which unicode fonts are compatible with Apple Pages in iWork '09?

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Level 1

6 points

which unicode fonts are compatible with Apple Pages in iWork '09?

Hi everyone. I'm new to this forum, and am not familiar with iWork but am considering buying it because my friends recommend it highly. But first I need to know which unicode fonts work in Apple Pages. I have been using IndUni font in MS Office (for Mac) in order to transliterate Indian-language (and similar) material in Roman script using Unicode characters. I need to be able to transcribe Indian languages in Times, or similar, font. Does anyone know if this sort of thing is possible in iWork? I understand that I can open Word documents in Pages, and vice versa, but will my fonts that I use in MS OFfice also be compatible with Pages? Any information would be most helpful. THANKS!

ibookG4, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Sep 25, 2009 7:31 AM

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Answer 1

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

122,194 points

Sep 25, 2009 7:48 AM in response to indophile

All Unicode fonts should work in pages. The only caveat would be if you need characters which depend on OpenType features, because OS X does not always have full support of OpenType. Examples might be Latin characters with diacritics that have no Unicode codepoint of their own, but must be generated from the base letter and the diacritic seperately. Whether IndUni and the texts you input will display totally correctly in Pages I don't know, but I am sure there are other fonts that will do so. Apple's own font is Lucida Grande.

Do you use IAST transcription?

If you would like to send me IndUni and a sample text I'd be happy to put it on Pages and send you back a screenshot (tom at bluesky dot org).

PS OS X cannot use Windows Devanagari fonts.

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Answer 2

KOENIG Yvan

Level 8

41,819 points

Sep 25, 2009 7:52 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

Tom Gewecke wrote:
All Unicode fonts should work in pages.

In theory you are right.

In practice it's not fully true.

The Hoefler font delivered with 10.6 is not compatible with Pages.
If it is used in a large document this one may be unopenable.

I received such of them.
Replacing the new Hoefler Text.ttc by the old Hoefler Text.dfont is sufficient to retreive a normal behavior.

I have no free time to make systematic tests upon every xxx.ttc fonts delivered with 10.6.

Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) vendredi 25 septembre 2009 16:52:11

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Answer 3

Walt K

Level 4

2,946 points

Sep 25, 2009 8:36 AM in response to indophile

Welcome to Apple Discussions

Why not download a 30-day trial and see if it meets your needs?

Walt

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Answer 4

Sep 25, 2009 10:32 PM in response to indophile

Hi indophile,

Welcome to the forum.

Certainly the Unicode font will work in that the characters will show on screen.

However you will need to test some the more minor Indian scripts whether they will compose correctly.

OSX and Pages has problems with R to L scripts and some of the Indic languages.

Peter

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Answer 5

indophile Author

Level 1

6 points

Sep 28, 2009 2:21 PM in response to indophile

Thanks to all of you who had some really great advice; thanks also to the very nice who offered to send me a screen shot in Pages. I ended up downloading the free 30 day trial of iWork (didn't know there was a free trial!) and it turns out that Pages is AWESOME. It not only works with transcription of Tamil into Roman script with my unicode font, but I can even type in Tamil font in Pages as well -- which was impossible in Word. I am totally going to purchase iWork! THanks again for the advice from folks.

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Answer 6

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

122,194 points

Sep 28, 2009 2:42 PM in response to indophile

I can even type in Tamil font in Pages as well -- which was impossible in Word.

MS Word, Adobe products, Mellel, and Appleworks are about the only word processors which cannot do Tamil starting with OS X 10.4. This page may be of use if you have problems with that script:

http://homepage.mac.com/thgewecke/TypingTamil.html

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Answer 7

Sep 29, 2009 2:50 PM in response to indophile

Have a look at some of the alternatives to Pages as well and check using your script:

http://www.freeforum101.com/iworktipsntrick/viewtopic.php?t=47&mforum=iworktipsn trick

Several are free.

Peter

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