... see message 56606 http://www.mail-archive.com/ntg-context%40ntg.nl/msg56606.html in the list archive. This is not the post-simplefonts solution, but the pre-simplefonts solution. It does allow much better control over all of the fonts that make up the typeface (using ConTeXt terminology).
If you set only some Hebrew/Aramaic/Arabic, and especially if you do not need font variants (bold, italic, ...) you might prefer to define a single font.
Thank you very much again. This was helpful, and here is my minimal working example: \definefontfeature[hebrew][default][script=hebr,ccmp=yes] \definefont [myhebrew] [SILEOTSR.ttf*hebrew] \setupdirections[bidi=on,method=two] \starttext Here is the first line of the Bible. {\myhebrew בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ׃ } \stoptext I still have some questions. It took me a long time to understand that \definefont [myhebrew] [SILEOTSR.ttf*hebrew] would use the fontfeature "hebrew" that I had defined together with the font file SILEOTSR.ttf and assign this pairing to the nickname "myhebrew". Rik's example also has "sa 1" which I do not understand. \definefontfeature [aramaic] [default][ccmp=yes,script=hebr] \definefont [aramaic] [KeterYG-Medium.ttf*aramaic sa 1] Is the syntax for definefont using "*" documented somewhere? Is it similar to definefontsynonym at http://wiki.contextgarden.net/Fonts_in_LuaTeX (and below)? I also do not understand the full syntax from the referenced message. Here is my best effort to annotate it, but I would appreciate corrections or additions %% The following defines the fontfeature "hebrew" %% which can then be applied to a font. %% definefontfeature is documented at %% http://wiki.contextgarden.net/Command/definefontfeature %% and the available features are specific to the font %% e.g. http://www.microsoft.com/typography/otspec/featurelist.htm \definefontfeature[hebrew][default][script=hebr,ccmp=yes,mark=yes] %% I am confused below. When was font:fallback:serif defined? %% Why file: but features= ? %% How will the fontsynonym "Serif" function? \starttypescript [serif] [ezrasil] \setups[font:fallback:serif] \definefontsynonym [Serif] [file:sileot] [features=hebrew] \stoptypescript %% Still confused \starttypescript [ezrasil] \definetypeface [ezrasil] [rm] [serif] [ezrasil] [default] \quittypescriptscanning \stoptypescript %% Sets the main body to the font %% that has been named and given features \setupbodyfont[ezrasil] %% Would an alternative at this point be to use %% \definefont [myezrasil] [ezrasil] %% to define a single font and then use {\myezrasil בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית} for short passages \setupalign[r2l] \starttext בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ׃ \stoptext Thank you again for your guidance. Best, Michael