Last version of Noto Sans not working with Microsoft Word

[joseterreiro]

Lastest version of Noto Sans ("Version 2.000;GOOG;noto-source:2017915;90ef993387c0; ttautohint (v1.7)") doesn't work in Microsoft Word.

I mean, the fonts downloaded from Google Noto Fonts (google.com/get/noto/). The fonts from Google Fonts (fonts.google.com)--version 1.04--work just fine. The problem is that Google Fonts only have the four standard styles (regular, italic, bold and bold italic).

Is it a bug or the new Noto Sans version is not ready yet?

Thank you.

José T.

[Azerothian]

Noticed the same issue with 'Noto Sans Light'.
does not work with Windows - Word 2016, but working fine in word on MacOS X.

[joseterreiro]

Only the standard weights—regular, italic, bold, and bold italic—work. All other weights (thin, extralight, light, medium, etc.) don't work in Microsoft Word. Strangely enough, those extra weights do work in Microsoft PowerPoint!

[codeman38]

This is probably due to #316 ("unset ulCodePageRange causes issues in some Windows apps").

[marekjez86]

@anthrotype : you don't need to do anything here; I'll pay attention to https://github.com/googlei18n/noto-fonts/issues/902

[jkrkvld]

In case it helps, for me the Noto Sans 2.0 fonts install OK and appear in the font selection menu in Microsoft Word. I can select some text and make it “Noto Sans.” However, despite Word telling me it is using Noto Sans, the actual font being used is Arial. Of course, Arial and Noto Sans have distinctly different typeface designs. I asked my co-workers to try Noto Sans. They had the same results, except one displays the Calibri font instead of Arial.

I’ve tried everything I can think of, including deleting all Noto fonts, then restarting my machine to erase the cache, and re-installing the Noto fonts. I’ve deleted fonts again and tried using only one font Noto Sans Regular. I am at a loss of what to try next, that is how I ended up here at GitHub. Oddly enough, Noto Sans works well in Microsoft Notepad! Go figure. I like the design and language support of Noto Sans, I wish I can use it in Word! All failed attempts to use Noto Sans fonts were on Windows 10 machines using Microsoft Word 2010 and 2016.

[natcho-k]

Same issue here (Windows 10 Build 1803; Office 365 Version 1805).

[mnh48]

Same issue here (Using Microsoft Word 2010 under Windows 8.1).
In my case it's being substituted with some kind of serif font

(The (Body) there is not part of the font name, it's just Word's way to indicate the font is set for Body element, as opposed to Headings)

[sven-oly]

A contact in the Osage Nation reports that Noto Sans Osage will not work in MS Office products. Are we possibly looking at the same issue with Osage?

And is any fix available? Who might be actively working on this?

[marekjez86]

What does it mean will not work with MS Office products? Cannot select the font? The font doesn't display properly? Could you pass marekj@google.com and ask to show some images of what's not working? Thank you Marek Z Jeziorek [ 老马 ] | marekj@google.com | 312 725-6958

…

On Mon, Sep 24, 2018 at 2:02 PM Craig Cornelius ***@***.***> wrote: A contact in the Osage Nation reports that Noto Sans Osage will not work in MS Office products. Are we possibly looking at the same issue with Osage? And is any fix available? Who might be actively working on this? — You are receiving this because you were assigned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <https://github.com/googlei18n/noto-fonts/issues/1046#issuecomment-424123805>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AMtJf-JVI4RNIM2A5ywzIKP23nJT77Bkks5ueUhkgaJpZM4SHE7M> .

[plutext]

I built Noto Sans just now from noto-source:

./build src/NotoSans-MM.glyphs

Happy to confirm that Noto Sans now appears to work in Word 2016, in that when you use Word to convert to PDF the following:

<w:r>
                <w:rPr>
                    <w:rFonts w:ascii="Noto Sans" w:cs="Noto Sans" w:hAnsi="Noto Sans"/>
                </w:rPr>
                <w:t>Hello</w:t>
            </w:r>

Noto Sans is now used in the PDF (Acrobat Reader > File > Properties > Fonts). You can see it there (unlike before).

