How to add basic emoji fonts to inline text චᆽච

[softsound]

I remember this coming up before but I can't remember who posted it originally so I thought I'd leave a note here for others.
I remember someone saying it wasn't possible and wanted to make a tutorial on it just in case someone got lost.

First some quick overview of text file types. (I'm quickly covering a blog post I wrote if you want more info. I'm no expert just doing this so I don't forget.)

Right now there are 3 main text file types currently.

TrueType(TTF)  Old limited file type
OpenType (OTF)  Standard file type.

and

OpenType-SVG(SVG+) Non-standard limited support color fonts  - super fancy fonts made with raster & vector graphics aka "picture fonts" This term has many meanings. I'm just going to say decorative or involving pictures and not refer to raster pictures. SVG fonts are very much picture focused.

Yeah, I'm not going to be covering SVG, they only work with Adobe software and are kinda all over the place atm.

But you can still add picture fonts without SVG like emoji! 

Emoji fonts can be used since affinity supports the use of glyphs.

Some fonts that work great would be Google Noto Emoji.

I attached a photo of noto emoji as you install and in use.

When you install it looks like regular text- but if you use the secret mode called glyphs you unlock tons of emojis!

This great for print materials that need icons like card games and board games.

Example case-
I used this to help set up a chinchilla card game with my friend.

He designed, I just did art and some beginning formatting. Link to full game btw.

To use glyphs go to Text > Show Glyph Browser

You can search for different glyphs like hearts or cats or paw prints!

Just double click on the icon to use it.

 

-FAQ-

Why would I use this font?

It's a quick way to add symbols to a document, it's also faster than searching for a generic SVG and importing it. This great for saving text space and adding decorations, or adding just a little more modern pop to some work.

This is dumb, why not just use dingbat fonts?

Dingbat fonts like  Entypo are really limited compared to this method, but they do also work. They don't tend to match up with these more standard fonts.

This is dumb, why aren't they in full color?

Sorry, it's not supported.

Does this support color?

No, only stroke color/text color can be used to change colors.

Can you zoom in to see the glyph better?

I don't think so. Considering my friend had eyesight issues, I think this would be a nice feature.

Does this support kaomoji?

Yep! My example showed kaomoji working great :3

Why is my symbol showing as a square?

Make sure you have the right font selected.

Why can't I find a symbol I just copied in the search bar?

It doesn't seem to register search on the icon itself, only the name so don't copy and paste the icon into the search bar, it doesn't work. It does show recent searches below if that helps.

Can I copy and paste symbols off the internet and paste them in this way?

Yeah as long as they are common symbols. Most symbols on here would fine for example. Try skull & cross bones for example

You can grab more symbols here.

What are some emoji fonts I can use?

Emoji fonts

OpenMoji - the ttf files work for me even though it's beta.

Google Noto Emoji. - Works great.

Apple and Windows font emoji are not available by themselves (like you can't download) but can still be used with this method.

With Windows you can hold the Windows key + (.) period key to open the emoji window, just click an emoji to paste, it looks weird but converts over correctly if you click on the text area, it should convert over if supported. It can get a little finicky, but I was able to convert windows sparkly symbols into the noto font this way.

 

 

 

Edited November 17, 2019 by softsound
added a few more links