OTF embedding in Word

1

Hi,

as far as I can tell, it is possible to embed PS-OTFs into Word:

I have done some tests and I can embed Fira Mono into a Word document.

For whatever reason I am not able to produce an OTF which is embeddable. Any clues what could be done? I have reproduced the fsType settings from Fira Mono, but no luck.

Thankful for any ideas.

Cheers!

2

All I know about making fonts work in Windows is in this tutorial:

In short: stick with TTF anyway.

3

What version of Word are you using?

4

Word 365

5

Our knowledge of TTF/OTF issues in MS Office is collected in this handy table:

https://www.lucasfonts.com/faq#office-fonts-difference

So, embedding OTF in Word documents is not possible, neither on macOS nor Windows.

(PowerPoint seems to have gained the ability to embed OTF only recently)

6

So, embedding OTF in Word documents is not possible, neither on macOS nor Windows.

Thanks. But: Why than is Fira Mono embeddable? Also it says in the link I posted earlier: OTF is embeddable.

7

Which exact fonts of Fira Mono are you using? I can check if there’s something special about them …

8

Please. I was, sadly, unable to find the crucial difference with Fira Mono. Please let us know if you find the reason.

9

Fira_Mono.zip (244.4 KB)

Using this one. Thanks for offering to look into it.

10

It only seems to work with Fira Mono. When I change the font name via ttx to “Gira Mono”, it is not displayed in a word doc with embedded fonts anymore.

Also, when I have a document using Fira Mono without embedded fonts, and open it in Windows, Fira Mono is displayed even though it is neither installed nor embedded. Maybe it is available as a hidden system font to Word somehow …

11

Thank you so very much for looking into this obscure Office topic. It might not be the answer I was looking for, but at least I have an answer.

Thanks again.
H

12

Gosh. That’s interesting, thanks a lot for finding this indeed very obscure explanation. I was going crazy trying to find the crucial difference between the files.

13

Just letting you know that I did some tests with Robot and Poppins. Because Google Fonts seem to embed perfectly fine in Word on Mac.
I renamed Roboto to “Foboto” and Poppins to “Foppins” (with TTX) :stuck_out_tongue:
The Italic Styles are being skewed and the Bold weight is being displayed thinner as it’s supposed to.
The same thing happens when I try to embed my own font files. Don’t know what to do with this information, but maybe it’s interesting for you.

14

OK, now someone needs to match all strings from the Word binary with a font name database and see what select group of fonts is getting special treatment.

15

Which name strings did you change?

16

Switched “R” with “F” in every String of the name table that contains the Family Name (in Robotos case nameID 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 18).

17

Exactly my thought. Who wants to go first? haha
It would be interesting to know if fonts get special treatment.
But I think in the end it doesn’t matter. Because the only thing we can do then is write a complaint in the Microsoft forum, which Microsoft will ignore for the next few years. Like this one.

18

I added a stub page in the new “FontTechKnowledge” repo. If you like, you can add a summary of your findings there. FontTechKnowledge/Office/PowerPoint.md at main · schriftgestalt/FontTechKnowledge · GitHub

19

I could not find strings like “Roboto” or “Poppins” in Word.[1]

@KatjaS, are you sure you tested with OTF files?

  1. Roboto does appear in a few CSS files in the Word app bundle ↩︎

20

Sorry I did the name tests with the “hinted TTFs” of the latest release.
I can do the same test with the OTFs today.