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Aratype
Aratype
Known Participant
October 17, 2022
Answered

How to define a default font per language?

  • October 17, 2022
  • 2 replies
  • 950 views

I need to define a default font when I write in Arabicscript and other default font when I write in any Western Europe language script in the same sentence.

Is it easy to do that in InD like in Word?

Thanking you in advance.

AraType

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Barb Binder

Hi @Aratype:

 

You can set up a base paragraph style for each (and eventually child styles of each) in the Paragraph styles panel. Once you create both of the styles, you simply choose the correct style before you start typing (or after) to set the font and the language for spellcheck and hyphenation. When the languages changes mid-paragraph, you can do the same thing with character styles. 

 

~Barb

2 replies

Joel Cherney
Joel Cherney
Braniac
October 18, 2022

I wouldn't say that it's as easy as is it in Word, but it's fairly easy. Word doesn't force you to use styles, but the easiest way to do this in ID requires fairly diligent use of paragraph styles. 

 

My default paragraph style for mostly Arabic text with occasional English words in it would have a font specified with Arabic support (e.g. Adobe Arabic, which I actually don't like or use but we both have access to it, right? 🙂 😞

 

 

But then I could make a character style for only Latin script letters (that probably has a Latin-script font and English langauge (applied), and apply it with a GREP style:

 

 

So, you can specify exactly which characters you want it to apply to with the regular expression in the "To Text:" field. The expression there only affects A through Z, but you might want one that also handles numerals, or quotation marks, or whatever.

 

There are plenty of ways to specify exactly which characters get your character style applied, including specifying ranges of Unicode values. If you don't know regular expressions, you can just come back to this thread with a request and I, or one of the many other forums regulars who use regex, can figure out how to write a query for you that captures all of your Latin-script without being too greedy.

 

You could do it in the other direction as well - a default English paragraph style that applied Arabic font, right-to-left behavior, and Arabic language to all text that was set in Arabic glyphs. If that is what you want, let me know and I'll post some more examples.

 

 

    Aratype
    AratypeAuthor
    Known Participant
    October 19, 2022

    Many thanks, I believe this is the solution. However, when I applied it I got erors in the text:

    In my GREP instructions, I put:

    Eric Dumas
    Eric Dumas
    Braniac
    October 19, 2022

    Can you confirm that the font you specified in your styles contains characters that can be used in the language you want to display?

    @Barb Binder  suggested a great option, that once it is set up, you can place in your Library for re-use later. 

    I am not sure if mixing text using the left-to-right and right-to-left directions in the same document will produce the desired result.

    B
    Barb BinderCorrect answer
    Braniac
    October 17, 2022

    Hi @Aratype:

     

    You can set up a base paragraph style for each (and eventually child styles of each) in the Paragraph styles panel. Once you create both of the styles, you simply choose the correct style before you start typing (or after) to set the font and the language for spellcheck and hyphenation. When the languages changes mid-paragraph, you can do the same thing with character styles. 

     

    ~Barb

      Aratype
      AratypeAuthor
      Known Participant
      October 19, 2022

      Thank you very much. I would like to analize your solution too in the light of GREP.

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