Learning Biblical Hebrew: Reading for Comprehension (Kutz and Josberger) - wretchedly small Hebrew f

Eric Weiss
Eric Weiss Member Posts: 948 ✭✭✭
edited November 2024 in English Forum

Is there something that can be done about the wretchedly-small Hebrew font used for the vowel marks in this book? This image is a screenshot of page 37, from a 24" monitor at 100% Program Scaling. The point being made in the blue square is that a hateph qamets composite shewa after a qamets tells you that it's a qamets qaton and not a long-vowel qamets. But one can barely read the vowel points, and some of them are so squished together that they overlap each other. IS IT THIS WAY IN THE PRINT BOOK, or did the conversion to Logos somehow mess up the printing/display of the vowel points? I'm having to read this book at 200% Program Scaling at times, which makes the rest of the text way too large. And on my iPhone 7 Plus it's awful.

Optimistically Egalitarian (Galatians 3:28)

Comments

  • PetahChristian
    PetahChristian Member Posts: 4,635 ✭✭✭

    The print edition uses plenty of white space within the parentheses to avoid any overlap.

    Hopefully this can be fixed in the Logos edition to make it more readable.

    Thanks to FL for including Carta and a Hebrew audio bible in Logos 9!

  • Eric Weiss
    Eric Weiss Member Posts: 948 ✭✭✭

    Optimistically Egalitarian (Galatians 3:28)

  • Eric Weiss
    Eric Weiss Member Posts: 948 ✭✭✭

    Wow. This Logos version of Learning Biblical Hebrew: Reading for Comprehension is really messed up.

    If you look at p. 19 in the Workbook, the text refers to "the translation above"—but THERE IS NO "TRANSLATION ABOVE."

    However, if you hit F11 and go to the Reading View, then, Voila! "the translation above" magically appears:

    Optimistically Egalitarian (Galatians 3:28)

  • DAL
    DAL Member Posts: 10,870 ✭✭✭

    Hopefully this will get improved.  I like how it supplements HB101 Mobile Ed.  I'll be going over this book once I'm done with the Mobile Ed course by Futato.

    DAL

  • Eric Weiss
    Eric Weiss Member Posts: 948 ✭✭✭

    At the Logos Tips and Tricks Facebook page someone commented that the e-version of the book treats * as a footnote, which is why it appears when you hover over it with the mouse arrow when in regular view, but then appears in full as a footnote in F11 Reading View.

    However, on p. 53 of the textbook the * only reveals its information when you hover the mouse over it. Even in F11 reading view the information doesn't appear as a footnote as it does in my earlier example. So this resource needs A LOT of clean-up work by the Faithlife/Lexham bunch. See the pop-up box note about halfway down the middle column. That information only appears when you hover your mouse over it, whether in regular view or in F11 Reading View.

    Optimistically Egalitarian (Galatians 3:28)

  • PetahChristian
    PetahChristian Member Posts: 4,635 ✭✭✭

    Since no one from Faithlife/Lexham has responded here, it might help to make an “Attn Kyle:” thread, pointing him to this thread.

    Thanks to FL for including Carta and a Hebrew audio bible in Logos 9!

  • Eric Weiss
    Eric Weiss Member Posts: 948 ✭✭✭

    Okay, I just posted a post entitled "Attn: Kyle" with a link to this thread.

    Optimistically Egalitarian (Galatians 3:28)

  • Doug Mangum (Lexham)
    Doug Mangum (Lexham) Member, Logos Employee Posts: 229

    I'm not sure what the issue is with page 37 in the grammar that you noted. The screenshot of the print is what the source files I provided looked like.

