Bug 83819

Summary:	FORMATTING: Ligatures spaced out inappropriately
Product:	LibreOffice	Reporter:	JC Ahangama <jc>
Component:	Writer	Assignee:	Not Assigned <libreoffice-bugs>
Status:	NEEDINFO ---	QA Contact:
Severity:	normal
Priority:	medium
Version:	4.3.1.2 release
Hardware:	Other
OS:	Windows (All)
Whiteboard:	BSA
i915 platform:		i915 features:
Attachments:	ODT file demonstrating the problem Screenshot under Windows 8.1 Screenshot under Ubuntu 14.04

Description JC Ahangama 2014-09-13 15:52:23 UTC

Created attachment 106217 [details]
ODT file demonstrating the problem

Problem description: 

Steps to reproduce:
1. ....Install this font: smartfonts.net/ttf/samagana.ttf
2. ....Open the attached file in Linux and Windows systems
3. ....Observe that the letters are spread out when viewed inside Windows
4. ....Copy the text in the file and put it inside Windows Notepad and view it using 'samagana' font above. You will see the text perfectly formed.

Current behavior: Font rendering is improper inside Windows

Expected behavior: The text should show correctly spaced as in my Puppy Linux and all browsers including smart phones. This is a problem with rendering of 'liga' feature of OpenFont. According to the standard, 'liga' is implemented by default. Word developer group at MS misreads this. (MS wrote the OpenType standard identical to OpenFont).
Please read this:
http://www.ahangama.com/liga/

I have been developing fonts since 2004. The above font is an OpenFont font made for Romanized Singhala. It is a template font, not typographically nice looking. It uses the 'liga' feature of OpenFont to the extreme with thousands of ligatures (as opposed to 5 in Calibri). It works everywhere else except in Windows. 

Romanized Indic is intuitive to type and as easy as typing English. Orthographic smart fonts like 'samagana' above will eliminate digital gap in South Asia. Proper support of OpenFont affect future of Billion people.

OpenFont is implemented two ways. Some programs use the rendering engine provided by the OS. Others use rendering devices independent of the OS. Right now, recent versions of all major browsers show OpenFont fonts correctly at least for Latin-1 based fonts. The last one is Internet Explorer. Please see this web site where complex Singhala (an Indic language) is shown perfectly:
http://lovatasinhala.com/

I suspect that LibreOffice depends on OS supplied rendering engine. The case is the same with AbiWord. AbiWord showed ligatures perfectly until some update to Windows ruined it. The first release of Windows 8 had MS Word showing ligatures perfectly. Then a Windows update reversed it.

I hope the above information helps developers locate the problem.

Thanks.

JC
Operating System: Windows (other)
Version: 4.3.1.2 release

Comment 1 Adolfo Jayme 2014-09-13 20:05:09 UTC

Created attachment 106234 [details]
Screenshot under Windows 8.1

Comment 2 Adolfo Jayme 2014-09-14 02:03:18 UTC

Created attachment 106238 [details]
Screenshot under Ubuntu 14.04

Comment 3 JC Ahangama 2014-09-14 03:49:17 UTC

Thank you Jayme.

My Puppy Linux (branched[?]from Slackware) and your Ubuntu makes the ligatures perfectly. So, my suspicion that increasingly applications depend on the OS to render fonts looks to be true. Gnumeric (a gnome project) has this identical problem.

Windows Notepad uses Uniscribe (USP10.DLL). OpenType was gradually implemented inside Uniscribe and tested on Notepad. It could be that Writer is using Uniscribe but makes wrong calls when justifying lines. Notice that the ligatures actually get constructed but spacing is incorrect. Internet Explorer 8 had this same problem and Google Chrome too to a lesser degree.

Samagana font has 2500 ligatures and constructs ligatures up to 3 levels (iterates constructing ligatures upon ligatures) needed for Sanskrit orthography, but has no problem inside Windows Notepad, all browsers, Macintosh and smart phones.

I have tried since 2004 to get MS to fix Word. In 2004 they said they won't do it as a business decision. Next two fonts I want to make are for Devanagari and Fraktur. We should preserve human history when we can. OpenFont is the perfect vehicle to liberate Indian languages and cultures along with them.

JC

Comment 4 Urmas 2014-09-14 06:30:36 UTC

Do normal Sinhala fonts render OK on your system?

Comment 5 JC Ahangama 2014-09-14 11:30:57 UTC

Normal Sinhala?

This is by far nearest to normal Singhala. Some more ligatures are needed. (Modern Singhala is called Mishra Singhala. It mixes in Sanskrit into Singhala).

It is romanized Singhala, somewhat like Icelandic, displayed using a smart font containing substitution tables that implement Singhala and Sanskrit orthography. This is what comes closest to the way Singhala has been written for a long time. I use Rev. Fr. Theodore G. Perera's grammar book in constructing the orthography. (https://openlibrary.org/books/OL21020M/Sim%CC%A3hala_bha%CC%84s%CC%A3a%CC%84va). That book has been out of print since 1950s. Most Buddhist temples have it.

There is a deviation between written Singhala and printed Singhala because of limitations in the printing industry and the typewriter. Unicode Sinhala completely ignores the grammar and is damaging common understanding of the writing tradition. (The writing system is part of the grammar).

Comment 6 Urmas 2014-09-20 20:12:58 UTC

I will repeat the question. Are fonts like Iskoola Pota display fine on your system?

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