[XeTeX] Guaranteed Unicode replacement glyph in every TeX installation?

[Doug McKenna]

George - 

Thanks! 

- Doug McK. 


From: "George N. White III" <gnwiii at gmail.com> 
To: "xetex" <xetex at tug.org> 
Sent: Sunday, August 22, 2021 8:14:58 AM 
Subject: Re: [XeTeX] Guaranteed Unicode replacement glyph in every TeX installation? 

On Fri, 20 Aug 2021 at 22:46, Doug McKenna < [ mailto:doug at mathemaesthetics.com | doug at mathemaesthetics.com ] > wrote: 



Using XeTeX, I want to typeset a LaTeX document into a PDF file. The LaTeX source code in UTF-8 



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expressly includes the Unicode Replacement character (� = U+FFFD) (a black diamond with a 

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question mark in it). 

I want to typeset it in this single document using a monospaced font in one place, and in another 

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place in a variable-width font. 

I understand that XeTeX can take advantage of one's system's installed fonts, but my LaTeX file 

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is being generated by another program that doesn't know what those fonts are or what glyphs 

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they support. I simply want to guarantee that the fonts used are always available when processing 

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that LaTeX file. 

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I also understand that it's possible to synthesize the glyph graphically without using a font, but I'd 

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rather not go that route. 

So ... What fixed-width and variable-width OpenType (or other) fonts, if any, are always distributed 

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with TeX or TeXLive or whatever that one can rely upon to be available for placing this particular 

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glyph in a final PDF file? What would be the correct incantation to doing so? 

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0xFFFD should be in any mainstream general use OpenType font. It might be better to ask which 
OT fonts to avoid due to low quality, bugs, lack of ongoing support, etc. There has been a lot of 
churn in the available fonts over the years, so the answer may be different if you need fonts that 
can be expected to have long-term support and availability. 

-- 
George N. White III 

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