Bidirectional write support

Background information

Last year, we extended the advastamedia® Output Framework by adding the fully automatic output function of bidirectional fonts in the PDF Generator/InDesign combination. The extension is already in use for our customer Bosch Power Tools, facilitating the production of catalogue versions in emerging markets.

Key data
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Bidirectional write support means the capability of displaying complex texts in different text directions. This is vital for multilingual texts, for example Arabic fonts are written and read from right to left but at the same time, numerals and European names (e.g. product names) are written from left to right.

The special technical highlight of the new advastamedia® Output Framework covers two topics at the same time.

  • Previously, on-the-fly PDF output was hampered by the fact that most PDF components do not support bidirectional text outputs. This posed a challenge especially in dynamic layouts with collision calculations and complex line-break algorithms.
  • Normally right-to-left outputs in InDesign must be generated in a separate InDesign version (InDesign Middle East) which supports this type of output. Our output solution is different: data is placed "normally" so that no further license costs or compatibility problems arise.