Selecting Tamil language text may fail at the edges

Bug reports
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1

Steps to reproduce

Select a substring of a Tamil string with a mouse. In the editor screen it looks like you have the characters selected properly, but the left or right edge of the selection may not be actually selected.
For example, if I want to select, by dragging the mouse, the third word from a text like:
இரண்டு அறை கொடுத்து அவனை இழுத்துக்கொண்டு வா
The entire word (கொடுத்து) is highlighted as selected, but when I paste it, the first and/or the last code point may be missing, giving me failed paste results like கொடுத்த, ொடுத்து, and ொடுத்த.
Double-clicking on a word, on the other hand, never fails. Missing the edge of a word properly selected happens when you try to select by moving your mouse while pressing the butoon.

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Expected result

I expect to be ALWAYS able to select the entire segment of a Tamil text that is highlighted. With the example above, I should ALWAYS get it pasted as:

கொடுத்து (expected selection)
['U+0B95', 'U+0BCA', 'U+0B9F', 'U+0BC1', 'U+0BA4', 'U+0BCD', 'U+0BA4', 'U+0BC1']

Actual result

Even when the entire word is highlighted, I very often get failed paste results:

கொடுத்த (last code point missing)
['U+0B95', 'U+0BCA', 'U+0B9F', 'U+0BC1', 'U+0BA4', 'U+0BCD', 'U+0BA4']
ொடுத்து (first code point missing)
['U+0BCA', 'U+0B9F', 'U+0BC1', 'U+0BA4', 'U+0BCD', 'U+0BA4', 'U+0BC1']
ொடுத்த (first and last code points missing)
['U+0BCA', 'U+0B9F', 'U+0BC1', 'U+0BA4', 'U+0BCD', 'U+0BA4']

Environment

SYSTEM INFO:
Obsidian version: 1.13.4
Installer version: 1.13.4
Operating system: Darwin Kernel Version 25.6.0: Sat Jul 11 15:27:02 PDT 2026; root:xnu-12377.161.13~4/RELEASE_ARM64_T8112 25.6.0
Login status: not logged in
Language: en
Insider build toggle: off
Live preview: on
Base theme: light
Community theme: none
Snippets enabled: 8
Restricted mode: off
Plugins installed: 10
Plugins enabled: 0

Additional information

This started happening in late July 2026, with the update to 1.13.3 or 1.13.4, I think. Around the same time, macOS was updated to 26.6 (and now to 26.6.1), but I don’t have any problems copying and pasting Tamil texts in other applications, like Sublime Text or Chrome.

2

I run into the same issue with Sanskrit.

Letter width isn’t consistent so sometimes it looks like you have the entire word selected but the leading or trailing character is not.

I don’t think it’s an issue with Obsidian. I have the same issue in other apps on macOS.

3

I tested this on Windows 11, Obsidian 1.13.4 and have similar results.

If you paste the word “கொடுத்து” in obsidian and try moving the cursor with keyboard over the last letter “து” you’ll notice that it requires 2 arrow keys to move (it’s recognized as 2 letters instead of one).

This behavior seems isolated to Obsidian, but could be an underlying text renderer or something.

4

OP here. I thank the people who have replied to my post, and I hope the development team will look into it.

As oldsagemonkey notes, many macOS apps struggle with Indic writing systems. But Obsidian was superb in this respect until about a month ago, at least with Tamil, and it is a shame that it has lost its advantage.

As dmantisk notes, using the keyboard arrow keys seems to be a much more sure proof way to accurately select Tamil texts.

I have tested the same markdown text using other editors. (It is great that you can use other editors without breaking your vault.) Not a rigorous or exhaustive test, but here’s what I found.

No comparable problem handling Tamil strings:

  • Sublime Text (as a plain text file)
  • Visual Studio Code (as a plain text file)
  • Drafts
  • Cogito

Same problem:

  • SoloMD

SoloMD is interesting because it says it does not use Electron for rendering and yet it behaves exactly like the current version of Obsidian.

5

Does it happen is source mode?

Open Chrome (or a chromium based browser, not safari) and go here. Does it happen there?

6

It does. - Chrome Version 151.0.7922.77 (Official Build) (arm64)

7

Please, open an issue upstream.

In the issue, explain them how to reproduce the issue in their demo.

Probably attaching a screen recording in form of .GIF could help clarify the problem.