Arial Unicode MS doesn't show up in Indesign Font list

[Supriya...@adobeforums.com]

I'm trying to copy and paste text from a Word document that has been typed in another language (Kannada) using Arial Unicode MS. When I copy and paste it into my Indesign file, all I see are boxes. Arial Unicode MS does not appear in my font list in Indesign, although I know it is installed on my machine and I use it in other programs like Word, Excel etc.

Can someone help?

Thanks

SD

[boblevine]

What happens if you actually place the Word file instead of C/P?

Bob

[Dov Isaacs]

Arial Unicode MS certainly shows up on my list of fonts in InDesign 4.0.4.

Since it isn't a regular font, you need to look in the secondary lists of fonts following the first alphabetical list!

- Dov

[Supriya...@adobeforums.com]

Thanks Dov, it does show up in the secondary list. But the other problem is that when I paste the text from Word into the Indesign File, I get boxes and then the program crashes. The only thing that seems to work is if I assign the Tunga font to the pasted text.

Bob, placing the Word file is not an option because the Word format is completely different (it's a two column translation with English in one and the foreign language in the other) whereas the ID file is a form full of tables and formatting.

Still working on the freeze up problem.

Thanks for your help.

Supriya

[boblevine]

Try it anyway. If it works you can copy/paste from one ID file to the other.

Bob

[Joel_C...@adobeforums.com]

Best of luck squeezing Kannada into InDesign! You'll need it. Frankly, you'll probably have much better luck with a Kannada-specific Unicode font. Since Kannada isn't one of those scripts that InDesign supports, there won't be a grouping for it in the font dropdown. On my machine, Arial Unicode shows up as a Korean font. It still has all the Kannada glyphs, sure, as well as the Lao glyphs, etc. (Another useful trick is to edit the font, if your license permits, and have it declare itself as not having Kannada support. That way, InDesign will be able to see the font.)

However, it sure looks like Kannada requires combining glyphs, which are not supported in InDesign. So, if you really really need to do this task in ID, you'll need to do a text conversion BEFORE placing in ID to replace all of the combining glyphs with precomposed glyphs. Or, if you can't do that, find a Unicode font that has all of those combiners as separate glyphs, then convert all the combined glyphs to separate glyphs, then place the doc, then (ugh) kern all of those combining glyphs into their proper position. I don't advvise this procedure if you can't read some Kannada, or unless you have some top-notch pattern recognition skills.

I hear that there are plugins out there that will greatly simplify the layout of Indic text in InDesign, but since I never handle Indic scripts, I can't recommend one, or even find a link in my bookmarks.

[Supriya...@adobeforums.com]

Bob, it worked, thanks. I placed the Word document and can see the Kannada font and can even copy and paste from one ID file to another.

But I'm back to the problem that originally triggered off this whole thing. Some of the Kannada characters (mainly the diacritics and combined alphabets) are all coming up as different characters as soon as we pull them into Indesign. Wonder if Indesign supports the entire code set of Arial Unicode MS.

You wouldn't have another ace up your sleeve would you?

Supriya.

[boblevine]

Sorry, I'm wearing a t-shirt. <g>

Perhaps Dov or someone much more experienced than I am with non-English
will be able to help.

Bob

[Supriya...@adobeforums.com]

Joel,

You sound like a genius and I wish I had half the skills that you're crediting me with (like being able to edit fonts etc.).
Kerning separate Kannada glyphs to make them look like combined ones (even if I could read Kannada) would be like trying to drink beer from a sippy cup. LOL, thanks but no thanks!

But looks like my client will have to settle for (re) doing the entire form in Word and then I could be pasting from Word file to another. Life would be a breeze then.

I really appreciate your indepth response though.

Supriya.

[Joel_C...@adobeforums.com]

Check the Glyphs palette. Are the missing diacritcs showing up there? You might have to use find/replace in order to get them into place. I can't help you with the combined glyphs; like I said before, I don't think that combining glyphs are supported in ID. I've written some quick Javascript in the past to fix dropped diacritics like this, in cases where I could replace glyphs with precomposed glyphs, or if the diacritics just remapped incorrectly. I've used faked-up "precomposed" glyphs converted to outlines in Illustrator and placed as inline images, when precomposed glyphs were unavailable. I must say that I encourage you to NOT use this last method; I think of it as an emergencies-only technique. You might want to use it if your Kannada-reading population won't get health care if you can't do it in some other manner before close of biz today. :)

[Joel_C...@adobeforums.com]

Beer from a sippy cup... thanks for the mental image, I'll be sure to bring it up next time I ask for InDesign ME. (Doing the manual medial glyph trick in Farsi... beer from a sippy cup... I like it.)

Editing fonts like this takes no genius, only the right application. I'm not an independent type foundry, but changing the declared language is a snap. It's not a useful suggestion if you don't have an appropriate application, though. Seriously, though, check the Glyphs palette; it could just be that the diacritics et. al. have been remapped, which happens all the time with unsupported scripts in InDesign.