So today was literally the first day I have ever tried out LibreOffice Writer and all was going good. I started using this app because google docs won’t let me have customizable fonts and word is just expensive. So it was basically standard, I installed some fonts from dafont.com, I then unzipped and installed the .ttf files, and when I opened the writer app it would show in the drop down font menu (btw the font I installed is called Quicksand)…so I wrote what I wanted to write, first saved the document as ODF (.odt) and when I then uploaded the file to google classroom…NOW here came the problem, the file, had literally lost my font style! it got into basic bold helvetica and when I open the file on my computer with the writer app, it shows my original font, but when I open it through the classroom task, it has lost my font style. I then saved the same file as docx (both word and office xml one) but it still lost it’s font and got into the same helvetica bold. I then converted my odf file to docx and then I saw that my fonts were correct, and when I uploaded the converted docx file to classroom, it had NOT lost it’s font or anything and was basically what I wanted…this issue has really disappointed me and let me down on my hopes.
It may be a matter of fonts. Quicksand is not one of the “common” fonts available on nearly any computer. These well-known “common” fonts are automatically substituted for supposed-to-be metrics-equivalent ones on the computer displaying the file when they are not present. The “family” table in Quicksand may not be present which explains why a sans serif like Helvetica is used instead.
I don’t use Google Classroom and don’t even know what it is for. Apparently, this is a web service, meaning the application are executed on a server. If a font is not available on the server, it will be substituted.
It is likely that converting to .docx has embedded the unusual font in the document. You can check this is the reason by going to File>Properties, Font tab and checking one or both boxes related to Font embedding. Then save again your document as .odt, upload it and see if your formatting is kept.
EDIT 2020-10-13
After analysis of your file content, font embedding is partial. Your file contains Arial (plain, bold, italic, bold-italic), Champage & Limousines (plain), Comfortaa (plain, bold), Liberation Sans (plain, bold, italic, bold-italic), Liberation Serif (plain, bold, italic, bold-italic), Simple Print (plain only). There are records for Comfortaa Light, GeoSansLight and Quicksand Book but no data.
Without data for the font, another one is substituted. The “font family” LO property simply says “roman”. Obviously a sans serif font is used but I don’t know how LO chose this versus a serif one.
I went to dafont.com but could not find technical description of fonts. The ones correctly embedded are TrueType fonts. The only information I could grasp about Comfortaa is it was uploaded in 2005. I don’t know if it is a Type 1 font, in which case this format is no longer supported by LO.
To summarise, behaviour follows the specification: no font => substitution.
So, the question is have you correctly installed the fonts? and is their format the one expected by Writer?
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then what will you say about the ‘comfortaa’ font? I used it and it didn’t work but worked when I converted the odt file to docx. And I do not get what you meant by “It is likely that converting to .docx has embedded the unusual font in the document. You can check this is the reason by going to File>Properties, Font tab and checking one or both boxes related to Font embedding. Then save again your document as .odt, upload it and see if your formatting is kept.” Also can you answer if there is a way I can set the files to be always saved as docx files? Professors are not familiar with the ‘openoffice writer’ format and may not be able to open it in some cases, but then again comes the problem for when I’m using the docx file, the font just goes blah…the only working solution for me has been to first saving the file as ODF and then going online and converting it to docx.
edit: also forgot about the simple print font, what will u say about that? it’s like one of the most popular fonts
This is a link to the test file I made (marked both embed things on the font tab[tried marking only one but got same result]) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DymPZGTiscWlnHqXmyd0FDQ_0mMiD4fA/view I have written each fonts name beside it so that you can see it on dafont.com but only the ‘comfortaa’ font seems to work, other than that, nothing else works.
I’m denied access on Google Drive. To attach a file (if it contains nothing private), edit the question, scroll to the end of the edit frame, press Enter at least twice and use the paperclip tool to browse your disk and select a file.
A side remark: M$ Word claims it can read ODF files; you can then store your file native. However, to avoid twisted remarks from your teachers, check first with a friend that your intended formatting is preserved when opened with M$ Word. It’s never good to be caught off-guard trying to be smarter than your professors; this could be taken for provocation.
Compatibility is never perfect between applications.
Hey so thnx a lot for your help and I also found a side help for this…the first thing I want to start off is that it is not libreoffice’s problem, it is the problem with google docs…it’s just that they change the font to their default one if the don’t recognize it and thus I had faced my problems…and how did I FIX it? well, all I had to do was install font’s from google fonts because all of the fonts in google fonts are supported by google docs and thus do not change, but anyways thnx a lot for you help mate! Appreciate it <3