Dingbats, other symbols keeping original glyph

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jhgrove
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Dingbats, other symbols keeping original glyph

Post by jhgrove »

Hey there,

I have a desktop application that I'm porting over to windows 10. We use a custom font that maps various unrelated glyphs onto unicode code points. This works perfectly in older versions of Windows, but when I go ahead and install the font on Windows 10, it installs the original unicode glyphs instead of our custom ones.

This is only happening for certain unicode blocks: Dingbats, Supplemental Mathematical Operators, and Miscellaneous Mathematical Symbols. Other code blocks like Braille are unaffected.

I don't have a lot of experience with font creation, so any ideas would be helpful. Should I just re-map the affected characters? Even if I end up doing that, figuring out why this is happening would generally be useful. Thanks!

Best,

John
Erwin Denissen
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Re: Dingbats, other symbols keeping original glyph

Post by Erwin Denissen »

Best thing is to open the font with FontCreator 10, and then export it. Most issues are then auto-magically solved!
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jhgrove
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Re: Dingbats, other symbols keeping original glyph

Post by jhgrove »

Exporting it from Font Creator 10 results in the same behavior, though the font was originally created with Font Creator 5.0

Any other ideas?
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Re: Dingbats, other symbols keeping original glyph

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

Check the settings on Font Properties, Ranges, and make sure that the Unicode ranges are correct.

It's not possible to install glyphs that are not in the font. If you're seeing glyphs other than those in the font, then Windows must be making a substitution because it thinks that the character set is unsupported by the font.
My FontsReviews: MainTypeFont CreatorHelpFC15 + MT12.0 @ Win 10 64-bit build 19045.2486
jhgrove
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Re: Dingbats, other symbols keeping original glyph

Post by jhgrove »

The following unicode ranges are ticked:

Arrows, Supplemental Arrows-A and Supplemental Arrows-B
Mathematical Operators, Supplemental Mathematical Operators, Miscellaneous Mathematical Symbols
Dingbats
CJK Unified Ideographs...
Braille Patterns
Tagalog, Hanuoo, Buhid and Tagbanwa


I can see that the ranges I'm having trouble with are already checked off. I'll try generating the font with the automatic character range update off.

For the Code Page Range Settings, the only one checked off is Latin (1252)
jhgrove
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Re: Dingbats, other symbols keeping original glyph

Post by jhgrove »

Attached is my font creator project for your reference. Thanks!
Attachments
RvNonStandard.fcp
(230.03 KiB) Downloaded 298 times
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Re: Dingbats, other symbols keeping original glyph

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

I disabled the setting to "Automatically update character ranges" and tested the font, which installs a temporary font in Windows 10 (Creators Edition).
Automatically Update Character Ranges.png
Automatically Update Character Ranges.png (10.48 KiB) Viewed 6766 times
I then selected the temporary font in PagePlus X9, and inserted a number of glyphs from different character sets. All seems to be working as expected.
Non Standard Glyphs.png
Non Standard Glyphs.png (20.37 KiB) Viewed 6766 times
My FontsReviews: MainTypeFont CreatorHelpFC15 + MT12.0 @ Win 10 64-bit build 19045.2486
jhgrove
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Re: Dingbats, other symbols keeping original glyph

Post by jhgrove »

So, if you take a look a the top line of the .png you uploaded, you can see some of the fonts I'm having an issue with.

The "black circle white star" ($272C) in the top line is one of the offending glyphs. It should display something that looks like a helicopter, instead it shows the original unicode character.

I have also tried it with the "Automatically update character ranges..." box unchecked, which results in the same behavior.
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Re: Dingbats, other symbols keeping original glyph

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

Many glyphs at the end of the font are not mapped.

Black Center White Star (10028), is multi-mapped also to 10031-10033, 11207, 11212, 20429, 20432-20434
My FontsReviews: MainTypeFont CreatorHelpFC15 + MT12.0 @ Win 10 64-bit build 19045.2486
jhgrove
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Re: Dingbats, other symbols keeping original glyph

Post by jhgrove »

Most of the glyphs are multi-mapped to different code points, which is (from what I am seeing in the user manual), a valid behavior. I'm asking why only certain glyphs do not show up correctly. $03E8 is also multi-mapped, but only glyphs in certain blocks are being substituted by windows.

When I create a new font and assign the exact same glyph to those code points (even multi-mapping them), it works correctly for some code points but not others. For example, no matter what I do, code point $0BB8 will not display a custom glyph. Can you think of any reason for this inconsistent behavior? I'm following the guides and tutorials on creating new characters, so I don't know what the issue is.
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Re: Dingbats, other symbols keeping original glyph

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

I have no idea why it's happening, but also don't understand why you choose such random code-points.

Why not just remap all of the glyphs to the Private Use Area? Something like the attached.
Attachments
RvNonStandard Remapped.fcp
(228.59 KiB) Downloaded 332 times
My FontsReviews: MainTypeFont CreatorHelpFC15 + MT12.0 @ Win 10 64-bit build 19045.2486
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Re: Dingbats, other symbols keeping original glyph

Post by Erwin Denissen »

I don't know why, but I've managed to make some improvements by just adding the character Latin small letter b. I've even left it empty, so I'm puzzled why this character seems to be required.

Do let us know if this helps.
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jhgrove
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Re: Dingbats, other symbols keeping original glyph

Post by jhgrove »

I agree that the font is a little weird! Unfortunately, I did not make this font. I'm merely a developer picking up the pieces of someone else's work. Although remapping to the PUA is definitely something I've considered doing.

In the short term, it looks like Erwin's solution has worked! I don't know why, but I'll take it. Thanks for all your help everyone!
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