Comments on: Desperately seeking insular G!

Question: Desperately seeking insular G!

quercus — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 18:38:29 -0800

How do I upgrade unicode?

This is an insular g

It's Unicode is U+1D79. I have Mac OS X and it's not listed in the Unicode characters on the Character Palette. How do I upgrade my unicode database to get an insular g? Thanks.

By: boaz

boaz — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 19:55:22 -0800

Have you tried using the 'Unicode Hex Input' keyboard layout? Basically, you turn on its checkbox in the International Preference Pane, then you turn on the input menu, and select it from the menu. Then, with that keyboard layout selected, hold down the option key and type '1d79' (you see, hex input). If you're in a program that allows automatic font substitution (like, say, TextEdit), you should see the character if any font contains that code point, even if the character name isn't in OSX's Unicode registry.

By: ook

ook — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 20:05:09 -0800

I'm pretty sure what you're actually looking for is a font which includes that glyph, not a "unicode database," no?

It looks like these gaelic fonts include it, or you could try searching for unicode fonts which include the "Latin Phonetic Extensions" range. (Here and here look like good places to start.) Note that many fonts described as "for windows" will work just fine on OSX; you don't need to limit yourself to just the mac fonts if they don't have what you need.

By: quercus

quercus — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 20:05:28 -0800

Thanks for your help Boaz. That will already help me as a shortcut typing other characters.

The problem is I have no font that has an insular g, even junicode, a comprehensive medievalist font, nor can I find one that does.

So I'm thinking maybe I could install the latest version of the unicode characters, though the technical docs are over my head. Is there an easy way?

By: ook

ook — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 20:07:08 -0800

(sorry, the 'gaelic' link should've been this)

By: quercus

quercus — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 20:10:29 -0800

ook-thanks. I had seen the Celtic scripts but they don't have the exact version I'm looking for-their g's are more handdrawn. I really want the unicode version.

I hadn't seen the fonts on your other links so I'm going to check them out. Thanks for your help.

By: hattifattener

hattifattener — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 20:54:38 -0800

It looks like U+1D79 LATIN SMALL LETTER INSULAR G was added to Unicode in version 4.1.0, so presumably the code tables used by OSX's character palette doohickey are older than that.

You should be able to use that character from a font that includes it even if OSX doesn't know the name, though. The Medieval Unicode Font Initiative has links to some fonts, perhaps one of them has a glyph for U+1D79.

By: mumkin

mumkin — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 21:06:44 -0800

I'm no medieval font scholar, but Old Standard, available to download here, has what looks to be a pretty crisp, not-handdrawn lowercase insular g at 1D79. (can you see this one: ᵹ ?)

Perhaps I'm being pedantic, but here's how I got me some insular, G.

1) Download and install Old Standard.otf
2) Select View: Code Tables from the dropdown at the top of your Character Palette
3) Select 00001D00 Phonetic Extensions - Latin
4) Scroll down to the 1D70 line.

By: mumkin

mumkin — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 13:51:38 -0800

5) ... and it's right there at the intersection of 1D70 and 9, below the Greek Subscript Small Letter Phi. Double-click to insert it in a document.

Did that work for you?

By: quercus

quercus — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 20:11:59 -0800

Thanks Mumkin and hatti and everybody above. The links were great. Niw I have an insular g and life's good. Thanks again.