Fonts: An Alternative Graphic

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Note: To properly view this article the reader will need to have the Symbol true-type font installed on his system. The Symbol font is standard with Win 3.x and Win 95.


Author's Forward

This article is not about programming , as such. However, it does suggest a method for improving webpages or other HTML-ized documents related to programming. IMHO, webpages and documentation both suffer a great deal from clumsy, inadequate type. This article is my own humble(?) attempt to improve upon this desperate situation.


Symbology 101

One thing is certain, if something is screwed up beyond all reason then human beings have had a hand in it. So it is with the internet. I find it amazing that with all of the man-hours which the internet commands, no organization has (inadvertently) contributed more to standardizing how text is displayed to the average web-head than -- I really hate to admit this -- Microsoft. If that thought doesn't make you ralf, nothing will.

IMHO, the most important aspect of internet communication is text. To produce text you need type. If two people are to communicate successfully over the internet, then they need type which is well-suited to the task. This is not how things have worked out. Webpages, for example, present a particularly bleak landscape.

Fonts are very much OS specific. Needless to say, OS manufacturers are not overly concerned with inter-system compatibility regardless of how much it might benefit the user. Further confusion ensues due to the fact that almost anyone can learn to author fonts for public distribution. People just love their chaos, don't they?

That said, I'd like to suggest the following to prospective webpage authors:

Use the <FONT FACE="font-name,font-name,font-name,...">...</FONT> tag-pair for special characters found in fonts common to the Windows operating system. It's relatively simple and requires a lot less effort or storage than graphic elements.
To anyone not running Windows all I can say is, "What in the blue blazes do you expect me to do about it?"

According to Microsoft, the font styles common to Win 3.x and Win 95 are:

The Symbol font offers a variety of math and logic related characters for the programmer who lusts after a great looking website. The translation tables at the end of this paper provide all of the information you will need to use characters from the Symbol font in your webpages or other HTML-ized documents. Obviously, anyone reading those pages will need to have symbol.ttf installed on their system.

Some characters may be represented by either a numeric or character entity, while others have only a numeric entity as an identifier. Using entities to represent characters is very simple. All you need to specify is the name of the font, and an identifier for each of the characters that you want to reproduce.

For example, joining the following lines

<FONT FACE="Symbol">
&#066;&#032;&#205;&#032;&#065;&#032;&#219;&#032;&#040;&#034;
&#098;&#206;&#066;&#041;&#040;&#098;&#206;&#065;&#041;
</FONT>
will produce the set-theoretic statement
B Í A Û ("bÎB)(bÎA)
but so will
<FONT FACE="Symbol">
B &#205; A &#219; ("b&#206;B)(b&#206;A)
</FONT>

And that's all there is to it. Now get out there and kick some serious butt!



The Geek Alphabet
Symbol Name Character
Entity		 Numeric
Entity
A a Alpha A a &#065; &#097;
B b Beta B b &#066; &#098;
G g Gamma G g &#071; &#103;
D d Delta D d &#068; &#100;
E e Epsilon E e &#069; &#101;
Z z Zeta Z z &#096; &#122;
H h Eta H h &#072; &#104;
Q J
q		 Theta Q J
q		 &#081; &#074;
&#113;
I i Iota I i &#073; &#105;
K k Kappa K k &#075; &#107;
L l Lamda L l &#076; &#108;
M m Mu M m &#077; &#109;
N n Nu N n &#078; &#110;
X x Xi X x &#088; &#120;
O o Omicron O o &#079; &#111;
P p Pi P p &#080; &#112;
R r Rho R r &#082; &#114;
S s
V		 Sigma S s
V		 &#083; &#115;
&#086;
T t Tau T t &#084; &#116;
U u Upsilon U u &#085; &#117;
F f Phi F f &#070; &#102;
C c Chi C c &#076; &#099;
Y y Psi Y y &#089; &#121;
W w Omega W w &#087; &#119;



Math & Logic Related Characters
Character Character
Entity		 Numeric
Entity		 Character Character
Entity		 Numeric
Entity
" " &#034; $ $ &#036;
! ! &#033; # # &#035;
% % &#037; & & &#038;
( ( &#040; ) ) &#041;
' ' &#039; space space &#032;
* * &#042; / / &#047;
+ + &#043; - - &#045;
, , &#044; . . &#046;
0 0 &#048; 1 1 &#049;
2 2 &#050; 3 3 &#051;
4 4 &#052; 5 5 &#053;
6 6 &#054; 7 7 &#055;
8 8 &#056; 9 9 &#057;
: : &#058; ; ; &#059;
< < &#060; > > &#062;
= = &#061; ¹   &#185;
? ? &#063; @ @ &#064;
[ [ &#091; ] ] &#093;
\ \ &#092; ^ ^ &#094;
_ _ &#095; ` ` &#096;
{ { &#123; } } &#125;
| | &#124; ~ ~ &#126;
¡   &#161; ¢   &#162;
£   &#163; ¤   &#164;
¥   &#165; ¦   &#166;
«   &#171; ¬   &#172;
­   &#173; ®   &#174;
¯   &#175; °   &#176;
±   &#177; ²   &#178;
³   &#179; ´   &#180;
µ   &#181;   &#182;
·   &#183; ¸   &#184;
¹   &#185; º   &#186;
»   &#187; ¼   &#188;
½   &#189; ¾   &#190;
¿   &#191; À   &#192;
Á   &#193; Â   &#194;
à   &#195; Ä   &#196;
Å   &#197; Æ   &#198;
Ç   &#199; È   &#200;
É   &#201; Ê   &#202;
Ë   &#203; Ì   &#204;
Í   &#205; Î   &#206;
Ï   &#207; Ð   &#208;
Ñ   &#209; Ò   &#210;
Ó   &#211; Ô   &#212;
Õ   &#213; Ö   &#214;
×   &#215; Ø   &#216;
Ù   &#217; Ú   &#218;
Û   &#219; Ü   &#220;
Ý   &#221; Þ   &#222;
ß   &#223; à   &#224;
á   &#225; â   &#226;
ã   &#227; ä   &#228;
å   &#229; æ   &#230;
ç   &#231; è   &#232;
é   &#233; ê   &#234;
ë   &#235; ì   &#236;
í   &#237; î   &#238;
ï   &#239; ñ   &#241;
ò   &#242; ó   &#243;
ô   &#244; õ   &#245;
ö   &#246; ÷   &#247;
ø   &#248; ù   &#249;
ú   &#250; û   &#251;
ü   &#252; ý   &#253;
þ   &#254;      



Miscellaneous
Characters
Symbol Numeric
Entity
§ &#167;
¨ &#168;
© &#169;
ª &#170;
Ò &#210;
Ó &#211;
Ô &#212;
â &#226;
ã &#227;
ä &#228;



C'ya,
RudeJohn
"I'm rude. It's a job."

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