How to use non-Western digits

Question

Is there a setting to use non-Western digits in a typesetting, like Print Draft has? if so, I cannot find it. If there is not, does that mean we need to create a changes.txt file to change the digits? My use case is Myanmar.

Answer 1

Hi @kentS - Yes, of course there is. But I had to pause for a moment to remember where we hid it recently!

It used to be a global setting in the Writing System options which was available on the Fonts+Scripts tab, but has now been made a font property so that the feature can be enabled/disabled at any level:

a) To change it globally, select the primary font (Body Text) and change it in the option that appears at the bottom of the Font picker dialog:

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b) To change the Digit mapping at the Paragraph (or even Character) style level, use the Set Font button, and then change the Digit Mapping just for that particular style. BTW - this feature was added because certain people asked for headers in multiple languages - each with different digits, so we had to be able to turn this on/off at the style level as well as globally.

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Oh, and if it doesn’t appear on either of these dialogs, it just means that you’re using at the Mini View, or the Basic View; and these advanced settings are only available in the Full View (bottom left of main dialog).

And while we’re in this dialog, I might as well share that there is a lesser-known font feature called extend which can be used to stretch or shrink a font horizontally. So, for example, here the font will shrink to 85% of its normal width:

To grow the font, use extend=1.05 and it will be stretched to 105%

PS. There seems to be a regression. I can’t get the \h1 digits to style differently myself. We’ll fix it ASAP and push an update out (DV later today).

Answer 2

Thanks @mjpenny. It is easy to find when you know where it is! Also is a great feature that you can have both types of digits.

Answer 3

Mark,
That worked for the verse numbers by modifying \v style but not for the chapter numbers by modifying \c style. Mike