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A
Anonymous
June 5, 2009
Answered

Simsun font

  • June 5, 2009
  • 2 replies
  • 37571 views

I have a Microsoft WORD document with some translations in Chinese using Simsun font. I can see the text in WORD, but when I copy and paste it into InDesign it appears as a selection of boxes with a pinkish background. I have checked that the font is on my PC - it shows up as a ttc, not a ttf, but is selectable in Microsoft products and not Adobe ones.

What can I do to get this text to view in Simsun or another Chinese font in InDesign?

Thanks in advance.

Mick

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Kenneth C. Benson

    it shows up as a ttc, not a ttf, but is selectable in Microsoft products and not Adobe ones.

    TTC means Truetype font Collection, and Simsun, if properly installed, should show up in Indesign near the bottom of the font list, not in the S section. Indesign separates fonts by encoding, and it starts with all the roman fonts first.

    When you go to Type > Find Font, does it show that Simsun is missing? If it's missing, the first thing I would do is go to Control Panel > Fonts and see if it's installed. If it is, uninstall it and reinstall it. If it isn't, install it. Don't believe Word.

    As Jongware said, you might want to consider substituting something else for Simsun. It's sort of the Arial/Times New Roman of Asian fonts.

    Ken

    2 replies

    Kenneth C. Benson
    Kenneth C. BensonCorrect answer
    Inspiring
    June 5, 2009

    it shows up as a ttc, not a ttf, but is selectable in Microsoft products and not Adobe ones.

    TTC means Truetype font Collection, and Simsun, if properly installed, should show up in Indesign near the bottom of the font list, not in the S section. Indesign separates fonts by encoding, and it starts with all the roman fonts first.

    When you go to Type > Find Font, does it show that Simsun is missing? If it's missing, the first thing I would do is go to Control Panel > Fonts and see if it's installed. If it is, uninstall it and reinstall it. If it isn't, install it. Don't believe Word.

    As Jongware said, you might want to consider substituting something else for Simsun. It's sort of the Arial/Times New Roman of Asian fonts.

    Ken

    A
    Anonymous
    June 5, 2009

    Thank you both for your replies.

    It was simply a case of where the font was sitting in the list like Ken had mentioned.

    Ridiculously simple, should have seen it.

    Thanks

    Mick

      Jongware
      Community Expert
      JongwareCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      June 5, 2009

      That's weird -- my version of SimSun is a regular TTF.

      You can change the Chinese characters to any other font that supports Chinese. The CS packages come with a plethora of fonts -- if you don't have them installed, check your DVDs for the Fonts folder. Good Chinese fonts are Adobe Heiti, Kaiti, Song, and Fangsong. Beware, though, not all of the fonts have "all" of the characters (as there is no such notion :-)). Then simply use "Find Font" to change, or (better) use Find & Replace to change SimSun to an appropriate Character Style.

      [Edit]

      Additionally, that weird Word automatically uses another font if the document uses characters not in the 'default' font. If you replace the fonts in your InDesign document and still see unformatted ones (pink), try a GREP search for the Chinese characters. The expression

      [\x{3000}-\x{feff}]

      should find most, if not all.

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