Unicode font: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 07:59, 27 May 2025

Revision as of 17:59, 31 May 2025

Line 1:

{{short description|Computer font that maps glyphs to code points defined in the Unicode Standard}}

A '''Unicode font''' is a [[computer font]] that maps [[glyph]]s to [[code point]]s defined in the [[Unicode Standard]].<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.unicode.org/faq/font_keyboard.html | title = Fonts and keyboards | publisher = Unicode Consortium | date = 28 June 2017 | access-date = 13 October 2019 | archive-date = 18 October 2019 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20191018224143/http://unicode.org/faq/font_keyboard.html | url-status = live }}</ref> The vast majority of modern computer fonts use Unicode mappings, even those fonts which only include glyphs for a single [[writing system]], or even only support the [[Basic Latin (Unicode block)|basic Latin alphabet]]. The distinction is historic: before Unicode, when most computer systems used only eight-bit [[byte]]s, no more than 256 characters (or control codes) could be encoded. This meant that each [[character repertoire]] had to have its own [[codepoint]] assignments{{snd}} and thus a given codepoint could have multiple meanings. By assuring unique assignments, Unicode resolved this issue.

Fonts which support a wide range of [[Unicode scripts]] and [[Unicode symbols]] are sometimes referred to as "pan-Unicode fonts", although as the maximum number of glyphs that can be defined in a [[TrueType]] font is restricted to 65,535, it is not possible for a single TrueType font to provide individual glyphs for all defined Unicode characters ({{unicodenover}}). This article lists some widely used Unicode fonts (those shipped with an operating system or produced by a well-known commercial font company) that support a comparatively large number and broad range of Unicode characters.

==Background==