Creating a ZWSP with width?

Fonts and More General Font Discussions
1

Hi,
I have a need to create a zero-width space with width in a font (so that the ZWSP will be visible). I created a glyph at unicode $200B for the ZWSP but it still doesn’t show when typed - it seems that text rendering software (eg Word, FontCreator) doesn’t check for a glyph for the ZWSP, just skips over it instead.
I know that in Word I can show formatting marks and it will display a double-square for the ZWSP, but then I have to see the rest of the formatting marks too. But what I want is to see only the ZWSP.

Does anyone have any ideas about how I might create a visible ZWSP? Am I right that it can’t be done by just creating a glyph in the ZWSP position in a font?

Many thanks
BC

2

ZeroWidthSpace.png
Sorry for the late reply. I only just noticed your post.

As you can see, Font Creator has no problem displaying a glyph in a zero-width space in the Preview Toolbar, but it doesn’t display it in the Font Test window. OpenOffice does not display the glyph either, although the zero width space is shown with field shadings on.

I suspect it may be a limitation of the font rendering engine in Windows. It apparently assumes that zero width spaces are empty. It does work if you use a hair space instead — $200A