Hello,
I have Libre Writer installed on LinuxMint 21. English US is the language and western for the fonts.
When I choose fonts the font descriptions are mostly in English but the examples are in various foreign languages with many of them looking like Farsi or Chinese characters.
How do I fix this?
Also, is there no courier font in Libre Writer? Is there a good substitute if courier is not available?
Thanks
Before suggesting a fix, we need to clearly understand the issue. Since obviously we can’t see your screen, provide a screenshot.
There is no font " in " Writer, nor in LO in general. Fonts are provided by the OS and installed there.
Courier is a M$ font. There is little chance you find it under Linux. Equivalent fonts are the Free or Liberation families. Courier is a fixed-pitch font. Then have a try with FreeMono (lokking more like a typewriter) or Liberation Mono. But there are many others. All these substitution fonts have not the exact same metrics as Courier. Consequently, layout may differ a bit.
When adding your screenshot to your question (edit it, don’t use a comment), mention your LO version.
hello,
I appreciate your timely response. Unfortunately, I have a weird problem that does not allow me to provide a screen shot. When the font drop down menu is showing Libre writer locks out all ability to take a screen shot. I can’t enter any data into any other application until I close the drop down menu. In fact it is happening in this reply. If the drop down menu for fonts is open in Writer, I can’t type a reply to you.
I’m using LinuxMint 21 and do not recall having this issue with any other application.
Do you have any suggestions on how I can get a screen shot with the font drop down menu open?
Thanks
Under Linux you can install a myriad of desktop managers (the utility which gives a look-and-feel to your computer). The most common ones are Gnome, KDE Plasma, LXDE, Xfce. The screenshot application differs with the desktop manager. For example, under KDE Plasma, it is Spectacle. It can capture any menu by hitting Prnt Scr (“Print Screen” key) once the menu has popped up.
Which is your desktop manager? Have you installed the screenshot utility?
I’m using cinnamon and my print screen does work when the font drop down is not open.
Some more info. I’ve been experimenting. I removed libre writer and installed openoffice writer and the font drop down menu does not prevent me from taking screen snaps or entering data on other apps.
openoffice writer was uninstalled and Libre writer reinstalled and now have the same problem exists again where the drop down font screen of libre writer prevents print screen snaps and data entry on any other app until the drop down menu is closed.
So this seems specific to Libre Office Writer
Then you have no screenshot utility installed. Or it is not associated with Print Screen. I am not familiar with Cinnamon. It is a derivative of Gnome.
LO doesn’t prevent me to take screenshot:
Gnome screen shot utility is installed. I just tried to install it and it says it is already at the latest version. Plus I can take screen shots if the font drop down is not open. in fact, if any drop down menu is open in Writer, screenshots cannot be taken and no entries can be made to any other app include Terminal.
I’m guessing something is wrong with my LinuxMint 21 Cinnamon desktop install if this happens in Libre Writer only. I’m going to try another desktop and see what happens.
No, it’s not your system. It happens on mine as well, just version 20, and it must be something with Mint. Like, when I open the File menu of Firefox and then press PrintScreen, it closes the File menu and wants to make a screenshot of the entire screen. On Ubuntu, you can always make screenshots, but it doesn’t allow me to print. So I have to OS’s on my desktop.
I just realized that your screen shot looks exactly like what I see. My apologies for not spotting that sooner. English description of the fonts and foreign language examples that look like Farsi and Chinese.
Is this a Linux thing?
What would you suggest as an example for Droid Sans Hebrew?
M$ corefonts are available for download also on Linux. Usually there is a package available for apt. So, if necesarry you can install the original. Otherwise prefer really free fonts.
Indeed. It was tdf#121723, and it was fixed in LibreOffice, bot not OpenOffice. It may depend on DE in behavior details; possibly, in case it breaks PrintScreen, it needs a regression report.
I don’t know if this is a “Linux thing”. It is in fact a very handy feature. There is probably some nice attribute in the font file to “duplicate” the font “description” into two tables: an “international” one and a “local” one. A contrario, take a look at D050000L (between Carlito and Droid Arabic Kufi on my screenshot) – note I don’t know which dependency installed it --: it has probably no such duplicate table and the name displays with its dingbats characters and this is not readable at ll. This also clearly indicates the font is not Unicode-compliant.
The Droid Sans series provides many language dedicated sub-fonts. Without the double name, I could hardly identify the font family since I am not “panglotic”, and by far.
I think you’re correct. My thought was that the non-English font examples was an error/bug but in reality it is a feature. Just my ignorance.
Edit
Wanted to add that I tried multiple desktops and they all exhibit the same behavior with Libre Writer, no screen shots or data entry on any other app including terminal when font drop down menu is open.
I’m guessing there is either something wrong with my LinuxMint install or it is a bug with LinuxMint. Fortunately, my system runs great and this is a minor nuisance so I’ll leave things as is for now.
Also, after reading that you use Plasma for your desktop I gave that a try too and I really like it. Very cool. Thanks!
Hi Mikeaganski,
This situation is confusing. On my PC with LinuxMint 21 Cinnamon, LibreOffice Writer has the no screen shots with the font drop down menu problem and OpenOffice does not have that issue. So to read that this problem was addressed in LO but not in OO is surprising.
Re: “It may depend on DE in behavior details;” pardon my ignorance, what does DE stand for?
Thanks
DE = Desktop Environment
That was fixed; and if you read it, the issue was that menu did not hide when it should. The consequences varied depending on situation, sometimes resulting in unexpected menu commands executed (see duplicate tdf#113362). So the fix that appeared in LibreOffice, but not in OpenOffice, was that the menu started to hide. And, as I said, it could happen that in some DE, it hides so fast that the screenshot can’t be made - which would be a reason for a bug report.
If I may bring my stone to the wall …
A standard behaviour in GUI is to hide any dropped-down menus when you switch to another application. This is expected otherwise driving the computer is weird. So, my procedure to take menu screenshots is to launch Spectacle (the application under KDE Plasma), configure my settings and switch to LO (*Spectacle is now in the background). I rely on PrtScrn which generate a keypress event. This kind of event does not cause application switching. However it is filtered by the OS which recognises a dedicated key associated to some reserved action. The key press is routed to backgrounded Spectacle and this does the trick.
With any other procedure, LO would lose focus and the menu would hide.
Start the print screen app with a delay and then some of the menus can be “photographed”. Old problem, but solvable with work-around. On my machines (LinuxMint 18-19-20-21 Mate) the screenshot is initiated by mate-screenshot. Cinnamon could be (!) similar… See my screenshot…
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Hi ajlittoz,
This is very helpful. I’ll give it a try.
Thank you!
