[Tex/LaTex] Can’t compile Hebrew LyX (2.3) files since the new Miktex 2.9

errorsfontshebrewlyx

I have recently installed LyX 2.3.1-1 on a fresh PC running Windows 10 Pro (64bit), following the instructions here:
https://wiki.lyx.org/Windows/Hebrew

I have installed the latest Miktex 2.9 (dated October 4th 2018, and I suspect this is relevant), and culmus 0.2.2 as per the instructions above.
The culmus installation does not report errors, and yet after following through with the instructions, when I try to compile the simplest .lyx file (a Hebrew article with the text "שלום עולם") I get the following error:

Font LHE/cmr/m/n/12=jerus10 at 12.0pt not loadable: Metric (TFM) file not found

This error has many threads about it, for instance this question, however none of the suggestions I've found seem to work. I suspect something in the inner workings of Miktex has changed and the culmus installation does not copy the files to the correct place; at least, if I try to trace back where the files should be located according to the files the culmus installation deletes before installing, I don't find anything at all. I tried copying a few key font files to where I think they should be located, but that didn't work, at which point I thought of asking whether someone has encountered this issue and succeeded in solving it.

Best Answer

I've installed all of the Hebrew packages I could find on the Miktex Console (the datetime2-hebrew package was missing), added \usepackage{culmus} to the document's preampble, and the file compiled. I'm not sure which of the two steps was the key, I think it was the latter.

(I came across this solution on a LyX Hebrew facebook group, it also appears here)

Edit: Following up on @KJO's suggestion, I copied the example from the linked page into a .tex file and tried to compile it. This actually didn't work as is, I need to add \usepackage{culmus}.

Anyways, the following code works:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{ucs}
\usepackage{culmus}
\usepackage[utf8x]{inputenc}
\usepackage[english,hebrew]{babel}
\begin{document} 
שלום \L{World}!
\end{document}

Here's a proof:

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Custom title font in LyX

It sounds like LyX is not running XeTeX at all. Here’s a simple way to check it: run the following document in Lyx

\documentclass{minimal}

\usepackage{ifxetex}

\begin{document}

\ifxetex{I'm running XeTeX}\else{I'm \textbf{not} running XeTeX}\fi

\end{document}

and see if the output file contains “I’m running XeTeX” or “I’m not running XeTeX”. In the latter case, you should go again through the instructions to set up LyX to use XeTeX and not pdfTeX (or whatever it’s using); I can’t really help you there, as I’ve never used LyX.

Also, if you’re going to use XeTeX and fontspec and use system fonts, you should absolutely not use the fontenc package. It’s not compatible with XeTeX. The line above it in your code (\renewcommand{\familydefault}{\rmdefault}) may also cause problems, and interacts anyway with what fontspec does, so you’re better off deleting it.

[Tex/LaTex] How to add Hebrew support to TeXLive on Windows (with pdfTeX+babel)

The following works, but is a poor hack. The reason is that what we "really" want to do is get TeX to use the Culmus fonts whenever possible (or maybe always), rather than the older Hebrew fonts.

It is based on the pertinent instructions in the babel package documentation, which @MarioSE's answer refers to, and is adapted to TeXLive 2012 (it had last been updated in 2005).

So, without further ado:

Install TeXLive (let's suppose you've put it in C:\texlive) with Hebrew language support.
Get the ivritex tarball (direct link: http://sourceforge.net/projects/ivritex/files/ivritex/ivritex-1.2.1/ivritex-1.2.1.tar.gz/download).

Note: Do not get the ivritex-dist tarball, or the "latest version", or any such thing. Those include Culmus support and my instructions don't cover them unfortunately.
From within the ivritex tarball, extract the contents of the fonts/hebfonts directory to C:\texlive\texmf-local\fonts\source\hebrew
Create the directory C:\texlive\texmf-local\fonts\map\fontname.
Create the file C:\texlive\texmf-local\fonts\map\fontname\special.map. Its contents should be as specified in section 10 of the instructions here. Ignore the preamble to section 10 and all other instructions, just copy the file contents to your special.map (and remove the extra indentation at the beginnings of lines).
Update the TeX distribution filename database, the font maps and the formats, using the TeXLive distribution manager (under the Actions menu), or from the command line if you know how (using mktexlsr and friends).

That's it. The MWE in the question should now compile and produce a nice PDF. The font used for the Hebrew glyphs will be Jerusalem. This does not necessarily mean you're done; as you can see in the ivritex tarball or the more up-to-date culmus tarball at the ivritex download site, there's more we have not installed and configured.

Best Answer

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[Tex/LaTex] Custom title font in LyX

[Tex/LaTex] How to add Hebrew support to TeXLive on Windows (with pdfTeX+babel)

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