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Finding fonts that have macrons

Letter a with macron in different bright colours on a white background

Kia ora.

Te Reo Māori is the indigenous language of Aotearoa, New Zealand and one of three official languages of the nation. Its use is increasing in professional and everyday life. As a designer that means designing with fonts that can accommodate macrons as they are an integral part of the language.

I’m going to share some simple ways to find some macron enabled fonts to use in your designs.

I’ve made a quick video of some of the ways here.

Google Fonts

Google font homepage

This a great resource of all of the typefaces listed in the Google Fonts directory are open source. More info about the licence here.

On the home page you can add a word with macrons under ‘custom’ in the search bar. You can then see if the fonts available have macrons. Another option is to select ‘Latin Extended’ in the ‘Language’ button list. This should exclude most fonts that don’t have macrons.

Adobe Fonts (Typekit)

Screenshot of Adobe Font search window

If you’re using Creative Cloud you’ll know you can access Adobe Fonts. When searching in Adobe Fonts you can paste a word with macrons into the ‘Sample Text’ window. This will show a range of fonts and the ones that do not support macrons will have a crossed box replacing the macronised letters.

Screenshot of Indesign Glyph window

If you’re already in Indesign or Illustrator you can add or check whether the font you’re using has macrons by going to Window>Type>Glyphs and selecting ‘Entire Font’ in the ‘Select’ window. Scroll through to see if there are macrons. Double clicking on any of the letters will add them into a text box you have open.

Canva

 

screenshot of selecting different typefaces in Canva

If you’re using Canva, select a template or one of your existing designs. In a typebox paste a word containing a macron. With that typebox selected you can click on the typeface button in the top left of the editing banner which will open a window of different fonts. Most of the popular fonts accommodated macrons when I checked them. If they don’t there is a basic default font used.

It’s so great there are many macron enabled font options out there which makes it easier for designers to do the right thing! Here are a couple of other resources that I’ve also found useful.

Other useful resources:

Ka pai!

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Working on my “Why”

A hand holding a community garden fundraiser on a dark background.

In business, and in life, you’re often encouraged to consider your “Why”. This is the concept of having a purpose, belief or cause that is a driving force in what you do and how you do it. Simon Sinek describes the concept in this TED talk.

Like many simple ideas I found it easy to understand but much harder to define an answer for myself.

Over the years I’ve realised I get a sense of personal satisfaction and purpose from contributing to my local community and that I value community building. I’ve already talked about the benefits of this in a previous post.

 

Open calendar showing a photo of a bee on yellow flowers

Last year my local community garden group created a  community garden fundraiser and I contributed my design skills – on the understanding I would not need to be involved in the selling!

The project included photos, content and artwork from other collaborators (indio Anne) and support from our local Palmers Garden Centre and The Print Room.

 

Back of a calendar with a grid of photos showing the month images

It was a successful fundraiser and I enjoyed a creative project, the chance to play around with collage and experiment with making a promotional video in Canva.

 

A group of smiling people positioned around a hand painted sign that reads Pukerua Bay Community Garden and Food forest

But, what does a sense of community look like in the way I do business?
A lot of what I do professionally is about connecting and building relationships. Things like:

  • Working with organisations and businesses that want to build and connect with communities and make a positive difference.
  • Contributing to many clients teams, often over years.
  • Collaborating with other complementary businesses (and co-authoring a book).
  • Supporting business groups such Chrysalis for Women (sharing my knowledge through presentations and as an Advisory Board Member).
  • Attending workshops and presentations such as the Creative HQ series.
  • Donating my time and skills to initiatives that resonate with me.

I’d love to hear what motivates you.