Hello.
I have been trying to add new characters into a font. Font Creator claims I can have some 65,000 in my font.
That’s sounds nice and all, but how do I get MS Word to RECOGNIZE them???
Let’s say I create charcter uni0001. If I type ALT-0001 in Word, the character pops up. So far so good.
But when I try to use the Word Insert Symbol function, the character does NOT appear in the table of available characters.
THIS is the way my client wants to insert his characters.
What good is making 65,000 characters if Word won’t recognize 99% of them?
Assigning symbols to the appropriate code-point is vital to create standard fonts. Control codes like 001 are not used for glyphs. Any symbols that are not allocated a spot in the Unicode charts are best assigned to the Private Use Area.
Take a look at any of my free fonts to see a whole lot of miscellaneous symbols and dingbats.
FontCreator supports up to 65535 glyphs, as that limitation comes from the specification. However, since you can map more than one character to a glyph, a font can contain more than 65535 characters.
THAT IS NOT THE LEAST BIT HELPFUL I’M AFRAID. YOU ARE ONLY MAKING THINGS WORSE. TWO CHARACTERS TO A GLYPH??? This is already confusing enough, thanks.
THAT’S rather vague. What, exactly, am I supposed to learn? I checked your link. Yes, I know about those character sets, what of them?
GREAT. HOW do I do that?
GREAT. HOW do I do that?
Thanks, but no thanks. I don’t need to. I have created hundreds of fonts. (Unless I can use your fonts to swipe all your characters and then replace them with my own… so that the blank glyphs at least show up!)
I don’t use the Word Insert function myself. If I want more characters, I just make an entire NEW font. Now I am being asked to do something for a client who wants it to works a certain way.
So please tell me:
HOW DO I ADD ALL THOSE almost 65,000 Characters into a font? (Okay, how do I add 1000 characters then. Or even 50.)
I tried swiping all the characters that “exist” in MS sans serif (as suggested in the FontCreator HELP), which sort of works.
(Too bad the Font Creator order and the Word order are different so that it is next to impossible to predict WHERE the new characters are going to show up in the Word insert window. Good luck getting similar characters to end up NEXT to one another.)
But I have used those all charcters up, and now I want to add NEW characters.
HOW do I do that?
I like this program a lot, but it has some definite shortcomings.
Here is how to add a range of characters to a Unicode font (this won’t work with Symbol fonts of course!); in this case all character from the Latin Extended-B range.
Select Characters from the Insert menu. In the Codepoints edit box enter “$0180-$024F” and then press the OK button.
However, I believe I am already well past the suggestion you made. Please read my posts thoroughly.
I ALREADY HAVE, among others, the following:
Basic Latin
Latin-1
Latin Extended A
Latin Extended B
Basic Arabic
Basic Greek
Basic Hebrew
Hebrew Extended
Cyrillic
Thai
IPA Extensions
Spacing Modifier Letters
Combine diacritical marks
Greek Symbols & Coptic
etc. etc.
But I am still short about 500 characters, blank glyphs, spaces, whatever you want to call them.
It has already been suggested that I use the “Private Area”. HOW DO I DO THAT? I do I make a new character set? OR, in lieu of that, How can I make Extend Latin-B larger?
If I am alledgedly able to make 65,000 characters, where are they supposed to go? What is the Font Creator plan for these 65,00 characters?
""Here is how to add a range of characters to a Unicode font (this won’t work with Symbol fonts of course!)
Oh of course.
But WHAT IS a “symbol font”?
When I make one of those, I don’t see any difference between that and a “Unicode” font. the Word Insert function wants to insert a “Symbol”. What do they mean by that? They don;t seem to be using a “symbol” font, whatever THAT is.
What further characters do you want to add? The Private Use Area ($E000-$F8FF) is available for you to add 6400 characters of your choice.
To answer your other question in your earlier post, you cannot make the Latin Extended-B block larger. It is defined as covering the range $0180-$024F.
First of all, I don’t REALLY care about enlarging Extended Latin-B at all, I just want to add more characters to a font (in general). I have already used up all the “normal” areas (see previous posts please).
Although you say the Private Use Area is available for me to add 6400 characters of my choice (sounds great!), you still have not answered my question.
HOW do I do it?
If I go to the add character window, and add $0180-$024F (as given by you, thank you), will I then get empty characters I am seeking, and in the Private Use Area?
AND MORE IMPORTANTLY (back to my original query) will said new characters show up in the MS Word Insert Function?
THAT is what I am actually trying to accomplish.
As per my reply in your other thread, you add characters to the Private Use Area in exactly the same way as you would add them to the Latin Extended-B block, via the Insert Characters dialog. The range $0180-$024F (given by Erwin, not me!) is Latin Extended-B, and it’s only 208 characters.
I don’t use MS Word, but Private Use Area characters seem to be available via the Character Map utility in Windows, so I would have been surprised if they didn’t show up via the Insert function in Word. However, I see that you’ve now discovered that they do indeed show up.
I don’t understand where your 29 ‘new’ characters came from. Are you modifying someone else’s font? Anyway, if you need more characters which don’t already exist in the font that you are using, you need to create them!
First of all, I was thanking everyone in general at the same time.
I think the answer I was looking for is as folllows (I have now determined):
In Font Creator, you open your font. Then you go to the Insert New Character Function, where you get the big green grid.
Scroll down until it says: Supplementary Private Use Area-A Plane at the top of the window (THIS is the IMPORTANT step!).
Double-click on the glyphs in this area to add them to your font.
Apparently you are all so used to this and find it so simple, that you were unable to give me these step-by-step instructions, because you probably all just DO it without even thinking about it. From your replies I was able to infer this procedure, so it worked out.
Thank you for your help.
By the way, as I stated in my previous posts (some of you did not read them thoroughly), I don’t use the Word Insert Function myself either. this whole thing is for a client. I usually just make a new font if I want more characters, and make a Word document from which I cut (and paste) chacters.
And no, I made my OWN font, I am not modifying someone else’s. The Font Creator documentation suggests that you add characters from existing fonts, which is how I started. then placed MY OWN characters OVER these (I am not trying to steal someone else’s font, I was just trying to get blank characters to “exist”.)
Big green grid? Double-click on the glyphs in the Supplementary Private Use area?? I’m afraid you’ve completely lost me now, but I’m glad you managed to get it working for you!
Plus I am not seeing some of my posts… and then they seem to show up later…but after ones I posted in the meantime…
ANYWAY: It is still not working. My plan to go the the Insert Character window (yes, it’s green and it’s a grid), make sure I was sitting in the Private use area (A or B) DID NOT WORK
I aksed if this is an MS Word problem (will it NEVER recognize the new characters?), but I don;t see that post…(yet?)
Okay, Alfred, how do YOU insert new characters? I went to the Insert Character big green grid, nad if you double-click on the spaces, the program fills in the numbers at the bottom for you. Seems okay to me, what do YOU do that is so different?
I’m sorry if you people think I am being difficult, but repeating “just add them” or ÿou need to create them"is not very helpful, I’m afraid.
I really do appreciate your help, but so far I still do not know how to add characters (blanks that I will fill in with my own letters and symbols later) which MS Word will see in its Insert Symbol function.
