Disappearing diacritics

Question

Disappearing diacritics

joe lewis 45

Aargh! I have file with lots of Hebrew with vowels and cantillation points. I opened it yesterday and the diacritics for Myriad Hebrew Light did not display. If I change the color of diacritics to green, the Myriad diacritics appear black while the Narkisim diacritics appear green. I know the diacritics are present because I can "see" them when I cursor through the text. Any ideas? Thanks in advance for help.

Diacritics set to automatic

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Diacritics set to Green

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3 answers

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Answer 1

joe lewis 45

Thanks for that detailed reply. I'm working through the steps. However, I found this information, which makes me think that after several years of using MyriadHebrew I now need a .ttf file instead of the .otf file I bought from Monotype a couple of days ago, but I bought it after my problems appeared in the hope that a properly purchased version freshly installed would display correctly. Meanwhile I'm looking at other fonts such as Segoe UI to replace Myriad Hebrew Light.

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Answer 2

joe lewis 45

Well, I found out another aspect of this problem. Myriad Hebrew Light characters do not appear under certain circumstances. Hebrew consonants appear, but not vowels. English words typically disappear. I can "fix" this by changing the Myriad font color (to dark blue). I can't use black.

I'm using Office 365 with Windows 11. I downloaded and installed the font, an otf file (some say Windows works more reliably with ttf files, but I've never had this problem in years of using Myriad Hebrew Light.

Something similar happened a few weeks ago when some words in Ezra SIL SR "disappeared"; I fixed this (I believe) by reinstalling the font.

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Xavier-D 13,745 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-10-01T23:58:27.5533333+00:00
Hi joe lewis

Thank you for the additional testing.

The fact that the English characters and Hebrew vowel marks reappear when you change the font color from black to dark blue is a useful clue. It indicates that the characters are still present and that the font can display them, so this appears more likely to be a rendering or color-related issue in Word than missing text.

I would not conclude yet that you need a TTF version. OTF is a supported font format in Windows, and changing from OTF to TTF is not a guaranteed solution.

Could you please try these checks?

Open File > Account > Update Options > Update Now to ensure Word is fully updated.

On the View tab, select Switch Modes, or temporarily change the Office theme under File > Account > Office Theme, then test black text again.

Open Word in Safe Mode by pressing Windows key + R, entering winword /safe, and pressing Enter. Test the font in a new blank document.

Check whether the missing text appears correctly in File > Print and in a PDF exported from Word.

Test the same black Myriad Hebrew Light text in another application, such as WordPad or a browser-based editor.

If the problem occurs only in Word, especially if Print Preview or the exported PDF displays correctly, please run an Online Repair of Microsoft 365:

Windows Settings > Apps > Installed apps > Microsoft 365 > More options > Modify > Online Repair

For now, using dark blue or a different Hebrew font such as Segoe UI is a reasonable workaround, but it should not be considered a permanent fix.

Please also share the exact Word version and build shown under File > Account > About Word, and let us know whether the black text appears in Print Preview or the exported PDF. Those results will help determine whether the issue is limited to Word’s on-screen rendering.

Answer 3

Xavier-D 13,745 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hello joe lewis

Thank you for explaining the behavior.

Since you can still reach the diacritics with the cursor, they do not appear to have been removed from the document. The fact that they display and change color correctly with Narkisim, but remain invisible or black with Myriad Hebrew Light, suggests that this may be a font-specific display or rendering problem in Word.

As an initial test, please try the following:

Save a backup copy of the document.
Select a short affected passage and apply Narkisim or another Hebrew font that displays the vowels and cantillation marks correctly.
Change the document zoom level, for example to 100% and then 200%, and check whether the marks become visible with Myriad Hebrew Light.
Create a new blank Word document and paste a small affected passage into it using Keep Text Only, then apply Myriad Hebrew Light again.

For now, using Narkisim or another Hebrew font that displays the marks correctly would be the safest workaround, particularly before printing or exporting the document.

To narrow down whether this is a recent Word update issue, a damaged document, or the installed font itself, could you also provide:

Your Word version and build from File > Account > About Word
Your Windows version
Whether Myriad Hebrew Light previously displayed the marks correctly on this same computer
Whether the diacritics appear in Print Preview or in an exported PDF
Whether the same problem occurs in a newly created document

Please do not reinstall or replace the font until you have preserved a backup of the document and, if applicable, the font installer.

Feel free reply back to this post if you need further assistance, I'll be happy to help.

joe lewis 45 Reputation points

2026-10-01T22:30:31.8233333+00:00

If I change the color of Myriad to dark blue all the characters appear, including diacritics. If I change back to black, English characters and diacritics disappear, but Hebrew consonants are often visible. So there seems nothing wrong with the Myriad font or my text, but something is restricting display of black characters. Any suggestions are gratefully received. I use Word from Office 365 and I reinstalled the Myriad font.
joe lewis 45 Reputation points

2026-10-02T18:54:56.0333333+00:00

I reinstalled Office apps (and uninstalled my beloved Office 2010 apps) and "repaired" them for good measure. Myriad has diacritics except when its color is "automatic." This is true if I create a new Word file with just a few words. Since I reinstalled Myriad a couple of times I presume the font is not the problem. I may have to switch from Myriad to Segoe UI
joe lewis 45 Reputation points

2026-10-05T00:57:58.01+00:00

Myriad Hebrew Light works in gmail--I can copy and paste text into a message. But in Word the diacritics do not appear.
joe lewis 45 Reputation points

2026-10-05T01:22:32.51+00:00

Oops, Gmail only uses Google's fonts, so even though Myriad seems to appear when I paste it into a message, I can't be sure gmail will use it. Sorry.