unicode fonts

[kcjimmyk]

I am having trouble with unicode fonts. for example, there is a perfectly good upsilon with acute accent in the font I am using - δύναμις (the font is noteworthy that came with lion which is not an option here to show you.) But when I copy and past a word from Accordance it uses the substitute font instead (for that letter only). Happens with Pages and Mellel. Does anybody know how to remap the font or know of a program to do it. I can enter the accented vowels using the unicode hex input keyboard layout, but that is quite cumbersome.

 

I am using the latest version of Lion and Pages and Mellel.

 

If you have Mellel and the Noteworthy font I have attached an example.

 

Thanks in advance

 

Jim

[Joe Weaks]

Something you need to understand about fonts these days is that many do include characters in the more advanced range of unicode characters, but no font contains 'every' unicode character.

For instance, Noteworthy does have some characters in the higher Unicode range, such as the Greek alphabet without any accidentals, but it does not contain characters in the higher, more specialized range of combined Greek characters. So, the operating system either substitutes a different display font for those characters or shows a missing character mark.

If you want to use Greek characters, you need to choose a font that includes the full range of Extended Greek characters, including those combined with accent and breathing marks.

[kcjimmyk]

Something you need to understand about fonts these days is that many do include characters in the more advanced range of unicode characters, but no font contains 'every' unicode character.

For instance, Noteworthy does have some characters in the higher Unicode range, such as the Greek alphabet without any accidentals, but it does not contain characters in the higher, more specialized range of combined Greek characters. So, the operating system either substitutes a different display font for those characters or shows a missing character mark.

If you want to use Greek characters, you need to choose a font that includes the full range of Extended Greek characters, including those combined with accent and breathing marks.

 

 

Thanks for the quick reply. I do understand what you are saying. The thing is, many (I would even say most) of the extended Greek characters are present in Noteworthy, they are just mapped to a different spot in the unicode file. Isn't there some kind of standard mapping, or a way to change the mapping? I have a fairly good grasp of how unicode differs from regular fonts and this just got me scratching my head.

 

Thanks anyway.

 

Jim

[Joe Weaks]

... many (I would even say most) of the extended Greek characters are present in Noteworthy, they are just mapped to a different spot...

'Noteworthy' does not have glyphs for extended Greek. It does have glyphs for the basic, modern, mostly unaccented Greek range.

 

1. Launch the application utility Font Book

2. Select the 'Noteworthy' font

3. Select menu item Preview/Repertoire

4. Scan down to see the entire Repertoire of glyphs for code points contained in this rather small font.

It will help to expand the window to fill your screen and then use the outside, round slider to reduce the font size of the palette to make the font as small as remains legible.

You can see that 'Noteworthy' does include Greek characters for the Basic Greek range U+0370–03FF. That is for modern Greek and does include the modern tonos accent only, which looks like an acute, but is not enough for what you need.

By way of contrast, select 'Lucida Grande', and then scroll down to see this larger Unicode font offerings. If you scroll about three-fourths of the way down, you'll see the Extended Greek Range, U+1F00–1FFF, and all the accented Greek characters in their full glory.

 

Most apps will use a different font automatically to display unicode character range code points that your current font does not contain. This often is transparent to us the user. You can easily see this:

1. Copy this text: λέγει αὐτῷ

2. Open a TextEdit document and paste the text

3. Select all in the text

4. Open the Font panel using menu item Format/Font/Show Fonts (Or use ⌘T)

5. Change the font to 'Noteworthy'

6. Select and highlight each individual character one at a time. (Using shift and the arrow key is an easy way: ⇧→ then → then ⇧→ then →, etc.)

You will see the font in the Font Panel change from 'Noteworthy' to another font (probably Lucida Grande) for every accented character.

 

The only way to display Greek in the 'Noteworthy' font is to use non-accented Greek characters. You can set Accordance preferences to 'Strip accents' when you copy, and you'll get results that look like: λεγει αυτω

[kcjimmyk]

Thanks for your most helpful advice. Do you know of a Greek font that has a casual look that might blend with Noteworthy? My usual writing format is ITC Clearface and IFC-Greek Unicode. But like about a million other suckers I like the casual look of Noteworthy (The "Tekton", or "Comic Sans" of today) if you know what I mean.

 

Thanks again.

[Joe Weaks]

[kcjimmyk]

You'll need to look at all the samples out there by searching the internets.

 

Thanks for the uh, advice. I found a galore of Greek fonts here. http://www.russellcottrell.com/greek/fonts.asp

[Joe Weaks]

Thanks for the uh, advice. I found a galore of Greek fonts here. http://www.russellcottrell.com/greek/fonts.asp

That was, uh, the first link I gave you.

Seriously though, good luck with trying some out. Let us know if you end up with a handwritten Greek font to recommend.

[kcjimmyk]

That was, uh, the first link I gave you.

Seriously though, good luck with trying some out. Let us know if you end up with a handwritten Greek font to recommend.

 

Boy do I feel stupid. I was too dumb to uh, click the link.

 

Thanks again.

[kcjimmyk]

Just to finish up, thanks again for your help, I'm sorry I didn't notice your links. I found a font I like labeled Theano Didot (only it appears as "Old Standard TT" in the font list). I found it here http://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/greek-fonts.asp.

 

Thanks again.