Unicode Maltese Cross 2720

[J***@adobeforums.com]

Hello. Thank you in advance for any assistance. I use Windows XP with InDesign 3.0. I am American and have upgraded my Windows languages to include Asian ones.

In my work of recreating Latin texts, I need a Maltese Cross character or cross pattee. IN MS Word, I can do it by typing: (Arial font) 2720 on the keypad followed by Alt and X. But, the font changes to an Asian equivalent.

Pasting the above character into InDesign doesn't work. InDesign won't accept it and shows a pink square.

How do I type a Maltese cross in InDesign? I am at a loss.

Thank you for your time.

[j***@adobeforums.com]

Odd -- my Word is misbehaving, I don't get the Maltese cross but some Arabic character. Anyway, browsing the 'web I found the character and copied it from that page to ID.

It displays in pink, meaning either one of "I don't have that font" or "That character is not in this font". I changed the font to one that has a lot more glyphs -- Arial Unicode MS -- and there it is.

If you use this character frequently, you might make a Character Style for it containing just the right font (no size information or anything else).

I might mention that you can "browse" through the available characters per font using the Glyphs panel. I wouldn't want to scan Arial Unicode by eye (thousands of characters! yay!), but it helps if you know the Unicode. That's even better in CS3 as you can finally sort on Unicode!

While not generally advisable, in this case Adobe might want to learn something from MS: if a glyph is not in a font, get it from another one (improvements on the Word method would include 1. do it right; 2. tell the user the font changed).

[J***@adobeforums.com]

Thanks so much for finding me a Maltese Cross. I will go try out your advice immediately.

Thanks again.

[J***@adobeforums.com]

OK, I'm in business! Thanks Jongware. I had to go back to my Office CD and install Arial Unicode MS to get started. The Maltese Cross looks perfect.

Next, I went and explored the Glyphs Panel. That's pretty cool. You're right: Arial Unicode MS is huge.

Tomorrow, I'll look into your advice to make a Character Style for it. I know nothing of that but will look into it.

Thanks again.

[Peter Kahrel]

in this case Adobe might want to learn something from MS: if a glyph is
not in a font, get it from another one




Let's see -- when did WordPerfect start with substitute fonts? Some time in the 1980s, wasn't it? I think you could (can, in fact) specify about half a dozen substitute fonts. Great feature. Suggested it in inDesign a couple of times but noone seems to be interested. Maybe I should try that again.

Peter

[y***@adobeforums.com]

I need to type text that includes both English and also polytonic Greek. I have a couple fonts that include the required Greek characters, as glyphs. But I can't type pages of text by clicking on each Greek letter with the mouse in the Glyphs panel - that'll take forever.

What are my steps so that when I type on the keyboard, as usual, I get Greek rather than English? I tried making one of the usable fonts the default font, but I still get the English subset of the font rather than the Greek.

I'm using ID3/CS3; available fonts include Garamond Premier Pro and Arno Pro.

TIA

[K***@adobeforums.com]

You should open a new topic for your post. As far as I can see, this has
nothing to do with the original post.

That said, go to Control Panel > Regional and Language Options >
Language, and Add Greek as an input language.

[K***@adobeforums.com]

My apologies. I see you already did.