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- Shemesh
- An HP Laserjet II Hebrew Font
- With Ventura Screen Font and Width Table
-
- This archive contains a 12 point portrait rendition of Shemesh, Pecan
- Software's rendition of the modern Hebrew font popular in many sforim and
- books being published today. The following files are included:
-
- MH120RPN.SFP - The HP Laserjet II font in standard format
- MH120RPN.EGA - A Ventura (Gem) screen font for EGA monitors
- MHEB12.WID - A prebuilt width table suitable for use with Ventura
- READ.ME - This file
-
- Though useful in its own right, this archive is intended as "sampleware" --
- it lets you get a look at what the Pecan Hebrew fonts are like.
-
- The complete contents of this archive file are copyrighted by, and remain the
- property of, Pecan Software Systems, Inc. You may use the font freely. You
- may distribute the font freely, provided all files contained in this archive
- are included in unmodified form. You may not sell or distribute the font for
- commercial gain, nor may you modify the font, even for private use, in any
- way.
-
- Pecan is building a collection of Hebrew font families in a variety of
- formats. Initially, the Shemesh and Yarayach families are available. Shemesh
- is the font exemplified in this file. Yarayach is a more ornate S'fardi
- (Spanish) style font, suitable for display purposes.
-
- You may purchase either font family from Pecan for $59.95 each, $99.95 for
- both, plus $5.00 per order for P&H. Included in each package are versions of
- the font in 6, 8, 10, 12 and 14 point sizes, portrait and landscape, with
- Ventura (Gem) screen versions of each font for EGA and VGA monitors and a
- Ventura width (.WID) table for each font. The Yarayach package also includes
- 32, 48 and 64 point sizes with a background "shadow", suitable for display
- purposes.
-
- PostScript versions of these fonts for PC and Mac are under development. Let
- us know what other font formats would interest you.
-
- What You Need To Use This Font
- ------------------------------
-
- The Pecan fonts in this package were designed for use with an HP Laserjet II
- or compatible. They may work, but were not tested on, earlier Laserjets.
-
- To use these fonts with your Laserjet, you need either a) Xerox Ventura
- Publisher (instructions for installing and using with Ventura follow), or b)
- any software that will download a soft font to the Laserjet, or c) any word
- processing package that has the capability of itself downloading soft fonts
- to the Laserjet.
-
- General Installation
- --------------------
-
- Copy the files in this archive to your hard disk. If you are using Ventura,
- copy the files to the VENTURA (not TYPESET) directory. HP soft fonts are
- identified by font name and number. The font in this archive is named "Modern
- Hebrew" and is assigned the number 39.
-
- Installing For Ventura
- ----------------------
-
- Assure that the distribution files are in your VENTURA directory. Bring up
- Ventura. From the Options menu, select "Add/Remove Fonts". Indicate that you
- wish to add fonts, and select MHEB12.WID from the menu of width tables
- displayed. Hit <Enter>.
-
- Note that the width table and screen font supplied are for EGA monitors. If
- you have a VGA monitor, the font will print correctly but may not display
- correctly.
-
- How To Use This Font
- --------------------
-
- Many Hebrew and mixed language word processors (like Davka Multiwrite) assign
- the Hebrew letters to the ASCII codes 128 and above, where 128 is aleph, 129
- is bais, and so on. The "sofis" letters are assigned their own codes in the
- sequence; these precede their non-sofis counterparts (eg. chof sofis is ASCII
- 138, chof is ASCII 139 and so on).
-
- Unfortunately, some desktop publishing (DTP) applications don't handle ASCII
- characters above 127 very well. Therefore, the Pecan fonts duplicate each
- Hebrew letter so that it appears in its appropriate (above 127) ASCII
- position, but also in its lower case "typewriter equivalent" position.
-
- Thus, aleph maps to the ASCII code normally assigned to lower-case "t", as
- well as to 128. Bais maps to lower case "c", as well as to 129, and so on.
-
- If your word processor and DTP package handle Hebrew characters correctly,
- type them in as you normally would. They will be imbedded in the text as
- ASCII codes above 127. Import the text into your word processor in "extended
- ASCII" mode (Ventura version 2.0 has this capability, but unfortunately,
- earlier versions of Ventura do not).
