So I'm writing a text and I use text in 'phags-pa, an old Asian script. There is a native font on my mac that can handle it (Noto Sans Phagspa), and I've also downloaded some other fonts from Babelstone. I'm using Babelstone, and I'm using GREP styles and some scripting to put the text where it needs to be. Suddenly I notice that InDesign is not doing any ligatures, or maybe it's contextual alternatives. Characters all sho in the "isolated" version, not connected as they're supposed to be. I look at the same texxt in the same font in Textedit on my mac, and it displays fine. Weird.
I switch to the Noto font, and it seems to display fine. Not optimal, since I preferred the Babelstone script, but maybe it's a compatibility issue, I thought. It's a TTF font, after all. But then, the ligatures/contextual alternatives disappear from the Noto font, too. They used to work (and I have a screenshot to prove it), but now they don't.
I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling the font, I have tried restarting the computer, reinstalling InDesign, and working with a fresh document (not the one I was working with, but just a new one) … and there is no way to get the text to display correctly. What's maddening is that other programs on my computer handle it just fine; it's just InDesign that's having issues with it.
So I'm writing a text and I use text in 'phags-pa, an old Asian script. There is a native font on my mac that can handle it (Noto Sans Phagspa), and I've also downloaded some other fonts from Babelstone. I'm using Babelstone, and I'm using GREP styles and some scripting to put the text where it needs to be. Suddenly I notice that InDesign is not doing any ligatures, or maybe it's contextual alternatives. Characters all sho in the "isolated" version, not connected as they're supposed to be. I look at the same texxt in the same font in Textedit on my mac, and it displays fine. Weird.
I switch to the Noto font, and it seems to display fine. Not optimal, since I preferred the Babelstone script, but maybe it's a compatibility issue, I thought. It's a TTF font, which people tell me are no good. But then, the ligatures/contextual alternatives disappear from the Noto font, too. They used to work (and I have a screenshot to prove it), but now they don't.
I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling the font, I have tried restarting the computer, reinstalling InDesign, and working with a fresh document (not the one I was working with, but just a new one) … and there is no way to get the text to display correctly. What's maddening is that other programs on my computer handle it just fine; it's just InDesign that's having issues with it. Ligatures are turned on, contextual variants are turned on, and there is no tracking.
Below is a screenshot from when it was working with Noto. Top left is Babelstone, not working. Below that is the working Noto. White on black is OSX Textedit, using Babelstone, working.
Help?
1 Correct answer
Oooh! It's been a long time since someone brought a script I've never typeset into this forum; pardon me for being a little excited.
Have you tried turning the World-Ready Composer on? Or off, if it's already on? When you're testing such things, I would suggest making a paragraph style for each font, and to turn on the World-Ready Composer in each paragraph style. It's kind of a long shot, but it's one of the few generic things to try that you haven't already mentioned. If that doesn't work,
...
8
Replies
Well, I didn't wait! I didn't try to force my Wikipedia-sourced sample of 'phags-pa into vertical layout, but it does seem like the WRC needs to be on in order for the ligatures to render properly:
Hi Aichmorhabdo,
tested your sample text with Babel Stone Phags-pa Book with the Adobe Japanese Paragraph Composer plus character rotation to value 90 applied by an ExtendScript (JavaScript) script I once wrote for a different purpose. As a final step I rotated the text frame and defined a new paragraph style out of the selected text:
Script code is below, select all the text and run the script:
( function()
{
var result = prompt("SCRIPT | Rotate each selected character to value:", "0.0" , "");
if(result === null){return};
var resultAfter = result.replace(/,/gi,".");
var n = parseFloat(resultAfter);
if(isNaN(n)){alert("SCRIPT | Rotate selected characters | Value Rejected: "+"\""+ resultAfter +"\""); return};
// Define rotation angle in CCW values:
var rotationAngle = n ;
// Define Japanese Paragraph Composer:
var composer = "$ID/HL Composer J";
// Or define the Japanese Single-line Composer:
// var composer = "$ID/HL Single J";
// Check, if a document is open:
if(app.documents.length == 0){return};
// Check, if selection is text:
if(app.selection.length != 1){return};
if(!app.selection[0].hasOwnProperty("baselineShift")){return};
// Define selection:
var selection = app.selection[0];
// Apply definitions to the selection:
selection.properties =
{
// To each character or insertion point:
characterRotation : rotationAngle ,
// To each selected paragraph:
composer : composer
};
app.selection[0].parent.recompose();
}()
);
Note: Both Adobe Japanese Paragraph Composers are available with all versions of InDesign CS6 and above and do support character rotation ( not only to 90° ) by scripting. Or use the CJK version of InDesign for this. Here an article how to get the CJK InDesign with an English interface:
Adobe InDesign Tips: Japanese/CJK Functionality + English UI—Redux
By Dr Ken Lunde, Nov 5, 2019
https://ken-lunde.medium.com/adobe-indesign-tips-japanese-cjk-functionality-english-ui-redux-539528e...
Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( ACP )
AdChoices
