On 6/3/2026 12:52 AM, Aryeh Zapinsky wrote:
Hi,
I've noticed that the vowel mark is not centered under letter being used
with the \placeinitial command. I'd expect the vowel (the horizontal
line) to be centered under the letter (the character that looks like an
"n").
Additionally, when I tried another approach to do a similar thing and
used \starthanging, the letter appears higher and more to the right than
I expected. I expected the top of the letter to be positioned roughly as
high as the text on the rest of the line, but it appears higher.
_Questions:_
1. What is the change that would make the \placeinitial combine the
letter and the vowel?
2. Is there something that I should be doing to center the graphic when
using \starthanging? Or is there something that needs to be changed here
as well?
3. Is there a better way to set up the initial character? (I was
thinking I would use metapost to make a graphic eventually.)
_Minimal example:_
\definefontfeature[minimal][default][
script=hebr
]
\starttypescript [serif] [hebrew]
\definefontsynonym [Serif] [file:/workspaces/
context_lmtx/context_2/build_from_cmake_2/context_from_scratch/tex/
texmf-fonts/firago/FiraGO-Regular.ttf][features=minimal]
\stoptypescript
\definetypeface [hebrew] [rm] [serif] [hebrew]
\definetypeface [hebrew] [ss] [serif] [hebrew]
\setupbodyfont[hebrew, 20pt]
\setupalign[r2l]
\setupdirections[bidi=global, method=unicode]
\setupinitial[n=2,m=2]
\starttext
\placeinitial
חַי ה' וּבָרוּךְ צוּרִי
בַּה' תִּתְהַלֵּל נַפְשִׁי
כִּי ה' יָאִיר נֵרִי
בְּהִלּוֹ נֵרוֹ עֲלֵי רֹאשִׁי
בַּה' תִּתְהַלֵּל נַפְשִׁי
כִּי ה' יָאִיר נֵרִי
בְּהִלּוֹ נֵרוֹ עֲלֵי רֹאשִׁי
חַי ה' וּבָרוּךְ צוּרִי
בַּה' תִּתְהַלֵּל נַפְשִׁי
כִּי ה' יָאִיר נֵרִי
בְּהִלּוֹ נֵרוֹ עֲלֵי רֹאשִׁי
\blank
\def\hangingCharacter#1{%
\setMPtext{hebrew_letter}{#1}
\startuseMPgraphic{letter_w}
picture q;
q := outlinetext(\MPstring{hebrew_letter}) scaled 3;
for i within q:
j := j + 1;
draw pathpart i withpen pencircle scaled 2;
endfor;
\stopuseMPgraphic
\useMPgraphic{letter_w}
}
\starthanging[left]{\hangingCharacter{חַ}}
י ה' וּבָרוּךְ צוּרִי
בַּה' תִּתְהַלֵּל נַפְשִׁי
כִּי ה' יָאִיר נֵרִי
בְּהִלּוֹ נֵרוֹ עֲלֵי רֹאשִׁי
\stophanging
\stoptext
_Context Version:_
ConTeXt ver: 2025.11.24 17:55 LMTX fmt: 2025.12.31 int: english/english__
Any help would be appreciated.
I'll send you a file to test. Anyway, bets do this:
\definefontfeature
[minimal]
[hebrew]
because you get better anchoring. Also, define a bold font:
\starttypescript [serif] [hebrew]
\definefontsynonym [Serif] [FiraGO-Regular.otf][features=minimal]
\definefontsynonym [SerifBold][FiraGO-Medium.otf][features=minimal]
\stoptypescript
Or adapt the font=... accordingly.
\definetypeface [hebrew] [rm] [serif] [hebrew]
\definetypeface [hebrew] [ss] [serif] [hebrew]
\setupbodyfont[hebrew, 20pt]
\setupalign[r2l]
\setupdirections[bidi=global, method=unicode]
The patch doesn't need the m= setup.
\setupinitial[n=2]
\starttext
\placeinitial ....
\stoptext
Hans
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