Languages and writing systems

1. Your book's language

Choose it under Language, at the end of Project Details in your project's Settings. One language covers the whole manuscript, and changing it later is safe. Once it is set, Tabularia typesets your book the way that language prints books:

• Words break at line ends by that language's hyphenation rules. Hebrew and Arabic books are not hyphenated: a word that does not fit moves to the next line whole.
• A quotation mark you type takes that language's shape, and one that opens a paragraph hangs into its first-line indent, as it does in English. Marks already in your text stay exactly as you wrote them.
• Default labels such as Contents, Chapter, and Part appear in your language. A label you typed yourself is never replaced.
• Your keyboard, autocorrect, dictation, and screen reader are told which language you are writing.
• Exported EPUB, Word, and PDF files and your published pages all declare it.
• The font menu marks any face missing letters your language needs. A face without your language's alphabet is left off the menu entirely.

French adds the narrow space inside its guillemets as you type, so you never enter it by hand.

2. Typefaces for each language

A book starts in Georgia for its text and Fraunces for its headings. Where your language needs letters one of those lacks, the table shows the face Tabularia sets instead. Literata takes over the text of a Russian, Ukrainian, or Greek book, and Source Serif 4 takes over headings wherever Fraunces falls short. This follows the language, so it also changes the headings of a book you already wrote. A face you chose yourself is never replaced.

For a face of your own, Russian and Ukrainian books can also be set in Garamond or Lora, or in Times New Roman or Arial. Greek can use any of them except Lora. Cambria lacks the Romanian ș and ț, so the font menu marks it in a Romanian book.

Hebrew and Arabic have faces of their own. A Hebrew book is set in Frank Ruhl Libre, a classic Hebrew book face, with David Libre for its headings; Times New Roman is the one other face on its menu. An Arabic book is set in Amiri, a Naskh drawn after the faces of Cairo's Bulaq press, with Markazi Text for its headings. Each of the four also draws Latin letters, so a name or a number in your text matches the words around it. None of them is offered for a book in any other language.

3. Writing in other alphabets

The list holds the languages Tabularia can typeset as a finished book. You can still write in any alphabet. Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi, and Thai all display, edit, and save correctly, and your system's input method works for typing them.

• Right to left. Arabic and Hebrew paragraphs run from the right margin. The caret, clicks, selection, and arrow keys follow the text as you see it. Choose Hebrew or Arabic as your book's language and your published pages, EPUB, and Word files read right to left too.
• Word counts. Chinese and Japanese count each character as a word, the way publishers in those languages count. Thai, Lao, Khmer, and Burmese have no spaces between words, so a dictionary finds where each word ends. Korean counts by its spaces, like English. An emoji on its own adds nothing to the count, while one written against a word leaves that word counted once.
• Backspace. Where a letter is built from parts, as in Hindi, Thai, or Hebrew and Arabic with vowel marks, Backspace takes back the last part only. You can fix a wrong vowel or tone mark without retyping the letter.
• Typefaces. None of the bundled faces has Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, or Thai letters, so your device's own fonts draw them. Open an exported PDF and check it before you send it anywhere.

4. What to know before you start

• Spellcheck has a dictionary for each language below. A book in any other is left unmarked rather than checked against English.
  • English (US)
  • English (UK)
  • English (Australia)
  • English (Canada)
  • Arabic
  • Catalan
  • Czech
  • Danish
  • German
  • Greek
  • Spanish
  • Finnish
  • French
  • Hungarian
  • Indonesian
  • Italian
  • Norwegian
  • Dutch
  • Polish
  • Portuguese (Brazil)
  • Portuguese (Portugal)
  • Romanian
  • Russian
  • Swedish
  • Turkish
  • Ukrainian
  Hebrew is missing because its only open dictionary carries a license Tabularia can't ship, and no dictionary exists yet for Welsh, Irish, or Icelandic. The Language menu lists English once per regional spelling, and Portuguese twice. Each book is checked in its own alphabet, so a Russian book passes over words in Latin letters just as an English one passes over Cyrillic, Greek, or Arabic. A phrase in another language that shares your alphabet may still be underlined; choose Ignore in project to clear it. Arabic is read through its harakat and any tatweel.
• Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, and Thai are not on the language list yet. A book written in one of them still declares the list's language in its exports, which is English unless you change it.
• A PDF of a Hebrew book reads right to left. In a PDF of an Arabic book the letters are not yet joined, so publish an Arabic book or export it as EPUB or Word instead.
• Only English spells out Part numbers. Other languages print them as figures, such as Partie 1.
• A Contents or About the Author heading you never retyped switches to the new language when you change it. One you typed yourself stays as you wrote it.
• Your web address is suggested in Latin letters. A Cyrillic or Korean name is spelled out for you, and a Chinese one only on your account page; a Japanese name gets no suggestion, so type the address you want.
• While you compose a word with an input method, it looks the same as finished text. It is not underlined until you commit it.
• Thai lines finish unevenly at the right margin, because justification widens only spaces. Chinese with frequent punctuation can also leave a line short.

5. Continue reading

• Previous: Writing goals and statistics
• Next: Writing on a phone or tablet
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