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Update about Font Replacement

Last Saturday, November 8, I have managed a workshop at SFScon on Font management for document interoperability in LibreOffice. The workshop aimed to demonstrate how to configure and manage the LibreOffice font replacement feature, one of the key elements of document interoperability. Although font replacement on the fly is a long-standing LibreOffice feature, it is rather unknown and must be configured and managed properly in order to substitute proprietary fonts, which are standard on Windows and macOS and have been used as a lock-in tool for years, with metrically compatible free fonts.

In September 2020, I wrote the blog post LibreOffice Tips & Tricks: Replacing Microsoft Fonts, which explained how to create a Font Replacement Table (available in Tools > Options > LibreOffice > Fonts) to instantly replace Microsoft’s proprietary fonts with metrically equivalent free fonts, available from Google Fonts and other websites. However, I recommend using Google Fonts for legal compliance, as they provide the font, licence and all other documents from the font designer. This post prompted several responses and inspired Jean-François Nifenecker, a volunteer contributor, to develop the FontsSubstTableExporter extension, which creates an extension embedding the font’s replacement table for easy duplication or backup, as well as the resulting FontSubstTable, which sets the font’s substitution table values.

During the webinar, I used a short LibreOffice Impress presentation to help the audience follow my talk more easily:

SFScon Font Management 2025 Download the Slide Deck

 

I opened the webinar by showing the 2020 blog post and its associated font replacement table. I then presented the updated table, as Spartan — one of the free fonts — has evolved into League Spartan. I also explained how the situation has changed radically since 2020, as Microsoft has deprecated ClearType fonts (Calibri, Candida, Candara, Consolas, Constantia, Corbel and Segoe for Western languages) and now uses Aptos as the default font for Western languages. Although Aptos is Microsoft proprietary, it has a weaker licence which only prohibits redistribution. As such, it can be downloaded and installed by all users (including Linux users) provided the download is from the official Microsoft Aptos Page.

I also announced that, ideally before the release of LibreOffice 26.2 in February 2026, I will update the FontSubstTable extension to include all Microsoft proprietary fonts with restrictive licences. These are fonts that require replacement as they cannot be installed by Linux users or those without a Microsoft Windows or Microsoft 365 licence. I will also try to generate additional FontSubstTable extensions for the most commonly used fonts in DOCX, XLSX and PPTX files. Thanks to AI, I now have access to a list of these fonts in just a few seconds, which would have taken me weeks to compile manually. These extensions will be available for general use and for specific verticals, such as visual design.

Do something awesome! Join the Month of LibreOffice, November 2025

Month of LibreOffice banner, showing community members at events

Love LibreOffice? Join the project and help to make it even better – get involved in the Month of LibreOffice, November 2025! Over the next four weeks, hundreds of people around the world will collaborate to improve the software – and you can help them. There are many ways to get involved, as you’ll see in a second.

And best of all: everyone who contributes to LibreOffice in November can claim a cool sticker pack, and has the chance to win extra LibreOffice merchandise such as mugs, hoodies, T-shirts, rucksacks and more (we’ll choose 10 participants at random at the end):

How to take part

There are many ways you can help out – and you don’t need to be a developer. For instance, you can be a…

  • Handy Helper, answering questions from users on Ask LibreOffice. We’re keeping an eye on that site so if you give someone useful advice, you can claim your shiny stickers. We also monitor the users@ mailing list.
  • First Responder, helping to confirm new bug reports: Go to our Bugzilla page and look for new bugs. If you can recreate one, add a comment like “CONFIRMED on Windows 11 and LibreOffice 25.8.2”.
  • Drum Beater, spreading the word: Tell everyone about LibreOffice on Mastodon, Bluesky or X (Twitter)! Just say why you love it or what you’re using it for, add the #libreoffice hashtag, and at the end of the month you can claim your stickers.
  • Globetrotter, translating the user interface: LibreOffice is available in a wide range of languages, but its interface translations need to be kept up-to-date. Or maybe you want to translate the suite to a whole new language? Get involved here.
  • Docs Doctor, writing documentation: Whether you want to update the online help or add chapters to the handbooks, here’s where to start.

We’ll be updating this page every few days with usernames across our various services, as people contribute. So dive in, get involved and help make LibreOffice better for millions of people around the world – and enjoy your sticker pack at the end as thanks from us! And who knows, maybe you’ll be lucky enough to win bonus merch as well…

So let’s get going! We’ll be posting regular updates on this blog and our Mastodon, Bluesky and X (Twitter) accounts over the next four weeks – stay tuned…

LibreOffice project and community recap: October 2025

Latin American LibreOffice Conference 2025

Here’s our summary of updates, events and activities in the LibreOffice project in the last four weeks – click the links to learn more…

  • We started the month by posting the LibreOffice Podcast, Episode #5 –Accessibility in Free and Open Source Software, with Michael Weghorn and Mike Saunders. Watch it below – or on PeerTube.

