TypeResources/typeresources.github.io

Display that a font wasn't loaded

tderkert opened this issue · 6 comments

Custom default font - Show that font isn't loaded:
We could create a custom smart font with clever glyph substitution to always show just one glyph with the text "FONT NOT LOADED" centered in middle of x-height. A bit of a hack.

Only problem I see is that Open Type feature settings will interfere with the implementation. Maybe there is a better solution.

At the very least we could have a font without any paths as fallback so that you don't confuse the substituted font with the one you tried to request. What do you think @larsenwork ?

Having a custom font as fallback sounds clever. You're right about opentype. I'm thinking just a custom font with only one character: "U+FFFD" which is some kind of discrete symbol.

Don't we need all characters? Or do you mean filling all glyphs with the same symbol?

I wonder what looks best: A font with a lot of placeholder symbols or just empty glyphs? It might look more broken with placeholder symbols than a visually empty gaze.

What is "U+FFFD"? Is that the one character that a font falls back to if there is no glyph in place?

U+FFFD is the replacement character so a font with only that character: all characters should display that character regardless of what glyph

Haven't tested it though

I just added this feature with just empty glyphs. Not sure if it feels better. At least the empty glyph can't be confused with any letter(except spaces).

What do you think @larsenwork?