Font "Bookman Old Style" with Russian characters

Question

Level 1

60 points

Font "Bookman Old Style" with Russian characters

I have received a document with russian characters. The font in use is "Bookman Old Style"
I have installed additional fonts in the operating system, I have used customized russian language in Word 2004 and Word vX and, I have activated all the cyrillic languages.
I cannot display the characters. The workaround for this is to replace the "Bookman Old Style" font for another one that is more standard like Times or Arial. Doing that, all the russian characters are displayed.

Why I cannot display "Bookman Old Style" fonts as Russian characters on a mac?

Some more info:
- On a PC the contents of the file are properly displayed without having to replace the font.
- Tried on several different computers with 10.3 and 10.4 on them
- When selecting Russian as keyboard layout and trying to type in Word with the font "Bookman Old Style", it does not like it and swaps by itself to others like Geneva or Time New Roman.

Please help! The workaround does not seem to be enough...

John

Mac OS X (10.4.4) Mac OS X 10.3 also

Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Posted on Feb 7, 2006 5:33 AM

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Answer 1

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

122,420 points

Feb 7, 2006 6:30 AM in response to John Santa

Why I cannot display "Bookman Old Style" fonts as
Russian characters on a mac?

Because the copy of Bookman Old Style on your machine probably does not contain any Russian characters at the appropriate codepoints. Look at its contents with FontBook or another font inspector. Do you see any? Whether any version of that font contains correct Cyrillic I don't know.

- When selecting Russian as keyboard layout and
trying to type in Word with the font "Bookman Old
Style", it does not like it and swaps by itself to
others like Geneva or Time New Roman.

You can only type Russian with a font that includes Russian.

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Answer 2

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

122,420 points

Feb 7, 2006 8:33 AM in response to John Santa

PS I forgot to include this link which may be helpful:

http://homepage.mac.com/thgewecke/Typing%20Cyrillic.html

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Answer 3

John Santa Author

Level 1

60 points

Feb 7, 2006 9:25 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

Could you be a bit more specific on how to look at that?
I got FonrBook and Suitcase.

Thanks
John

Why I cannot display "Bookman Old Style" fonts as
Russian characters on a mac?

Because the copy of Bookman Old Style on your machine
probably does not contain any Russian characters at
the appropriate codepoints. Look at its contents with
FontBook or another font inspector. Do you see any?
Whether any version of that font contains correct
Cyrillic I don't know.

- When selecting Russian as keyboard layout and
trying to type in Word with the font "Bookman Old
Style", it does not like it and swaps by itself to
others like Geneva or Time New Roman.

You can only type Russian with a font that includes
Russian.

Reply

Answer 4

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

122,420 points

Feb 7, 2006 9:49 AM in response to John Santa

Could you be a bit more specific on how to look at
that?
I got FonrBook and Suitcase.

In Fontbook (10.3 for me but probably similar in 10.4), select the font and do Preview > Repertoire.

In Character Palette, choose the Unicode Cyrillic block, select a character, and look at the Font Variation pane. This will show all the fonts on the machine with Cyrillic in them.

PS You might be able to get a version with Cyrillic via this page:

http://www.travelphrases.info/gallery/views/View_BookmanOldStyle.html

Reply

Answer 5

John Santa Author

Level 1

60 points

Feb 7, 2006 10:18 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

Hi Tom,

Could you be a bit more specific on how to check that? I got FontBook and Suitcase. A step by step would be very appreciated here.
And in case the font Bookman Old Style does not contain any Russian characters at the appropriate codepoints, what would be the way to follow?

Thanks in advance.
John

Why I cannot display "Bookman Old Style" fonts as
Russian characters on a mac?

Because the copy of Bookman Old Style on your machine
probably does not contain any Russian characters at
the appropriate codepoints. Look at its contents with
FontBook or another font inspector. Do you see any?
Whether any version of that font contains correct
Cyrillic I don't know.

- When selecting Russian as keyboard layout and
trying to type in Word with the font "Bookman Old
Style", it does not like it and swaps by itself to
others like Geneva or Time New Roman.

You can only type Russian with a font that includes
Russian.

Reply

Answer 6

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

122,420 points

Feb 7, 2006 10:48 AM in response to John Santa

And in case the font Bookman Old Style does not
contain any Russian characters at the appropriate
codepoints, what would be the way to follow?

http://www.travelphrases.info/gallery/views/View_BookmanOldStyle.html

Reply

Answer 7

John Santa Author

Level 1

60 points

Feb 8, 2006 3:19 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

Hi again Tom,

Well I followed your instructions. In Character Palette, I chose the Unicode Cyrillic block, selected a character, and looked at the Font Variation pane. It showed no Bookman Old Style fonts with Cyrillic in them.
Then I downloaded the bookos fonts from the link given. After including them in my /Library/Fonts, when I go to the Character Palette, and select any ctrillic character, the font Bookman old style is there but just as a simple square for any russian symbol I select.
BTW the document is still not showing russian characters...
Any more tips?

Thanks
John

Could you be a bit more specific on how to look at
that?
I got FonrBook and Suitcase.

In Fontbook (10.3 for me but probably similar in
10.4), select the font and do Preview > Repertoire.

In Character Palette, choose the Unicode Cyrillic
block, select a character, and look at the Font
Variation pane. This will show all the fonts on the
machine with Cyrillic in them.

PS You might be able to get a version with Cyrillic
via this page:

http://www.travelphrases.info/gallery/views/View_Bookm
anOldStyle.html

Reply

Answer 8

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

122,420 points

Feb 8, 2006 5:55 AM in response to John Santa

I downloaded the bookos fonts from the link
given. After including them in my /Library/Fonts,
when I go to the Character Palette, and select any
ctrillic character, the font Bookman old style is
there but just as a simple square for any russian
symbol I select.
BTW the document is still not showing russian
characters...

I have no problem seeing/using the Cyrillic in the bookos fonts. Look at their repertoire in Fontbook. I suggest you put them in Users/username/Library/Fonts so they get correct priority, and remove the old one temporarily. Two fonts with same name makes it hard for apps to choose the right one.

As for the document, hopefully this will work. But if it is not in Unicode, it won't. If the document does work with Lucida Grande, then it should be OK.

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