Better font handling and adding font support for different languages

Better font handling and adding font support for different languages

A well-defined font is important to effectively communicate your message to your readers. Based on feedback, we’re making some useful updates to font handling in Writer. This includes more font support for CJK and RTL languages, allowing the use of popular system fonts, and automatic substitution of missing fonts.

Let’s take a closer look.

Use of popular system fonts

By popular demand, we're now allowing the use of most of the popular Microsoft Core fonts for the Web, such as Calibri and Cambria.




Additional font support for CJK languages

We've added fonts to support RTL languages in past updates, and we're now introducing more fonts that support CJK languages. In total, over a hundred web fonts have recently been added and we have more than four hundred supported web fonts, in total. Our well-organized library lets you preview or change fonts, as well as search for specific fonts, like ones that support a particular language.




Missing system fonts in macOS Sierra

Due to Apple's recent sandboxing rules, Office 2016 fonts in macOS will not be visible to the system's font management software or browsers. This may also happen when you share your document with external users who do not have the fonts you're using.

To make the Mac's Office 2016 fonts accessible to Writer and other apps:
  • Find the fonts in the Microsoft Word.app/Contents/Resources/Fonts directory, if you've installed Microsoft Word on your system.
  • Then copy the fonts to ~/Library/Fonts, or let the Font Book import them for you, to make them available to apps like Writer.

Improved font handling

To deal with Apple's sandboxing rules, and for better overall font management, Writer has included the best metric equivalent fonts as alternatives to missing fonts, to ensure compatibility across all devices and platforms. For example, Calibri will now be replaced with Carlito. While printing or sharing your documents, we'll replace these fonts with identical fonts that have equivalent horizontal and vertical spacing. Thus, for any popular Microsoft fonts that get replaced, we'll make sure that your text is displayed exactly how you want it to be. 



That's all for now!  We hope you find this update useful, and if you have any questions, contact us at support@zohowriter.com.

Happy Writing!