How can I fix "missing Calibri font" errors in Pages?

I'm so darn frustrated! Every time I try to open up a Microsoft Office document in Apple Pages, Apple Keynote or Apple Numbers, I get a warning message about fonts Calibri and Cambria being unavailable. Every time. Yet the documents aren't using the typeface anyway. What gives and, more importantly, how can I fix it so I don't see the $#@$# missing font errors?

Dave's Answer:

You bring up a fundamental compatibility problem with iWorks applications on the Mac versus Microsoft's Office suite on the Mac: while the file format of MS Word, for example, is understood by Mac Pages, there are fonts that are included as part of MS Office that aren't actually part of the default font set on a Mac.

If you've never installed MS Office, you therefore have a problem: there are fonts that might be needed that aren't available. That's the error you're seeing and I'm familiar with it because I too had this same frustrating problem.

I even went into Apple and talked with a "Genius" about it and he had no real solution other than to suggest that I actually install Microsoft Office 2008 on my computer. Yeah, a $100+ solution to a minor annoyance? Not so good.

I then thought that a good solution might be to download the trial edition of Microsoft Office for the Mac, on the assumption that it'd install the fonts as part of the trial, then when I deleted or removed the app, it'd more likely than not leave the new fonts. Still, I didn't really want to have MS Office running on my computer after having spent months teaching myself the iWorks suite after deciding to switch away from Microsoft software on my Mac.

And then I had that "aha!" moment. Let me show you exactly what I figured out...

Caveat: I'm not sure of the exact terms of the Microsoft license for installing demo software, so it's possible that extracting the fonts to install separately might be a violation of terms. If so, I'd appreciate hearing so from someone on the Microsoft team and I'll modify this article appropriately to reflect that. You, as the reader, have been warned. Oh, and a small print reminder too: Ask Dave Taylor exists for purposes of entertainment only. It's not my intention that you actually ever do what I talk about here. We clear?

I'll start by sharing the warning I was seeing with about 75% of the documents I was opening in Numbers:

mac iworks missing calibri cambria font 1

You could ignore this sort of thing, but if you're like me, you want to know what's going on! Click on "Review" and the fateful error appears:

mac iworks missing calibri cambria font 2

Oh, and when I open a Word (.doc) document in Pages? Same darn error:

mac iworks missing calibri cambria font 3

Frustrating as heck!

Here's the solution I came up with, though as I already said, it might not be the one you want to use to solve the problem on your own Mac or IMac system...

On the Microsoft Mac software Web site Mactopia, there's a spot where you can check out all the available downloads. Look closely and you'll see:

mac iworks missing calibri cambria font 4

That's what I want to experiment with so I clicked on the "Download Free Trial" button and after much download time (it's 600MB) the MS Office disk appeared and the Office Installer showed up. I don't want to install it, though. Instead, I right clicked on the icon and chose "Show Package Contents":

mac iworks missing calibri cambria font 5

That's the secret "open the box" Finder option and instead of the icon, it shows everything that's included:

mac iworks missing calibri cambria font 6

I went into the "Packages" folder and now it's a Where's Waldo sort of moment: I had to browse through all the available packages to find "Office2008_en_fonts.pkg":

mac iworks missing calibri cambria font 7

I double clicked on it and found that I could install just the fonts from Microsoft Office 2008 demo edition on my Mac...

mac iworks missing calibri cambria font 8

I went through the necessary steps then ejected the virtual disk, quit the unstarted install process, and that was it. Done.

Further testing demonstrated that the Calibri and Cambria fonts had been installed in the correct place on my MacBook Pro and the problems no longer arise upon opening Microsoft Office documents within iWorks apps. Sweet!

Categorized: Mac OS X Help (Article 9628, Written by Dave Taylor)
Tagged: apple keynote, apple numbers, apple pages, font problems, iworks, microsoft excel, microsoft office, missing fonts
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Comments

Amazing! Not often I find such clear, concise, and accurate info on the web...

Big time thanks to you Dave!

Posted by: Mike at October 5, 2010 5:54 PM

Thanks dude - awesome instructions - works like a charm

Posted by: ed at October 11, 2010 1:49 PM

Going to try it out right now. I wonder if after the trial period the font would disappear? Probably not, but I guess I wouldnt be surprised if MS did something like that.

Posted by: Chris Cooper at October 11, 2010 2:37 PM

Thanks Dave. Tried it with MS Office 2011 Mac and it worked great.

Posted by: Tom at February 18, 2011 2:56 PM

Instructions worked to a T. Pages converts word docs with Calibri font without error now. Thanks for the post.

Posted by: KD at February 24, 2011 9:02 PM

Just wanted to thank you for your most excellent instructions. I have just done this with the new version and it works. You're a star!

Posted by: Nick Lee at March 4, 2011 5:55 AM

awesome answer to a perplexing problem! I am a new iMac owner and was transferring over documents and getting that annoying message - I will try this solution - thanks so much for sharing

Posted by: Jill Rust at March 12, 2011 3:22 PM

Bingo! Yes, it worked for me for Office 11 as well, which is good because I use MSWord at the office and occasionally have to work on stuff at home. (And I refuse to install MS products, having left the PC world altogether.)

I also like that Calibri is now installed in Pages, since I use that for work. It's a clean, readable font for copy decks.

