I have read with great interest discussions about using fonts for languages like Japanese or Chinese. I have also read mention of a high byte that makes these complicated languages possible using fonts.
I do not have a need for any foreign language but I do have a great need for a font that would allow more than 256 symbols.
Would some one direct me to how I could learn to create a font that would allow much more than 256 symbols?
Can I simply copy and rename a Chinese font and change the glyphs just as I have successfully done using a Windows Arial as a base?
Where do I get a Chinese, Japanese font that I could use the the Font Creator?
Would I then be able to use this new large capacity (numerous symbols) font in the same application as a normally created Windows font (ie Arial)?
I would not mind only using CHARMAP to access each of the numerous new symbols in the new font. I don’t think I need any language software because I would only be using symbols. But would I need special software or special Window settings to be able to use a High Byte font?
Thank you in advance for any information. A high capacity (high number of symbols) font is critcial for an application that I am developing.
Hugh
Can I simply copy and rename a Chinese font and change the glyphs just as I have successfully done using a Windows Arial as a base?
I don’t think the license does allow you to edit, modify or reverse engineer Arial. The use of any commercial font is governed by the terms of its manufacturer’s End User License Agreement (EULA). Many foundries allow their fonts to be altered, as long as these altered versions are used in keeping with the terms of the original’s EULA. If you have questions about what can or can’t be done with a font, you should contact that font’s manufacturer.
Only the first 224 characters of symbol fonts will be accessible, a space and up to 223 printing characters. If you need more characters the symbol font is not an option.
Unicode fonts can have very large numbers of characters, thousands in the case of Chinese, Japanase, or Korean CJK fonts.
If you want a font with normal A-Z characters, but with lots of extra symbols a Unicode font is best. Take a look at the characters and symbols available in the Unicode standard, and see if your planned characters can be mapped to the Unicode codepoints.
If your font will have unique characters, like a house-planning, or garden-planning symbol font, the mapping doesn’t need to follow any standard. You can create as many symbols as you want, mapping them to the ANSI character set so that most can by typed directly from the keyboard like in Wingdings or Webdings fonts.
Unicode Charts
Babel Map is a great tool to have to locate any Unicode character by codepoint or name search. I use it frequently to cut and paste Unicode characters, just like using character map, but to paste symobls here we need a different method.
Fractions: 8539-8542: ⅛ ⅜ ⅝ ⅞
Arrows: 8592-8601 ← ↑ → ↓ ↔ ↕ ↖ ↗ ↘ ↙
Maths Operators 8704- ∀ ∁ ∂ ∃ ∄ ∅
Geometric Shapes 9632- ■ □ ▢ ▣ ▤ ▥ ▦ ▧
Erwin,
Thanks, I think I understand and agree. I really have no wish to modify and use an existing font. Since I am so new and ignorant of so much about fonts, it helps to have a working font and to make changes to see how they work. But that is just for testing and learning purposes.
My fonts would be a complete replacement for all of the Glyphs so it is no problem in starting from scratch once I know what I am doing.
If Symbol fonts are limited to 224 characters, would Unicode fonts allow me to exceed 256 characters using two bytes instead of one?
Can I use your Font Creator to create a Unicode font using the high byte?
If Font Creator is not currently capable if high byte font generation, could you direct me where or what I may find that ability. I will still be using your product for the single byte font generation.
Thanks,
Hugh
I have never worked with Symbols fonts and didn’t know they were limited to 227 characters, though it wouldn’t surprise me. I don’t know of any disadvantage in using a Unicode font, but you will have to consider what mappings you use very carefully as not all applications support Unicode, but only ANSI. All of the characters in the ANSI set are mapped to positions in Unicode (with two-bytes).
If you start a new Unicode font, the overview helps you by indicating the outline of the glyph one would expect to find in each position, and in the case of A-Z etc., this is also the key that is normally used to type it in Windows. This template will get you started with over 650 glyphs already mapped.
Though you say you will be using a character map in your application, might there not be a possibility that users might want to edit in Wordpad for example and paste characters back into your application? If this is the case, the key assignment could be useful. Not everyone knows this, but several additional accented letters can be typed on a UK keyboard with Ctrl Alt áéíóú or Ctrl Alt Shift ÁÉÍÓÚ then ? € with Ctrl Alt 4.
