After translating a Word document into Japanese, Korean, or another language with a very different character set, you may run into a frustrating problem: the text appears to be translated, but some characters display as squares, blanks, or unreadable symbols.
This is usually not a problem with the translated text itself. It happens because the font does not cover the target-language characters.
Why do squares appear after translation?
In a Word document, each paragraph, table, or small section of text can have its own font settings. A font that displays English or Chinese correctly does not necessarily include Japanese kana, Korean characters, or characters used in other target languages.
Common causes include:
- The source font does not support the target language: For example, a font designed only for Latin characters may not contain the glyphs needed after translation into Japanese.
- Tables, headers, or footers use special fonts: Body text may display correctly, while table headers, footers, or small-print notes show squares.
- Mixed-language font styling is inconsistent: The target-language text may display, but Latin letters, numbers, or brand names can look mismatched.
- Different local font environments: The person who uploads the file can see the text, but the recipient sees missing glyphs when opening the document on another computer.
Asking users to manually replace fonts in Word may work for a short file, but it becomes difficult to maintain for long documents and multilingual projects.
Good document translation needs font support
For DOCX translation, preserving formatting means more than keeping paragraphs and tables in place. The translated text also needs to display correctly in the target language.
A translation file that is ready for review or delivery should, where possible:
- Use fonts that cover the target-language characters.
- Retain important style hierarchy from the source document.
- Keep English, numbers, and brand names from looking out of place after a font change.
- Display correctly in tables, headers, footers, footnotes, and similar areas.
This is especially important for languages with noticeably different font coverage, including Japanese, Korean, Thai, and Arabic.
How SimplifyAI handles target-language fonts in DOCX files
With SimplifyAI, Word document translation is not simply a text replacement process. When rebuilding the translated DOCX, the system considers the target language and source styles to use a more suitable font presentation for the translation.
If the source font supports the target language, SimplifyAI aims to retain the original design. If the source font cannot display the target-language text correctly, it attempts to use a font better suited to that language, helping reduce squares, missing glyphs, and unreadable characters.
For business documents, this can reduce the time spent checking fonts paragraph by paragraph after translation and help produce a file that is closer to ready for review and delivery.
What types of documents is this useful for?
This capability is useful for:
- Translating English or Chinese Word documents into Japanese or Korean.
- Multilingual product manuals and technical documentation.
- DOCX files with many tables, headers, footers, and footnotes.
- Formal documents that need to be sent to customers for review.
- Cross-team delivery workflows where local font environments are not consistent.
If a document uses highly specialized corporate fonts, a final review by the design or brand team is still recommended before delivery.
Conclusion
When squares appear in a translated Word document, the translation may be correct—the font may simply not support the target language.
If you regularly work with Japanese, Korean, or other multilingual DOCX files, you can upload the document to SimplifyAI to see whether it can help reduce target-language font display issues while preserving the main layout.