[sven-oly]

Can your update apply to other Noto Sans, e.g., Noto Sans Osage?
https://github.com/googlei18n/noto-fonts/issues/902

[marekjez86]

I forgot to mention (sorry about that) that all fonts in https://github.com/googlei18n/noto-fonts (in particular https://github.com/googlei18n/noto-fonts/blob/master/hinted/NotoSansOsage-Regular.ttf and others in that directory [please use hinted version for Windows])) should properly work on Windows. Marek Z Jeziorek [ 老马 ] | marekj@google.com | 312 725-6958

…

On Thu, Oct 25, 2018 at 5:38 PM Craig Cornelius ***@***.***> wrote: Can your update apply to other Noto Sans, e.g., Noto Sans Osage? notofonts/latin-greek-cyrillic#316 <https://github.com/googlei18n/noto-fonts/issues/902> — You are receiving this because you were assigned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <https://github.com/googlei18n/noto-fonts/issues/1046#issuecomment-433249760>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AMtJf69TaeNGJ4K2i-6TKIsXdnLtFCJMks5uolmjgaJpZM4SHE7M> .

[imatpot]

Any update/workaround on this?
I have the same issue in MS Word with Noto Serif from google.com/get/noto, though it works fine in other applications (including other MS Office Tools)

[imatpot]

For anyone stumbling across this later on... I noticed that the version on google.com/get/noto is outdated at the time of writing. Downloading the font off the GitHub repository itself fixed the issues.

[Hizbawi-Sisay]

It hasn't worked yet for me and the depository hasn't got all the fonts I need.

[Ahaisley]

Arrived here after hours of research to figure out why Noto Sans was not working in Word. The versions on Google are still outdated. I finally got the fonts working correctly in Word by downloading from https://github.com/googlei18n/noto-fonts as marekjez86 describes above (using the Hinted version for Windows). Thank you so much @marekjez86!!

[StephenMorey]

I am needing some help to get the Noto fonts to work correctly in Word. I tried downloading the 'hinted' font for Noto Serif Ahom from https://github.com/googlei18n/noto-fonts (replacing an earlier font that I had downloaded and installed in 2019), as per the previous comment, but this font does not implement in Word, in that it does not automatically shift one of the vowels that has to be typed after its consonant but must appear before it. This does work correctly in Libre Office, and also on Facebook, and also here if I try to type the Ahom script here.

Also in the version of Word that I have, the 'variant selectors' that are required to get the appropriate letters for the Tai Phake script (using Noto Serif Myanmar) do not work (in Word), but do work in Facebook (on Chrome) and in Libre Office.

Also, Noto Serif Myanmar does not display the Variant selector forms, and neither Noto Sans Wancho nor Noto Serif Ahom display anything but Tofu Boxes in Powerpoint. If there is anyone able to help, it would be good because I'm in contact with members of the communities who use these scripts and want to be able to use them on their computers.

[moyogo]

@StephenMorey: Could you open new issues for Ahom, Myanmar, Wancho with example text of what you are using, with screenshots if that is possible? Thanks!

[StephenMorey]

Hello Denis Moyogo Jacquerye. Thanks for this suggestion. I'm not sure whether I should open new issues in light of an email that I received from Stephen Chua at Microsoft who said
"I believe the font is OK here, rather it’s the apps needing to recognize and categorize these scripts/languages better.
Unfortunately we didn’t have much progress on this bug as we had other priorities come up in the team.

"I’m looking to work with Andrew and team to help propose that we prioritize these gaps in our Office applications as a whole so we can allow better rendering across scripts. This will be considered among the other improvement areas that we have in the team and organization, but I’ll make sure this topic is one that gets discussed."

Do you still think it's a good idea for me to set up three new issues?

[moyogo]

Do you still think it's a good idea for me to set up three new issues?

