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Closely Related:
- https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/355429/153289
- Cannot produce english-greek document with xelatex
- Greek and Hebrew in a single pdflatex babel document

In closely related question / answer, it is suggested that Babel might not currently support concurrent bidirectional languages, (e.g., English, Latin, Greek, Arabic, and Hebrew).

A reference request:

How does a LaTeX writer actually look up this information? Where do you go? And what keywords do you look for?

Is there "official" Babel documentation that answers if this is supported, how to do this, and what compilers are required?

David Purton
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elika kohen
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  • The example in that question works for me with both xetex and luatex. Your problem — to judge from your comments there — seems to be not with babel or with bidirectional languages but with finding the name under which fontspec (loaded by babel when you use \babelfont) recognizes the fonts. – Thérèse Feb 16 '18 at 19:19
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    Of course, we’ll need the exact code you’re trying and the specific error messages you get (not “doesn’t seem to work”) in order to help. – Thérèse Feb 16 '18 at 19:29
  • I am just asking for a reference source, not code. I am just hoping to look at a primary source, rather than a lot of fragmented comments everywhere. – elika kohen Feb 16 '18 at 22:08
  • @Thérèse I do believe you are right about the issue, but I encountered many others, and hoping for a source reference. For example, I discovered that the compiler doesn't like fonts in subfolder. So, references will help a lot, with all the issues I am having. – elika kohen Feb 16 '18 at 22:11
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    From the first version of your question, it’s clear that you’ve found the official babel documentation. I think you need, not further babel docs, but the fontspec manual, since \babelfont triggers the use of fontspec, and thus requires you to know something about the latter. – Thérèse Feb 16 '18 at 23:25
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    @Thérèse is right that you need to know something of how to specify a font using fontspec. One catch is that the normal way to select a font using fontspec is using \newfontfamily. But if you're using babel, you use \babelfont which has similar but slightly different syntax. This is mentioned in the babel manual. The other thing to keep in mind is that babel's bidi support is still taking its first steps. Using polyglossia and the bidi package will give more reliable output. (I'm liking the direction babel is taking though.) – David Purton Feb 17 '18 at 00:37
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    My answer in the first linked answer represents the best solution for using babel as it currently stands. The fonts loaded are system fonts. But you can load a font from anywhere using fontspec (including a subfolder) if you give it the right information. – David Purton Feb 17 '18 at 00:39
  • @Thérèse - Thank you. Could you post an answer with the fontspec and babel documentation you recommend that explains how to do bidirectional languages in the same document? I would be more than happy to accept it as the answer. And yes, I did find some babel docs, but I found several of them - and none of them seemed to have the information about bidirectional formatting. Then again, I might have just missed it. – elika kohen Feb 17 '18 at 03:55
  • @DavidPurton - Yes, I am working through your answer, but I had to submit a tech support ticket to sharelatex to try to figure out what is actually broken, (their compilers, your code, or my interpretation). For example, I tried placing the SBL_BLit.ttf font in subfolder, and tried to specify ebgaramond as the english language font. ... and many other problems. I just have to break it all down one by one, so - I thought I would start with the obvious: proper documentation. Thanks! – elika kohen Feb 17 '18 at 03:57
  • Sorry, I don’t know how to answer the question as currently written: I had to guess at the real difficulty by looking at your comments on the questions to which you link. For this question to be useful to others, it would need considerable revision so that it’s clear what you’re asking. – Thérèse Feb 17 '18 at 04:05
  • With ShareLaTeX, I doubt you can do it because its version of babel is probably too old. I recommend you work off a local TeX installation. – David Purton Feb 17 '18 at 04:50
  • @Thérèse - The question is not asking for code. Just a reference request for how to get started reading up on this common problem. – elika kohen Feb 17 '18 at 05:00
  • I can confirm that the ShareLaTeX's version of babel is too old. It does not support the bidi option. Your only option for ShareLaTeX is to use polyglossia. – David Purton Feb 17 '18 at 05:17

1 Answers1

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The documentation you are looking for is the babel manual and the fontspec manual.

With a local TeX installation you can find the documentation using the texdoc command line application, e.g., try running texdoc babel and texdoc fontspec in a terminal window.

You can also get the latest documentation from CTAN for both babel and fontspec

§5 of the fontspec manual explains the various options available to load fonts (by both font name and file name). Relevant sections of the babel manual include §1.14 and §1.20.

David Purton
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