Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Preview font special characters

There are times I want to type a character that is not show on the keyboard. Is there a way to preview various fonts to see if the character is available?

Thanks
LarryB

macbook 2.4-4g Ram-Time Capsule-Fusion/XP-iPod mini-iPhone 4-iPad wifi 3G, Mac OS X (10.5.8), iLife09

Posted on Jan 13, 2011 12:25 PM

Reply
8 replies

Jan 15, 2011 7:14 PM in response to Larryb227

'system preferences' -> 'keyboard'

check the box next to 'Show Keyboard and Character Viewer in menu bar'

This will make a flag representing the nationality of your current keyboard setup to appear in the menu bar.

Click on it and then click on "Show Character Viewer".

Note: there may be simpler ways to do this. This is easiest for me because I type in multiple languages.

Jan 16, 2011 3:32 AM in response to Crystal Phalanx

Thanks for that Crystal, I actually just upgraded to Snow Leopard and found that feature. Problem is
I can't change the keyboard to the font I want. For instance, suppose I need a certain symbol. I would want to change the keyboard to that font and press various keys until I found it. My keyboard stays at US. I must be missing something.

LarryB

Jan 16, 2011 5:44 AM in response to Larryb227

Problem is I can't change the keyboard to the font I want. For instance, suppose I need a certain symbol. I would want to change the keyboard to that font and press various keys until I found it. My keyboard stays at US. I must be missing something.


All OS's made now use the Unicode standard, under which all fonts are supposed to have the same characters at the same codepoints. So changing a font will normally not change what is produced by the US keyboard layout. Even if you have installed some non-Unicode fonts that put other stuff where Latin is supposed to be, Keyboard Viewer (and some apps) will not display it. To input characters not available from the US layout, you must switch to another layout via the "flag" menu in the menu bar or use the Character Viewer.

Jan 16, 2011 7:15 AM in response to Larryb227

Let's say I want a symbol from the font "apple symbols". I can change the font in my document to apple symbos but won't know what keys have to depressed to produce the symbol.


Whether any particular symbol you want can be produced at all via the keyboard depends on the keyboard layout, not the font. For many thousands of symbols there is no key on any existing layout that will do what you want, so you then must use the Character Viewer (Edit > Special Characters).

In Character Viewer, to see what a font has available, you can use View = Glyph, tab = glyph catalog, font=whatever.

Some symbols are available via the US layout, and you can see these using Keyboard Viewer and trying the alt/option and alt/option + shift layers. What exactly do you need?

Preview font special characters

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.