Hebrew Voices #20 – Adventures in Hebrew Typesetting
In this episode of Hebrew Voices, Adventures in Hebrew Typesetting, Nehemia Gordon chats with Raphael Freeman, world-class typesetter and Founder of Renana Publishers in Modiin, Israel. Gordon and Freeman discuss the special challenges of Hebrew typesetting from the letterpress era to … Continue reading →
In this episode of Hebrew Voices, Adventures in Hebrew Typesetting, Nehemia Gordon chats with Raphael Freeman, world-class typesetter and Founder of Renana Publishers in Modiin, Israel. Gordon and Freeman discuss the special challenges of Hebrew typesetting from the letterpress era to the digital age. With its consonants, vowels, dagesh, two sets of accent marks, and myriads of combinations, creating fonts for Hebrew is considered by Microsoft to be more complicated than for Chinese.
Freeman relates stories from some of his previous work at the Jerusalem Post, for the Encyclopedia Judaica, and for the Koren Bible. We also learn how his Orthodox Jewish beliefs led him to move from the UK to Israel—and eventually to form a company that creates digital books for the iPad—books that include video, audio, photo galleries, pop-up footnotes, study cards, hyperlinks, and more. It seems adventures in typesetting have only begun.
I look forward to reading your comments!
Transcript
Hebrew Voices #20 – Adventures in Hebrew Typesetting
You are listening to Hebrew Voices with Nehemia Gordon. Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon's Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at NehemiasWall.com.
Raphael: And the law in Israel was actually changed on account of this.
Nehemia: You’re kidding me.
Raphael: Actually, that was the reason why the law firm didn’t actually charge the font boundary to sue Microsoft. They did it for free, because they wanted their things to be in the Israel law books. Crazy, crazy.
Nehemia: This is adventures in Hebrew typesetting, it really is. Wow.
Benjamin Netanyahu: Le ma’an Zion lo ekhesheh, u’l’ma’an Yerushalayim lo eshkot. (For Zion’s sake I will not be silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest. Isaiah 62:1)
Nehemia: Shalom, I am here in Modi’in, Israel with Raphael Freeman. Shalom Raphael, it’s great to be here with you. This episode I’m calling “Adventures in Typesetting,” and maybe it’s “Adventures in Hebrew Typesetting.” Raphael is the best typesetter in Israel for Hebrew and English, and he also happens to be married to the best and greatest real estate agent in Modi’in, Israel, who also happens to be my sister. So, he’s my brother-in-law.
Raphael: It doesn’t make it not true.
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