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Niels Grundtvig Nielsen

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entering unicode characters

Mar 7, 2013 12:53 AM

Tags: #unicode

I need to enter a checkmark (unicode u2173) in an Illustrator drawing: surely, in 2013, this ought to be easy? but as an occasional Illustrator user I'm not having much success :-{ Illustrator CS5 on Win 7 … hints and tips welcome!

722 Views 10 Replies Latest reply: Niels Grundtvig Nielsen, Apr 12, 2013 1:03 AM

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1. Kurt Gold,

Mar 7, 2013 10:01 AM in reply to Niels Grundtvig Nielsen

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Assuming the font you're using contains this character, you can use the Glyphs palette to insert it.

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2. Pat Willener,

Mar 7, 2013 11:44 PM in reply to Niels Grundtvig Nielsen

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Niels Grundtvig Nielsen wrote:

checkmark (unicode u2173)
That is not a check mark; look under U+2713.

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3. Pat Willener,

Mar 7, 2013 11:59 PM in reply to Niels Grundtvig Nielsen

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P.S. the only font that I found (on Windows) that contains that symbol is Arial Unicode MS.

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4. Mylenium,

Mar 8, 2013 12:39 AM in reply to Niels Grundtvig Nielsen

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I don't think Unicode MS will show up in AI, which could be the problem... Still, there's plenty of dingbat fonts out there and surely it would be easy enough to find suitable checkmarks...

Mylenium

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5. Niels Grundtvig Nielsen,

Mar 8, 2013 12:59 AM in reply to Pat Willener

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The "local font list" tool at www.fileformat.info, which I have found generally reliable, tells me that I have quite a few fonts on this PC that include U+2713. (even if the actual glyphs in the blackletter and script fonts looked wildly out of place) En passant, I'd be the first to say there are far too many fonts installed on this "corporate" PC, but that's a different question ;-}
Arial Unicode MS is one of them, and I eventually tracked it down in the fonts pulldown. The snag I ran into was not so much a question of font, as of access. U+2713 is in the Dingbats block, which is not listed in the "Show" pulldown of the Glyphs panel – so I had to scroll determinedly up and down the list and hover over a character every now and then to see where I was. I would prefer to insert a Unicode glyph quickly and efficiently by entering its U+ code – or from a panel like the one in Adobe FrameMaker.
But thanks for the tip, as I have now been able to use the glyph I needed …

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6. [Jongware],

Mar 8, 2013 2:06 AM in reply to Niels Grundtvig Nielsen

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There is a Windows hack involving some registry editing, but it has been noticed this doesn't work with "all" software.

For InDesign I use a simple, short Javascript -- and I stored it under a hotkey. Unfortunately, that's not an option with Illustrator! This quick adjustment of one of the sample scripts seems to do the job just fine, but its usefulness is reduced by having to call it up through File -> Scripts -> (browse for script) -> Enter ....

// if a document is open
if(documents.length >0)
{
   // if textframes exist in the document
   if(activeDocument.textFrames.length > 0)
   {
      // check to make sure something is selected.
      selectedItems = selection;
      if (selectedItems.typename == "TextRange") 
      {
        ucchar = prompt("Unicode character (hex)", "2713");
        if (ucchar)
        {
         // alert ("The following text is selected: >" + selectedItems.contents + "<");
           if (ucchar.match(/^[0-9A-F]+$/i))
           {
             selectedItems.contents = String.fromCharCode(parseInt(ucchar,16));
           } else
           {
             alert ('Bad Unicode "'+ucchar+'"');
           }
        }
      }
      else
      {
        alert("No text is selected.");
      }
   }
   else
   {
      alert("Open a document and select 1 or more text items or a text range.");
   }
}
else
{
   alert("Open a document and select 1 or more text items or a text range.");
}

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7. Pat Willener,

Mar 10, 2013 1:56 AM in reply to Niels Grundtvig Nielsen

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Niels Grundtvig Nielsen wrote:

I would prefer to insert a Unicode glyph quickly and efficiently by entering its U+ code
In Windows you can use keyboard shortcuts to enter characters that are not on the keyboard: hold down the left Alt key, then enter the decimal number of the U+ code, preceded by a zero. For instance Alt+0165 (U+00A5) would produce the '¥' sign.

Similarly Alt+010003 (U+2713) or Alt+010004 (U+2714) would produce ✓ and ✔. That works nicely in MS Word, but unfortunately not in Illustrator - I don't know why.

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8. Pat Willener,

Mar 10, 2013 1:52 AM in reply to Niels Grundtvig Nielsen

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P.S. forgot to mention that the number must be entered using the numeric keypad.

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9. Niels Grundtvig Nielsen,

Mar 21, 2013 7:03 AM in reply to Pat Willener

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You know, all the times I've tried to find out about this … this is is the first time anyone's explained that Windows expects/requires decimal and not hex. I'll try next time I'm in Illustrator and report back.

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10. Niels Grundtvig Nielsen,

Apr 12, 2013 1:03 AM in reply to Pat Willener

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Success! downgrading Word – which, as a long-time FrameMaker user, I rarely touch anyway – to the status of helper app lets me use the Alt + 0 + {decimal} trick to get hold of the characters I'm after, then copy/paste into Illustrator ;-}

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entering unicode characters

Mar 7, 2013 12:53 AM

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