Each Hebrew character on a path is mirrored

[lynn.sim]

I am trying to place this text on a circular path.  In the text dialog text window it appears exactly as it should.  But on the path each individual character is backwards.  I am using the Frank CurledLamed font, with the Windows Hebrew keyboard enabled.  The characters are entered using the Windows onscreen keyboard.

I also tried using the spline tool to create a curve.  Exactly the same results.  The horizontal and vertical flip options just make the problem worse.

שמע ישראל יהוה אלהינו יהוה אחר ואחבת את יחוח אלחיך בכל לבבך ובכל נפשך ובכל מאדך

Am I missing something, or is this a bug?  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

This is the spline attempt:

This is the circular attempt:

Thank you.

I just tried using a regular rectangular text box.  The text appeared exactly as it should. So it appears that the text on path option is where the problem is.

[lynn.sim]

Thanks. As soon as I get home I will try it.

[jhackney1972]

I used a Surface Plane for your Text on a Path.  Using this surface, I have the ability to Flip Normal which will reverse the text direction.  @laughingcreek had mentioned that this was the problem, I am just using a Surface Plane to easily flip the normal side of the plane.

[lynn.sim]

John, thank you for looking into this.  The issue isn't that the character is right side up or down. The issue is that the character has been reversed around the vertical axis, not the horizontal.  That particular character kind of looks like an upside down capital "L". The horizontal leg of the "L" should point to the left, but Fusion reverses it so it points to the right.  The third character from the right looks like a "y". The lower part of the "y" should point in the same direction as the Latin "y" does, to the left. But as you can see, it points to the right.  So each individual character has been flipped around the vertical axis.  Flipping the entire string won't correct the individual characters.

[lynn.sim]

Mark, I finally got a chance to try your approach.  This is great workaround!!!  It does not fix Fusion's problem, but manages to workaround it.  Thank you!!!!

[MichaelT_123]

Hi Mr Lynn.Sim, Fellows,

I will try to explain the phenomenon you are facing. Still, please take into account that I am an outsider and do not have insight into what the Fusion Team is doing under the blanket of development activities.

The assessment below is based on my past experiences and telepathic tracing.

Now, let’s go to the matter at hand.

Generally, the typography process of assembling script from individual glyphs (characters) takes into account different customs and methods of doing so across many planetary languages; which is pretty complex. TF360 recognized it relatively recently, delivering the new sketchText object.

The previous one was quite basic and could not address the ‘diversity’ of typography methods.

Re-inventing a new typography wheel would border with … (add your own adjective here); thus, they adopted what is available via the OS GDI software layer.  

In the case of scripting, GDI covers diverse typographical methods of assembling glyphs but also enhances them through so-called ‘localization’, adding to the mix of local writing customs. In our case of Hebrew, it is the direction of scripting. In Latin World, a sequence of bytes “ABCD” appears on the paper as “ABCD” … however, in Hebrew will be pictured as “DCBA”. A similar situation might happen in traditional Japanese, where glyphs are placed vertically, and in many other locales/languages.

There are other ‘subtle’ issues like kerning, ligatures, … of fine-tuning final scripts, which from time to time pop-ups on the Forum … but it is too vast subject to cover.

Thus, go to our Hebrew problem.

I guess, … the problem you are facing … would disappear if the F360 software is installed and run on Hebrew localization (or such is activated). OS then would correctly assemble the script, reversing characters beforehand.

Is there another at-hock solution? Yes, you can do it our self,

Perhaps there is also a more structural method of addressing it.

Ask TF360 to add a button to sketch Text dialogue (on the side of flipping ones), reversing the order of characters in the input text.

Regards

MichaelT

P.S.

Having a button for vertical (like traditional Japanese) scripts would also be … welcome.

[lynn.sim]

MichaelT, thanks alot for the in depth analysis!!
Does your analysis cover the fact that a regular text box shows the Hebrew characters correctly but incorrectly when putting text on a path?

Thanks again!!
Lynn

[MichaelT_123]

Hi Mr  Lynn.Sim

Yes, It could ... the issue might be even more convoluted ... as many legacy Hebrew fonts are 'localized' already. Thus, character/glyph translation (along the text path) might have a negative direction (right to left) built in. Jewish communities started using  Latin (on a mass scale) relatively recently, about 200 years ago. The Latin alphabet was (and in some groups still is) considered non-kosher and was avoided, particularly in writing. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that there are many legacy (non-conformal) Hebrew fonts around keeping the Jewish Orthodox tradition alive. 

Regards

MichaelT

[Phil.E]

Thanks for the detailed input. 

A bug report has been created to address these issues, but from your report it may not be possible to fix very soon. So the workarounds are going to be required for a while.

Bug report: FUS-170068

Related forum post: https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-support/incorrect-arabic-font-ligature/m-p/13005273/highlight/...