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  • Markdown support is coming to LibreOffice! This is just one of the projects from the Google Summer of Code 2025, and should be included in our next major release, LibreOffice 26.2, due in February next year.

Screenshot of raw Markdown and import into LibreOffice

  • In October, we had two updates to the software: LibreOffice 25.8.2, and LibreOffice 25.2.7. The latter is the final update to the 25.2 branch, so after this, all users are recommended to upgrade to the 25.8 branch.

LibreOffice 25.8 banner

  • It’s the End of 10! Yes, in October, Microsoft ended official support for Windows 10. This leaves users who want to continue using the operating system with few alternatives — especially if they have an old PC that is not compatible with Windows 11’s demanding hardware requirements — other than buying a new PC. But we a posted about 10 reasons to switch to Linux – and, of course, many desktop Linux distributions ship with LibreOffice.

End of 10 logo

  • Lots of people ask us about LibreOffice’s compatibility with Microsoft Office/365 documents. We think our compatibility is very good (and always improving, as more people send us documents to test), but the format is extremely difficult to work with, as our posts about the DOCX and PPTX formats explain. (Of course, ideally we’d all be using the Open Document Format, regardless of the software we prefer! And here’s how to make your ODF documents more accessible.)

ODF logo

TDF team

Photo of a CPU

Photo of community members in Nepal

  • Meanwhile, the Libreitalia Conference 2025 was organized by Marco Marega – a LibreItalia and TDF Member – in Gradisca d’Isonzo, near the border with Slovenia.

Libreitalia Conference 2025 group photo

  • And our final event report was from LinuxDays 2025 in Prague, where we had a stand with stickers, flyers and a quiz about LibreOffice.

LibreOffice stand at LinuxDays

Keep in touch – follow us on Mastodon, X (formerly Twitter), Bluesky, Reddit and Facebook. Like what we do? Support our community with a donation – or join our community and help to make LibreOffice even better!

The Document Foundation announces LibreOffice 25.2.7

Berlin, 30 October 2025 – The Document Foundation announces the release of LibreOffice 25.2.7, the final maintenance release of the LibreOffice 25.2 family, available for download at www.libreoffice.org/download [1]. Users of LibreOffice 25.2.x should update to LibreOffice 25.8.x, as LibreOffice 25.2.x is approaching the end of its support period.

LibreOffice 25.2.7 is based on the LibreOffice Technology, which enables the development of desktop, mobile and cloud versions – either from TDF or from the ecosystem – that fully supports the two document format standards: the open ODF or Open Document Format (ODT, ODS and ODP), and the closed and proprietary Microsoft OOXML (DOCX, XLSX and PPTX).

Products based on the LibreOffice Technology are available for all major desktop operating systems (Windows, macOS, Linux and ChromeOS), mobile platforms (Android and iOS) and the cloud.

For enterprise-class deployments, TDF recommends a LibreOffice Enterprise optimized version from one of the ecosystem companies, with dedicated value-added features and other benefits such as SLAs and security patch backports for three to five years (www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-in-business/).

English manuals for the LibreOffice 25.2 family are available for download at books.libreoffice.org/en/. End users can get first-level technical support from volunteers on the user mailing lists and the Ask LibreOffice website: ask.libreoffice.org.

Downloading LibreOffice

All available versions of LibreOffice for the desktop can be downloaded from the same website: www.libreoffice.org/download/.

LibreOffice users, free software advocates and community members can support The Document Foundation and the LibreOffice project by making a donation: www.libreoffice.org/donate.

[1] Fixes in RC1: wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/25.2.7/RC1. Fixes in RC2: wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/25.2.7/RC2.

LibreOffice at LinuxDays 2025 in Prague

LibreOffice stand at LinuxDays 2025

On October 4 and 5, the LinuxDays 2025 event took place at the Faculty of Information Technology (Czech Technical University). It combined stands for free and open source software projects with workshops and talks, and the LibreOffice community was there, represented by Zdeněk Crhonek, Petr Valach, Stanislav Horáček and Mike Saunders.

At the stand, we had flyers explaining what LibreOffice is and how it can be used in various contexts (homes, businesses etc.) along with stickers, beer/coffee mats, and printed versions of the handbooks, to show how extensive the documentation for LibreOffice really is. We also had a fun quiz for participants to try.

