Most general fonts?

English
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#1

I have experienced that, when the document is complicated with many columns, large tables etc., much of the text disappears in Linux LibreOffice if the document er originally made in Windows LibreOffice. But it could be the other way around, I believe. The reason, I have learned, is that some fonts, are only available in one and not the other. When the difference between used font and what is available is too large some or much of the text disappears.

When I have to use both Windows and Linux, many columns and large tables, which fonts are available to me under all circumstances?

I should add that this also happens when the name of the font is identical in Windows - and Linux LibreOffice.

I wrote this question as a part of a bug report, but was asked to post the question here.

LO 5.3 writer documents won't open
#2

I have tested this now with Windows LibreOffice 5.4.4.2 and Mageia LibreOffice 5.3.4.2. Requirements: 1. Font available in both. 2. Font visible in both. 3. No visible difference on screen. The fonts that met all three requirements are: Caladea, DejaVu Sans, DejaVu Sans Condensed, DejaVu Sans Light, DejaVu Sans Mono, DejaVu Serif and DejaVu Serif Condensed.

#3

Microsoft have open-sourced all the fonts used in early Windows. They can be installed under Linux using ttf-mscorefonts-installer (it should be available via your distribution; it accesses the Microsoft download & thus requires an internet connection):-

This package allows for easy installation of the Microsoft True Type
Core Fonts for the Web including:
  • Andale Mono
  • Arial Black
  • Arial (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
  • Comic Sans MS (Bold)
  • Courier New (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
  • Georgia (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
  • Impact
  • Times New Roman (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
  • Trebuchet (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
  • Verdana (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
  • Webdings
#4

There is no answer to your question. And it is beyond the scope of OpenOffice. Not only fonts are different between Windows (mostly Micro$oft’s non-free fonts) and Linux (mostly free fonts), but font rendering differs too. Thus, even using the same font may result in variations in document layout.

Well, try Liberation fonts, have them installed on both systems and see if it is fine.

#5

In my opinion, the initial OO/LO developers anticipated this problem. They provided a way to work around it with Tools>Options, LibreOffice>Fonts through the Replacement table for missing fonts.

If the document is correctly designed with style hierarchy and no direct formatting (or almost none), the list of missing fonts should be rather short.

Now, the main issue is to enumerate the missing fonts. Their name is displayed in italics in the toolbar font menu. This requires scanning the text to discover them. If styles are used consistently, you only need to analyse the styles.

#6

This is a good answer, but to a slightly different question. The asker, as I understand, wants/needs to keep an identical layout of documents both under Windows and Linux. Font replacement will never do that.

#7

That was interesting. However, my example of the problem is that I have a seven column document, I use “Liberation Serif”, which is a font known both to Windows LibreOffice and Mageia Linux LibreOffice. The font works for my purpose. The problem is that when 100% of the text is visible in Windows only about 75% of it is visible in Mageia. I will have to try all fonts in both operating systems and write down which in both shows all the text, and hope one does, if no one here has a rule.

#8

Make sure that both the font face and the version are identical because various versions may have minor differences in metrics.

#9

I guess the font face is the name of the font, or? How can I find the version of a font? I believe I have seen an example of this because a year ago I did not have this problem with the very same document in question.

#10

@gabix: two aspects in OP’s question:

  1. Part of text disappeared, I tried to address this. Replacement table is “local” to the computer. We can have one in Linux, one in Windows.
  2. Identical layout under both systems: that’s the primary goal of every writer. This can only be achieved with same fonts on both sides or same metrics in replaced fonts (which is rarely accurately the case, there are always subtle differences on some glyphs).
#11

First after the first two answers I realized I had written “OpenOffice” and not “LibreOffice”. I have edited that now.

#12

OpenOffice can be conveniently used as a generic name for OpenOffice.org/Apache OpenOffice/LibreOffice, as issues are often common among them.

And do not answer your own question unless it is a real answer.

#13

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