VAV bottom anchor x position is too far right in Noto Hebrew Rashi for most weights

[markhdavid]

Font

NotoRashiHebrew-Black.ttf NotoRashiHebrew-ExtraBold.ttf NotoRashiHebrew-Light.ttf NotoRashiHebrew-Regular.ttf NotoRashiHebrew-Bold.ttf NotoRashiHebrew-ExtraLight.ttf NotoRashiHebrew-Medium.ttf NotoRashiHebrew-SemiBold.ttf source: Noto_Rashi_Hebrew.zip

Where the font came from, and when

https://fonts.google.com/noto/specimen/Noto+Rashi+Hebrew For this font, click Download family, unzip resulting download, find font file in static subdirectory. Date: 2024-02-06

Font Version

Rashi: Version 1.006

Issue

In source file for Noto Rashi sources/NotoRashiHebrew.glyphs, in the Regular and Bold "layers" (Glyphs term), the bottom anchor for VAV (U+05D5 [ו] HEBREW_LETTER_VAV) is too far right. It should be more or less centered under the bottom of the stem. The Light layer is acceptable, or, at worst, just a slight bit too far right. The regular and bold layers' anchor positions are evidently used in all weights except Thin 100. I checked all weights of Noto Serif and Noto Sans families and found them acceptable/good in this aspect.

1. To reproduce, use the following test text at the Google Fonts preview pages for Noto Hebrew Rashi: וְ וֱ וֲ וֳ וִ וֵ וֶ וַ וָ

   (Or click this link.)

   Notice all the weights except Thin 100 have nikud too far right. (You may have to increase font size to 48 or above to notice it.)

2. For example, go to https://fonts.google.com/noto/specimen/Noto+Rashi+Hebrew, scroll down to the input box that says, "Type here to preview text", paste in the above sample text.

3. Observe that each nikud (= diacritic or vowel point), e.g., segol (U+05B6), under the VAV is not centered horizontally under the stem of the VAV (except in the case of Thin 100 weight), but rather is off to the right, whereas with Thin 100 it is decently centered.

4. Expected results: each nikud should be positioned centered horizontally more or less under the stem of the VAV as it is for Thin 100 weight.

Character data

Here are the characters in the above sample text:

U+05D5 [ו] HEBREW_LETTER_VAV U+05B0 [ְ] HEBREW_POINT_SHEVA U+0020 [ ] Space U+05D5 [ו] HEBREW_LETTER_VAV U+05B1 [ֱ] HEBREW_POINT_HATAF_SEGOL U+0020 [ ] Space U+05D5 [ו] HEBREW_LETTER_VAV U+05B2 [ֲ] HEBREW_POINT_HATAF_PATAH U+0020 [ ] Space U+05D5 [ו] HEBREW_LETTER_VAV U+05B3 [ֳ] HEBREW_POINT_HATAF_QAMATS U+0020 [ ] Space U+05D5 [ו] HEBREW_LETTER_VAV U+05B4 [ִ] HEBREW_POINT_HIRIQ U+0020 [ ] Space U+05D5 [ו] HEBREW_LETTER_VAV U+05B5 [ֵ] HEBREW_POINT_TSERE U+0020 [ ] Space U+05D5 [ו] HEBREW_LETTER_VAV U+05B6 [ֶ] HEBREW_POINT_SEGOL U+0020 [ ] Space U+05D5 [ו] HEBREW_LETTER_VAV U+05B7 [ַ] HEBREW_POINT_PATAH U+0020 [ ] Space U+05D5 [ו] HEBREW_LETTER_VAV U+05B8 [ָ] HEBREW_POINT_QAMATS

Here is a text file, vav-sample-text.txt, containing the above cited test text, usable in the Tools section below: vav-sample-text.txt

Screenshot

Results with Noto Rashi Hebrew at its Google Docs page with above cited test text:

Results with test shown in the Tools section below. Thin: OK: Regular: bad: Black: bad:

Tools for reporting bugs

For example, starting in the static subdirectory of the Rashi download directory, place the file provided above under Character data into this directory, then sample 3 sizes with the following commands:

hb-view --font-file NotoRashiHebrew-Thin.ttf --text-file vav-sample-text.txt --output-file "rashi-sample-Thin.png"
hb-view --font-file NotoRashiHebrew-Regular.ttf --text-file vav-sample-text.txt --output-file "rashi-sample-Regular.png"
hb-view --font-file NotoRashiHebrew-Black.ttf --text-file vav-sample-text.txt --output-file "rashi-sample-Black.png"

See results above under Screenshot. Notice the Thin weight has nikud acceptably horizontally aligned, but nikud for other weights are aligned too far right.

[markhdavid]

I'd like to fix this. It should be done prior to #39 and #38, or, otherwise, the anchor x positioning would have to be redone.