Character or Glyph. What is the Difference?
Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2020 6:11 pm
Just like Mark321 I have been trying to get my head around the question of characters / glyphs. I still can't find any definitive explanation of the difference between them - I always thought the terms were interchangeable.
I found this statement on another topic: "You can click the "Unicode" toolbar icon to show all glyphs, but unfortunately you won't be able to copy and paste them, as glyphs are not equal to characters." So, that confirms there is difference, but doesn't answer the fundamental question: how are glyphs used? If glyphs cannot be used as text in the general sense (e.g. with MS Word), why are they there in the first place? As they aren't included in the Windows Character Map, those of us not using a third-party font manager will be completely unaware of their existence at all, prompting the question: how did the font designers mean them to be used?
While investigating this subject in more detail I have found more questions than answers. For instance: taking Linotype Palatino as an example, MT indicates that it has a total of 1063 characters; however the same font on the Windows Charater Map shows only 1052 (the same as the Libre Office charactrer map). Where did the other 11 come from? Also, at the top of the MT Characters panel is a drop-down list of 22 separate sections within this font, indicating e.g. "Basic Latin (95 of 128)". 128?? Where are the other 33? If all the "of" numbers are added together, the grand total is 2884! Please, someone explain what's going on.
Incidentally, there is mention of a section called "Private Use Area" or PUA. After scouring the MT screen and the Help and the User Manual I can find no mention of this. As I said - more questions than answers.
I'm sorry, Mark321, but I'm really trying here.
John
I found this statement on another topic: "You can click the "Unicode" toolbar icon to show all glyphs, but unfortunately you won't be able to copy and paste them, as glyphs are not equal to characters." So, that confirms there is difference, but doesn't answer the fundamental question: how are glyphs used? If glyphs cannot be used as text in the general sense (e.g. with MS Word), why are they there in the first place? As they aren't included in the Windows Character Map, those of us not using a third-party font manager will be completely unaware of their existence at all, prompting the question: how did the font designers mean them to be used?
While investigating this subject in more detail I have found more questions than answers. For instance: taking Linotype Palatino as an example, MT indicates that it has a total of 1063 characters; however the same font on the Windows Charater Map shows only 1052 (the same as the Libre Office charactrer map). Where did the other 11 come from? Also, at the top of the MT Characters panel is a drop-down list of 22 separate sections within this font, indicating e.g. "Basic Latin (95 of 128)". 128?? Where are the other 33? If all the "of" numbers are added together, the grand total is 2884! Please, someone explain what's going on.
Incidentally, there is mention of a section called "Private Use Area" or PUA. After scouring the MT screen and the Help and the User Manual I can find no mention of this. As I said - more questions than answers.
I'm sorry, Mark321, but I'm really trying here.
John