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Known Participant
August 3, 2018
Answered

Chinese font showing as squares or just in English

  • August 3, 2018
  • 1 reply
  • 5099 views

I use InDesign CC2018 on a UK MacBook Pro and want to use a Chinese font to convert English text in the document I am working on.

The font is called 'SourceHansCN-Regular'

When I highlight the text and chose this font, it stays in English or sometimes just squares.

Does anyone know what I can do, to use these fonts, or if there is a work around?

On earlier Macs I have had, when I use Chinese fonts it mucks up the keyboard etc

Thanks

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer davidblatner

    Unfortunately, you cannot just change the font and have it appear in Chinese. You would need to retype it, or paste it, or Place it, from a document with Chinese text. If you want to type in Chinese, you need to turn on the Chinese input method in the Keyboard System Preferences, as described here:

    https://creativepro.com/question-character-finding-what-you-need-your-fonts-part-2-0/

    1 reply

    davidblatner
    Community Expert
    davidblatnerCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    August 31, 2018

    Unfortunately, you cannot just change the font and have it appear in Chinese. You would need to retype it, or paste it, or Place it, from a document with Chinese text. If you want to type in Chinese, you need to turn on the Chinese input method in the Keyboard System Preferences, as described here:

    https://creativepro.com/question-character-finding-what-you-need-your-fonts-part-2-0/

    Participant
    May 23, 2020

    I have a Word document with people's English names AND Chinese names.  I want to copy the block of text and paste it into a block in InDesign (i'm drawing out a family tree).  The Chinese  characters are showing up as "blocks".  Is there something I need to switch on to see the Chinese characters properly?

    Legend
    May 23, 2020
    Place it, don't paste it.

    If you need separate stories, place it into a new InDesign file and copy paste from there.

    Also you may need to choose a Chinese font for the placed Chinese text. Best to set up a character style for this.