From: a new user
Platform: FontCreator 5.6, Professional Edition
Okay, I’m having trouble understanding some concepts of mapping - it seems as if there’s a whole world of information that’s assumed.
Suppose I want to add a new glyph to an already-existing font for personal use (e.g., a new scientific symbol). So, I “insert” the glyph, and it sits there at the end of the list of glyphs in the Glyph Overview mode.
Question 1: Is the “Private Use Area” range of mapping exclusively for whatever you need it for? That is, can you arbitrarily assign glyphs to values without worrying about what specific value you’re using?
Question 2: In terms of mapping, what is the best way to determine “free” values to map to? I’m assuming the easiest way would be to “Sort” the glpyhs and look for gaps?
Question 3: I’ve mapped a glyph to an available value, but I don’t see the glyph when I hit F5 to test the font. If it were a character on the keyboard, I could just type it, but since it’s a new symbol, how do I get it to show up in the Test view.
Question 4: In addition to #3 above, when I install the font officially to Windows, the font does not show up in Character Map.
Q1: That’s why it is called the Private Use Area, but some codepoints in the PUA are used by some commercial fonts.
These codepoints in the PUA area are used by FontCreator to generate Small Capitals, and selected ligatures.
57344-58031 Low Profile Accents
58033-58126 Basic Latin Small Capitals
58160-58255 Latin-1 Supplement Small Capitals
58256-58383 Latin Extended-A Small Capitals
58384-58591 Latin Extended-B Small Capitals
58912-58974 Basic Greek Small Capitals
59072-59218 Cyrillic Small Capitals
59680-59829 Latin Extended Additional Small Capitals
60531-60542 Number Forms, Nut Fractions or Stacking Fractions
61125-61148 Selected Ligatures from the Medieval Unicode Font Initiative
See the tutorials on Using Glyph Transformations and Complete Composites for details. You don’t need to worry about using these areas for your own purposes if you have no intentions of adding Small Caps, etc., to your font.
Q2: Insert Characters is the best way. There you can see which characters are already mapped, and which are available. You can also look for your planned symbol in the Unicode Character sets, such as Maths Symbol, Miscellaneous Technical, or Miscellaneous Symbol, to see if it already has an official codepoint. Using Insert Character adds the correct mappings for you.
Q3: The Font Test window uses a text file, which does not contain your new symbol. Select your new symbol in the Overview window and press “P” to see it in the preview toolbar. You can cut and paste it from there to the Font Test Window.
Q4: Could be several reasons for that. Format, Settings, Unicode Ranges, Calculate fixes most problems. Rebooting fixes some others.
I’m still a little confused, but I’m making progress. For example, I wanted to add a glyph to the Symbol font so that Word 2007 would recognize it as a symbol, but I’m having difficulty.
This is very, very interesting, Bhikkhu. This should be referenced in the manual. Maybe this explains why my glyphs are not showing up in Word.
I mapped my private alphabet to $E001 to $E022, which fall within the range 57344-58031. Would it therefore be safe to put my private alphabet above 61148?
Bhikkhu, in another thread, Erwin mentions that the range 0xF000 - 0xF0FF is meant for Symbol fonts. I don’t know how this translate to decimal.
Is this range in addition to the ones you mentioned above? Are there other ranges we should be aware before attempting to use the Private Use Area for our own private use?
It is referenced in the tutorial Using Glyph Transformations. This level of detail is not really needed in the manual. It is only relevant for users of the professional edition. This is what the manual says:
Info: If you really want to take the most out of this feature, we encourage you to read the document Using Glyph Transformations, available from our website: http://www.high-logic.com/fcptutorials.html >
Note: The Transform wizard is not available in the Home Edition of FontCreator.
Maybe this explains why my glyphs are not showing up in Word. I mapped my private alphabet to $E001 to $E022, which fall within the range 57344-58031. Would it therefore be safe to put my private alphabet above 61148?
No. It has nothing to do with why your glyphs are not showing up in Word. You can map your glyphs to any codepoints you like, but the above codepoints are used by Font Creator to make the creation of Small Capitals easier. If your font is going to include Small Capitals, then it is better to reserve these codepoints for that purpose.
Bhikkhu, in another thread, Erwin mentions that the range 0xF000 - 0xF0FF is meant for Symbol fonts. I don’t know how this translate to decimal.
You can switch codepoint display to decimal by changing the default in Options.
Is this range in addition to the ones you mentioned above? Are there other ranges we should be aware before attempting to use the Private Use Area for our own private use?
This range applies to symbol fonts. Since you’re creating Unicode fonts, you don’t need to concern yourself with it.