Insert Unicode characters not working - please help
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Thank you! The registry editing method solved my problem.
Probably in Windows 7 (what I use) this kind of unicode input is not enabled by default. I did not mentioned what Windows version I use, because I did not even imagine that Win7 does not supports this by default.Thanks again!
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I observed a strange behavior of Np++
There are some unicode chars that are not displayed in the editor, but are well displayed in the Windows notepad.exee.g.:
U+2230 ( ∰ ) volume integral symbol
U+2231 ( ∱ ) clockwise integral symbolIn Np++ a box appears instead the symbol:
In notepad.exe symbols look fine:
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Hi, @zsolt-kántor-0 and All,
The fact that you see small boxes, instead of real characters, means that :
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Your current N++ font cannot handle these characters
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Your OS did not find out a substitute font to display the character glyphs
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Finally, your OS did not find out a fallback font, too !
As for me, I generally use the monospaced font
Consolas
and the current version of this font ( on my oldWin XP SP3
laptop ! ) just displays boxes with an question mark inside !But , if I change the default font in
Settings > Style configurator... > Global Styles > Default style > Font style > Font name
and choose, for instance,Lucida Sans Unicode
orMicrosoft Sans Serif
orTahoma
, I do get the characters∰
and∱
:-))I bet your
Notepad.exe
current font isMicrosoft Sans Serif
, isn’t it ?Best Regards
guy038
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Thanks for the detailed explanations and for your help.
It is strange, but notepad.exe font is Lucida Console and for Np++ is the same. And notepad.exe do displays those symbols but Np++ does not with the same font configuration. -
@Zsolt-Kántor-0 said in Insert Unicode characters not working - please help:
notepad.exe font is Lucida Console and
Lucida Console does not have those glyphs, as of the version that came with my Windows 10 machine:
Lucida Sans Unicode does have them.
As @guy038 explained, Windows sometimes chooses a fallback font compared to the font you have set in a given application… But I’ve found that Windows favors doing that substitution in built-in Microsoft apps; whereas in externally-produced applications like Notepad++, Windows OS seems less-likely to apply the fallback fonts.
Sites like fileformat.info will show lists of fonts that do contain a glyph for a particular
- U+2230 ( ∰ ) volume integral symbol @ https://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/2230/fontsupport.htm
- U+2231 ( ∱ ) clockwise integral symbol @ https://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/2231/fontsupport.htm
So if you can find a monospace font there that meets your font licensing requirements, you could download that font and set it as the font you use in Notepad++. (What annoys me is that all of the Deja Vu fonts, except the Deja Vu Sans Mono that I use in NPP, support those glyphs.)
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Thank you @PeterJones , you helped me a lot (@guy038 also). It is clear now for me how symbols/glyphs are displayed. I’ve also tested Lucida sans unicode and those symbols do appear in Np++
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@Alan-Kilborn said in Insert Unicode characters not working - please help:
You may also want to try this setting enabled for your situation
Checking for confirmation: When I pasted the text into my v8.1.1 with DirectWrite checked, it showed the fancy integral characters; if I have DirectWrite unchecked (and re-start NPP, of course) then it doesn’t render. And both of those were with the same Deja Vu Sans Mono font, which doesn’t natively have those glyphs. (Same results with a fresh unzip with Courier New selected). So yes, I think there’s a good chance that turning on the DirectWrite option will help the @ZsoltKántor, even if the active font doesn’t have them.
I wonder if there’s ever a good reason for having that option off? Should we lobby Don to change the default state of that option for future versions? (it might head off questions like this in the future)
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@PeterJones said in Insert Unicode characters not working - please help:
I wonder if there’s ever a good reason for having that option off? Should we lobby Don to change the default state of that option for future versions? (it might head off questions like this in the future)
I think I saw some discussion somewhere that having it on can cause performance issues.
So maybe it is 6-of-one, half-a-dozen of the other: Do we want more my-characters-don’t-display questions, or more my-N++ -is-slow questions? :-)
I always run with DirectWrite on, but I don’t do a lot of things with file types that appear to be cycle-hogs (e.g. XML). But, thinking about it now, even careting through N++'s config file xml stuff is rather slow for me – perhaps it is related to DirectWrite? Hmmm…
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@PeterJones said in Insert Unicode characters not working - please help:
I wonder if there’s ever a good reason for having that option off?
A quick search of the forum shows:
After those three, I stopped following the links. I can see that whatever the default state of that toggle, we’re going to get questions about why NPP works the way it does (or outright complaints about how awful the most recent change was). No point in changing the default, I guess. :-)
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@PeterJones said in Insert Unicode characters not working - please help:
No point in changing the default
It’s always a “hard sell” to get a default changed anyway. :-)
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@Alan-Kilborn said in Insert Unicode characters not working - please help:
You may also want to try this setting enabled for your situation:
Thanks @Alan-Kilborn , this works, the two downsides what I observed is that the characters overall are a little bit thicker, and np++ start up a bit slower.
But good to know about this option :) -
@guy038 said in Insert Unicode characters not working - please help:
Set or create a string, of type (REG_SZ), value called EnableHexNumpad in the registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Input Method\ Assign the value data 1 to this key
I was looking for a long time for solution to this. Thank you!
It’s weird that is not a default thing after so many years.
Cheers -
@ZsoltKántor said in Insert Unicode characters not working - please help:
@Alan-Kilborn said in Insert Unicode characters not working - please help:
You may also want to try this setting enabled for your situation:
Thanks @Alan-Kilborn , this works, the two downsides what I observed is that the characters overall are a little bit thicker, and np++ start up a bit slower.
But good to know about this option :)Solved issue for me as well, thanks a lot! The odd thing is, that this setting was true per default on one machine, but false on others… so hat the issue on some machines, even same NP++ version, same file etc. tried everything but nothing worked, until found this post!
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@hfrmobile said in Insert Unicode characters not working - please help:
that this setting was true per default on one machine, but false on others
It would depend on what version was first installed on each of these machines.
Recently, DirectWrite was defaulted to On for new installs, whereas on older versions, it was defaulted to Off.
So yes, “true per default on one” and “false on others” is perfectly understandable.