I was wondering, what if there actually was a way to produce kashida-like typography in Hebrew in LaTeX. Not necessary as paragraph text, even as an image (nobody prints books like that to the best of my knowledge, but just for ethnographic exercise it would be nice).
To give you a sense of what it may look like: a traditional hand-written text:
A (not so modern font, this one however was cast in lead, of that I'm sure) reminiscent of this feature:
The old-fashioned way, without relying on jalt or renderers:
(1) Using lamed as an example, for a certain size and a certain font, typeset the glyph as a standalone pdf.
(actual size)
\documentclass[12pt]{standalone}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont[Script=Hebrew]{FreeSerif}\usepackage{polyglossia}
\setdefaultlanguage{english}
\setotherlanguages{hebrew}
\begin{document}
{\texthebrew{ﬥ}}
\end{document}
(2) Then, with the graphicx package (or adjustbox, an extension of it), includegraphics{} lamed back in again three times, triming the pdf/glyph into three parts: left, middle, and right.
(3) And, lastly, multiply the middle out a number of times.
(top row: narrow and wide glyphs in the font)
(middle row: wide glyph divided into three parts)
(bottom row: the middle part multiplied)
\documentclass[12pt]{article}
%\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage[export]{adjustbox}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont[Script=Hebrew]{FreeSerif}\usepackage{polyglossia}
\setdefaultlanguage{english}
\setotherlanguages{hebrew}
\newcommand\lleft{\includegraphics[trim=0pt 0pt 6pt -2pt,clip]{lamedw}}
\newcommand\lmid{\includegraphics[clip,trim=0.15em 0em 0.3em 0em]{lamedw}}
\newcommand\lright{\adjincludegraphics[clip,trim=0.4em 0em 0em 0em]{lamedw}}
\begin{document}
\texthebrew{ﬥ}\texthebrew{ל}
\includegraphics[trim=0pt 0pt 6pt -2pt,clip]{lamedw}
\includegraphics[clip,trim=0.15em 0em 0.3em 0em]{lamedw}
\adjincludegraphics[clip,trim=0.4em 0em 0em 0em]{lamedw}
\texthebrew{ﬥ}
\lleft\lmid\lright \lleft\lmid\lmid\lmid\lright
\lleft\lmid\lmid\lmid\lmid\lmid\lmid\lright
\end{document}
Edited to add:
It may be wortwhile to add the code snippets for the others, to save users having to type, because the trim can be slightly different between the glyphs.
This code be done in a loop.
In the preamble:
\newcommand\hleft{\includegraphics[trim=0pt 0pt 6pt -2pt,clip]{hew}}
\newcommand\hmid{\includegraphics[clip,trim=0.16em 0em 0.3em 0em]{hew}}
\newcommand\hright{\adjincludegraphics[clip,trim=0.4em 0em -0.10em 0em]{hew}}
\newcommand\dleft{\includegraphics[trim=0pt 0pt 6pt -2pt,clip]{daletw}}
\newcommand\dmid{\includegraphics[clip,trim=0.16em 0em 0.3em 0em]{daletw}}
\newcommand\dright{\adjincludegraphics[clip,trim=0.4em 0em -0.10em 0em]{daletw}}
\newcommand\kleft{\includegraphics[trim=0pt 0pt 6pt -2pt,clip]{kafw}}
\newcommand\kmid{\includegraphics[clip,trim=0.16em 0em 0.3em 0em]{kafw}}
\newcommand\kright{\adjincludegraphics[clip,trim=0.4em 0em -0.10em 0em]{kafw}}
\newcommand\mleft{\includegraphics[trim=0pt 0pt 6pt -2pt,clip]{memw}}
\newcommand\mmid{\includegraphics[clip,trim=0.16em 0em 0.3em 0em]{memw}}
\newcommand\mright{\adjincludegraphics[clip,trim=0.4em 0em -0.10em 0em]{memw}}
\newcommand\rleft{\includegraphics[trim=0pt 0pt 6pt -2pt,clip]{reshw}}
\newcommand\rmid{\includegraphics[clip,trim=0.16em 0em 0.3em 0em]{reshw}}
\newcommand\rright{\adjincludegraphics[clip,trim=0.4em 0em -0.10em 0em]{reshw}}
\newcommand\tleft{\includegraphics[trim=0pt 0pt 6pt -2pt,clip]{tavw}}
\newcommand\tmid{\includegraphics[clip,trim=0.18em 0em 0.3em 0em]{tavw}}
\newcommand\tright{\adjincludegraphics[clip,trim=0.4em 0em -0.10em 0em]{tavw}}
In the document:
\texthebrew{ﬢ}\texthebrew{ד}
\dleft\
\dmid\
\dright\
\texthebrew{ﬢ}
\dleft\dmid\dright \dleft\dmid\dmid\dmid\dright
\dleft\dmid\dmid\dmid\dmid\dmid\dmid\dright
\texthebrew{ﬣ}\texthebrew{ה}
\hleft\
\hmid\
\hright\
\texthebrew{ﬣ}
\hleft\hmid\hright \hleft\hmid\hmid\hmid\hright
\hleft\hmid\hmid\hmid\hmid\hmid\hmid\hright
\texthebrew{ﬤ}\texthebrew{כ}
\kleft\
\kmid\
\kright\
\texthebrew{ﬤ}
\kleft\kmid\kright \kleft\kmid\kmid\kmid\kright
\kleft\kmid\kmid\kmid\kmid\kmid\kmid\kright
\texthebrew{ﬦ}\texthebrew{ם}
\mleft\
\mmid\
\mright\
\texthebrew{ﬦ}
\mleft\mmid\mright \mleft\mmid\mmid\mmid\mright
\mleft\mmid\mmid\mmid\mmid\mmid\mmid\mright
\texthebrew{ﬧ}\texthebrew{ר}
\rleft\
\rmid\
\rright\
\texthebrew{ﬧ}
\rleft\rmid\rright \rleft\rmid\rmid\rmid\rright
\rleft\rmid\rmid\rmid\rmid\rmid\rmid\rright
\texthebrew{ﬨ}\texthebrew{ת}
\tleft\
\tmid\
\tright\
\texthebrew{ﬨ}
\tleft\tmid\tright \tleft\tmid\tmid\tmid\tright
\tleft\tmid\tmid\tmid\tmid\tmid\tmid\tright
which leaves alef, and its diagonal bar, as a special case.
xepersianpackage, which of course deals with Arabic script, not Hebrew. I don't know enough to know what would be involved to adapt it, but it's a place to start. The relevant source file iskashida-xepersian.def. – Alan Munn Jan 01 '15 at 19:29HEBREW LETTER WIDE ALEFetc onFB21--FB28. So it would be possible to use these to a mock the handwriting style. But as your scans show, this is only a crude simplification of the actual tradition and a more flexible solution would be needed. – Florian May 26 '16 at 18:54jaltfeature for Hebrew justification alternates. One can imagine a font with a range of widths selected through stylistic sets, but it seems not to exist yet. Wide Hebrew letters are found in very few commercial fonts, and often the encoding is wrong, such that the text would be inaccessible. – Thérèse Jul 05 '16 at 01:05jaltJustification Alternates font feature (e.g., Shofar does, for script='hebr'); (c) the font feature must be activated (fontspecdoes not supportjalt: Table 5, p 40, v2.7c); (d) the font renderer must be able to handle the feature (e.g., in experiments, Word doesn't, for Hebrew; and HarfBuzz "knows nothing about ... lines", so can't help with justification); (e) there must be a justification context. – Cicada Oct 05 '19 at 06:35