉: U+3009 (Right Angle Bracket)
Also, you will have to create a keyboard layout for the font, for example, by modifying Hebrew-QWERTY but you are experienced.
Right now, I don’t have the time to play with a font, but if you are not so in a hurry, I think some weeks later I will be able to try to convert Hatra font as explained above. Also, I think I can write a macro for converting documents written in the original Hatra font.
EDIT: Corrrected typos: “CAB” should have been “CBA”.