Spaces

Post general font related questions (e.g. how to install, convert and use fonts) and requests (looking for fonts, designers etc.) here.
Post Reply
Pyanepsion
Posts: 52
Joined: Thu Jun 04, 2020 5:33 pm

Spaces

Post by Pyanepsion »

Hello everyone,
The Unicode table tells us that the $2000 glyph (enquad) is called Half-Cadratin and the $2002 glyph (enspace) is called Half-Cadratin Space.
I guess there must be some differences between these two glyphs, especially since they are very close to each other in the table, but apart from the name, what is it?
The same is true for 2001 and 2003.
Thank you for your explanations.
Bhikkhu Pesala
Top Typographer
Top Typographer
Posts: 9873
Joined: Tue Oct 29, 2002 5:28 am
Location: Seven Kings, London UK
Contact:

Re: Spaces

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

If you look at UnicodeData.txt you can see there is a difference in their definitions.

Code: Select all

2000;EN QUAD;Zs;0;WS;2002;;;;N;;;;;
2001;EM QUAD;Zs;0;WS;2003;;;;N;;;;;
2002;EN SPACE;Zs;0;WS;<compat> 0020;;;;N;;;;;
2003;EM SPACE;Zs;0;WS;<compat> 0020;;;;N;;;;;
Read the documentation on Unicode.org to find an explanation.
My FontsReviews: MainTypeFont CreatorHelpFC15 + MT12.0 @ Win 10 64-bit build 19045.2486
Pyanepsion
Posts: 52
Joined: Thu Jun 04, 2020 5:33 pm

Re: Spaces

Post by Pyanepsion »

Thank. Bhikkhu Pesala.

I have seen it, but I don’t understand concretely what it changes on these characters.
For 2000 and 2002, the differences are
1. The name ‘DEMI-CADRATIN’ and ‘ESPACE DEMI-CADRATIN’.
2. The decomposition type ‘2002’ or ‘<compat> 0020’.

Same for 2001 and 2003.
Erwin Denissen
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 11108
Joined: Fri Oct 04, 2002 12:41 am
Location: Bilthoven, The Netherlands
Contact:

Re: Spaces

Post by Erwin Denissen »

These space characters were used by typographers to manually set type. In the digital era, several of these spaces use the same advance wdith.

Set both advance width values of 2000 and 2002 to half the units per em. 1024 units in a 2048 unit per em font.

Set both advance width values of 2001 and 2003 to units per em. 2048 units in a 2048 unit per em font.
Erwin Denissen
High-Logic
Proven Font Technology
Pyanepsion
Posts: 52
Joined: Thu Jun 04, 2020 5:33 pm

Re: Spaces

Post by Pyanepsion »

My question is about the real difference between 2000 and 2002 which justified the creation of two characters in Unicode. And similarly between 2001 and 2003.
Post Reply