Why no Latin language built into InDesign?

Forum|Forum|11 months ago
February 25, 2025
4 replies
466 views

Hey gang,

There are 50+ languages built into InDesign.

Why is there no Latin?

How to

Correct answer Brad @ Roaring Mouse

I'm speaking for a friend 🙂
He's working on a catalogue of 100+ pages of plants, and consequently the various diseases and pests that affect those plants. So, lo and behold, what do all of these have in common... well yes, they ALL have latin names :)))
And the client wants them all to look different from the regular text, so, yeah, that Latin language would be quite handy right now.

So, if there is someone outhere who wants to lend a helping hand, an advice, a something, please, don't be shy.
Thanks all :))

I gave you the answers already. so, I'll do the work for you. Here's a page to some Hunspell dictionaries for Latin. I already gave you the link to how to install them above.

https://latin-dict.github.io/docs/hunspell.html

Mike Witherell

Author

Community Expert

I ended up building a dictionary for spell-check support for Latin, and ancient Greek, and also Bible words.

https://trainingonsite.com/useful-resources/adobe-indesign/indesign-2025-resources.html

Mike Witherell

Author

Community Expert

Latin words and phrases pop up in all kinds of texts.

Brad, that is a wonderful idea. I helped someone a year ago build a Basque language.

Maybe I will try again with a custom-made Latin language.

Would that be named "la_IT" ?

Mike Witherell

James Gifford—NitroPress

Legend

...Laaaaaa.

Sorry. Hadda.

My understanding is that Latin presents certain challenges across the spectrum for spell-checking and translation. As for demand.... honestly, what's the intersection of designers/projects/need of ID and Adobe support for, say, Uighur? Latin has to be greater than that. But there it is...

O

ogutuie

Inspiring

I'm speaking for a friend 🙂
He's working on a catalogue of 100+ pages of plants, and consequently the various diseases and pests that affect those plants. So, lo and behold, what do all of these have in common... well yes, they ALL have latin names :)))
And the client wants them all to look different from the regular text, so, yeah, that Latin language would be quite handy right now.

So, if there is someone outhere who wants to lend a helping hand, an advice, a something, please, don't be shy.
Thanks all :))

Brad @ Roaring Mouse

Community Expert

Based on demand, I assume.

That being said, the dictionaries included in InDesign are opensource dictionaries from Hunspell, so you might find a Latin or Greek dictionary there you can install. Adobe has a page of instructions on installing Hunspell files: https://helpx.adobe.com/ca/indesign/kb/add_cs_dictionaries.html