Re: Use another font for some characters

[Alex Kost <alezost@gmail.com>]

Eli Zaretskii (2016-10-02 09:52 +0300) wrote:

>> From: Alex Kost <alezost@gmail.com>
>> Date: Sat, 01 Oct 2016 21:10:38 +0300
>> 
>> Hello, in Emacs 24.5.1 (and earlier) I can use this:
>> 
>>   (set-fontset-font "fontset-default" '(#x2190 . #x2195) "Symbola")
>> 
>> and this range of characters (which is the following arrows: ← ↑ → ↓ ↔
>> ↕), is displayed using "Symbola" font.
>> 
>> However in Emacs 25, the same set-fontset-font call doesn't take any
>> visible effect – the arrow characters are still displayed with my
>> default font (Liberation Mono).
>
> Emacs 25 will use the default font for any punctuation and symbol
> characters supported by that font, even if the fontset specifies
> another font for them.  That's because switching to another font has
> some unpleasant effects, like slower redisplay, misalignment of text,
> inability to compose characters, etc.

Ah, what a misfortune.  Then this sounds like a bug (a missing feature
rather) for me.

Just to mention: these unpleasant effects don't bother me.

> Many fonts used for the default face have good coverage of symbols and
> punctuation, but don't advertise that by stating the support for the
> 'symbol' script in their metadata.  Previously, on many systems, these
> characters needed a special setup in the default fontset, for no good
> reason.  Now you only need to set up those which your default font
> doesn't support, and for which the default fontset doesn't already
> specify a font that is installed on your system.

I see, thanks for the explanation, but I think there should be a way to
override the default font if a user wants to do it.

> May I ask why you don't want these characters displayed by your
> default font?

Because Symbola's arrows look much better for me!  I mean I like my
default font (Liberation) for most characters, but for some characters I
prefer to use other fonts.

Thanks again for answering.

-- 
Alex