It seems the Word and Powerpoint issues should be tracked by Microsoft. But let us know if there's something we can do to help.

Also, Noto Serif Myanmar does not display the Variant selector forms

The Noto Serif Myanmar issue with Variant selector forms is definitely something we need to fix in Noto Serif Myanmar, the pipeline tools do not handle Variant selectors properly.

[StephenMorey]

Denis, in the case of the variant forms, you say "The Noto Serif Myanmar issue with Variant selector forms is definitely something we need to fix in Noto Serif Myanmar,". The variant selector forms do work correctly in Libre Office as the appended 'Testing the Variant Forms of the Noto Serif Myanmar font in Libre Office.pdf' shows. They do not work correctly in Word as the appended 'Testing the Variant Forms of the Noto Serif Myanmar font in Word.pdf' shows. On my laptop, when I select Noto Serif Myanmar as the default font for Chrome, and use Facebook in Chrome, these do work correctly in Facebook. The variants also do not work in Powerpoint.

In light of this, is this an issue that needs to be fixed in Noto Serif Myanmar or an issue that needs to be fixed in Word and Powerpoint? (which is what Stephen Chua has suggested to me)

Testing the Variant Forms of the Noto Serif Myanmar font in Libre Office.pdf
Testing the Variant Forms of the Noto Serif Myanmar font in Word.pdf

[moyogo]

In light of this, is this an issue that needs to be fixed in Noto Serif Myanmar or an issue that needs to be fixed in Word and Powerpoint? (which is what Stephen Chua has suggested to me)

This is an issue with Noto Serif Myanmar but could also be an issue with Uniscribe (used by Word and Powerpoint) depending on how you look at it.

Uniscribe expects the variation sequence substitution to be defined in the cmap table, but we currently define then in the OpenType Layout GSUB table.
It could be argued Uniscribe should do like Harfbuzz and Coretext and handle variation selector glyphs in the GPOS table.

We've just updated the pipeline tools to allow building fonts with variation sequences in the cmap table, so we can update Noto fonts to use that. That will fix the issue in Word and Powerpoint.

[moyogo]

@StephenMorey Please follow up on the variation forms in #19.

I'll leave this open as Noto Sans Math still has a code page range issue.

[VasjaUrhMetrel]

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/noto-sans-not-working-on-microsoft-word-microsoft/6ff2c6d5-fd48-4938-a1ca-998f74149e52

[santinmike]

I have a macbook. I just downloaded Noto Sans Math and it is still not working in Word for writing equations. However, it can be used to edit text that is not an equation.

[twardoch]

To work in the Word equation editor, a font needs the OpenType MATH table that provides info about how to form equations.

Noto Sans Math does not have this table, so it can only be used to insert individual math symbols, but not to typeset equations.

[santinmike]

I see. It would be nice if the font had an OpenType MATH table to use it for creating equations. Hopefully this will be add to the font in the future. Thanks for the clarification.

[simoncozens]

This is on my list of things to do for the year, but I can't give an expected date yet; there's a lot of process issues I need to work on first.

[ronstew]

This is on my list of things to do for the year, but I can't give an expected date yet; there's a lot of process issues I need to work on first.

Simon,

I get that this is a free product and users have to take what they are given. But I am trying to find a sans serif typeface that works with Microsoft's equation editor, and am disappointed to learn that Noto Sans Math is not one only after installing it. It might save other users time and effort to state in the product description page that equation editor compatibility is a coming feature. Please.

[simoncozens]

But I am trying to find a sans serif typeface that works with Microsoft's equation editor, and am disappointed to learn that Noto Sans Math is not one only after installing it.

Yes, sorry; we will get there! The adding of the MATH table is now being carried out by another team; they have a font ready and it's being reviewed, but there are also questions about how to add the MATH table using our toolchain. Anyway, that is an issue for notofonts/math.

This issue here (about using Noto fonts with Word) seems to have been resolved with recent builds of different Noto fonts. If not, please open issues in the relevant font repository)