A question about a small Euro

Post questions about type and font design here.
Post Reply
PJMiller
Top Typographer
Top Typographer
Posts: 977
Joined: Tue Jun 16, 2015 8:12 pm
Location: Sheffield, South Yorkshire
Contact:

A question about a small Euro

Post by PJMiller »

I am designing a font and wanted to add a few open type features to it.

One of them is Petite Caps.

I have added the letters and a few symbols. The symbols !$%&() and ? were added at various points in the range $E2B1 to $E2CF with the £ sign at $E333 as this is where they usually appear. So far so good.

But where is the Small Euro sign supposed to go ?

Is there a codepoint where it usually appears ?
FCB11_25.jpg
FCB11_25.jpg (286.19 KiB) Viewed 12000 times
Bhikkhu Pesala
Top Typographer
Top Typographer
Posts: 9869
Joined: Tue Oct 29, 2002 5:28 am
Location: Seven Kings, London UK
Contact:

Re: A question about a small Euro

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

PJMiller wrote:But where is the Small Euro sign supposed to go ?

Is there a codepoint where it usually appears ?
There is no definition for it in Complete Composites. You can put it wherever you wish, or leave it unmapped. A suitable name would be "Euro.pcap"
My FontsReviews: MainTypeFont CreatorHelpFC15 + MT12.0 @ Win 10 64-bit build 19045.2486
PJMiller
Top Typographer
Top Typographer
Posts: 977
Joined: Tue Jun 16, 2015 8:12 pm
Location: Sheffield, South Yorkshire
Contact:

Re: A question about a small Euro

Post by PJMiller »

I was thinking of assigning it to $E334 in between the small sterling and small yen (although my font doesn't have a small yen) but the worry is that this codepoint has already been assigned to something else in the general conventions which exist for the private use area.

It would be good if something like LINCUA existed for normal characters as well as MUFI characters.
Bhikkhu Pesala
Top Typographer
Top Typographer
Posts: 9869
Joined: Tue Oct 29, 2002 5:28 am
Location: Seven Kings, London UK
Contact:

Re: A question about a small Euro

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

PJMiller wrote:I was thinking of assigning it to $E334 in between the small sterling and small yen (although my font doesn't have a small yen) but the worry is that this codepoint has already been assigned to something else in the general conventions which exist for the private use area.
Yes. That would be a good solution. Theoretically, it would be assigned to Petite Capital currency sign (0164) ¤ which is between Sterling (0163) and Yen (0165).
My FontsReviews: MainTypeFont CreatorHelpFC15 + MT12.0 @ Win 10 64-bit build 19045.2486
PJMiller
Top Typographer
Top Typographer
Posts: 977
Joined: Tue Jun 16, 2015 8:12 pm
Location: Sheffield, South Yorkshire
Contact:

Re: A question about a small Euro

Post by PJMiller »

Bhikkhu Pesala wrote:
PJMiller wrote:I was thinking of assigning it to $E334 in between the small sterling and small yen (although my font doesn't have a small yen) but the worry is that this codepoint has already been assigned to something else in the general conventions which exist for the private use area.
Yes. That would be a good solution. Theoretically, it would be assigned to Petite Capital currency sign (0164) ¤ which is between Sterling (0163) and Yen (0165).
Ahh ... that's the point, how did you know that was the Petite capital currency sign ? There must be a list somewhere, how do I get hold of that list ?
Bhikkhu Pesala
Top Typographer
Top Typographer
Posts: 9869
Joined: Tue Oct 29, 2002 5:28 am
Location: Seven Kings, London UK
Contact:

Re: A question about a small Euro

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

When I assigned code-points for Petite Capitals it was somewhat arbitrary, but not completely random. I am an old-timer who thinks in decimal code-points rather than hex so CompleteComposites.xml is coded with decimal code-points. It is no accident that 58097 is Small capital a (decimal a = 97). If you look at the documentation for Using Glyph Transformations, you will find a full list in the Appendix. They are also shown in the documentation for Complete Composites.

These are the ranges used by Petite Capitals.

Code: Select all

58033-58126	Basic Latin for Petite Capitals and Titling Capitals 
58048-58057	Old Style Figures, Proportional Figures, or Tabular Figures 
58160-58255	Latin-1 Supplement for Petite Capitals and Titling Capitals
58188-58190	Stacking fractions for ¼, ½, and ¾
58256-58383	Latin Extended-A for Petite Capitals and Titling Capitals
58384-58591	Latin Extended-B for Petite Capitals and Titling Capitals 
58912-58974	Basic Greek for Petite Capitals
59072-59218	Cyrillic for Petite Capitals
59680-59829	Latin Extended Additional for Petite Capitals and Titling Capitals
Codepoints 160-255 are Latin-1 Supplement, which is where you will find Sterling and Yen, but in CompositesData.xml there is a gap between Small capital pound sign and Small Capital Yen because there's no need for a small capital ¤ general currency sign.

Code: Select all

<Composite><!-- Small capital pound sign -->
<GlyphMapping>58163</GlyphMapping>
	<Member id="1">
	<GlyphMapping>163</GlyphMapping>
		<UseMetrics>TRUE</UseMetrics>
	</Member>
	</Composite>
<Composite><!-- Small capital yen sign -->
<GlyphMapping>58165</GlyphMapping>
	<Member id="1">
	<GlyphMapping>165</GlyphMapping>
		<UseMetrics>TRUE</UseMetrics>
	</Member>
	</Composite>
No definitions have ever been added for any Small capitals beyond y tilde (last of Latin Extended Additional). Users can add any definitions that they wish, or edit mine to modify them. In later versions of FontCreator we can get away from using code-points, but for legacy reasons they still serve a useful purpose.
My FontsReviews: MainTypeFont CreatorHelpFC15 + MT12.0 @ Win 10 64-bit build 19045.2486
PJMiller
Top Typographer
Top Typographer
Posts: 977
Joined: Tue Jun 16, 2015 8:12 pm
Location: Sheffield, South Yorkshire
Contact:

Re: A question about a small Euro

Post by PJMiller »

Thank you.
Post Reply