#1029710 emacs-gtk: emacs uses Noto Rashi font for Hebrew

Package:
emacs-gtk
Source:
emacs-gtk
Description:
GNU Emacs editor (with GTK+ GUI support)
Submitter:
Tzafrir Cohen
Date:
2023-09-10 13:33:06 UTC
Severity:
normal
Tags:
#1029710#5
Date:
2023-01-26 14:23:44 UTC
From:
To:
Dear Maintainer,

To reproduce:
1. Install fonts-noto-core
2. Start Emacs
3. Press 'C-h h' to show the sample Muliligual page

How to tell the difference:
The Rashi script is not that different from normal printed Hebrew for
most letters. Some letters are different. In case of the sample text,
one letter is noticably different:

The right-most character of that line on the script is the letter Shin.
See the shape of normal print Hebrew vs. the cursive form and the Rashi
one in:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shin_(letter)#Hebrew_Shin_/_Sin

When I pres 'C-u C-x =' I get:
             position: 1734 of 3715 (47%), column: 42
            character: ש‎ (displayed as ש‎) (codepoint 1513, #o2751, #x5e9)
              charset: unicode (Unicode (ISO10646))
code point in charset: 0x05E9
               script: hebrew
               syntax: w 	which means: word
             category: .:Base, R:Strong R2L
             to input: type "C-x 8 RET 5e9" or "C-x 8 RET HEBREW LETTER SHIN"
          buffer code: #xD7 #xA9
            file code: #xD7 #xA9 (encoded by coding system utf-8-unix)
              display: composed to form "שָׁ" (see below)

Composed with the following character(s) "ָׁ" using this font:
  ftcrhb:-GOOG-Noto Rashi Hebrew-normal-normal-normal-*-15-*-*-*-*-0-iso10646-1
by these glyphs:
  [0 2 1473 53 0 0 4 -1 4 [3 0 0]]
  [0 2 1464 67 0 0 2 11 -9 [5 0 0]]
  [0 2 1513 66 8 0 8 10 1 nil]
with these character(s):
  ָ (#x5b8) HEBREW POINT QAMATS
  ׁ (#x5c1) HEBREW POINT SHIN DOT

Character code properties: customize what to show
  name: HEBREW LETTER SHIN
  general-category: Lo (Letter, Other)
  decomposition: (1513) ('ש')


Rashi is generally an older cursive script of Hebrew. It was once used in
handwritten letters (I have some letters written in it that are less than
100 years old). Nowadays it is mostly known for its use in some parts of a
Talmud page.

So I see here two issues:
1. does Noto Rashi Hebrew belong in the core set? Rashi is not useful
   for daily Hebrew usage. It does not add coverage of new code points, AFAIK.

2. I should never get Rashi by default for Hebrew.
#1029710#10
Date:
2023-02-12 16:21:06 UTC
From:
To:
Dear Maintainer,

It's not just Tzafrir...

As a workaround, I added this in my .emacs:

	(add-to-list 'face-ignored-fonts "Noto Rashi Hebrew")

Thanks,
	Shai.
#1029710#15
Date:
2023-02-12 21:17:19 UTC
From:
To:
Workaround:

(add-to-list 'face-ignored-fonts "Noto Rashi Hebrew")
#1029710#20
Date:
2023-09-10 13:32:08 UTC
From:
To:
Dear Maintainer,

After disabling the Rashi font as noted above, for some time,
the Hebrew font was sensible. But recently it changed again,
this time to Dorian.

By invoking the menu option:
"Options->Multilingual Environment->Show all multilingual settings"
I was able to see the list of fonts for the Hebrew block:

(#x590 .. #x5FF)
    -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-iso10646-1
	[-PfEd-Dorian CLM-regular-normal-normal-*-15-*-*-*-*-0-iso10646-1]
	[-PfEd-Simple CLM-regular-normal-normal-*-15-*-*-*-*-0-iso10646-1]
	[-PfEd-DejaVu Sans-bold-normal-normal-*-15-*-*-*-*-0-iso10646-1]
	[-PfEd-David CLM-bold-italic-normal-*-15-*-*-*-*-0-iso10646-1]
    -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-8

Dorian is a cursive, "fancy" font (in fact it comes from the package
culmus-fancy, not from the core culmus package). It is not as bas as
Rashi, but still unsuitable as a default font for text editing in Hebrew.

What controls the order of fonts?