First, I’m working on FontCreator 5 and I wanted to test the problem in FCP6 but a) the demo won’t let me save the font and b) the integrated preview window poorly does not accept unicode input (tried Alt and enter +711 for example).
The problem is easy to reproduce: Create a new font, add a character with random outlines, eg. the HL logo. In Properties > Mapping switch to “Microsoft Unicode BMP only”, leave Format to default (Segment mapping) and add the Value $711 for example. The character “Syriac Letter Supercript Alaph” will correctly appear in the list. Now save/install the font and open the windows charmap. The testfont will -of course- be empty, lots of empty letters, except the one character at U+0711 but the outlines won’t be the HL logo as excepted.
If I’m doing something wrong please point me into the right direction - basically I want to open Word, press Alt and enter +711 so the character mapped before appears. I tried a number of codes and most work but some just don’t. This is a major problem for my font and I urgently need help on this.
$711 is the hexadecimal code-point for Syriac Letter Superscript Alaph.
Its decimal code point is 1809, which is what you need to type with the Alt key to reproduce it in Word. ܑ
To show any mapped glyphs in the Preview toolbar, select in the glyph overview and press shortcut “P” to Preview the selected glyphs. That saves having to type them.
In my test, using a temporary font in Wordpad, the newly created Syriac character using the High-Logic logo showed up only after I recalculated the Ranges to include the Syriac character set in my font.
To recalculate the ranges, go to Format, Settings, Ranges, Calculate.
Syriac Character Set Range.png
If the Syriac character set is not supported in the font, then Wordpad (and Word too I presume) will substitute another font that does called “Estrangelo Edessa.”
So I just saved and installed that font, opened Word and typed both Alt codes to test - without success. Looks like this is somewhat related to the country settings I guess? Sorry for causing trouble but I really need to know why that’s not working.
Well, what I basically need is a set of characters that can be entered by typing codes, see the following table:
table.png
Currently I’m typing the characters by entering the corresponding Alt-Codes, eg. the first symbol is Alt +111, second is Alt +211, first in second row ist Alt +121, and so on (just to clarify: the ‘+’ is for entering hex-codes - doesn’t work on all machines tough). There are many more tables like this and it’s important that you can enter the numbers using this system. If there’s a better approach please let me know!
I installed my font, and tested it in Wordpad by holding Alt and typing the decimal code-point 1809. It worked correctly, even typing right to left.
Syriac.png
Presumably you have enabled support for complex scripts in Windows Control Panel?
Advising you on how to edit and design keyboards is beyond the scope of FontCreator support. It is something you need to discuss with others who know what this font is designed to do.
Doesn’t work, but complex scripts are installed. I’m often using japanese input so everything for displaying complex fonts should be installed.
I’m sorry I didn’t mean editing keyboard layouts. What I basically need is a font that’s not relying on keyboard layouts, meaning no translation whatsoever. Just display the whatever code I type in.
I finally found a solution - the Range from #F000 onwards is for private use and assumable doesn’t get translated. This shortens the possible range for my font but it should be enough, the only thing is that I have to type the F before the character code.