I am new to creating/editing fonts. I want to create a font with custom symbol for "glyph not found". I have downloaded FontForge as it seems to be a widespread free font editing program. I was hoping first U+0000 NUL, Default Character would be that, but it seems that I was wrong. I cannot find any info on how to make your own "glyph not found" symbol on google, maybe here somebody could help?
2 Answers
The "glyph not found" glyph (most commonly drawn as a box, often with an X or a question mark inside of it) should be named .notdef and it should be glyph 0 in your font. This glyph doesn't normally have a Unicode codepoint.
I believe most font editors will put your .notdef glyph into position 0 when generating your font binaries, so long as it's named correctly and does not have a Unicode codepoint.
Source: Glyph 0: the .notdef glyph from Microsoft's Recommendations for OpenType Fonts
So far as I'm aware there is no “glyph not found” character. Different programs use different graphic presentations. An empty narrow rectangle is a common rendering, but not the only one. It could also be a rectangle with a question mark in it or with the code number of the character, in hexadecimal, in it.
From the Unicode Spec:
- http://unicode.org/charts/PDF/U25A0.pdf
- may be used to represent a missing ideograph
- → U+20DE $⃞ combining enclosing square
The Unicode glossary entry says:
It often is shown as an open or black rectangle.
.notdefis a unique glyph on its own and does not have a Unicode assignment. That would defeat its purpose. See typedrawers.com/discussion/comment/35074#Comment_35074 (you may want to read the entire thread).