We definitely needed this!

Using different fonts in the current document is possible but I guess not in the way you want it to have.

High level description about how scintilla is working.
Scintilla uses lexers to tokenize the current document and to assign different styles to those tokens.
A lexer is basically code which scans the document based upon predefined and hardcoded rules.
Token is the text/string which results if a rule could be applied.
Styles are the definition how such Tokens should be displayed like which font name, size, style etc… should be applied.

So, a comment style can have a different font than, let’s say, a keyword.
But the lexer has to know beforehand the rule to identify this part of the text.
Means you could have a comment block in C++ using a different font then the rest of the code,
but there is a 1:1 relation - one token, one style.

But I guess what you want is to have the possibility to dynamically mark some kind of text
and then assign a different font. In general, this can be done by using scripting plugins like
python script or lua script but you have to be aware that

a) it is not persistent (this is also true for the builtin lexers anyway)
b) you are limited in the number of possible styles (each font attribute might be a different style, combinations of the attributes as well)
c) you cannot use it together with builtin lexers
d) possibly other things I’m currently not thinking about.

Hope this clarifies it a little bit more.

Cheers
Claudia

Notepad++ is not a word processor - it is a very advanced text editor.
The concepts behind npp and word processors like LibreOffice Writer or
MS Office Word are totally different.

Npp, I assume, will never be a word processor - so if you need
an application which allows you to configure every single piece in a
document stay with apps like LibreOffice, MSOffice etc…

From startup, npp has been designed to be fast and lightweight
and its main goal was, and I think still is, to be a tool for
programming purposes. During time and creation of plugins,
npp got a second application area - easy data manipulation tool.

But one thing which can’t be done yet, and as said, I assume never will be the case,
is to use npp as a replacement for a word processor.
The reason why I’m that confident is, that the underlying scintilla control
hasn’t been designed for such purpose either.

So, if such features from Writer and Word are needed, stick with those apps,
otherwise you chose the wrong tool for the work to be done.

Cheers
Claudia

-------------------Test Notepad++ Consolas------------------------------------------
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Also, in some other word processors, (and maybe also text editors?) you can choose to use different fonts in the same file, which we can not do in notepad++.

Notepad++ just forces you to use a single font everywhere at all times :( except for example you can set a different font for the line numbers but otherwise, can not change the font for individual characters.

Does anyone know how we can at least make different characters use different fonts in notepad++? if we can do that, that would solve our problem.

I went through all the fonts in notepad ++, scrolling, although most of it shows all the characters … but it’s not that perfect, only “consolas” is perfect in style, although it does not display all the characters like a simple windows notepad.

Only few fonts support those symbols.
From the default pre-installed fonts the best would be “Segoe UI Symbol”.
Some others: SimSun, MS Gothic.

In MS Notepad all fonts work because it has font fallback system (as others already explained). In Notepad++ it does not work.

The general complaint always seems to be “Notepad.exe can display my characters, why can’t Notepad++?”. To me, @PeterJones 's post explained that–I had no idea. Peter (and Guy) seem to have the best grasp on the concepts here, so I would hope one of them (or a collaboration) could do a “FAQ Desk”.

By the way I have Win10-1607, and there c:\windows\fonts\Global* …
these files are not present, GlobalUserInterface.CompositeFont, GlobalMonospace.CompositeFont. But they are in other sections through the search.
Anyway, thanks for helping everyone who helped. [Translated]

What I would like to add is that some of the fonts are suitable for covering all the characters.
But their style is different, and it’s hard to get used to another style.

The GlobalUserInterface.CompositeFont file includes:

    <FontFamilyMap  
        Unicode          = "2000-202E, 2030-20CF, 2100-23FF, 2460-27BF"
        Target           = "Segoe UI, Segoe UI Symbol, Meiryo, Microsoft JhengHei, Microsoft YaHei, Malgun Gothic, Tahoma, Lucida Sans Unicode, Arial, MS Gothic, MingLiU, Arial Unicode MS, MingLiU"
        Scale            = "1.0"/>

Where the range 2460-27BF covers the 2600 block. It also has similar ones with specific language codes (for example, ja, ko)… so I assume it picks the language-specific fonts first if such a language is selected, then defaults to this one. Presumably, then, it would look through the Segoes, then the Meiryo, JhengHei, and so on through the list, presumably until it finds a font with that glyph.

I would think that windows notepad would use the GlobalMonospace, not the GlobalUserInterface:
The GlobalMonospace.CompositeFont contains

    <FontFamilyMap
        Unicode="2000-202E, 2030-20CF, 2100-23FF, 2460-27BF, 2980-29FF"
        Target="Courier New, Microsoft Sans Serif, Meiryo, MS Gothic"
        Scale="1.0" />

So presumably, it searches the selected font, then Courier New, MS Sans Serif, Meiryo, then MS Gothic. When I use charmap, starting with Consolas and going through those other listed Monospace fonts, I don’t find it.

When I go thru the UserInterface fonts listed, it is in Segoe UI Symbol. So my guess is that notepad.exe really is using GlobalUserInterface.CompositeFont, and is thus displaying the rain U+26C6 in Segoe UI Symbol. You could try the same font in Notepad++, and see if it displays for you. (Unfortunately, it does not appear to be a monospace font, so I wouldn’t choose that all the time.)

Regarding the block fontsupport at fileformat.info, click on Symbola, then follow the URL entry in the table to http://users.teilar.gr/~g1951d/, then look through the “Unicode Fonts for Ancient Scripts” and click on Symbola to download a zip which (presumably) contains the font and click on manual to (presumably) get a PDF about the Symbola font.

And where can I download “symbola”? I was confused in those links.

Cheers
Claudia

In general, you are the first who really helped me, on this problem!

So, you’re looking for a font which could correctly display most of the characters of the Unicode block Miscellaneous Symbols, with characters code between \x{2600} and \x{26FF} ?

From the Unicode.org reference site, here is the link to that Unicode block :

http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2600.pdf

I, personally have some fonts, installed on my system, which can display a lot of these symbols :

Fixedsys Excelsior 2.00     116 chars
MS UI Gothic                106 chars
MS PMincho                  106 chars
MS PGothic                  106 chars
MS Mincho                   106 chars
MS Gothic                   106 chars
Arial Unicode MS            106 chars

However, these fonts do not cover the totality of the 256 characters of the Miscellaneous Symbols block :-((

So, I simply did a Google search, entering this text :

font which covers the miscellaneous symbols unicode block

And… bingo : The second address, below, gives you some fonts, at beginning of the list, which correctly displays all the characters of that block :

http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/block/miscellaneous_symbols/fontsupport.htm

After downloading some of them and installing them on your configuration, simply follow the Claudia’s advice to use it from inside N++ ;-)).

BTW, it’s not necessary to really install them ! For tests, just stop N++ , open these fonts and, then, restart N++ :-))

Best Regards,

guy038

I know that fonts are responsible to show the proper glyph but in notepad++
you have to use the style configurator to change the font

Cheers
Claudia

All characters show only a windows notepad.

are you using the same font on MS notepad and notepad++?
To change the font in notepad++ goto

Settings->Preferences
Select
Global Styles under Language
Default Style under Style
and the Font name in question under Font Style

Like here

Cheers
Claudia