How To Install Khmer Font On Windows 10
Janoc Florez
When Windows is upgraded from older versions of Windows to currently supported versions of Windows, previously available fonts might no longer be available post-upgrade. Many of the fonts that were previously shipped with Windows were moved to the optional features of Windows to:
optional fonts aren't enabled by default. As a result, these fonts are missing from the system. If documents were created using the missing fonts, these documents might display differently in the updated version of Windows.
If these fonts are needed, you can add them back to your system via optional features. The removal of these fonts is a permanent change in behavior for Windows, and it will remain this way in future releases.
To add the fonts associated with a language and then switch to that language, first open the Language & region pane in the Settings app by selecting the following link:
The desired language should now be available in the drop-down menu next to Windows display language. Drop down the Windows display language menu and select the desired language.
Below Windows display language the message Windows needs to sign you out in order to apply your new display language. is displayed. Select the Sign out button to finish applying the language including the additional language fonts.
The desired language should now be available in the drop-down menu below Windows display language. Drop down the Windows display language menu and select the desired language.
If fonts associated with a language are needed but aren't needed across the entire system, then that language should be added to the user profile as a supplemental font. Adding a font as a supplemental font doesn't require the user switch to that language. Adding a font as a supplemental font can be done via the Settings app.
The navigation steps, UI elements, and UI text in this section are based on the latest version of Windows 11 with the latest cumulative update installed. For other versions of Windows 11 that are currently supported or don't have the latest cumulative update, some of the navigation steps, UI elements, and UI text might be different. For example, the Optional features pane might be located under Settings > Apps.
The navigation steps, UI elements, and UI text in this section are based on Windows 10 22H2 with the latest cumulative update installed. For other versions of Windows 10 that are currently supported or don't have the latest cumulative update, some of the navigation steps, UI elements, and UI text might be different. For example, the Optional features pane might be located under Settings > Apps > Apps & features.
Google web fonts recently added Khmer, which seems like the best bet. However, I have not been successful getting Khmer fonts to work on any Mac or Linux system. I can get them to work on Windows by installing the Khmer Unicode installer from but not by just including Google's font in an HTML file.
For example, see this screenshot of the Google web fonts page on a fresh Windows installation. You can see that the default Windows Khmer font (uuuuugly!) is being used instead of Danh's pretty fonts.
I have another test file here: _test.html. For the first test, you should see something like this for both the web font and the default system font (assuming you have Hanuman installed). I have yet to find a system where both examples work reliably.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. My primary goal is to get this working on a website; a secondary goal is to get Khmer (and other Indic fonts) working in a PDF generator like iText (although I am aware iText itself does not support Indic fonts -- I'm hoping something similar does).
Every Cambodian Windows users are always delete the font name called: KhmerMool and Khmer Kampot. Then they change the default Khmer font in regedit too. You can check at -default-khmer-font-in-windows.html . I'm not sure about Khmer font and other Indic font in PDF. I always have problem when i copy Khmer unicode from PDF to put in OpenOffice or Office Word or LibreOffice.
How do I get Microsoft fonts (specifically Khmer UI, Khmer Sangam MN) to load and be useable in InDesign and Illustrator? I see and use them in Microsoft but they are not working well in InDesign. Some characters are missing. I am on a Mac not a PC, btw. Thank you!
Some characters are missing? I don't think that this sounds like a case where the font is not showing up in InDesign, right? I suspect that you're working in Cambodian and haven't turned on the World-Ready Composer. If the font shows up in the list, it's installed. If it's not rendering your Khmer text as you'd expect, it's probably because you're not using the correct Composer:
This can be set in a bunch of places (in Paragraph Styles, in Type -> Apply World-Ready Composer, the Justification dialog I've shown here, etc.). That's where I'd start. If this isn't the issue, can you please provide some more detail?
Also, please note that Khmer Sangam MN is not a Microsoft font, but part of OS X's infrastructure for displaying Khmer. I think it's an AAT font (Advanced Apple Typography) and I have no idea how well it works in InDesign, or if you'll be able to get it to work at all.
