LTR and RTL kerning gets mixed

Glyphs
1

Hi,
I encountered a kerning issue that results in this behaviour:
(pay attention to the distance between the period and the letters)
[Jumping Period in TextEdit]
(https://www.dropbox.com/s/8rilf13zsl8jjoj/period%20issue%20480p.mov?dl=0)
Jumping period in InDesign

Any ideas what’s causing the problem?

Thanks, Daniel

2

TextEdit: What is the correct position: before or after the jump?

3

The correct position is the more open and distanced from the letters.

In the first video it’s the BEFORE
In the second video (taken today) it’s the AFTER.

4

I think the editor is confused between RTL and LTR, since the period belongs to both. Can you send me the .glyphs file?

5

Yes, sent it. Thanks!

6

The problem is that there is also (negative) kerning for space-@period and @period-space that kicks in before the Hebrew kerning does, because the @period groups are used for both LTR and RTL. Perhaps you can establish a period.loclIWR with different kerning groups, e.g. @hebrewperiod left and right, and thus, separate the LTR and RTL kerning in that case.

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7

Thanks, I will try that.

8

UPDATE:

I did as you suggested and created a special period and comma for Hebrew.
First the automatic local feature didn’t seem to work, and after I wrote it myself and included the Latin script it works, but only for one side:

RTL Kerning.png1222×724 13.5 KB

And here is the feature

Any idea why this is happening?

Thank you,
Daniel

9

I do not understand why you put IWR code under latn. Have you tried the name period.loclIWR as Suggested?

10

Of course, it was the first thing I tried, but it didn’t seem to work.

Could it possibly be related to this previous languagesystem issue I had?

I got there when I tried to play with the code. Suddenly when I changed the hebr to latn something moved.

11

did you fine-tune the kernings for -hb letterforms while Right-to-Left is pressed?

12

Just to catch up on this topic for the benefit of modern readers –
We usually avoid the over-complexity of having .localIWR alternates for punctuation marks.

As long as space is outside the kerning party - all is good, because Glyphs handles RTL base-to-punctuation kerning really well.

1 Like