Character palette versus using keys

[Glenna Rose]

Okay, folks, we Mac users have a feature called "Character Palette"
which allows us to use special characters by displaying the palette
and choosing that character. This check mark is entered with the
character palette.

✔

What I have found is that when I use the character palette to choose a
character, it does not change if I change font (select all for a
different font) where it does if I use the keyboard using letter/
option/command/etc. combination.

My question is what is the difference between the two methods?

Glenna

[Steven W Riggins]

The character you inserted is unicode 2714, or "Heavy Check Mark" from dingbats. ✔

The code with option-v is Unicode 221A, which is an old ASCII character. √

You can see they look entirely different.

Usually if you enter a unicode character, every font has supplied a unicode version of that character, and if not, the OS won't change the font (so you don't end up with a square) For older characters, it just changes the font and you get what you get. You might end up with a ? or something.

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[Glenna Rose]

If I am interpreting correctly, Steve, when I use the palette, it is
like when we typed a command way back in CPM or DOS programs
(PeachText, WordStar, etc.) such as <tab5>, and it does not change
unless we change that particular command whereas now we press the tab
key and where it tabs to can be changed overall in the document with a
single command designating tab stops.

I hear you saying that inserting the palette character is actually
inserting a command saying insert this letter and don't change it even
if the font, size, etc., is changed, that it's "immune" to blanket
changes.

Next question is, will the palette chosen characters translate across
both operating systems and all text-based programs?

Glenna

=========

--
---<-@ Glenna Rose @->---

I cannot change the world, but I can make my little corner better.

[Steven W Riggins]

Not quite,

It depends on WHICH code you insert.  Not terribly useful I know, but the older unicodes might likely follow the font.

Most unicode characters are not part of a font per-se, they are a strict definition of the character, and if a font is to use that unicode, it HAS to be a form of that checkmark, etc.  

Older ASCII codes didn't always follow the same rules.

So likely the character palette is always inserting unicode, whereas the keyboard is just inserting an ascii character (which gets converted into unicode as everything is unicode these days) but the text engine is likely handling them a little different.

I would imagine if you inserted a unicode character that had multiple definitions in different fonts, and you changed the font, the character would change.

For example, arrow:  ↶  ↶

I inserted that arrow twice via the palette and changed the font of the second one to dejavu sans, which I know has a different look for the character, and it changed.

Now try this: 𐅃 𐅃

That is an ancient greek number character which is ONLY in one font.  I inserted it twice and changed the font of the second one, but it looks exactly the same, because the other font does not have the character, so it just uses the original font.