We've recently been doing some beta testing of a Unicode compliant software, which must for the time being, remain nameless. The problem is that once you REALLY start to do a broad range of Unicode languages weird things crop up pretty fast. One we've discovered is the limitations of Arial Unicode MS. I ran across this as I was working on the ligatures. According to the Unicode standard they are "combining" However, if you look in many library catalogs, including ours, you will see that they do not combine. At first I thought this was a system problem, but it looks like the trail leads all the way back to the font. Bengali is even worse. Combining consonants often refuse to combine
The data I have is that The Arial Unicode MS font has provision for approximately 44,000 Unicode characters, not the full 100,000 characters available in Unicode. The shareware Code 2000 font resolves some problems, but has provision for approximately 34,000 characters: 12,000 less characters than Arial Unicode. Anybody got any better font ideas??? JJ **Views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent those of the Queens Library.** Jane Jacobs Asst. Coord., Catalog Division Queens Borough Public Library 89-11 Merrick Blvd. Jamaica, NY 11432 tel.: (718) 990-0804 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] FAX. (718) 990-8566
