Talk:Symbol (typeface)

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There are actually a lot more math and logic symbols in the "upper half" of the 8-bit encoding (not currently shown in the table), and a TrueType version of the font ships with most versions of MS-Windows... AnonMoos 00:44, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Font comparison

What's the purpose of the comparison table? Times New Roman is in the wrong column and Arial is used under the Times header... --13:14, 11 November 2007 86.129.40.126

I really don't know the purpose (though it displays as advertised for me). AnonMoos 00:04, 12 November 2007 (UTC)
I've fixed it so that Times New Roman is under the Times header instead of Arial. When I added the comparism table and the comparism of the style of the characters, I intended to compare the Symbol characters with the standard characters of the Latin alphabet, but know I'm realising that that would be like comparing the Greek alphabet with the Latin alphabet, not really having much to do with the Symbol typeface, though it does shows how Symbol is related to the other standard fonts, unlike other fonts like Webdings, which are totally unrelated. So, either AnonMoos or 86.129.40.126 or some other user, feel free to be bold and remove the table if you find it irrelevant. ♠TomasBat 22:09, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] PS standard font

What are the other three standard fonts available on most PostScript-based printers? --Abdull 11:12, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

Actually that's pretty much historical now -- the "Standard 13" was in PostScript printers during the 1980's and in low-end PostScript printers during the 1990's: Symbol, and regular, bold, italic, and bold-italic versions of Courier, Times, and Helvetica. Nowadays the PDF format has the "Standard 14", and most PostScript renderers have at least the "Standard 35". AnonMoos 13:04, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Just for fun

Here's "To be or not to be, that is the question; Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing, end them. To die, to sleep; No more; and by a sleep to say we end" encoded as if it were typed in the symbol font:

Το βε ορ νοτ το βε, τηατ ισ τηε θυεστιον; Ωηετηερ 'τισ νοβλερ ιν τηε μινδ το συφφερ Τηε σλινγσ ανδ αρροωσ οφ ουτραγεουσ φορτυνε, Ορ το τακε αρμσ αγαινστ α σεα οφ τρουβλεσ, Ανδ βψ οπποσινγ, ενδ τηεμ. Το διε, το σλεεπ; Νο μορε; ανδ βψ α σλεεπ το σαψ ωε ενδ.

However, it goes without saying that a comparison of similar letterforms in the latin and greek alphabets (nevermind one based on a Y=Ψ equivalence) doesn't belong in this article, except if perhaps a section were to be written on its use in such a way (which does exist - Last Exile does it) - but, then, Wingdings is also used that way. —Random832 20:30, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Encoding

It seems that modern systems (mine is Linux), the Symbol font has a unicode mapping; see here (descriptions as they appear on my screen):

  • Code: "m μ µ" (the latter is the unicode "micro" symbol)
  • In default font "m μ µ" (correct glyphs, the mu a bit smaller than the other ones)
  • In Symbol: "m μ µ" (appears as correct glyphs, but in non-matching x heights)
  • Non-existant font for comparison: m μ µ". (appears as default)

The letter table in the article with the symbol font row just appears as A B G etc. Maybe the article should have some info about the unicode mapping (I'm not sure what it is supposed to be). Han-Kwang (t) 12:40, 23 November 2007 (UTC)

The article already provides links to the unicode mappings registered by Adobe and Apple. —Random832 15:35, 13 December 2007 (UTC)

Let me rephrase the question: how is the table in the article supposed to look like, especially the ascii encoded row "for older browsers"? As now, it is more like a test for what your browser is doing, since "older browsers" may display row 4 with Greek glyphs, while newer browsers display row 4 with roman glyphs. Apparently, there is no way that will work in both. I think the article could use more explanation here, about how software on various platforms is supposed to display ascii characters (0x41-0x7A) if Symbol is selected as a font. Han-Kwang (t) 16:11, 13 December 2007 (UTC)

The symbol font actually predates the Unicode encoding standard by 5 or 6 years. However, the table in the article is using Unicode charaters, as far as I can see... AnonMoos (talk) 16:35, 13 December 2007 (UTC)
The intention of the ascii encoded row in that table is so that even on older browsers (actually, I think it's older versions of the font file itself) there will be at least one row that shows what the symbol font actually looks like. It's not intended as a test, it's intended to make sure that at least one thing works in either case. —Random832 16:42, 13 December 2007 (UTC)
In other words, what it's supposed to look like is: Greek alphabet in default font; Greek alphabet in Times or Times New Roman; and two rows, at least one of which contains the greek alphabet in the symbol font. —Random832 16:44, 13 December 2007 (UTC)