Posted by: daveed at March 20, 2011 4:50 PM

Worked a treat - thanks Dave.

Posted by: Michael Trench at April 8, 2011 3:04 PM

You have no idea how much I appreciate this post!!! I'm in school for my doctorate and all my professors and fellow students use office. Of course, the default font is always the &*$%^ calibri! Every hour, every day, all the time, I get that stupid error. No more! Thank you so much!

Posted by: Jason at April 19, 2011 3:22 PM

please help!

i have followed your intructions, dowloaded the fonts package in isolation, quite the rest of the installer but cannot get the fonts package to open i fontbook.

what have i done wrong??

BW MJ

Posted by: mj at June 26, 2011 1:09 PM

Thank you, Dave. This has solved a lot of problems for me as well.

Posted by: Ken at July 10, 2011 8:42 AM

Stellar instructions; timely help. Thanks for the assist, Dave. You've done a wonderful service for the non-MS world.

Posted by: PTarsus at July 26, 2011 1:19 PM

Outstanding instructions! Thank you so much! :)

Posted by: DeDe at August 6, 2011 5:24 PM

Brilliant. I have been quietly, though constantly, annoyed at that Would you like to review message. This worked exactly like you said. Thank you so much!

Posted by: Sam Prefect at August 9, 2011 11:00 PM

Sounds so simple and I did everything, installed office2011_en_fonts_fontcollection.pkg, said it installed successfully but it didn't work. Tried restarting it but still nothing. I was so happy to find this but now I'm totally bummed. Does anyone have any ideas? I'd sure appreciate them. Thanks in advance and thanks for this suggestion.

Posted by: Sierra Amber at August 13, 2011 11:18 AM

Tried it again downloading the office2011_all_fonts.pkg and it worked!!! yay!

Posted by: Sierra at August 13, 2011 1:13 PM

Cool. Although on Aug 27, 2011, the provided download link is not correct, it takes you to some MS Office updates files. Instead try: https://www.microsoft.com/mac/trial, enter name and e-mail address, and download. It's a 900MB download, so it's going to take 10-30 minutes depending on your speed.

Posted by: Peter at August 27, 2011 7:41 AM

I'm a Mac newbie and, like probably everybody else, have been totally driven crazy by those annoying popups whenever I opened Windows documents with Pages or Numbers. Although the download links didn't work like expected, the relinks actually do as well and the workaround is still valid. Even with the current Office 2011 installer. I can't thank you enough, Dave, for enhancing my user experience with my Mac significantly. You rock! Regards from Germany.

Posted by: Stephan at September 3, 2011 1:48 PM

OMFG, thank you.

Posted by: Jessica at September 21, 2011 9:08 PM

Can I delete the rest of the software suite after I install the fonts package? <<<<Newb

Posted by: Caleb at September 28, 2011 9:21 AM

Caleb, yes, you should be able to do that safely. If not, just install it again. :-)

Posted by: Dave Taylor at September 28, 2011 9:39 AM

You are a genious! Such a simple fix! Thank you for figuring this out for us! Now why can't apple fix this with an update? EVERYONE must have this problem. Thanks again!

Posted by: DY at October 1, 2011 10:22 PM

If you prefer to download only a 45MB file (rather than 900MB), you can use the "Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 1.2.1" at

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads?pid=Mactopia_AddTools&fid=9796588D-238F-4694-9598-1AA8D2BECB55#viewer

Installation process is somewhat different: look for the font package ("OpenXML_all_fonts.pkg")inside folder "Packages". Inside the folder "Contents" you'll find file "Archive.pax.gz". Double click on that. It will download a folder "Archive" into your downloads folder. Look inside that folder Archives and you'll find all the MS fonts.

Now just drag them all into your Fonts folder within the Library, which you'll find by clicking on "Go" in the Finder menu, then clicking on "Computer" and then on your Macintosh HD. Done...

Posted by: Peter at October 17, 2011 10:35 AM

Many thanks for that clear and precise workaround, I am new to Mac and was beginning to despair, Your solution is perfect.

Posted by: Dennis at November 5, 2011 2:58 AM

wow i was very skeptical on this. THUMBS UP!!

Posted by: matt at December 7, 2011 11:30 PM

Brilliant. Thank you.

Posted by: Fred Avolio at December 11, 2011 10:21 PM

I followed all your instructions on "Fixing Calibri Font" Erros in Pages and it did not work? I still have the same problem each time I open a Word doc. in Pagas. I still have the following in the "Warning" menu-Bwgrk, Bwhebb, Bwgrki and Text frames as all missing. So what do I do to stop this from showing again and again.

Posted by: Andrew at December 15, 2011 12:54 AM

Bad news: Microsoft's Software License Agreement that comes with Open XML File Format Converter for Mac states...

"By using the software, you accept these terms. If you do not accept them, do not use the software.

"2. FONT COMPONENTS. While the Office for Mac software is running, you may use its fonts to display and print content. You may only
"• embed fonts in content as permitted by the embedding restrictions in the fonts; and
"• temporarily download them to a printer or other output device to help print content."

Therefore, using the fonts without running Office for Mac appears to be a violation of Microsoft's software license agreement.

Posted by: Robert Godfrey at February 1, 2012 2:29 PM

I have something to say, now that you mention it, but ...

I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!