    I can tell you that the problems with the workbook arise from the fact that it was designed for print and the interlinear visual alignment of the print workbook was not possible to replicate at the time when we were producing the workbook. For the exercises in Part 1, most were supposed to be in a static PDF-like format to preserve their worksheet characteristics. On exercises where that wasn't deemed necessary, the workaround was to use embedded images whenever the original layout needed to be represented. With the page you've noted from Exercise 3C, that second block of Hebrew should probably have been treated as an image like the block at the top of the exercise or the whole page should have been presented as a PDF. Instead, it was handled like the interlinear reader portions. Originally, the translation for each word was placed in a line immediately below the Hebrew word, so the translation was "above" that paragraph of text. Our workaround for the graded reader sections was to have the interlinear glosses appear on hover and be treated like footnotes. I am still interested in finding ways to improve the workbook in Logos. For issues like you've noted for the grammar, you could report future readability issues with the "report typo" feature. Or post about them on the forum, where Kyle and I may or may not see it.

  • SineNomine
    SineNomine Member Posts: 7,012 ✭✭✭

    Or post about them on the forum, where Kyle and I may or may not see it.

    Unfortunately, Report Typo is, to us customers, a black box; we have no idea if anyone ever sees anything specific submitted using it, unless someone from Faithlife specifically tells us in the forums that a particular resource is actually being monitored. And even then, whether it continues to be monitored after that forum post is made is a black box to us again.

    Compare that to another option. If we customers post about a resource issue in the forums and put "KYLE:" at the front of the thread, Kyle will see it and someone from Faithlife will respond, even if sometimes we might have to bump that thread once or twice first.

    Unfortunately, the optimal option for us users is not the optimal option for you Faithlife staff.

    Sadly, I don't have a solution for that problem.

    “The trouble is that everyone talks about reforming others and no one thinks about reforming himself.” St. Peter of Alcántara

  • Doug Mangum (Lexham)
    Doug Mangum (Lexham) Member, Logos Employee Posts: 229

    Unfortunately, Report Typo is, to us customers, a black box;

    I was only offering it as an option for non-urgent corrections. I don't know how Kyle handles their typo reports, but for Lexham resources, we request the report before we plan to update a resource. Sometimes we fix typos before a new print run. I'm guessing Kyle has a similar process: They look at the typo report when a resource comes up for its turn for updates.

    It's true that making noise on the forums is the way to get more focused attention for issues that impact your use of the resource. I wasn't subtly pushing anyone away from that option. It's not a Faithlife preference vs. user preference issue for me. I don't mind addressing issues and receiving feedback through the forums, but in this case, it was pure chance that I happened to see this forum thread yesterday.

  • PetahChristian
    PetahChristian Member Posts: 4,635 ✭✭✭

    It was helpful to learn that your team handles digital conversion issues for Lexham resources, thanks. I assumed that Kyle handled everything, not just FL.

    Would these (or Attn Doug) threads be easier for you to spot in the Lexham Press forum?

    Thanks to FL for including Carta and a Hebrew audio bible in Logos 9!

  • Doug Mangum (Lexham)
    Doug Mangum (Lexham) Member, Logos Employee Posts: 229

    It was helpful to learn that your team handles digital conversion issues for Lexham resources, thanks. I assumed that Kyle handled everything, not just FL.

    Would these (or Attn Doug) threads be easier for you to spot in the Lexham Press forum?

    To be clear, Lexham handles digital production in coordination with Kyle's team. So we might draw attention to needed corrections, but the actual implementation still requires Kyle's team. If you have specific issues about Lexham resources, it is more likely someone from Lexham Press will notice them in the Lexham Press forum, but if it has to do with digital production problems, Kyle's input will also be needed. Plus I'm not the point person for everything published by Lexham.

  • PetahChristian
    PetahChristian Member Posts: 4,635 ✭✭✭

    Thanks to FL for including Carta and a Hebrew audio bible in Logos 9!

  • Jonathan Yap
    Jonathan Yap Member Posts: 80 ✭✭

    Still no corrections? For a LEXHAM item? Wow come on Faithlife..

  • Doug Mangum (Lexham)
    Doug Mangum (Lexham) Member, Logos Employee Posts: 229

    An update to the resource was released in July with over 170 typos fixed. I don't know offhand what specifically was fixed as I was not involved with the update. We have plans to check it more thoroughly, but I don't know the timeline.