This Libre version of the David Hebrew is based on David Hadash Formal, released by Monotype Corporation in 2012. David Hadash Formal is a modern digitization made from original large scale technical drawings for the typeface drawn by Ismar David and approved by his estate.
- Full Hebrew set with diacritic marks (nikud)
- Three weights: Regular, Medium & Bold
- Extended Latin set, based on the Gentium typeface with additional symbols
- Alternative Hebrew-height numerals (available as Stylistic Set 1)
- Alternative "Hebrew ampersand" symbol designed by Ismar David (available in Stylistic Set 2)
- Alternative Sheqel symbol designed by Ismar David (available in Stylistic Set 3)
Every effort was made to keep the original designs intact. However, several changes have been made to fit with David Libre's goal to be used as a free alternative to the "David" font installed on Microsoft Windows computers:
- In order to be compatible with documents previously set in Microsoft's David, David Hadash's glyph size has been reduced by 12.5%. This was made to prevent cases in which documents previously typed in Microsoft's David to take up more pages and cause odd line breaks. Please note that this does not guarantee full compatibility with Microsoft's David, only a close approximation. The type's original spacing has been largely preserved.
- Latin characters from the Gentium typeface are being used as the Latin character set in David Hadash, to accommodate cases in which Latin and Hebrew characters will be used in tandem.
- Diacritic marks have been repositioned.
- Biblical cantillation marks are not supported.
- The Sheqel symbol has been redesigned to be recognizable by contemporary Hebrew readers. The original Sheqel symbol is too far from today's standard.
The construction of David Libre was made by Meir Sadan, commissioned by Google for the Google Fonts project.