Apple Keynote/Pages/Numbers: Font Awesome not listed when system/app language is not English

[AshSpera]

Describe the bug Font Awesome does not appear in the list of available font when language is not English (e.g.: Italian)

To Reproduce

1. Open Apple Keynote on a non-english system (or application setting)
2. Check the list of available fonts

Expected behavior Font Awesome appearing in the list of available fonts

Screenshots

Version and implementation Version: 5.13.3 macOS: 11.5.1 Keynote: 11.1

• [ ] SVG with JS
• [ ] Web Fonts with CSS
• [ ] SVG Sprites
• [x] On the Desktop

Bug report checklist

• [x] I have filled out as much of the above information as I can
• [x] I have included a test case because my odds go way up that the team can fix this when I do
• [x] I have searched for existing issues and to the best of my knowledge this is not a duplicate

[tagliala]

You should be able to install the font and use icons through ligatures

https://fontawesome.com/how-to-use/use-on-desktop

[tobihagemann]

My colleague has a similar issue. We boiled it down to the system's language. If the system language is English, the font is listed in Keynote (and Pages, etc.). However, if the system language is German, the font is not listed and cannot be used.

[tobihagemann]

It seems to be resolved now. Unclear if it has been fixed with Font Awesome 5.1.0 (or some other version) or maybe even in Keynote.

[tricoder42]

I still have this issue.

My default system language is Czech and fonts aren't available. After I switch to English, I can use FontAwesome fonts in Keynote.

FontAwesome Pro for Desktop: 5.7.1 Keynote: 8.3 (5989) MacOS: 10.14.2 (18C54)

[odrotbohm]

Can someone elaborate on this? The latest download packages do not contain any TTF versions of the font anymore, and using them is listed as a workaround here. The 4.x version is recognized properly.

It's a bit disappointing to see that problem unresolved for three years, given that folks paid for the version and effectively cannot use it as advertised.

Keynote 11.1 FontAwesome Pro for Desktop 5.15.3 MacOS 10.15.7

[tagliala]

Hi

The latest download packages do not contain any TTF versions of the font anymore, and using them is listed as a workaround here.

Please download the latest stable version of FA for the desktop here: https://fontawesome.com/v5.15/how-to-use/on-the-desktop/setup/getting-started

Use the .otf version on the desktop. The TTF is optimized for the web and it is not tested on the desktop

The latest download packages do not contain any TTF versions of the font anymore,

The TTF is available in the web package download at https://fontawesome.com/v5.15/how-to-use/on-the-web/setup/hosting-font-awesome-yourself under the folder /webfonts

Keynote 11.1 FontAwesome Pro for Desktop 5.15.3 MacOS 10.15.7

I'm on BigSur 11.5.1 and Keynote 11.1

I'm able to use Font Awesome in Keynote by copying the glyph (ligatures don't work, though)

The exported PDF contains the icon

PS: as a Font Awesome Pro customer, you can ask for dedicated support at hello@fontawesome.com

---

Since I'm not able to reproduce issues with Apple Keynote and PDF export, I'm going to close here. If there is a specific issue with Apple Keynote, please open a new request and provide as many information as you can in our bug report template

[odrotbohm]

Please refer to the comments above: the problem manifests on systems that are not using English as the system language.

[tagliala]

Please refer to the comments above: the problem manifests on systems that are not using English as the system language.

Got it, thanks

Will reference this in a new issue, no need to open one

[tagliala]

@robmadole I think this just depends on the languages/scripts associated to the font file. I don't know if there are side effects in assigning other languages/scripts

Helvetica

FA

[odrotbohm]

Any updates on this one? Wouldn't mind trying a preliminary build that tries the tweaks.

[mlwilkerson]

I've been investigating this issue and trying various solutions. Unfortunately, the resolution isn't going to make it into v6 beta2, but I think we're narrowing down something for viable for a release some time after v6 beta2.

[odrotbohm]

Is this going to be back-ported to 5.x then? Because as it stands today, I cannot actually use 5 on a Mac configured to use a non-English locale. 😕

[mlwilkerson]

@odrotbohm good question. We're using new font-building tech for v6. So it would be a whole 'nother thing to back-port this change to 5.x. I'll consider that a request, though.

