Trouble with Bitmap Font Display on Windows 10

[RoteroD1]

Hey everyone! I purchased a font that uses bitmap images instead of vectors. I'm having trouble getting it work on my Windows 10 machine. It works fine on my Mac. Basically the characters show up blank (see attached). Any ideas what causes this? I reached out to the seller and they don't know why this is happening. I've tried on different PCs, same results. 

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[Abhishek Rao · Accepted solution]

Hi @RoteroD1,

Bitmap fonts can be tricky on different operating systems, and it’s not uncommon to encounter display issues. Would you mind sharing the below details: 

1. Could you let us know the version of InDesign you’re using? Sometimes, specific versions of InDesign handle bitmap fonts differently.
2. Which build of Windows 10 are you running? Some fonts require specific rendering support that may vary between builds.

In the meantime, consider following the below steps:

• Make sure that the font file is compatible with Windows. Sometimes, bitmap fonts (especially color fonts or OpenType-SVG) may display differently on Windows due to lack of support in certain applications.

• Try clearing the Windows font cache. Font cache corruption can sometimes cause display issues. To do this:

  1. Press Win + R, type services.msc, and press Enter.
  2. Scroll down to Windows Font Cache Service and stop it.
  3. Go to C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\LocalService\AppData\Local and delete the FontCache files.
  4. Restart your computer.

• Try viewing the font in other applications like Photoshop or Illustrator. This could help determine if the issue is specific to InDesign or a Windows rendering limitation.

Let us know if any of these steps help or if additional details about your setup shed more light on the issue. Good luck!

Thanks, 

Abhishek Rao

[RoteroD1]

Thanks, Abhishek Rao. It seems that the issue is just on the Windows Font viewer app. Once I went to check in the app, I can actually see the characters rendered. Thank you for pointing me in the right direction. 

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

BTW, the font is not a Bitmap font--it is OpenType. 

[RoteroD1]

Thanks, Dave. I was going by the description of the producti itself. 
https://www.fontspring.com/fonts/liebefonts/liebeheide

 

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

Yes, that's how the glyphs were created (from scans), but it's saved as an OpenType font, which is what I was referring to. Another common format is TrueType; outdated formats include Type 1 (aka PostScript fonts) and Bitmap (this is not the same as an OT font created from bitmaps.

Regarding color fonts:

Adobe and Mozilla tend to use SVG in OT fonts,

Google likes PNGs (bitmap images), and

Microsoft like overlapping glyphs.

More info if you are interested:

https://www.colorfonts.wtf/