Nicolas,

I guess the suggestion is: use FontLab and create the font as Win TrueType.

Or are you looking for something more specific? If so, please tell us what you have in mind, what system you work on, which tools you have.

Regards,
Adam

Hi Adam

I am using FontLab on a Mac. I have a set of 10 symbols I want to add to my font. To make things easy I would place these symbols on existing characters but the problem is that there are no open spaces left (the font is completely Unicode).

What's the best way to add these symbols?

Thanks.

Nicolas,

what do you mean by "no open spaces left"? Unicode has really *plenty* of space!

There are existing Unicode codepoints for miscellaneous arrows:
http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2190.pdf
http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U27F0.pdf
http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2900.pdf
http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2B00.pdf

There are also other graphical symbols that are already encoded:
http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2300.pdf
http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2500.pdf
http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2580.pdf
http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U25A0.pdf
http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2600.pdf
http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2700.pdf

If the symbols that you are planning to add are similar to those encoded, use the existing assigned codepoints. If you want to add symbols that are not similar to any of the encoded symbols, you should encode them in the Private Use Area, where you can freely assign the codepoints:
http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/UE000.pdf

Regards,
Adam

Thanks a lot Adam, I'm figuring it out!

The only problem I'm still experiencing is how to "call" a special character on a Mac. On PC I can simply insert the unicode while holding down the alt-key..

As a last resort you can always use the Character Palette to insert special characters on a Mac. Go to System Preferences: International, choose the Input Menu pane and check the Character Palette box. Then you can 'Show Character Palette' from the little keyboard menu on the right of the menu bar. If you pull the palette's View menu down to Unicode, you can browse the entire unicode space. Double-click on a character to 'type' it.

(Of course this will only work if the app you're using is vaguely Unicode-savvy. Works well in TextEdit, for example.)

Thanks guys, great support on this board!