Unicode Superscript Characters Shown Incorrectly

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Level 1

9 points

Unicode Superscript Characters Shown Incorrectly

Unicode characters ¹ ² ³ ⁴ ⁵ ⁶ ⁷ ⁸ ⁹ ⁺ ⁻ in word processors (tested with Word and LibreOffice Writer) are not the same height and location compared to each other. The problem looks different with different fonts. With Liberation Serif numbers ⁶ and ⁹ are higher. With Arial and Times New Roman characters ⁴ ⁵ ⁶ ⁷ ⁸ ⁹ ⁺ ⁻ are higher.

I noticed this problem first with LibreOffice and made a bug report about it before noticing this is an operating system specific problem.

This problem exists at least in OS X 10.11 El Capitan and macOS 10.12 Sierra.

Mac Pro, OS X 10.11

Posted on Feb 20, 2019 11:29 PM

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Answer 1

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

121,956 points

Feb 21, 2019 5:15 AM in response to tomihasa

I think the problem is that various fonts do not have all the superscripts (they are in different unicode ranges), so other fonts get substituted which have a different metric for these. You can just go down the list of fonts in the menu to find which ones have them all. Here is sample from Pages in 10.11

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Answer 2

tomihasa Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 21, 2019 3:43 AM in response to Ruskes

Well, I personally will just avoid using those Unicode characters and use the superscript functionality of the word processors instead.

Installing a fixed version of the fonts could be a solution, if there are any. I have not searched for better font files and there is no need for me as long as I remember to avoid those Unicode characters.

Maybe someone will try to find out if there are fixed fonts for Mac computers, and report their findings here.

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Answer 3

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

121,956 points

Feb 21, 2019 10:15 AM in response to tomihasa

Well, I personally will just avoid using those Unicode characters and use the superscript functionality of the word processors instead

That is the best way to do superscripts and subscripts in general. The Unicode versions only make sense where that kind of functionality is missing, and where you can control the font they are being displayed with.

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Answer 4

Ruskes

Level 4

1,421 points

Feb 21, 2019 12:16 AM in response to tomihasa

Great findings.

So what do you recommend to do about it, if anything can be done.

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Unicode Superscript Characters Shown Incorrectly

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