The International STa"M Forum

This gave me a "Safrut smile"... OK, I realise that this is not Ktav STaM, however it is interesting what happens when graphic/font Hebrew becomes too stylised. Case-in-point, a colleague and I were visiting the mayor's office in the Gaza Belt region of Shaar HaNegev (adjoining Sderot). He is new to reading Hebrew and pronounced the welcome sign as "brooning" or "broobing" (instead of the intended "brookhim". I replied that he was more correct than the graphic designer, as the letter meant to be a "khaf" was closer to a halakhic "Nun" or "Bet", and had this been Ktav STaM, the letter would likely be considered pasul as a "Khaf".

How is it that a sofer with such a nice ksav either doesn't know or care enough to make the right tag of the Lamed taller/longer than the left? Even though it's an easy fix, it detracts from the value and puts the sofer into question.

In addition, there's spacing in between words which appear to be 3 kulmusin wide, which is a bigger issue and not correctable without erasing/rewriting and in some cases stretching/thickening letters. It's not uncommon for even very good sofrim not to realize they are doing this so I have less of a ta'anah on the sofer. The sofer either needed to make a slightly wider kulmus or make his columns a bit more narrow.