Hi - I have the Keyman Desktop 8 installed and working properly. Prior to this one, I used the free version (I believe it was ver 5) for several years. What I am wondering is, how do I get a new Amharic font to work with your software. The one I am trying to use uses the same exact keyboard layout as the rest of the fonts that come with as the GFF Amharic Language Keyboard + Font Pack. Some of the fonts work, while others are just boxes. I am wondering how to resolve this issue. The font I am trying to use was created using Font Lab and not Keyman Developer. Do all the fonts have to be created using Keyman Developer in order to be compatible?
Please advise. Thanks in advance for your help.
Lulit
Topic Installing additional Fonts
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Amharic EZ Keyboard Downloads and Details
| # Installing additional Fonts 2011-08-26 08:18:25.973 | |
|---|---|
| Lulit Bezuayehu | |
| # RE: Installing additional Fonts 2011-08-26 10:23:45.763 | |
| Andrew C. Keyboard Designer | GFF Amharic Language Keyboard will work with Unicode Ethiopic fonts. I use it with GF Zemen Uniocde, SIL Abyssinica and any of the fonts distributed by the Senamirmir Project.
The fact that you get square boxes while you type seems to indicated that the font you are using is not a Unicode font. The .notdef (not defined glyph) is often seen as a square box and indicates that the character you typed is missing from the font being used. Unicode (and non-Unicode) fonts can be developed with Font Lab, Fontographer and Fontforge. Andrew SLV |
| # RE: Installing additional Fonts 2011-08-26 11:14:53.730 | |
| Andrew C. Keyboard Designer | Hi again Lulit,
if you want to test your font, a simple way is to copy some Amharic text like http://www.unicode.org/udhr/d/udhr_amh.txt and try to display text using your font to see if it displays correctly. You will also need to be away of font linking and font fallback, Windows may try to use Nyala font if your font doesn't quite work. |
| # RE: Installing additional Fonts 2011-08-27 07:40:44.947 | |
| Lulit Bezuayehu | Hi Andrew,
Sorry this may be a very basic question, but are you able to specify in a tool such as FontLab for the font to be unicode? I know that the person that developed it used an existing font (GF Zemen) as a base for his new font. I did try to change the text you sent me and it does change everything into square boxes. So, it must not be unicode. The reason I would like to use this font is the fact that it is very simple hand written-like font that helps me to create documents when I teach children to write in Amharic. Appreciate the help. Lulit |
| # RE: Installing additional Fonts 2011-08-30 12:21:56.993 | |
| Andrew C. Keyboard Designer | Hi Lulit,
any of the main font development tools (Font Lab, Fontographer, Font Forge) can be used to create Unicode fonts. Font Lab should be able to do what you need. there could be a few different problems with the font, but my guess is that the problem is with the cmap table, which glyphs are linked to which Unicode characters. Or depending on the tool it may be possible to fix this using a perl or python script. |