How do I change the font of a specific character(s) within a style

Question

Hi Friends,

I have a typesetting project wherein I have to display the numbers in Latin numeric whereas the font used for the main text is a different script. So, In the Reference \r marker, we place the reference in Latin number (eg: Lk 3.23–38). When exported to InDesign via PA7, since we used a different font (Noto San Hanifi Rohingya, I am not sure whether this font is a modified/copied version from another font) all the numeric that we want to display in normal Latin numeric are shown in just "tofu". I wonder whether there's a regular expression we can use to hand-pick all the numeric characters and change the font (eg: to Charis SIL) for these specific numeric values in the Changes.txt file to display them correctly.

I am unable to code the regular expression. I need your help to accomplish this task.

Thank you.

Answer 1

You could use an InDesign GREP style for this:
1. Create a character style like "RefArabicNumerals" or "RefWesternNumerals" with e.g. Charis SIL.

2. Open the settings for the paragraph style "r" and navigate to GREP styles.

3. When you click to add a new GREP style, the example Regex should be the one, you are looking for: "\d+" (i.e. "one or more digits").

4. For applied format you choose your "RefArabicNumerals"/"RefWesternNumerals" character style.