Hiragana / Katakana not recognized

FontCreator - Font Editor FontCreator - Support
1

Hello -

I’ve been at this for days, and hoping more experienced eyes can easily diagnose.

Using FontCreator 11.0 Professional. Added Hiragana & Katakana Unicode blocks to a font. However, Word and Corel refuse to use those code-points from my font, falling back to a default font for those characters (in MS Word in Office 365 Version 1710 and Corel Draw X8).

I have added other Unicode blocks in this way … Cyrillic, Hebrew, Arabic, Georgian, Cherokee, Musical Symbols, Byzantine Musical Symbols, Ancient Greek Musical Notation, and quite a few others … and have never had this problem.

I am attaching a stripped-down version of the font - an .fcp file and corresponding exported .ttf file. These exhibit the failure when installed and used in a Word .docx file. The font name is KBook Test (Regular).

Any clue? I bet it’s one a single bit / checkbox / setting … for so many hours of head-scratching.

BTW, I started with FontCreator 3.1.1, purchased Feb 21, 2003 … and have produced hundreds of special-purpose fonts over the last 15 years with FontCreator. And they are actually used by a whole community of people … What a gift!!

– Clint Goss ([email protected])
KBookTest_Regular_v106.ttf (157 KB)
KBookTest.fcp (194 KB)

2

You might need to manually set specific code page character ranges. Then make sure you’ve disabled the “Automatically update character ranges when exporting font”.

3

I’ve tried to make it work, but also failed. It might be worth a shot to ask at typedrawers.com.

4

Thanks Erwin …
glad to know it wasn’t something silly,
but sad to know it still unsolved.

I have done a trial by setting the checkbox on “JIS/Japan (932)” and turning off Auto Update on export, but no joy. I’m guessing that is what you meant by “manually set specific code page character ranges” … is that correct? … or is there something else to do …

– Clint Goss

5
  1. I cleaned up the unused features and lookups in the OpenType Editor.
  2. I let FontCreator calculate the Ranges and Code Pages
  3. I exported the font (attached)

It works in Serif PagePlus, but in Libre Office the line-spacing was wrong. Is this supposed to be vertical text? I am not familiar with CJK fonts.
KBookTest.otf (157 KB)
KBookTest.fcp (183 KB)

6

Yes, that is what i meant.

7

Thanks for the support, All!

I think the real answer is that it’s not the fonts, it’s my (ill-)chosen App for trying to author a book - Microsoft Word. Yes, there were some issues in my font (thanks to Bhikkhu for taking the time to correct those!) But it is the breathtakingly arbitrary way that Word selects what font to use. I have cases of inserting the same Unicode character in separate paragraphs which use the same Word style, and getting different fonts. Inserting neighboring codepoints from the same font right next to each other in the same paragraph get different font selections.

A web search produces lots of renditions lamenting the “complex algorithm” by which fonts are chosen, or whether a font will “work” or not. The answer can only be that this is a bug in MS Word. A very complex bug, to be sure. If you want control - predictability, really - over your font selection, don’t use Word!

Again, thanks all. I’m now looking at - what - Adobe InDesign? It’s a 424 page book. Sixth edition. Oh what fun …

– Clint Goss

8

I would try LibreOffice Writer first.

9

With all bots lurking the web for email addresses, it might be wise to not reveal it here.