Inconsistent font selection for Sgaw Karen language module

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ben01
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Inconsistent font selection for Sgaw Karen language module

Post by ben01 »

I am preparing a Sgaw Karen Bible module to publish, and am running across what appears to be an annoying bug.

Apparently randomly throughout the entire Bible, lines of text will fail to render and display boxes instead. Making the window narrower or enlarging the text a lot often causes it to render properly. Also, I've never seen it in search results or parallel view.

Sgaw Karen is written with the same script as Burmese, with a few additional characters. I'm using the Padauk font, which is one of the few Burmese fonts which supports Karen. I noticed that the Tharlon font never has this problem. However, I would rather not use it because it is hard to read, and has several bugs in the Karen languages.

I noticed that the Burmese module never has this problem despite the fact that it is encoded with the exact same characters and also displayed with the Padauk font.

I'll attach my module below along with a screen shot of the bug. Am I doing something wrong with my module? Is there anything I can change that will prevent this problem from occurring?

TheWord version is 4.0.0.1342. My computer is 32 bit windows 7, and I have the Padauk font installed.

The Padauk font is available from http://scripts.sil.org/padauk
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TheWord Bug Screengrab.png
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csterg
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Re: Inconsistent font selection for Sgaw Karen language modu

Post by csterg »

Can you please try the latest beta of theWord?
it is here: http://www.theword.net/files/beta
This is indeed a very strange error that it must have to do either with the font or the text.
Costas
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JG
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Re: Inconsistent font selection for Sgaw Karen language modu

Post by JG »

Hi Costas,
using the module above and the Padauk.ttf font from SIL, I find that there is an issue with the display.
That was with 1412 and a very old build 1018
Jon
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JG
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Re: Inconsistent font selection for Sgaw Karen language modu

Post by JG »

Note also that if you make the Bible window width gradually narrower, then different lines will show with boxes.
Jon
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Re: Inconsistent font selection for Sgaw Karen language modu

Post by csterg »

I can confirm it. I will get back soon
Costas
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Re: Inconsistent font selection for Sgaw Karen language modu

Post by csterg »

The same behavior appear in Windows Notepad with the same font.
The bug is in Windows itself or in the font, sorry cannot do anything for it.
I suggest using another font,
Costas
ben01
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Re: Inconsistent font selection for Sgaw Karen language modu

Post by ben01 »

I tried it in notepad too, and found the same issue. I find it interesting that Burmese text doesn't have the same problem.

The problem is, Padauk is the only (Unicode compliant) font available for this language. The Tharlon font is the next runner up, but it still has major bugs in Karen. I think we're going to just have to work around the issue by using bigger font sizes and making the windows narrower for now.

Ok, thanks for your time and a great application. God bless.
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JG
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Re: Inconsistent font selection for Sgaw Karen language modu

Post by JG »

Have you tried Myanmar Text (mmrtext.ttf) I think it is included in Windows 8, not sure if it is in any others.
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alpha_omega
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Re: Inconsistent font selection for Sgaw Karen language modu

Post by alpha_omega »

Have a look at this page, it may have a font for you:

http://www.openroad.net.au/languages/sgaw
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Re: Inconsistent font selection for Sgaw Karen language modu

Post by csterg »

ben01 wrote:I tried it in notepad too, and found the same issue. I find it interesting that Burmese text doesn't have the same problem.

The problem is, Padauk is the only (Unicode compliant) font available for this language. The Tharlon font is the next runner up, but it still has major bugs in Karen. I think we're going to just have to work around the issue by using bigger font sizes and making the windows narrower for now.

Ok, thanks for your time and a great application. God bless.
Send a message to SIL alerting them of the issue; i think it's the font.
Costas
ben01
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Re: Inconsistent font selection for Sgaw Karen language modu

Post by ben01 »

I don't have Windows 8 to test it on, but I tried installing the Myanmar Text font on Windows 7, and it very definitely doesn't work. Even the most basic glyph shaping and character reordering necessary for Burmese isn't working. Of course, it's probably a different story on Windows 8.
ben01
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Re: Inconsistent font selection for Sgaw Karen language modu

Post by ben01 »

Have a look at this page, it may have a font for you:

http://www.openroad.net.au/languages/sgaw
The Padauk Sgaw font from this page has the same issue.

As I understand, the Padauk font includes sets of slightly different glyphs for different languages. The application can send signals (don't ask me how internally; but, in Firefox at least, it's based on the text's language) to tell the font which language to use. If an application doesn't send the signal, then the font uses the default language (Burmese for Padauk, Sgaw Karen for Padauk Sgaw). If you want to see this in action, open http://www.eofmissions.org/?lang=kar in Firefox (other browsers don't work), inspect a line of the Karen text, and change the lang attribute between mya and ksw, some small medial characters will change shape as you do so.

However, in TheWord, Padauk Sgaw looks exactly the same as Padauk in every way. It's always using the Burmese set and Sgaw specific differences aren't getting rendered. I wonder, if it was sending the correct language signal to the font, would this bug still persist?

I'll attach some screen shots of the two styles so you can see what I'm talking about.

(In case you want to play with it, the first syllable of Gen. 31:32 uses this character. Also there's another one that should change: a circle down below that in Karen should change to a triangle. The first syllable of Gen. 6:2, for example, includes this one.)

Ben
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Medial Gha Rendered as Burmese.png
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Medial Gha Rendered as Karen.png
Medial Gha Rendered as Karen.png (4.85 KiB) Viewed 5906 times
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JG
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Re: Inconsistent font selection for Sgaw Karen language modu

Post by JG »

@Costas does this make any sense to you, as to a possible reason why theWord and notepad don't render properly?

http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page ... &id=padauk
Note also this link to Graphite and apps that are enabled for its use. http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page ... phite_home

Apps http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page ... phite_apps
Extract from above link states ...
Requirements
Padauk includes the necessary Graphite smarts to render Myanmar script correctly. Thus if you want to use this font you will need the Graphite libraries and Graphite capable applications or graphics extensions.

Padauk also has OpenType tables which allow it to be rendered using a basic shaping engine and so allows the font to be used in such applications as Word.
Jon
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Re: Inconsistent font selection for Sgaw Karen language modu

Post by csterg »

Graphite is a different rendering engine (Firefox and OpenOffice implement this).
I cannot do anything about it, sorry
Costas
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Re: Inconsistent font selection for Sgaw Karen language modu

Post by rolinger »

Thank you for creating the Sgaw Karen Bible module!! I was going to post a private message to you but have not been in the forum long enough to activate that feature. Do you have a mailing list or way to contact users if and when the module is upgraded? I would like to be on it.

I especially like the optional space you have inserted between each letter. I have been using the online sgaw bible at myanmarbible.com and line breaks are a challenge when copying and pasting.

I hope this is not a breach of forum etiquette, but have you prepared the module for e-Sword or other Bible programs? My email is [email protected]

Craig
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