I've attached a .zip that contains a development build of Free Solid that seems to show up as expected on the Pages font menu when the Italian language is active (it'll work for some other language selections too, but not necessarily any language selection). Wanna give this a try and let me know how it goes?

fa-6-free-solid-dev.zip

What we've learned so far about this issue is that apps like Pages and Keynote seem to be making a decision about whether to put the font on the font menu based on whether the relevant language-specific character mappings are present in the font.

What I had expected to find, and what I imagine other users expect, is that there should be a way to make a symbolic font like this to be treated language-independently (i.e. show up on the font menu, regardless of the active language), or even some way to declare that it works for some set of languages (i.e. show up on the font menu for all such declared languages).

But so far, there doesn't seem to be any metadata settings in the font that will cause Pages to treat the font language-independently like that. Pages doesn't even seem to respect the metadata settings in the OS/2 table that do just that: declare support for various language-specific unicode ranges. The only thing that seems to make a difference is to have the actual character mappings defined for what language-specific unicodes Pages seems to be looking for to make its determination. (And by "Pages", I mean: wherever in the stack this issue occurs and is manifested in Pages. It might be a lower-level Mac OS thing that Pages just inherits.)

If so, then I'd expect any other symbol font out there to be absent from the Pages font menu for the same reason. So, as far as I can tell, our fonts haven't been "broken" for lack of those character mappings. We don't actually have characters (i.e. icons) for all of those language-specific characters that Pages seems to be looking for, so it's natural that we don't have unicode mappings for them.

What we can do as a workaround, however, is to add unicode aliases: extra cmap table entries at those language-specific unicode points that just map to some other glyph in the font. So in this development build, I've added a zero-width-space glyph at the standard unicode 0x200b, and for a bunch of unicode characters that Pages might be looking for to make its language related decisions, I've added a unicode alias that just resolves to that glyph associated with zero-width-space. This kinda feels like bending over backwards to satisfy Pages. But it does seem to work.

Now I wonder: are other symbol fonts bending over backwards like this too? Or is there some other mechanism that's available to get Pages to just do what seems like the obviously expected thing here: making a language independent font available on the font menu, regardless of the active language. Seems like there should be a master "Just Do It" switch, but I have yet to find it.

[robmadole]

@tricoder42 @AshSpera @tobihagemann if you all have time to test this preview build we'd appreciate it too.

https://github.com/FortAwesome/Font-Awesome/files/7198396/fa-6-free-solid-dev.zip

[odrotbohm]

I just subscribed to the Pro plan, downloaded 6.3 desktop fonts, and they don't show up at all in neither Keynote nor Pages, even on an English locale machine. I have to admit it, I feel increasingly frustrated. Is anyone testing this stuff at all? 😕

[tagliala]

Hi,

I've just

1. Downloaded FA Pro 6.3
2. Installed the solid otf pro file (replacing the old one)
3. Open Pages
4. 

I've used billboard icon, introduced in 6.3.0

macOS Version 13.1 (22C65) Pages version 12.2.1 (7035.0.161)

Please check font settings (solid for solid) and try to restart, maybe is related to cache

[odrotbohm]

A machine reboot resolved the issue. Didn't expect that to be necessary, as (de)activating FA 5 reflected into the apps instantly. Thanks! 🙇

[igorwojda]

It worked for me.

MacOS Sonoma, Keynote version 14.0 (7039.0.94), Font Awesome 6.5.2 I have added otf font files to Font Bookand restarted the system.

⚠️ One important thing is that font name in the list of fonts (when selecting front in Keynote) s not Font Awesome...:

However after selecting the font the proper font name is displayed:

If you able not able to select the Font Awesome font from the keynote font list, you should stil be able to copy text field with this font pre selected from attached Keynote project and simply replace character by copying it (from Font Book font) and pasting it to Keynote text field (containing preselected font).

I am attaching keynote presentation with single side using 4 above Font Awesome fonts.

Preview

Keynote file Font Awesome Slide.zip