While it's true that missing fonts have nothing to do with the composer being used, this question isn't about missing fonts, but missing characters. If you don't know how Khmer type is composed, it's really easy to see an uncomposed vowel sign with its little empty dotted-line circle and think that there is a missing character, when no character is missing:
No, I only included that screenshot to show what that particular composition failure looked like. See, when you see that dotted-line circle, you're not actually seeing a missing character. You're seeing a glyph that, when properly typed and properly composed, will combine with the glyphs next to it to render correctly. Kinda like this:
So, that's not a "missing character" at all. A missing character would be what it looks like when you have set text in a font that doesn't posess a particular glyph. Turns out that Trajan Color doesn't have any accented glyphs at all, nor does it have a solidus! You can see that I have the missing-glyph pink highlighting turned on:
So, I'd say that the thing to do when you encounter a missing glyph is to think about the font you're using. If it doesn't have all the necessary characters, shouldn't you change it? Some people are okay with substituting only the missing glyphs. That can go okay sometimes; e.g. using weird glyphs from Times New Roman when working in Minon in less-frequently-encounterd languages that Minion doesn't cover. But I don't trust it. I especially don't trust the silent auto-substitution of glyphs that happens when you turn on Missing Glyph Protection in Preferences -> Advanced Type:
So, I totally get the glyph protection auto substitute issue. That makes sense! What I would struggle with is which glyph to use? So far, for Khmer, the available glyphs are accents (diacritical marks) over the previous character. It will combine the accent and character and it looks good. Is it enough to click on the glyph for each missing character? Sometimes I work with a few paragraphs which can get messy.
I must not be understanding your question, then. You don't do any manual insertions with the Glyph menu. Unless you are the Khmer editor and you say "Oh yeah, translator used the wrong tone mark here, how do I fix it in InDesign?" I don't think that is what you are asking; please do correct me if I'm wrong.
Assuming the text is correct from your Khmer translation provider, then the thing you have to do to make sure that it renders correctly is to use the correct formatting and the correct composer, and to know InDesign's limitations. At no point should you personally need to use the Glyphs menu to fix composition. Here's exactly what I would do if I were in your position:
3) I'd finish formatting my document, then I'd make a quick PDF and I'd probably send it back to my Khmer translator, because I know that InDesign can't be trusted to get the line breaks correct in Khmer.
As an aside for other future readers of this thread, having problems with Khmer layout in InDesign... I do have some clients with Khmer translators who know how to use zero-width spaces correctly, and so I don't have to necessarily run those through post-DTP linguistic QA for line-break purposes. But other translators are less willing to work in this way (I mean, how many times in one's life can one be told "Forces external to your culture are changing the way you type your language! Get ready to re-learn how to touch-type with a new keyboard layout! Again!"), and I just assume that translator review is Always Advisable.
Just to add to Joel's comments, are the fonts showing up in InDesign's font menu? If so, it's likely the composer. Also, I recommend taking a look at Google's Noto fonts. They are free and have an enormous range of language/glyph coverage. We use them often.
Hi Willi, I am on a mac with a simple mouse that doesn't right-click. I tried option+click, command+click and control+click but nothing allowed me to access the fonts package. Do you have a suggestion? Thank you!!
Hi Willi,
Well, I am not having luck with this. I am control+clicking on the file icon and on the application icon to find a menu that doesn't relate to font usage or a package. See screenshot 1 and 2. I don't have right-click capabilities on my apple mouse.
To reiterate my issue- I don't think I explained it very well (!): I receive Word files from a translation company. In this case, Khmer. The font used in the Word file is Calibri. When I copy and paste the Khmer copy into InDesign, the font becomes not available (pink boxes). I then look through all of the fonts (including the vast Noto varieties) and the few that work are Khmer (makes sense) but some characters are missing. This process is shown in screenshot 3. If I could use the fonts that seem to be working in Word, I think it would solve this. I don't really understand why Calibri would show Khmer only in Word but not InDesign. When I type something in Calibri Word, copy and paste that into InDesign, it works well because it is in english. Any advice is much appreciated!