GN4 uses standard fonts for display and printing, driven by the internal GN4 font metrics.

There is a centralized table in the database with GN4 font metrics for all of the fonts imported in GN4. Only fonts listed in this table can be used in the composition of text. The list specifies font code, font name, screen font to use for video rendering, PostScript font file to download to the output device if the font is not present, font metrics, and kerning pair values for the font. Each font also has an associated font layout that specifies which characters are defined, their type, and PostScript and XML character names. This additional information makes it easy to use fonts with non-standard layouts such as symbol fonts or custom made fonts. They can be used, printed and displayed in true WYSIWYG.

Users with the required privileges can edit all the data associated with each font (including kerning pairs) using the EdAdmin4. Fonts can be quickly added to the system by importing them from an Adobe font metric file (AFM) or from an installed TrueType or Open Type font.

The system uses TrueType or Open Type fonts (TTF and OTF extension), or Type I fonts, imported to Microsoft Windows (PFM and PFB extension) to display fonts.

A default font for printing is always specified in the formats used for justification, so it is not necessary to specify a 'default font' at the system level. Bold and italic are never considered variations of a base font. Rather, they are a different PostScript font. Other variations like underline, superscript or subscript are defined using markup commands and are not inside the font.

All Roman GN4 fonts use the Unicode font layout, independently whether they are the real Unicode fontsor not. Symbol fonts continue to use Symbol or Dingbats font layout.

Important: to store the full set of Unicode characters in the GN4 database (and this includes also the case when you want to store characters that belong to more than one codepage), the GN4 database has to be converted to Unicode format.