I need to expand an existing font (consola) to add these characters ▁ ▂ ▃ ▄ ▅ ▆ ▇ █, and more in the future, for a programming project. I've searched and found a couple tools (birdfont and fontlab) and they work but when I add the glyph, it has the character grey out (I'm guessing to show what the character is supposed to be). So my question is there any program or any way to make them auto-add the glyph without me needing to track over it as that makes no be perfect.
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What do you mean by “automatically”? What are you expecting the application to add? If you mean the actual shape of the glyph itself, then the answer is no – you can’t. Creating the shape of each glyph for each font is what font designers do; it’s a skill, and slow work, not something a computer can just do automatically. The simple blocks you mention here are simple enough that they could be automated, but you’d need to script it, and it would probably still be a lot easier to just do it manually.– Janus Bahs JacquetCommented Jul 24, 2022 at 21:40
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@JanusBahsJacquet obviously it can be automated. More the problem is that its only allowed for fonts that are properly licenced. It would be better just to make the software auto replace from another source.– joojaaCommented Jul 24, 2022 at 22:28
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@joojaa Sure, pretty much anything in the known universe can be automated. But when computers write books, paint paintings, create recipes, make babies, design wedding invitations, etc., the result is not usually what you’d consider anything to write home about – hence why humans still have jobs. If you can be bothered, you can get scripts to create all the fonts you want, but they’re not going to be very useful compared to fonts made by actual type designers.– Janus Bahs JacquetCommented Jul 24, 2022 at 22:40
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Standard System font substitution should handle that - which is why we can already read them in here.– TetsujinCommented Jul 25, 2022 at 5:42
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Why not switch to a font that contains the needed characters instead? Seems a lot easier.– WolffCommented Jul 25, 2022 at 13:37
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1 Answer
If you mean Consolas, that's a copyrighted, trademarked font controlled by Microsoft. You don't have the right to modify it. The most reasonable option would be modifying an open source font, probably Inconsolata, which was designed to be metrically compatible with Consolas or maybe Source Code Mono. It could well be that hiring a pro is easier and quicker than teaching yourself the tools. Setting up font substitution could be an easy option too.
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I just ended up editing it myself using fontlab, The characters are't hard to make (they are just rectangles) but I always have urge to make it pixel perfect and also for the future if I want to add any other, more complex, characters, I don't have to recreate them.– NorzkaCommented Jul 25, 2022 at 21:02