Question

I want to display Hebrew text with vowel points (nikkud) using the Canvas.drawText interface. The vowel points come out misaligned, as in the following image taken using a Motorola Defy+ device:

The hiriq is between the resh and the yod, the holam between the vav and nun.
I have added the rtl code (\u200F) to the string at both ends, no joy.
I know that there are applications that have solved this problem, such as the Smart Siddur. Is there a difference between text-based applications and graphics based? I would think that the same engine renders the text in both cases. I suppose I could split up the string and place the vowels separately, but that seems pretty painful and not extensible.
TIA for any clues.

Answer 1

Well, the following works. I still don’t understand why I had to implement it, but this does work…

 package com.lomda.ong2;

import java.util.HashMap;

import android.content.Context;
import android.graphics.Canvas;
import android.graphics.Color;
import android.graphics.Paint;
import android.graphics.Paint.FontMetricsInt;
import android.graphics.Typeface;
import android.graphics.Paint.Align;
import android.graphics.Paint.FontMetrics;
import android.graphics.Point;
import android.graphics.Rect;
import android.util.Log;

// render Hebrew strings with diacritic marks
// 
public class HebRender {

Paint paint;
HashMap<String, Integer> spaces;
String charString;
String prevChar = "";
final String TAG = "HebRender";

public HebRender(Context svContext){
    paint = new Paint(); 
    Typeface t =  Typeface.createFromAsset(svContext.getAssets(),"fonts/SimpleCLM-Bold.ttf");
    //Typeface t =  Typeface.createFromAsset(svContext.getAssets(),"fonts/gisha.ttf");
    paint.setTypeface(t);
    paint.setStyle(Paint.Style.FILL); 
    paint.setTextSize(48); 
    paint.setAntiAlias(true); 
    paint.setTypeface(Typeface.DEFAULT_BOLD); 
    paint.setTextAlign(Align.CENTER);
}

public void drawText(   Canvas canvas, String word, Point locate, int color) {
    Rect bounds = new Rect();
    Rect prevBounds = new Rect(0,0,0,0);
    paint.getTextBounds(word, 0, word.length(), bounds);
    paint.setColor(color);
    int wordWidth = bounds.width();
    // move to right edge (parameter is center)
    locate.x += wordWidth/2;
    // initialize bounds of individual characters
    bounds = new Rect(0,0,0,0);
    // for each character
    for (int i = 0; i < word.length(); i++) {
        // locate and write letter
        char c = word.charAt(i);
        charString = String.valueOf(c); 
        if (c >= 1488 && c <=1514) {// is in consonant range
            paint.getTextBounds(charString, 0, charString.length(), bounds); // get current char dimensions
            if (!prevChar.equals("")) {
                int moveOver = bounds.width()/2 + prevBounds.width()/2 + (int) paint.getTextSize()/10;
                locate.x -= moveOver;
            }
            Log.d(TAG, String.format("Char: %s, Prev char width: %d, char width: %d", charString, prevBounds.width(), bounds.width()));
            canvas.drawText(charString, locate.x, locate.y, paint);
            prevChar = charString;
            prevBounds.set(bounds); // save previous dimensions
        } else {// for each diacritic locate and write
            canvas.drawText(charString, locate.x + getOffset(c, bounds.width()), locate.y, paint);
        }

    }
}

// some diacritic marks need to be moved 
private int getOffset(char c, int charWidth) {
    int offset = 0;
    switch (c){
    case 0x05C1:  // shin dot
        offset = charWidth/2;
        break;
    case 0x05C2:  // sin dot
        offset = -charWidth/2;
        break;
    case 0x05BC:  // dagesh
        offset = findDagesh(c, charWidth);
        break;
    case 0x05B9: // holam
        offset = -(3*charWidth/5);
        break;
    }
    return offset;
}

// move dagesh around for certain characters
private int findDagesh(char c, int charWidth) {
    int offset = 0;
    if (prevChar.equals("ג")) {
        offset = Math.min(2, -charWidth/3);
    } else if (prevChar.equals("ו") ||prevChar.equals("ז") || prevChar.equals("י")){
        offset = Math.min(7, -7*charWidth/10);
    } else if (prevChar.equals("ע") || prevChar.equals("ש") ) {
        offset = Math.max(1, charWidth/3);
    } else if (prevChar.equals("פ")){
        offset = Math.max(2, charWidth/3);
    }
    return offset;
}

}