About the Mike Hebrew Family

Mike Hebrew Regular and Bold The goal has been to convey some of the ancient calligraphic qualities of the language but at the same time acheive a modern appearance. The calligraphic features include diagonal strokes rather than the strict "square" design of most hebrew fonts. Mike Hebrew also has a softness of overall appearance acheived by rounding the ends of the strokes.

The full set of niqud and cantillation marks allow this font to be used for religious text.

Mike Hebrew Italic and Bold Italic This was the first font I designed being similar to my calligraphic hand and is intended to appear as a more ancient style. I had considered naming the font "Atiq". These fonts slope towards the left as does the writing in the Dead Sea Scrolls. You can use Mike Hebrew Italic or Mike Hebrew Bold Italic for inscriptions (even in stone!), for framed quotations and for poetry.

I have named it Italic for the convenience of using the "Italic" button on word processors. Also if I did not supply an italic font, pressing the Italic button wpould cause the software to generate a faux font sloping to the right. This would be rather ugly. Another reason for me to supply Mike Hebrew Italic and Bold Italic.

Mixing Hebrew and Latin The font Mike Hebrew also includes Latin characters (ABC etc) which have been designed in size and shape to go with the Hebrew. They do this by being unobtrusive and by being a little smaller and lighter than the Hebrew. The ABC can dominate visually because the letters contain more verticals but in Mike Hebrew, they have been made slightly irregular in shape so they will not stand out so much in a page of Hebrew.

Mike Hebrew Web The primary goal of the design was to provide the unique characteristics of the Mike Hebrew family and at the same time to ensure readibility.
There is no italic version of Mike Hebrew Web. The slope would make the text less legible especially in small sizes.

Mike Hebrew Web works well for reading on-line Israeli newspapers or email. You can set the options in your browser and email to do this. Be aware that the person who receives email from you will not see Mike Hebrew unless they have it on their machine and make it the font they use in reading Hebrew email.

Characters included

  • Hebrew characters. No upper/lower case, just one of each letter.
  • Latin characters. Upper and lower case for each letter.
  • Hebrew Punctuation including maqaf, sof pasuq, geresh and gershayim.
  • Western Punctuation
  • Numbers, fractions, superscript 1,2 and 3.
  • Niqud that is marks indicating vowels.
  • Cantilation marks which indicate how to chant religious texts.
  • Yiddish character combinations e.g. vav-vav and aleph kamatz
  • Odd Hebrew characters such as aleph-lamed, long characters
  • Characters with nikud built-in. These include combinations that are difficult
    for wordprocessors to do correctly e.g. kaf sofit with kamatz.

    • I designed this font using Font Creator Program Version 6 from High Logic.