Character viewer- Characters

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Level 1

20 points

Character viewer- Characters

I'm not sure if this is the place to ask, but for lack of another one, here goes.

I constantly use the ℃ symbol in my writings, emails, etc. But every one I select turns into Lucida 12, and I do most writing in Times. The Lucida is taller, changing my line spacing and looking bad. I can then manually change the size (need to drop it to 10 to fit the line height).

The Character viewer has dozens of fonts identified, but all insert as Lucida 12. What am I missing?

mac book pro, Mac OS X (10.6.3)

Posted on Jul 11, 2010 3:23 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Kurt Lang

Level 9

58,056 points

Jul 11, 2010 3:44 PM in response to richardlw

That usually means the character doesn't exist in the font you want to use, so the OS replaces it with a font which does.

You can test such things by opening TextEdit. Copy and paste ℃ into TextEdit. Make sure it's in Rich Text mode and not plain text. Now press Command-T to open the Fonts panel. Make ℃ a large size so you can easily see it, like 96 pt.

Now click each font name in the Font panel. If the character doesn't change shape when you click on a font name, then that character doesn't exist in the font. When it does change, it of course does. As you click through remaining font names, ℃ will stay on the last font where the glyph does exist until you select another font where it does.

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Answer 2

richardlw Author

Level 1

20 points

Jul 11, 2010 4:19 PM in response to richardlw

That solves it. Looks like the Apple Symbols works.

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Answer 3

richardlw Author

Level 1

20 points

Jul 11, 2010 4:20 PM in response to Kurt Lang

That solves it. Looks like Apple Symbols works

thanks

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Answer 4

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

115,940 points

Jul 11, 2010 4:24 PM in response to richardlw

In Character Palette, View = Code Tables, Tab = Unicode, range = 00002100, select 2103. Then look below at the Font Variation pane. It shows all the fonts that do have this character. If the font you want to use is not there, instead do the two parts of the character separately.

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Answer 5

Kurt Lang

Level 9

58,056 points

Jul 11, 2010 7:00 PM in response to Tom Gewecke

Excellent way of finding that out, Tom. Though that only covers fonts which support Unicode. This method won't show you non Unicode fonts such as Type 1 PostScript or TrueType that also contain the character. I tried the "Other Encodings" tab, but it still fails to list Arial Black, Comic Sans MS, or a Type 1 Courier I have open which do have the glyph. I couldn't find another way in the Character Viewer to get around that limitation.

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Answer 6

jimblu

Level 1

50 points

Jul 11, 2010 11:40 PM in response to Kurt Lang

i love apple's "special characters" but it nowhere new as intuitive as PopChar http://www.ergonis.com/products/popcharx/

if only apple would build that in huh 🙂

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Answer 7

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

115,940 points

Jul 12, 2010 3:03 AM in response to Kurt Lang

This method won't show you non Unicode fonts such as Type 1 PostScript or TrueType that also contain the character.

That's true, but I think ideally nobody should use such a font to produce such a character if they can possibly avoid it, except perhaps for printing, because there is no guarantee that anyone else will see it in a digital document.

It still fails to list Arial Black, Comic Sans MS

Looking at the glyph catalogs of the versions of those two fonts that come with OS X, I don't see this character.

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Answer 8

Kurt Lang

Level 9

58,056 points

Jul 12, 2010 7:23 AM in response to jimblu

i love apple's "special characters" but it nowhere new as intuitive as PopChar

Hah! Yes, it is built as a "geeks" tool. Lots and lots of options and info, but not easy to sort through if you're not well versed in font usage.

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Answer 9

Kurt Lang

Level 9

58,056 points

Jul 12, 2010 7:36 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

except perhaps for printing

Yup. Clients have tons of money invested in older fonts. No chance they're going to just toss them. We see Type 1 fonts all the time.

Looking at the glyph catalogs of the versions of those two fonts that come with OS X, I don't see this character.

You are right. I had to look again after your comment. Turns out when TextEdit switches, it's just going back to the Celsius glyph in Lucida Grande anytime you click on a Unicode font which doesn't actually contain that glyph. So all three fonts I mentioned do not contain that glyph. Mostly odd that it switches whenever I click on a Type 1 Courier font, which is certainly not Unicode.

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