spandl@iraul1.ira.uka.de (Horst Spandl) (07/13/88)
How can one access via keyboard all the characters defined within a font? Keyboard DA does not show all the characters available. We are having problems trying to get certain mathematical symbols as defined within the System font "Symbol". Eg. the symbol for mathematical inclusion may only be accessed by typing Option-'N' followed by a capital 'A' (giving a spanish 'A' with a '~' on top). I only discovered this by coincidence. It still is impossible for me to get the sign for logical AND using a German keyboard, whereas logical OR may easily be obtained by Option-'i'. I know that the symbols are defined within the font, because when I switch to US keyboard settings, both logical AND and OR can be found typing Option-'<' and Option-'1' on the extended Mac-II keyboard. We are using Mac-II and Mac-Plus machines, both with German keyboard settings. The problem appears on both machines. The system version is 4.3(D1) with Finder 6.0(D1). Does anybody on the net know a workaround? Are there any utilities, DAs or the like in the public domain, which a) allow a user to see all the characters in a font and their keyboard aquivalent and b) allow a user to individually alter the character-keyboard mapping? How can I get a printout similar to what Keyboard DA shows me on the screen? (Doing eg. a screen-dump with Command-Shift-3 does not work) Any help, pointers etc. welcome. Horst Spandl (spandl@ira.uka.de) Karlsruhe University West-Germany
cloos@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (James H. Cloos Jr.) (07/15/88)
One way to see what characters are in a font is to use a character editor (resedit will do) to look at each of the characters from 0 to 255. (In the case of the CHICAGO font, there are 4 character below 32; this font and its derivatives are the only ones I've seen w/ distinct, printing characters below 32. (I beleive the 4 are the Apple, Cloverleaf, Checkmark, and something else--they are mostly for the sake of the Menu- bar.) There are some pd/sw programs that will print out a `wall-chart' of a font. Also, there are a few dead-keys on a mac keyboard. opt-e, opt-i, opt-u and opt-` are the ones I can think up off hand (on a US-spec keyboard anyway, your mileage may vary). These are used to make it easier to add diacritical marks to lowercase letters. The four I mentioned add ', ^, umlaut, and ` respectively. (acute, circumflex, umlaut, & grave, that is.) In the Symbol font and display fonts like Zapf Dingbats you have to use these 2-key combonations to get at those 20 characters. Also, there may be some characters that cannot be directly accessed from a keyboard. (I should add that as I recal, Symbol does not use all of the characters in the region [32,255] perhaps to limit when you have to use dead-keys. If the dead keys are different on German keyboards, you'll have to do some experimentation to find all of the keyboard equivilents to the characters. Programs such as Microsoft Word allow you to specify the decimal value of the character you want to insert. If the software you are using does this as well, you can use that feature to use any characters that might be inaccessible to your keyboards. -JimC -- batcomputer!cloos@cornell.UUCP |James H. Cloos, Jr.|#include <disclaimer.h> cloos@batcomputer.tn.cornell.EDU|B7 Upson, Cornell U|#include <cute_stuff.h> cloos@tcgould.tn.cornell.EDU |Ithaca, NY 14853 |"Entropy isn't what cloos@crnlthry.BITNET | +1 607 272 4519 | it used to be."
shulman@slb-sdr.UUCP (Jeff Shulman) (07/15/88)
Well, my demoware program FontDisplay(tm) will show you every character in
any font (installed or otherwise). It will even show you how to type any
character that can be typed. FontDisplay has been written up in Personal
Publishing (June issue) and the August issue of MACazine (plus a few other
places).
I also have a DA called WriteFontSize(tm) which lets you put any character of
any installed font onto the clipboard. This DA has been recently posted to
INFO-MAC (has yet to appear though) and should make it here shortly thereafter.
It is shareware.
Disclaimer - these are my own creations and have nothing to do with my
place of full-time employment.
Jeff
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