Document shows text in "Khmer UI", but that font is not in available list

I received a Document (*.doc) and am able to open it in OpenOffice (3.4.1), where I see that the font shown in the font selection dropdown is "Khmer UI".

When I click the dropdown, the font name changes to something else immediately.

If I select some other text and want to change the font to "Khmer UI", there is no such item in the dropdown list. I have a workaround for this: type the new text in some area which is already in "Khmer UI", then cut-paste it where I want.

I am planning to install "Khmer UI" font, but meanwhile I wanted to know why this was happening : Why OpenOffice is displaying text in "Khmer UI" but does not list it in the dropdown ?

Prem

Posted 2018-06-27T16:05:58.993

Reputation: 221

Answers

It is possible to embed a font into a word document, and that is why it works.

But when you open the dropdown box, it only shows fonts that are installed, not the font that is embedded in the document. Call it a bug if you will.

I'm not entirely sure if Open Office supports embedded fonts, but Microsoft Word does.

LPChip

Posted 2018-06-27T16:05:58.993

Reputation: 42 190

Thanks ! How to verify that this font is embedded ? There is nothing in "Properties", and no other indication about missing fonts. – Prem – 2018-06-27T18:08:56.583

Easy. You see the font but its not installed on your system, so its embedded. – LPChip – 2018-06-27T19:53:50.597

hmmm, while this is a possibility, I think OO 3.4.1 does not support embedded fonts. I have added an alternate answer, which seems more likely in this case. [[ https://forum.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=87381 says "Apache OO will not be able to use the embedded fonts" ;; https://ask.libreoffice.org/en/question/648/is-it-possible-to-embed-fonts-in-a-writerimpresscalc-document/ says embedded fonts were not implemented in OO in 2012 ;; newer versions have a tab for embedded fonts in Properties, which is not available in OO 3.4.1 ]] – Prem – 2018-06-28T07:40:27.230

Okay, I was able to figure out what the Problem was.

What we see in the font selection dropdown is what font is required for the current text, which is "Khmer UI", but that font may or may not be installed. If the required font is not available, then Open Office will silently show it in the Default font.

If we click the dropdown, we can only change it to some installed font, hence "Khmer UI" is removed immediately and only available fonts are listed.

When we type into an area with the missing font, the new text gets the same missing font, which we can copy elsewhere; we will still see it in the Default font.

We can change the missing fonts using the replacement table : go to tools, then to options, to get here, where we can type in the fonts and see it update the view:

Prem

Posted 2018-06-27T16:05:58.993

Reputation: 221

Yeah, that's basically what I said. – LPChip – 2018-06-28T08:33:44.880

@LPChip , Oh ok, I guess I did not parse your answer properly ! I thought you were saying that the font is embedded and OO was showing the text in that font itself, but since OO does not support embedded fonts, we can not see it in the dropdown. I was replying that the font is not embedded, the text is only marked with that font, and since it is not available, OO was showing the text in Default font, which we can override by the replacement font. I guess I am splitting hairs ! I will accept your answer, but I will retain this answer in case it helps somebody else. – Prem – 2018-06-28T10:15:33.380