LibreOffice stand at LinuxDays 2025

During the two days, many visitors came to our stand, gave feedback and asked questions. Of course, at an event focused on Linux, most visitors already knew what LibreOffice is (and many used it regularly). But they gave us some useful feedback and asked about new features, including:

  • Where is the online version of LibreOffice?
  • Better clipboard management (normally handled by the operating system)
  • More development of Base (TDF has a new paid developer role for this)
  • Better options for copying and pasting in Calc
  • Real-time collaboration would be good
  • Clearer warnings about formatting problems when opening Microsoft Office documents
  • Simplify the user interface, using OBS as an example
  • Integrate text translator directly into Writer and Calc
  • It would be nice to have an optional automatic cloud saving feature
  • Make the tabbed user interface default
  • Functions in Calc for interpolating and extrapolating values in 2D and 3D tables

Anyone who wants these features or improvements in LibreOffice is welcome to join our project and help to make it happen, or fund a developer. And we plan to be at more events in the coming months – stay tuned to this blog and our Mastodon account for news!

LibreOffice stand at LinuxDays 2025

Make your ODF files accessible: a simple guide for everyone

People without disabilities have no problem viewing documents on a computer screen, but there are people with visual impairments or who are blind who use screen readers and keyboard navigation. ODF files have everything they need to be accessible to these people too, and this is a short guide to creating documents that they can use without any problems.

In the context of digital document management, accessible means that a document can be consulted without any constraints related to the ability to see or move one’s hands with dexterity. This means that people can quickly find what they are looking for (headings, lists, indexes), understand the meaning of graphs and images thanks to descriptions, tables are simple and clear, and they can read the text because the contrast is good and the links make sense even out of context.

To achieve this result, which does not discriminate against people based on their physical characteristics, it is necessary to follow a few simple rules when creating a document. Obviously, we are talking about LibreOffice, although the rules also apply to other office suites (although in this case the document format will be proprietary and not standard).

1. Use styles for headings (not just bold text)

  • Screen readers use headings to move around the page.
  • To do this, select the heading and choose Heading 1 from the styles drop-down menu, Heading 2 for sections, and Heading 3 for subsections.
  • Avoid skipping numbers, but always follow the order 1, 2, 3.

2. Create lists using the appropriate buttons

  • This way, screen readers count the items correctly.
  • To do this, highlight the items and click on the Bulleted List or Numbered List button. Avoid typing dots or numbers manually.

3. Add alternative text to every image, graph or icon

  • This way, people who cannot see the image will still receive the message.
  • To do this, right-click on the image, select Properties, select Options, and fill in the Alternative (text only) field.
  • For example: in the case of an image, ‘team photo: from left to right, Mr. X, Mr. Y, and Mr. Z’; in the case of a graph, ‘sales increased every month, and the fourth quarter was the highest with £X million’.

4. Create simple tables

  • Complex tables are difficult for screen readers to read.
  • To do this, use the first row for headers (for example: Name and Date), and avoid merging or splitting cells.
  • Avoid using tables solely to order elements within the page.

5. Create self-explanatory links

  • A link such as “click here” tells a screen reader nothing.
  • To do this, write the action related to the link as if it were the link itself.
  • For example: “Download the budget report (in ODF format)”.

6. Set the language

  • This allows screen readers to pronounce words correctly.
  • To do this for the entire document, select the language in the status bar at the bottom of the screen.
  • To do this for a portion of the document, highlight the text and select the language in the status bar at the bottom of the screen.

7. Use light colours and strong contrast

  • Screen readers have trouble reading low-contrast text.
  • To do this, use dark text on a light background, and never use colour alone to emphasise the meaning of a word.
  • For example: “Expired items are written in red and labelled as EXPIRED”.

8. Label all fields on any forms

  • This way, even visually impaired or blind people know what to type and where.
  • To do this, add a label immediately before the field (e.g., Email Address), and maintain a logical tab order (top to bottom, and left to right for Western languages).

9. Add a table of contents to longer documents

  • This makes navigation easier and faster.
  • To do this, place the cursor where you want it, select Insert, select Table of Contents, and accept the default settings.
  • For the table of contents, level 1/2/3 headings are used, so step 1 is extremely important.

Press Releases

The Document Foundation Releases LibreOffice 26.2.1 with Contributions from Community and Ecosystem Partners

Videos describing new features available on YouTube and PeerTube Berlin, 26 February 2026 – The Document Foundation today announced the…

Open Document Format

ODF is just the first of the advantages of LibreOffice

Comments continue to be posted on articles that refer to blog posts on OOXML and related topics, from users who…