-
- Paragraphs that consist of Hebrew only should be assigned to the Modern
- Hebrew font in the appropriate size. In Ventura, this is accomplished by
- creating a tag with the font defined as Modern Hebrew, and assigning that tag
- to the Hebrew-only paragraphs.
-
- Mixed Hebrew/English paragraphs should be assigned to the dominant font.
- Selections belonging to the alternate font should be selectively changed. In
- Ventura, this is accomplished by entering Text mode, dragging the cursor over
- the text to be "re-fonted", clicking on the "Change Font" box, and selecting
- the appropriate alternate font.
-
- If your word processor or DTP package do not handle Hebrew characters
- correctly (eg. you are using Ventura 1.x and/or do not have a word processor
- which permits you to type in Hebrew characters represented with the correct
- ASCII codes), you will have to type in the Hebrew characters using their
- lower-case English equivalents. For example, the word "Shalom" will appear as
- "ouka". Note that in this case you will have to manually reverse the letters
- yourself as you type -- the "o" in "ouka" represents the final "mem-sofis",
- not the initial "shin"! Hebrew typing is not very convenient using this
- approach, but it is workable where the bulk of the text is English with
- occasional Hebrew mixed in.
-
- When you enter your DTP package you will have to selectively modify the
- "lower-case English" Hebrew to bona fide Hebrew by changing the font. In
- Ventura, this is accomplished by entering Text mode, dragging the cursor over
- the text to be "re-fonted" (the "ouka" in our example), clicking on the
- "Change Font" box, and selecting one of the Modern Hebrew fonts.
-
- Alternatively (and preferrably) you can type in the appropriate Ventura (or
- the equivalent for your DTP package) "angle bracket codes" for switching to
- alternate fonts and back. If you work this way, the Hebrew text will display
- correctly as soon as you enter your DTP package and you won't have to
- manually convert the "lower-case English" Hebrew to Hebrew. If you are using
- Ventura with the font in this archive, you would use the angle bracket codes
- like this: <F252P10M>ouka<F255P255D>. The Hebrew word "Shalom" would appear
- (in 10 point size, in this example) as soon as you entered Ventura.
-
- Other Characters
- ----------------
-
- Aside from the two sets of Hebrew characters described above, this font
- contains the decimal digits and most punctuation symbols in their standard
- ASCII locations. Unfortunately, because we decided to map the Hebrew
- characters into their lower-case keyboard equivalents, some punctuation
- symbols are not available in this font. These include the semicolon (mapped
- to mem-sofis), comma (mapped to tof) and the period (mapped to tzadik-sofis).
- You will have to insert these characters into your text by selectively
- mapping them to another font.
-
- Customizations
- --------------
-
- We will be happy to consider requests for customized versions of these (or
- other) fonts. If you require different character mappings than the ones used
- here, or a mixed Hebrew/English font, for example, contact Eli Willner. Our
- number appears at the end of this document.
-
- Caveat
- ------
-
- Remember that the Pecan fonts are just that -- fonts. They do not account for
- the fact that Ventura is designed for left-to-right languages, while Hebrew
- is a right-to-left language. Thus, you will have to review a draft of your
- mixed English/Hebrew text to assure that line breaks between Hebrew words
- occur sensibly. If you are unlucky enough to have a line break occur between
- Hebrew words, you will have to rearrange to order of the words so that they
- read correctly.
-
- Questions
- ---------
-
- We will do our best to answer questions about this "sampleware" via mail or
- CompuServe. Please direct CompuServe inquiries to Eli Willner, 76703,500. Our
- mailing address is below.
-
- How To Order
- ------------
-
- To order the Shemesh or Yorayach font families, please enclose a check for
- the indicated amount, note which family or families you want and remember to
- include your name and address. Please specify whether 5 1/4 or 3 1/2"
- diskettes are required.
-
- Send your orders to:
-
- Pecan Software Systems, Inc.
- DTP Products
- 1410 39th Street
- Brooklyn, New York, 11218
- 718/851-3100