ADDITIONAL SYSTEM INFORMATION :
Java 9 or 10 (did not test Java 11 ea)

A DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM :
If kerning is enabled for a java.awt.Font instance, soft hyphens are not painted and the width of them is measured as 0 in Java 9+.

REGRESSION : Last worked in version 8u181

STEPS TO FOLLOW TO REPRODUCE THE PROBLEM :
Create an AWT font with enabled kerning. Get width of a soft hyphen or try to paint it.

EXPECTED VERSUS ACTUAL BEHAVIOR :
EXPECTED -
Soft hyphens should be painted and width should be greater than 0.
ACTUAL -
Soft hyphens are not painted and measured width is 0.

---------- BEGIN SOURCE ----------
import java.awt.Font;
import java.awt.font.FontRenderContext;
import java.awt.font.TextAttribute;
import java.util.Collections;

public class Worker {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        String SOFT_HYPHEN = Character.toString((char)173);
        FontRenderContext frc = new FontRenderContext(null, false, true);
        
        Font font = new Font("Arial",0,16); // on non-windows system use propriate system font name
        Font kerningFont = font.deriveFont(Collections.singletonMap(TextAttribute.KERNING, TextAttribute.KERNING_ON));
        
        System.out.println(font.getStringBounds(SOFT_HYPHEN, frc).getWidth());
        System.out.println(kerningFont.getStringBounds(SOFT_HYPHEN, frc).getWidth()); //Should be same as above but is 0 in Java 9+
    }
}

---------- END SOURCE ----------

CUSTOMER SUBMITTED WORKAROUND :
Measure and paint soft hyphens with alternative instance of java.awt.Font.

FREQUENCY : always