Mapping new Glyphs above the 654 in default Creator font

FontCreator - Font Editor FontCreator - Support
1

This is follow on to a previous question about exceeding the 654 Glyph positions of the default. The response to that was to simply use the Add New Glyph menu option. That worked great I have added another 600 Glyphs making 1200 + glyphs.

Now I am trying to map them. I select and right click on one of the new glyphs and select property. Then I select Microsoft Unicode from the drop down. Then I assign $0600 unicode address to it. I started with 600 because it was the first large group of addresses that were not already used in the Creator default. 600 relates to Arabic area within Unicode.

The 600 unicode address gets assigned fine within the Creator. And I followed this process for the next 10 characters 600 - 610. However, when I install the font. these 600 address glyphs are not apart of the Windows CHARMAP. I am using Windows/XP.

Is this a problem of exceeding the 650 glyph limit of the default or is it something that I did or not do with the mapping process?

Is there something else that I have to do. These Glyphs that I have created are going to be part of a program I am developing they will never be used in any other program that would have them conflicting with the standard Unicode characters that are assigned.

My question is how do I assign valid Unicode addresses to these new un-coded Glyphs with addresses that will be included in a Window Unicode font character set?

I have read the posting about Unicode and XP and I do not think this is the same problem. There I believe that they were trying to specifically use characters that were not currently assigned. Since this font of mine will only be used in my propriatory program, I do not believe that I should have any trouble using any character position. Even the Letter “A” can is will be used because this font will only be used to display or print these special graphic characters.

Any help or direction on this I would greatly appreciate. I hope that this is not a severe limitation on using unicode via windows. My program is built around the concept of a graphic character set of multiple thousand characters.

Thanks
Hugh

2

Try this:

Format, Settings, Ranges, Contents and Layout (Version 1)

Then click the Edit button to assign Unicode Ranges used by your font. Check the box for Arabic.

Maybe you need to add the Arabic code page too - I’m not sure about that.

3

Bhikkhu,

That is great! I am at work right now so will not be able to try it until tonight. But you have been right on, all along. This should carry me for a while.

These fonts are a critical component of the software I am trying to implement. So your help has been greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Hugh

4

Bhikkhu,

I tried your suggestion about using Unicode Ranges and Code pages and it still did not work. I noticed that MS Arial TTF uses Arabic characters close to the Unicode range that I was using.

I brought Arial into Creator and found out what Unicode Ranges and Code Pages it was using and set my font to the identical settings. It still did not work. Then I tested using some of the exact Unicode addresses that Arial include in it character set. I had been testing with unicode addresses 601 - 606 then I switched to unicode addresses 631 - 636. That worked fine in my font.

Apparently not all of the character positions within a unicode range are functional. Or I do not know how to make them functional.

Does anyone know how I can determine which character positions within any Unicode range are functional?

Thanks
Hugh

5

The characters from 0604 to 060B in the Arabic character set are , (for future extensions of Unicode I suppose). That may be why you cannot get them to work.

All of Latin Extended A and B are fully functional. I also use a lot from Latin Extended Additional.

Download Babel Map to see the full Unicode range. Why not get a copy of the Titus Unicode Font to see how you can assign large numbers of characters to a single font? Only 600 is not a large font by any means. Someone on this forum was talking about 50,000 glyphs in a Chinese font!

6

Bhikkhu,

That sounds like me. Of all the possible numbers in Unicode, I should just pick out of the air some addresses that are reserved.

Peace,
hugh