Tibetan fonts no longer display (stack) correctly in Big Sur

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Tibetan fonts no longer display (stack) correctly in Big Sur

I frequently visit websites that use the Tibetan language, and I use the Tibetan input tools that are part of the macOS. Since upgrading to Big Sur and Safari 14, I've noticed that Tibetan fonts no longer stack correctly when viewed in the input field of a web browser. I've confirmed that the fonts do display correctly in other apps, including Word.

I'm able to replicate the issue in Safari 14.0.1 and Chrome 86.0.4240.198. In both cases, Tibetan fonts show up correctly when they are part of a page's HTML, but when I go to input text -- either by typing directly using Tibetan-QWERTY or Tibetan-Wylie input, or by cutting-and-pasting -- the characters all detach from their proper stacking.

Two images attached to illustrate my point. The first is a screen shot of how Tibetan text appears in a webpage when it is embedded in the HTML. The second shows where I attempted to type the same text into the input field of an online dictionary. As you can see, the vowels and any subjoined letters or roots that should stack are instead detached.

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.0

Posted on Nov 25, 2020 4:18 PM

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Answer 1

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Tom Gewecke

Level 10

118,240 points

Nov 26, 2020 6:39 AM in response to Sean-DC

Sean-DC wrote: Does the fact that letters stack correctly here, but not on other sites using multiple browsers, give you any insight into what the problem might be?

It makes me think there is an issue with the other site. Try FireFox in addition to Chrome to complete the browser tests. Firefox lets you stipulate fonts in its preferences to override whatever the site is demanding.

Are their other sites where you see this? Can you provide the urls?

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Answer 2

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

118,240 points

Nov 27, 2020 6:41 AM in response to Sean-DC

Just to confirm that my own test install of Big Sur shows the same result as yours on that site with Safari (while it works fine in Catalina). So something has presumably also changed in Safari with the new OS, probably worth reporting to Apple via

http://www.apple.com/feedback

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Answer 3

Sean-DC Author

Level 1

31 points

Nov 26, 2020 6:20 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

Interestingly enough, Tom, I do not have that problem when posting in *this* forum.

For example:

མ་བཅོས་མ་བཅོས་རང་གི་སེམས་མ་བཅོས། །

Here's a screenshot below that confirms the text renders correctly.

Does the fact that letters stack correctly here, but not on other sites using multiple browsers, give you any insight into what the problem might be?

Thanks and Happy Thanksgiving --

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Answer 4

Sean-DC Author

Level 1

31 points

Nov 26, 2020 6:54 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

Thanks, Tom. I should have checked a third browser. The fonts render correctly in Firefox!

So, your responses have me thinking. I typically use Tibetan input tools on only one site -- the University of Virginia's Tibetan and Himalayan Library. When I was able to duplicate the issue on two browsers (but still only using the one site), it didn't occur to me that the issue might be isolated to just the THLib site. After all, they were an early pioneer in bringing Tibetan fonts to the web.

But, alas, the fonts stack correctly when I type Tibetan text on every and any other website. It was a bit nearsighted on my part to think that the issue was something bigger than a single web site. I'll reach out to them.

Really appreciate the help! ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ་ and Happy Thanksgiving!

Sean

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Answer 5

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

118,240 points

Nov 26, 2020 1:31 PM in response to Sean-DC

I wonder if that site works right with Catalina Safari? If you can provide a url to test I can try it. Not impossible that Big Sur broke something,

I don't know Tibetan but have always found the script fascinating, I think I bought the old xenotechtype unicode kit for the Mac back in 2005 or so. And enjoyed all the Eliot Pattison mysteries.

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Answer 6

Sean-DC Author

Level 1

31 points

Nov 26, 2020 5:10 PM in response to Tom Gewecke

Yes, sure thing. The THLib's Tibetan to English translation tool is here: http://www.thlib.org/reference/dictionaries/tibetan-dictionary/translate.php

You can use this to test it out...it's the name of the preliminary practices (ngöndro) used in my lineage:

།རྫོགས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ཀློང་ཆེན་སྙིང་ཏིག་གི་སྔོན་འགྲོའི་ངག་འདོན་ཁྲིགས་སུ་བསྡེབས་པ་རྣམ་མཁྱེན་ལམ་བཟང་བྱ་བ་བཞུགས་སོ།

Transliterated using Rigpa Phonetics:

dzogpachenpo longchen nyingtik gi ngöndrö ngak dön trik su debpa namkhyen lamzang jawa shyuk so

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Answer 7

Nov 29, 2020 3:47 AM in response to Sean-DC

I first noticed this issue upon visiting this website dedicated to Tibetan fonts after updating to macOS Big Sur. Interestingly, visiting the same website in Chrome encoded the text just fine. The same issue also appeared on the dictionary website I am involved with so I asked the administrator to change the default Tibetan font and it resolved the problem.

Even before the Big Sur update I had this exact same issue with some Electron apps. I use Franz to channel all my communication and I was never able to input Tibetan correctly in to the Facebook Messenger app there. Furthermore, I tested about thirty different Tibetan fonts in MS Word about a year ago and about ten of them displayed the stacked letters incorrectly. Changing the encoding never resolved it for me.

What I am trying to say is that for me the problem is not and never was just about the text input fields on the web but rather connected with particular fonts and their rendering... It looks like some fonts were always incorrectly showing stacked letters on macOS. Interestingly, if you visit any website with Tibetan fonts I have tested on your iPad or iPhone, there will be no issues at all. So the problem is isolated just to the macOS in particular. Tibetan Machine Uni was one of the problematic font and it is used on the THL website too.

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Answer 8

Dec 2, 2020 10:54 AM in response to Sean-DC

Same problem with THL Tibetan Translation Tool immediately on "upgrading" to Big Sur. It does not happen when I use dictionary.christian-steinert.de. So I tend to agree the problem lies with Machine Uni ...

works here བོད་སྐད་ just fine

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Answer 9

Dec 4, 2020 5:04 AM in response to Sean-DC

This is a bug with Safari on Big Sur. When the CSS specifically designates a Tibetan Unicode font, the stacks do not render properly but if you disable those CSS commands or in some cases do font-family: unset; (in the Developers console), then the Tibetan does render properly. Until they fix the bug, the only solution is to switch browsers and use Firefox or Chrome.

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Answer 10

Dec 4, 2020 5:26 AM in response to VirtualMitra

I did a little further digging and it does not happen with the Apple fonts Kailasa and Kokonor which is why some sites such as https://dictionary.christian-steinert.de/ still display properly because they (wisely) included one of those in their font-family definition.