Will your font benefit from composite characters? This can save a lot of work and significantly reduce the font size. For example, in most fonts, because aeiou are defined and ´ is defined, one doesn’t need to define áéíóú again as separate glyphs. One just creates composite glyphs. If your font has a character like ←, you don’t need to define separate characters for ↑, →, and ↓. You may wish to, but you don’t have to. Some symbol fonts have a lot of repeating elements that lend themselves well to the use of composites.
Thank you very much Bhikkhu. You have been extremely helpful, informative and encouraging. I need to learn so much. I was especially ignorant about Unicode standards. It was just a tag necessary for creating fonts via the Font Creator. The links that you included on your previous responses and a look at your web site made me well aware that I need to educate myself much more fully in order to do what I wish to do.
I believe that I will also read up on the composite capabilities of the Font Creator. They may be very useful in limiting the final size of my font but I will still need the high byte.
I have a hundred questions. But I do not choose to take your time in asking questions I might resolve by reading and testing what you have offered already. I will take a few days to do that. Then if you do not mind I may email you or get back on this forum with more specific and intelligent questions.
I just have two questions now.
- Is it as simple as say in MS Word to format a string of characters to a particular font. One time use a standard Windows font to print each single byte. And then another time format that same string of characters only to a new font that uses a high byte. Would it then print a character or symbol for each pair of consecutive characters?
2)Is there a way to increase the size of the initial standard unicode that you mention that has approximately 665 characters?
Thank you again for all your assistance. You have been a great help.
Hugh
Thanks again,
Hugh
I don’t understand question 1.
Question two is easy. Yes you can insert as many characters as you need upt to 64,000 I believe. Somebody else on the forum was using Font Creator for a Chinese font with 20,000 characters, and requested an enhancement to the program to search for glyphs in the insert glyph dialogue box when creating composite characters. My fonts only have 450 or so glyphs, but I would still appreciate that enhancement.
If you keep responding on the forum, rather than by email, our discussions will be of benefit to others, and I will be corrected if I say something wrong or misleading. It is better all round. Don’t forget, I am just an amateur user of Font Creator since last October. I have a limited knowledge of fonts and font editing, rather specific to my own expereince with my Unicode fonts for Pali and Sanskrit.
More information on the fonts you want to make is always helpful, otherwise we may offer the wrong solutions.
The Unicode system actually has over a million codepoints. 2048 codepoints are reserved for combined mappings. The first 1024 combine with the second 1024 to create over a million extra mappings for glyphs. Add that to the 63,000+ normal codepoints, and you have quite a lot of room to put glyphs.
As a solution for Hugh’s problem, I would recommend mapping your extra glyphs to characters like é, ö, and all the other characters you can get with an international English keyboard setting. You could also map to αβγ Greek or пзш Russian. I don’t even know about Arabic, Hebrew, or any others, but different keyboard layouts should let you access a number of characters more than adequate for your needs.
Hi Bhikkhu and Vanisaac,
I just wanted to really thank both of you. I have a fairly significant background in all kinds of computer programing. But to be honest this business of fonts was snowing me. There were so many terms that I did not know (even conceptionally). With the two of your help, I have been able to spend the last few days re-reading Erwin’s help and Bhikkhu’s web links to educate myself on fonts. It made a lot more sense this time around.
I am really happy to say that I have been able to accomplish exactly what I wanted with a newly created Unicode font that uses a lot of composites to save space and simplifies creation and allows more than enough expansion for all the characters or symbols than I might ever need. And I have gotten it to work in my developing program exactly the way that I envisioned it.
Sorry if I have not given more details on my font usage. But I am hoping to market a program that I am developing. It is based on an extremely simple idea for a niche market. But in searching the internet it appears to be an original idea. The fonts are not the idea but to explain what I want to do with fonts would require releasing the idea. In implementing a new software product it will be a great advantage not to have any competition for the first year.
I’ll close this item thanks to you. But will follow this forum. I find fonts fascinating. I will add a couple new feature requests for Erwin and open another support post for a minor issue.
Thanks again, 
Hugh