| Table of Contents |
|---|
...
21 February 2022
Version history:
1.0, 17 February 2022
1.01, 21 February 2022
About the script
...
Many typesetters use Adobe InDesign to perform page layout for PDF production. It has been observed that Adobe InDesign CC 2022 (v. 17.1) fails to render a few Linear B characters: they are 𐀀 (Noto_Sans_Linear_B_u10000.pdf, U+10000) and 𐀍 (Noto_Sans_Linear_B_u1000D.pdf, U+1000D), but until the whole character set has been investigated we will not know how many more, if anyU+10000), 𐀈 (U+10008), 𐀉 (U+10009), 𐀊 (U+1000A), and 𐀍 (U+1000D). The problem seems to be connected with Adobe’s ‘World-Ready Paragraph Composers’, which are the default in Brill publications.used by default by typesetters producing PDF of Brill publications.
In addition, import problems from .txt (UTF-8) format have been observed in Adobe InDesign CC 2022 (v. 17.1) involving 𐀸 (U+10038): this character was replaced on import with two __ underscore characters (U+005F).
Furthermore, when importing text from either .docx or .txt (UTF-8) formats, 𐄐 (U+10110) and 𐄒 (U+10112) needed a manual application of the Noto Sans Linear B font (the underlying character codes were correct).
These software issues have so far not been found to occur This software issue has not been observed in any other applications including MS Word 365 and web browsers, suggesting that they are connected with the Adobe InDesign software and not with the Noto Sans Linear B font. Without a doubt there is a bug in both of Adobe’s World-Ready Paragraph Composers. And there are probably import filter bugs as well.
Instruction to typesetters dealing with Linear B text
Adobe InDesign users must switch the paragraph composer applied to all paragraphs containing text in the Linear B script, even if there is just one Linear B character, to either of the older Adobe Paragraph Composers: Adobe Paragraph Composer or the Adobe Single-line Paragraph Composer.
Typesetters must also check that 𐀸 (U+10038) is encoded and rendered correctly (check that there are no two consecutive __ underscore (U+005F) characters), and that 𐄐 (U+10110) and 𐄒 (U+10112) are rendered correctly as well – if these occur, of course.
If such a paragraph with Linear B characters also contains complex-script text (this includes any bidirectional script such as Phoenician, Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, etc., but also many others!), this could be only switching to an older Adobe Paragraph Composer could prove problematic. Typesetters should then try HarfBuzz as the default OpenType shaper.
...
