ShalomScript is copyright ⌐1990, 1991 by Jonathan Brecher. I made this font. If you mess with it or claim it as your own, I╒m going to be very upset. All rights reserved, and assorted other legal stuff.
ShalomScript is distributed under a modified Shareware concept. I╒ve devoted something approaching 100 hours to this font, including time spent working on its previous release as part of the font Shalom. I have tried my utmost to produce a quality product, and I think I╒ve succeeded. In fact, I have modified (dare I say improved on?) every single character in this font since its last release. However, only you know how much you use this font. At the least I would like a postcard of your home town, but if you use it a lot, consider that other Shareware fonts commonly are priced from $10-$25. Commercial fonts can range upwards of $50-$100. I do not believe in saying ╥Delete all copies of this font if you haven╒t paid me in ten days╙; I would much rather you kept this font around in case you ever did need it. However if you do find yourself using it...
ShalomScript was created with Fontographer 3.0.5 and revised with Fontographer 3.2 on a Macintosh SE. It is a Type 1 font and works well with Adobe Type Manager (ATM). It should work fine on any Mac, but if it doesn╒t, it╒s not my fault. Versions are available for the IBM (Windows) and for the NeXT, at present, and may become available on other platforms in the future. Please do NOT convert this font to any other format without my permission: I have no objections in principle, but I want to ensure that all copies of my font remain up to my standard of quality. No Warranties and stuff like that, although I would be happy to help you trace down any bugs. I am ALWAYS open to suggestions or (gasp!) criticism. Please contact me at one of the addresses below.
Please give copies of this font to everyone, but MAKE SURE YOU INCLUDE ALL RELATED FILES (ShaloScr, ShalomScript.bmap, ShalomScript Cheat Sheet, ShalomScript sample text, and this file)! It may not be sold except by users╒ groups for duplicating fees, commercial services for downloading time, etc. Commercial Shareware distribution companies (EduCorp et. al.) please contact me.
Look also for my related fonts, ShalomStick and ShalomOldStyle. ShalomOldStyle and ShalomStick have EXACTLY the same character widths and character mapping. This means that you can interchange these fonts freely without any change in length or content. ShalomScript, however, has some characters with different widths and requires different vowels for some letters.
I may be reached at:
Jonathan Brecher, 9 Skyview Road, Lexington, MA 02173-1112 USA
or
brecher@husc.harvard.edu (Internet)
or
INTERNET>brecher@husc.harvard.edu (CompuServe)
I also regularly call the BCSÑMac BBS (617-625-6747)
and The Graphics Factory (617-849-0347)
Installation instructions:
1) Put ShaloScr in your System Folder.
2) Install ShalomScript.bmap with Font/DA Mover 3.8 or later (or use Suitcase, etc.) as you would do with any other bitmap.
If you are using System 7, note that you don╒t have to use Font/DA Mover to install the bitmap font, but ShaloScr MUST be at the root level of the System Folder, not in the Extensions folder (unless you are using Suitcase, in which case ShaloScr can be in the same folder as ShalomScript.bmap).
NOW FOR THE NEAT STUFF, or, WHAT THIS FONT IS ABOUT
ShalomScript is a fairly complete Hebrew typeface. It is, however, just another font as far as the Mac is concerned. The Macintosh running standard American System software is not really set up for an alphabet that reads from right to left. Anyone using this font will find themselves composing Hebrew text ╥backwards,╙ or left to right. Sorry, there╒s not a whole lot I can do about it.
If you really need a Hebrew font that writes in the right direction, you probably want something else. You will NOT be able to write a paper or probably even write a letter unless you get software that allows you to type right to left. At the present time, there are no public domain or Shareware Hebrew word processors. Try some commercial places. A company called Davka (Davka Corp., 845 N. Michigan Ave., Ste. 843, Chicago, IL 60611 (312) 944-4047) has received high praise from others, but I know nothing about them personally. The Nisus word processor can also handle Hebrew (Paragon Concepts Inc., 990 Highland Drive, Suite 312, Solana Beach, Ca. 92075 U.S.A., (800) 922-2993), and Apple makes a complete set of Hebrew System software (Apple Computer, APDA, 20525 Mariani Ave. M/S 33G, Cupertino, Ca. 95014 U.S.A., (800) 282-2372), but again, I know nothing about these first-hand.
