Where to Find a Visual Table of Invisible Characters

[Mark Oehlschlager]

Does anyone know where to find a visual table of all the invisible characters (including but not limited to word space, paragraph, column break) that get revealed when one toggles on the "Show Special Characters" command in Publisher?

I was reviewing a friend's Publisher document and could not interpret some of the invisible characters present.

Thanks in advance for any helpful guidance.

[MikeTO]

Hi Mark, I went to look for it and I couldn't find one so I made a quick and dirty one just now to share here. Please let me know if you spot any mistakes or omissions. It would be really great if the Affinity Help page for special characters could be updated to include this information.

 

 

Edited December 7, 2022 by MikeTO
Removed attachments to avoid confusion with latest version below

[Mark Oehlschlager]

@MikeTO Brilliant! Thank you.

And, yes, it would be helpful for Affinity to update their Help pages to include this reference material.

[jmwellborn]

@MikeTO  Wonderful!  I have been scrounging the internet trying to find this too.  With dismal results.

[kenmcd]

@MikeTO Nice very useful list!

I was just adding dashes and spaces to another doc this week.
Soooo... some additions and a correction:

Soft Hyphen = softhyphen (U+00AD)

Sixth Space = six-per-em space (U+2006) – ⅙ of em

Quarter Space = four-per-em space (U+2005) (middling space) – ¼ of em

Third Space = three-per-em space (U+2004) (thick space) – ⅓ of em

Figure Space = figure space (U+2007) – width equal to tabular figures

and

Space = U+0020
Word Joiner = (WJ) (U+2060) – width 0
 

[walt.farrell]

Thanks, @MikeTO.

I have a strong memory of having found the info somewhere in the documentation before, because I know I've seen a chart. A quick search isn't finding it, so your file will be helpful.

Edit: Or, I wonder if I made my own, and have just forgotten where I put it

[Pyanepsion]

10 hours ago, MikeTO said:

Hi Mark, I went to look for it and I couldn't find one so I made a quick and dirty one just now to share here. Please let me know if you spot any mistakes or omissions. It would be really great if the Affinity Help page for special characters could be updated to include this information.

Nice work, @MikeTO. What typeface code do you use to achieve the visual appearance in blue?

[MikeTO]

8 hours ago, Pyanepsion said:

Nice work, @MikeTO. What typeface code do you use to achieve the visual appearance in blue?

Thanks. Those blue characters are actually screenshots since this was a quick effort.

[MikeTO]

I added one more to the table - notes are demarcated by square blue brackets in v2.

 

 

Edited December 7, 2022 by MikeTO
Removed attachments to avoid confusion with latest version below

[kenmcd]

Figure Space is still wrong - should be U+2007 - as posted above.

Sixth Space is U+2006.

[MikeTO]

1 hour ago, kenmcd said:

Figure Space is still wrong - should be U+2007 - as posted above.

Sixth Space is U+2006.

My apologies, I missed your original reply. Sorry about that. Updated list coming soon.

 

[MikeTO]

4 hours ago, kenmcd said:

Figure Space is still wrong - should be U+2007 - as posted above.

Sixth Space is U+2006.

Do you agree that a hair space in Publisher is 1/12 em? I believe it's 1/24 in InDesign but it looks more like 1/12 in Publisher to me.

And thin space is 1/5 em in Publisher which is correct whereas it's 1/8 in InDesign.

And surprisingly, narrow non-breaking space is 1/7 em instead of the common thin space of 1/5 em. InDesign lacks this character so I can't compare.

Edited December 7, 2022 by MikeTO
Added more information

[uneMule]

Bonjour à tous.

Deux tables unicodes. Si cela peut être utile à quelqu'un.

Two unicode tables. If it can be useful to someone.

tableau_unicode.afpub tableau_unicode_2.afpub

[uneMule]

Pour faire des recherches par catégories.

To search by categories.

caracteres_tries_par_categorie_v.afpub

[MikeTO]

Updated with Ken's feedback and a few more I found. I also replaced all the screenshots and now show the symbols between facing characters for clarity.

