[ID-4245219]Disappearing Punctuation Marks in Hebrew RTL Justified Text in Exported PDF
Severity Level: Critical
Impact: Severe disruption to Hebrew text layout workflow and document integrity
Bug Description
Punctuation marks are randomly disappearing in justified Hebrew text blocks (RTL direction), specifically at:
- Paragraph endings
- Forced line breaks
- Last lines of justified paragraphs
Technical Context
- Text Direction: Right-to-Left (RTL)
- Language: Hebrew
- Text Alignment: Justified
Affected Punctuation Marks
- Periods (.)
- Semicolons (;)
- Commas (,)
- Colons (:)
Specific Behavior in RTL Context
- When Hebrew text is set to justified alignment, punctuation marks vanish:
- At the end of paragraphs
- Before forced line breaks
- Exception: Punctuation marks remain visible if the last line is explicitly right-aligned
- The issue appears to be specific to RTL text direction and does not occur in LTR text
Known Workarounds and Their Limitations
Legacy Composition Engine Option:
- While switching to the legacy composition engine in preferences resolves this specific issue
- We strongly advise against this solution due to:
- Previously reported bugs and limitations in the legacy engine (see bug reports #ID-4245219)
- Performance issues documented in our earlier reports
- Compatibility concerns with newer features
- We require a proper fix in the current composition engine rather than reverting to legacy solutions
Temporary Layout Workaround:
- Right-align the last line of affected paragraphs
- This is not viable for production as it:
- Affects layout consistency
- Requires constant manual intervention
- Disrupts automated workflows
Technical Impact
- Compromises Hebrew document accuracy
- Requires constant manual checking and fixes
- Disrupts automated workflows for Hebrew text processing
- May lead to incorrect final output in published Hebrew materials
Priority Level
Immediate attention required as this bug:
- Affects core Hebrew typography functionality
- Creates significant quality control issues in RTL text layouts
- Requires time-consuming manual verification
- May result in incorrect published content
Steps to Reproduce
- Set paragraph direction to RTL
- Create a Hebrew text block with justified alignment
- Type a paragraph ending with any punctuation mark
- Add forced line breaks within the paragraph
- Observe the disappearance of punctuation marks at:
- Paragraph endings
- Before forced line breaks
Technical Investigation Request
Please investigate:
- RTL text rendering engine behavior
- Interaction between justified alignment and RTL text direction
- Potential conflicts between Hebrew text processing and punctuation handling
- Implementation of punctuation handling in the current composition engine
Request
Immediate investigation and hotfix needed in the current composition engine. While we acknowledge the existence of a legacy engine workaround, we require a proper fix in the current engine to maintain workflow efficiency and compatibility with modern features.
David Hillel
shared this idea
Hi,
We have been able to reproduce the issue and it is currently under investigation.
—
Adobe InDesign Team
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הרשי הלברשטאם commented
Please fix it!
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הרשי הלברשטאם commented
I'm paying for the program and it has to be fixed. this is the main program I use. this is absurd that it's not fixed yet.
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כולל אברכים עצי חיים בני ברק commented
critical
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בניה נצח מורג commented
It is very important to me, and it is impossible to work on the software without it. Let the Hebrew speakers also progress and don't leave us in "legacy".
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InDesign Tips commented
InDesign version: v20 (both Mac & PC)
When the text is in Hebrew, a letter after drop cap is missing after export to PDF
Critical because it is not possible to see the problem before the export, sometimes you'll find it only after printing....
(We know the solution of changing the text shaping engine to legacy, but it is not the default, and we want it to be solved in the standard engine 'harfbuzz')
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Eli Geller
commented
I've this issue as well (Indesign 19.5.
I'm using Hebrew and this happens even if Kashida's are turned off.
I also have an instance where a few of words are alined to the left which causes the last letter to disappear from the PDF file.
Aligning this to the center or to the right solves the issue.
Never the less, I still have a whole book with missing dots at the ends of sentences because of this. -
Joel Cherney
commented
Here's another thread about what I suspect is the same issue:
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Joel Cherney
commented
Still trying to get an INDD sample uploaded here, six months later
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Joel Cherney
commented
I've already uploaded this sample doc more than once; here's hoping it sticks,. this time
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Marisa Ferreira commented
I was hoping Adobe would fix this with this last update, but not yet! Please, guys! I need to be be able to use kashidas in Arabic text! It makes readability much better.
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Joel Cherney
commented
Another forums thread about this bug:
https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/indesign-19-0-update-change-in-diacritic-selection-behavior-in-the-hebrew-language/td-p/14391189I think that Colin has the right idea, these threads probably ought to be merged (and their votes summed)
Also it looks like I couldn't upload the accompanying IDD when I first filed this bug; now that file upload problem seems to have resolved itself.
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Joel Cherney
commented
Another forums thread about this bug:
https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/indesign-19-0-update-change-in-diacritic-selection-behavior-in-the-hebrew-language/td-p/14391189
I think that Colin has the right idea, these threads probably ought to be merged (and their votes summed)Also it looks like I couldn't upload the accompanying IDD when I first filed this bug; now that file upload problem seems to have resolved itself.
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Muhannad Hamoud commented
I have the same problem :(
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Yael Kastel commented
This also happens to me - when exporting PDF files in Hebrew. It happens randomly and only in the 2024 version.
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Hannah Dossary commented
This is also happening to me.
I've tried a few workarounds:
- removing Kashidas as suggested here: https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/missing-dots-at-the-end-of-pharagraph-when-exporting-a-pdf-from-indesign/td-p/14221771). This doesnt always show the fullstop at the end.- making the text aligned right instead of justify right. This seems to work but not ideal if we need o have it justified.
looking forward to a bug fix
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Joel Cherney
commented
There are reports on the forums that it's happening with Hebrew as well, so I'm guessing that all RTL scripts will exhibit this issue.
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Zaid Al Hilali
commented
I second Joel on this bug. Here are two files [ InDesign & PDF ] for comparison.
Well, I uploaded the InDesign document, however, it is not visible in my post here!! -
Joel Cherney
commented
In InDesign 19.00 and 19.01, if you set Arabic text to justify with last line aligned right and kashidas turned on, the final period of the paragraph drops from PDF output. This seems to happen only in RTL scripts; I can't recreate it in Latin script. Thread with details:
I've uploaded a PDF showing the missing periods, but when attempting to upload the corresponding INDD file, I get an error dialog claiming that "the following files are not supported and have been removed". Same is true if I zip it before attempting to upload... and I can't find a place to file a bug report with uservoice itself.