Special characters, symbols, and glyphs

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Using the Glyphs docker, you can find and insert special characters, symbols, and glyphs (variations of individual characters or character combinations) of OpenType fonts.

Filtering

All characters, symbols, and glyphs included in a font are displayed by default, but you can filter character subsets to display only the characters you want. For example, you can display only currency symbols or numbers, or you can display only Cyrillic characters and symbols.

Characters included in a font are organized in the following categories:

OpenType fonts

The Glyphs docker is ideal for viewing and applying the OpenType features provided by OpenType fonts. The default view shows a list of characters in which the glyphs for individual characters appear grouped. Alternatively, you can display a longer list that shows available glyphs at a glance.

Viewing character position

Each selected character appears against a set of blue lines that let you preview its position in relation to the text baseline.

1) Text baseline	3) Font x-height
2) Ascender line	4) Descender line

Most recently used special characters

You can use the list of most recently used special characters to copy characters that you use often. The list retains the font attributes of most recently used characters and any OpenType features that were applied. You can manage the list by removing characters that you no longer need.

Glyphs without Unicode numbers

Glyphs that have no Unicode mapping can be accessed only in specific circumstances and with specific sets of OpenType features. Such glyphs cannot be inserted by using keystrokes, but you can still add them to your document from the Glyphs docker.

Glyphs without Unicode numbers are inserted as glyphs not characters; therefore, you cannot change their font. For example, if you change the font of text that contains a glyph without Unicode mapping from Gabriola to Impact, the glyph will remain a Gabriola glyph as shown in the following example.

Left: A glyph without a Unicode number. Top: Text that starts with this glyph. Bottom: The font is changed, but the glyph remains the same.

It is easy to tell glyphs without Unicode mapping apart from other glyphs because they are displayed against a gray background in the Glyphs docker.

To add a special character, symbol, or glyph

You can also
Drag a character	Using the Pick tool , drag a character to the document window.
Copy a character	Click a character in the Character and glyph list, and click Copy.
View information about a selected character	Click the arrow button at the bottom of the Character and glyph list to view any of the following attributes that are applicable: character name, ID, Unicode number, keyboard shortcut for inserting the character, the OpenType feature name, and the language for glyphs that can be displayed properly only in a specific language.
Zoom in and out	Move the Zoom slider. To zoom in and out in preset increments, click the zoom buttons to the right and left of the Zoom slider.
Navigate to a special character by using an Alt code	Click in the Character and glyph list, hold down Alt, and type the Alt code for the character you want.
Navigate to a character	Press the corresponding key on the keyboard.

To filter special characters, symbols, and glyphs

To view glyphs of OpenType features

Left: The OpenType feature indicators below individual characters show that more glyphs are available. Right: When the Show all glyphs button (1) is pressed, you can see available glyphs at a glance.

Viewing grouped glyphs

The Show all glyphs button is not available for fonts that do not support OpenType features.

Some glyphs provided by OpenType features vary depending on the context in which they appear and cannot be shown in the Glyphs docker. You can view and insert such glyphs in the document window by using the onscreen OpenType feature indicator. For more information, see To enable the onscreen OpenType feature indicator.

To use the list of most recently used special characters

 

To	Do the following
View the font and OpenType attributes of a character	Point to the character.
Copy a character from the list	Right-click the character, and click Copy.
Remove characters from the list	Right-click a character, and click Remove or Remove all.

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