IBM Cognos Analytics Default Font Updates in Release 12.1. 0
IBM Cognos Analytics latest release 12.1.0 has changes in the way default font is used in generating PDF reports. Until prior to 12.1.0 release, when a report does not specify a font Cognos will display it with the default font, Andale WT. This font will be displayed only for PDF generated reports and used to be bundled with the application installation. However, starting 12.1.0, the Andale font is no longer made available in the installation and the default font for the Cognos application is replaced with IBM Plex Sans.
This blog addresses the needs of new customers and existing customers alike and will provide guidance on how they can easily map the font changes with ease. You can set default font in the configuration tool if your reports will be generated in only one language or can set it at each report’s page object-level as well. If you must use multiple languages in or across your reports, please refer the section detailed later in this blog.
What’s Changed:
The Andale WT font has been removed as a default font from Cognos release 12.1.0 onwards and replaced with the IBM Plex Sans font. The Andale font file is removed from the Cognos install and the default font in the global configuration is now specified as IBM Plex Sans Font. Customers do not need to make any further change to continue to use the default font and the change can be validated in the global configuration.
Validating the change for default font:
The default font setting under the global configuration is changed automatically from Andale to IBM Plex Sans in your Cognos 12.1.0 installation. You can validate it in the Global Configuration in the Cognos application as shown in the diagram below:
Figure 1: Default Font Configuration
In case you have modified the default font setting from Andale to a user-specified font, then it will not be replaced with IBM Plex Sans in your current implementation upon upgrading to 12.1.0 release. It must be a customer driven change if one need to use IBM Plex Sans font to go and reset the global configuration.
Existing Report’s Font Changes:
If you had your default configuration set to Andale until prior to Cognos 12.1.0 release and you did not specify any font in your reports, then the existing reports that were using Andale WT font in the generated PDF will now use the IBM Plex Sans font. The newer reports will be displayed with the IBM Plex Sans font from this release onwards If no font is specified at the report level.
This impacts only the PDF reports as the html report has always been displayed using the client-side fonts used by the browser
Multilingual Report Font Changes:
If you have reports that uses characters other than English, please note that IBM Plex Sans does not support wide range of Unicode characters for certain languages. The following languages – Arabic, Devanagari, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Thai you are better advised to use the IBM Plex Sans variant of the language font. For example, if you have localized your language settings to Simplified Chinese and your default font used to be Andale WT, then you should modify the report specification to ensure IBM Plex Sans SC is used. These IBM Plex Sans variants fonts are also installed with the Cognos 12.1.0 application.
These language variants of IBM Plex Sans are not specified in the GlobalReportStyles_<version>.css file, so it is essential that you ensure the correct font is set in the report for the appropriate display of the characters in the chosen language to appear correctly.
Customer licensed Andale Font Usage:
In certain cases, customer organization would prefer to use Andale font and would already carry the license for the font usage. They can continue to use the Andale font, and it is still listed as one of the fonts in the global configuration as below. However, it is customer’s responsibility to ensure the global configuration says Andale as the default font, as the Cognos 12.1.0 release would have changed it to IBM Plex Sans. It is the customer responsibility to ensure the font files are installed in the Cognos Analytics server instance and the font files are reachable as specified in the Physical Fonts location property and your font is mapped as per the Physical fonts map property.
Figure 2 Andale WT Font in Global Configuration
Checklist for default font settings:
- · Validate the global configuration to ensure IBM Plex Sans or customer-supplied font is set as default font
- · Update the global configuration to your language variant of IBM Plex Sans or customer-supplied if you are generating reports using non-English characters.
- · If you continue to use Andale font, ensure font files are installed and mapped properly