153296 - Better default Hebrew & Arabic fonts on Mac OS X

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Core :: Layout: Text and Fonts, defect)

Description

[Shoshannah Forbes]

From Bugzilla Helper:
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.1a) Gecko/20020616
BuildID:    2002061603

(This bug is related to bug 149796 and bug 110655)
Mozilla is not using the proper default fonts to render Hebrew pages. It is
attempting to use the system font (Lucida Grande) which does not have Hebrew
cmap. So, Mozilla ends up using the first font it finds with Hebrew cmap and
Hebrew glyphs, leaving the user with no control on the actual font mozilla uses.
Depending on the user's system, the actual font used to render Hebrew pages can
be really bad- like a fantasy style bold italic font...

One workaround is to install lucida grande from OSX beta (which did have Hebrew
cmap). But since most users do not have access to it, this is not practicle.

When a users adds a "funny" Hebrew font to the system (to use in graphics titles
for example) Mozilla uses those fonts.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
just go to any Hebrew page

Actual Results:  the font used is not related to the default Hebrew font settings

Expected Results:  should use proper default fonts

Comment 1

[Simon Montagu :smontagu]

Assigning Mac Bidi problem to ftang

Comment 2

[Frank Tang]

does MacOS X 10.1.5 support Hebrew locale? or not?
What is "THE propert Hebrew" font on MacOS X which all the users will have?

Comment 3

[Shoshannah Forbes]

I am not sure what do you mean by "hebrew local" in this context. osx has
hebrew, but as a unicode keyboard. this is a the case both with 10.1.5 (which
oes not have official hebrew supoort) and 10.2 (which does hve official hebrew
support).
As for fonts, if you go to fonts from classic (that evryone will have) you have
raanana, corsiva and arial hebrew.
lucida grande has hebrew only in 10.2 and the beta of 10.0. in 10.0-10.1.5 it
does not have hebrew cmap (althugh it contains hebrew glyphs)

Comment 4

[nhottanscp]

Frank, we use ATSUI to draw Hebrew. Do we set a user's pref font to ATSUI?
http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/source/gfx/src/mac/nsUnicodeRenderingToolkit.cpp#149

Comment 5

[Nir Soffer]

Another problem even on OS X 10.2, both Mozilla, Mozilla Firebird and Camino will not use Arial - 
and always use Lucida Grande - which looks rather ugly on titles.

I tried Mozilla 1.2.1, 1.3, 1.4, Mozilla Firebird from 2 days ago, Camino 0.6 and 0.7 - and it will 
not work. You set Arial font (I took this font from Windows and it works finde in other applications) 
and they use Lucida Grande.

Comment 6

[Asaf Romano (gone)]

Two things:
 (1) Working now on bug 120401, patch is nearly ready, and it should also solve
this bug, I need to decide which fonts will be the default (Serif, sans-serif
and Monospace), you are welcome to choose.
 (2) Since OS X 10.2, Mozilla uses Lucida Grande which does contain Hebrew cmap
(since this version of the OS).

Comment 7

[Asaf Romano (gone)]

Adding dependence for bug 120401, in fact, this is a duplicate.

Comment 8

[Prognathous]

(In reply to comment #6)
>  (1) Working now on bug 120401, patch is nearly ready, and it should also
solve this bug, 

Way to go!

> I need to decide which fonts will be the default (Serif, sans-serif
> and Monospace), you are welcome to choose.

You don't have much choice actually. By default, Mozilla uses Serif fonts for
Proportional fonts (due to Bug 95227, this is regardless of language. Monospace
fonts should be, well... Monospace. The only thing open for discussion is which
fonts should used, not which types.

> Adding dependence for bug 120401, in fact, this is a duplicate.

You're now assigned to both bugs. Feel free to close one of them as a dupe.

Prog.

Comment 9

[Asaf Romano (gone)]

(In reply to comment #8)
> (In reply to comment #6)
> > I need to decide which fonts will be the default (Serif, sans-serif
> > and Monospace), you are welcome to choose.
> 
> You don't have much choice actually. By default, Mozilla uses Serif fonts for
> Proportional fonts (due to Bug 95227, this is regardless of language. Monospace
> fonts should be, well... Monospace. The only thing open for discussion is which
> fonts should used, not which types.
> 
Heh, I talked about the fonts for each type.

> > Adding dependence for bug 120401, in fact, this is a duplicate.
> 
> You're now assigned to both bugs. Feel free to close one of them as a dupe.
> 
Thanks.

Comment 10

[Asaf Romano (gone)]

OK, I'm not marking this as a duplicate because I gues we want to use Arial 
Hebrew and Ranana instead of ugly Lucida Grande (which will be the default 
font after landing the patch for bug 120401). We are not able to use these 
fonts unless bug 246527 will be fixed.

Comment 11

[Asaf Romano (gone)]

The patch for bug 120401 has been checked in. Default serif/sans-serif is Lucida
Grande, for now (we will be able to fix it, after fixing bug 246527).

Comment 12

[Smokey Ardisson (offline for a while; not following bugs - do not email)]

I'll fix this as part of bug 299222.

Are Arial Hebrew and Raanana still the preferred Hebrew fonts?

Comment 13

[Simon Montagu :smontagu]

Arial Hebrew and Raanana look good to me.

Comment 14

[Smokey Ardisson (offline for a while; not following bugs - do not email)]

FIXED on trunk by checkin for bug 299222.