IMPORTANT: ShalomScript is a postscript font designed to be printed on a laser printer. The bitmapped screen font is passable in the size I╒ve distributed (24) and pretty much illegible in other sizes. Often the vowels will look strange even in these sizes. DO NOT WORRY. If you use a laser printer, the screen font is irrelevant as long as the laser font is where it belongs. The screen may be prefectly illegible, but the laser printout should be okay. You really don╒t want to print this on an Imagewriter (at least not without ATM). There are several public domain bitmapped Hebrew fonts designed specifically for the Imagewriter if that╒s all you have.
KEYBOARD MAPPING
Because this font is not suitable for creating long Hebrew documents, I╒ve decided not to use the ╥official╙ Hebrew keyboard mapping. (This may change if I get many requests to do so, but so far I╒ve had none.) Instead, I╒ve done my best to map the Hebrew alphabet to the qwerty keyboard. The aleph, bet, gimel, daled, hay, vav, zayin, chet, yod, kaf, lamed, mem, nun, samach, ayin, pey, qoph, resh, and tav are transliterated to the a,b,g,d,h,v,z,c,y,k,l,m,n,s,i,p,q,r, and t respectively. The tet and tzadi are on the e and x because I don╒t have a better place to put them. Final forms of the kaf, mem, nun, pey, and tzadi are on the shifted equivalent (K,M,N,P,X) The shin (without a dot) is on the w because the shape is similar, while the shin and sin with dots are on the D and S, respectively.
Several exclusively Yiddish characters and combinations of characters are also provided, but in general there is no logic to the placement of these characters. A pasakh alef and a komets alef are on the A and Z keys. The tsvey vovn and vov yud are on the B and G keys. A khirik yud, tsvey yudn, and a pasakh tsvey yudn may be found on F, H, and u. All of these characters except for the pasakh tsvey yudn may be produced with other characters or combinations of characters, however, the double-character keys have a slightly closer spacing between the pair.
The center dot (dagesh) for the bet, kaf, pey, etc. may be placed by typing a < after (to the right of) the letter. The > key will also provide a dagesh, but at a slightly different offset.
The vowels are pretty much strung along the number keys:
1: cheereek
2: tzayray
3: segol
4: sh╒va
5: koobootz
6: chataf segol
7: chataf patach
8: chataf kamatz
9: high sh╒va (9) and high kamatz (shift-9) both used only with final chaf
-: patach
=: kamatz
ShalomScript characters come in one of three widths, and since Hebrew likes its vowels centered under the letters, there must be three corresponding sets of vowels. Most letters take the vowels produced by the keys listed above (1,2,3, etc.). The narrow letters (gimel, zayin, yod, nun) use shifted numbers (!,@,#, etc.). The extremely narrow vav must use a third set of vowels (Q,W,E, etc.) where the appropriate key is shifted down one row on the keyboard and slightly to the right. In all cases the vowel must be typed after (to the right of) the consonant under which it will go. Of course, you are free to use only one set of vowels for all characters, but it won╒t look as good.
For the techie types out there, the vowels all have zero width and negative offset. This makes editing the vowels extremely difficult, but there really was no other option. I could not produce the vowels like Apple does other accents because any vowel must be able to accompany any consonant. Try getting an n with an acute accent (used in some Eastern European languages). It can╒t be done!
The vowels will not be visible with the KeyCaps desk accessory, PopChar, or most other ways to view a font╒s complete character set. Sorry. This again is a direct result of the vowels╒ negative offset and there╒s not really anything I can do about it. If you plan on using this font, I STRONGLY recommend printing out the cheat sheet that is distributed with it.
The above, of course, refers only to the vowels which go below consonants; the cholam and shoorook may also be created. A full cholam may be produced by typing an o, while a cholam without a vav may be produced with O (shift-o). A shoorook may be created by typing V. All three of these vowels, including the cholam without a vav, are treated as separate characters in this font. They should all be typed BEFORE (to the left of) the appropriate consonant.
There are, in addition, several other characters available. A high connecting bar is produced with the tilde (~). An overbar, which is used in Yiddish, may be produced with the ) key. The lowercase and capital j produce short and long dashes, while the L key yields an ellipsis. The grave (`) key produces a low (opening) quote, and the vertical bar (|) will produce an exclamation point. The opening and closing brackets will produce the appropriate parentheses. The locations of these characters are the result of trying to fit as many things as possible into logical locations on the keyboard. Inevitably, some do not end up on logical positions. Oh, well.
The period, comma, semicolon, colon, slash, backslash, single quote, double quote, and question mark are all in their expected locations.