While updating it I noted these issues:

• The Affinity Help page for special characters has the incorrect Unicode value for Figure Space. It's also missing several Unicode values and several symbols. Perhaps Serif could update the page with the information from the attached document?
• Publisher shows the same symbols for Page Break, Odd Page Break, and Even Page Break but it would be better if they were unique.
• Publisher doesn't show a symbol for non-breaking hyphens. I believe InDesign does the same but it would be better to show a blue hat above the hyphen, just like with a non-breaking space.
• Publisher doesn't show a symbol for Ideographic Space (U+3000) but supports it as far as I can tell.
• I find it odd that Narrow Non-Breaking Space (U+202F) is about 1/7 em instead of the more common 1/5 em, the width of a thin space. I've never used this myself so I don't really care but those who use it may care.

 

 

Edited December 12, 2022 by MikeTO
Removed attachments to avoid confusion with latest version

[kenmcd]

2 hours ago, MikeTO said:

Do you agree that a hair space in Publisher is 1/12 em? I believe it's 1/24 in InDesign but it looks more like 1/12 in Publisher to me.

And thin space is 1/5 em in Publisher which is correct whereas it's 1/8 in InDesign.

And surprisingly, narrow non-breaking space is 1/7 em instead of the common thin space of 1/5 em. InDesign lacks this character so I can't compare.

The updated doc looks really good!

Sorry, my notes may have been a bit confusing as they are from notes to myself for font development, not what the defaults are in APub.

While InDesign annoyingly always overides the width some of the space characters in fonts (i.e. thin space), I think APub may have defaults, but that if the particular space character is present in the font then that actual width is used instead.
This may be wishful thinking, but it should be confirmed either way.
I asked about some of these APub default space widths in a thread quite awhile ago and got an answer on some of them, but IIRC I did not get an answer on the hair space default. Tried to find that thread/post again just now and had no luck.

Different designers have different defaults for hair space and thin space.
I would like confirm that APub is using what is designed in the font. Hopefully.
Or not.

We can test what APub is doing to find out for sure.
I have fonts with all the various space characters already included and I can hack something up if needed.

Which ones do we need to confirm?
- hair space
- thin space 
- no-break space
- narrow no-break space
- any others ???

Hmmm ... could even put an actual glyph in them for visual confirmation.

For each
- first, confirm if the actual space width is used if that space character is present
- second, confirm the default widths - when those are used instead

Wadda-ya-think?

[MikeTO]

1 hour ago, kenmcd said:

Which ones do we need to confirm?

Thanks! I'll do one more update if you confirm any of the widths. I have to correct some formatting and make the images a bit bigger, I threw this together too quickly.

The widths that could use confirmation are Figure Space, Medium Mathematical Space, and Narrow Non-Breaking Space, the latter of which I expected to match Thin Space. I wouldn't worry about Ideographic Space and Thin Space has been previously confirmed as a fifth which is the common size. I gave it a quick measure and it was bang on. Hair Space was obviously different than ID but there's no standard value. I estimated it as 1/12 and it's unlikely Serif would have chosen 1/11 or 1/13 so I think that one is fine.

Thanks

[MikeTO]

I've posted the completed chart in Resources, along with French and German versions. The original afpub file is included for those who want to use the screenshots of the symbols for other purposes.

Cheers

 

[Hertsmacman]

So my question is there an easy quick way to 'show invisibles' as in Quark or Word when working with type? I have been scrubbing around for ages trying to find an answer the uni code stuff goes over my head I am afraid 🤔

[Hangman]

@Hertsmacman, welocme to the forums...

In Publisher, go to the Text menu and select Show Special Characters at the bottom of the menu...

[PaulEC]

You mention uni code - if you are talking about adding characters that are not visible on the normal keyboard, try using the Glyph Browser panel. (If it's not already enabled, go to: Window Menu - Text - and tick Glyph Browser.)

[MikeTO]

4 hours ago, Hangman said:

@Hertsmacman, welocme to the forums...

In Publisher, go to the Text menu and select Show Special Characters at the bottom of the menu...

And in the 2.1 beta, this command is now in all three apps.

[Hertsmacman]

Thank you guys