[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.
Hi,
We have been able to reproduce the issue and it is currently under investigation.
—
Adobe InDesign Team
-
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.