Story
This is a small tool that started as a private investigation into the functionality of some Windows API.
At some point somebody complained that GetGlyphIndices is not surrogate-aware and does not work for characters outside BMP (Basic Multilingual Plane).
So I have started a small application to test the claim.
And it was true!
So the next step was: “let’s find a solution!” and shortly after I had my own routine doing almost the same thing, but doing it’s own parsing of the cmap OpenType table.
To test that I needed an easy way to change the font and to visualize the results. Then I wanted to know what font contains a certain character (make sure to right-click :-)
And little by little, it grew into something that might be useful to others. And some friends also asked: “Why don’t you give it away?”
So, here it is, for your benefit and/or enjoyment :-)
Future plans:
- Fix printing
- Determine glyph presence using Uniscribe (
ScriptGetCMap) - Tile vertical and horizontal
- Allow users to assign a font for each block
- Take block names from the Unicode file “Blocks.txt”
- Show Unicode information for each character using the Unicode files (“UnicodeData.txt,” Unihan.txt,” and maybe others)
- Maybe publish some of the code
So make sure to select “Help” -> “Check for updates…” once in a while :-)
Disclaimer
In general, I am not responsible (irresponsible?) for any problem with this tool. It is provided “as is,” take or leave it :-)
Download
Ok now, there you go: CharMapEx.zip (contains the executable)
Good luck!