Many-faceted Characters

Many-faceted Characters
Mac Tip #366, 26 November 2008

When you select a character in the Character Palette you really only see its shape. There’s more to learn though, by looking at the Character Info and Font Variation panels.

If you’re not sure how to get into the Character Palette see last week’s Tip, Change your Character, Mac Tip #365, 19 November 2008.

Select a character in the Character Palette and click the disclosure triangles beside the Character Info and Font Variation panels. The panels open up and display detailed information.

The screenshot shows that I selected a lower case letter n from the Phonetic Symbols palette. The Character Info pane tells me its name is Latin Small Letter n, and shows me related characters that all appear to be the letter n, some with accents.

Meanwhile the Font Variation pane shows me how that character looks in fonts I have installed on my system. In the screenshot you can see a few that I’ve inserted into a Pages document. They differ wildly — some don’t even look like a letter of the alphabet.

It’s long-winded to browse for a character in the Character Palette and then find information.

If you’re looking for alternative forms for a particular character first type it into your document then click on the gear icon at the bottom of the Character Palette window. Choose Show Character Selected in Application. The Character Palette finds your character and displays it in context, with its name, along with its related characters and representations in the fonts on your computer.

Search for a character by entering text into the Search box at the bottom of the Character Palette. A list of possibilities should appear, from which you can select the character you’re looking for.

If you’re an expert typographer, or routinely handle languages that don’t use the Latin scripts of European languages then you’ll probably want to explore the other features of the Character Palette. In that case I’d recommend a book on fonts and typography for the Mac, as I’m afraid I’ve reached the limits of my expertise.

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