Scribus Forums

Scribus => Text and Typography => Topic started by: BkA on September 29, 2017, 05:25:27 AM

Title: How to Put Arrows Above and Below Letters
Post by: BkA on September 29, 2017, 05:25:27 AM
Hi there,

I'm working on a collection of chants for a Buddhist religious service. When chanting, certain words or phrases would be in higher or lower tones.

Was hoping to check and see if there might be a way to add arrows above and below letters to show a change in tone? In case it make the question a bit more clear, a photo is attached from a chanting book which uses arrows in this way. 

Much appreciation for any ideas anyone might have.

[attachment deleted by admin]
Title: Re: How to Put Arrows Above and Below Letters
Post by: GarryP on September 29, 2017, 10:58:13 AM
Welcome to the forum BkA.

Thanks for providing an example. It makes questions so much easier to answer.

Some ideas that quickly came to mind were:
* Find a font that already had the characters you need (might be tricky);
* Layer two text frames over each other (difficult to get the correct alignments);
* Draw the arrows manually (a real pain).

I can't think of any good Scribus-only solution that would do it, however you can probably get what you need by using LaTeX - or some derivation - in a Scribus render frame.

I'm not a LaTeX expert in any way so I can't really give much extra information on this but have a look at this StackExchange posting: https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/159291/multiple-diacritics-on-one-character (The "stackengine" approach looks like a pretty good solution.)

It means you have something extra to learn but it might be quicker in the long run than a pure Scribus-only approach.

You would also need to be using a font that had both up and down arrows but maybe a caron or a breve would do just as well (both of which are in Arial, characters U+032C and after).

Having said all of that, maybe there's a much easier solution I just haven't thought of. Someone else might know better but this could be good enough for what you need.
Title: Re: How to Put Arrows Above and Below Letters
Post by: BkA on September 29, 2017, 02:11:58 PM
Hi Gary,

Kind of you to post this answer so quickly.  Very nice to know about the breve and caron in Arial.  As it turns out, they did actually use a special font -- Gentium incantation -- for the arrows.  Much appreciation again for the tips.

~AB
Title: Re: How to Put Arrows Above and Below Letters
Post by: GarryP on September 29, 2017, 03:42:49 PM
You're welcome.

Thanks for sharing the name of the font. People interested in this can get the font here: https://github.com/profound-labs/gentium-incantation-font

I've just done some very quick tests - see attached - and it can be used in Scribus as far as I can see, so no need for LaTeX or render frames by the look of it. Nice.

[attachment deleted by admin]