Difference between revisions of "User:Mjb/Phonorecord copyright symbol"

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(+analysis, availability)
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====
+
==Content removed==
  
The phonorecord copyright symbol is ℗ (U+2117),
+
In 2007, I did some research into whether Discogs should encourage the use of the Unicode character for the phonorecord copyright symbol is ℗ (U+2117). Some users were opposed to it because their browsers couldn't display ℗; they wanted to instead use Ⓟ (U+24C5) or ⓟ (U+24DF), which were somewhat more widely supported. I hated this idea, because they are the wrong characters, both semantically and aesthetically.
not ⓟ (U+24C5).
 
  
The regular copyright symbol is © (U+00A9).
+
The main problem is that fonts, as used in computer operating systems, generally only contain glyphs for a subset of the bazillion characters in Unicode. On top of that, you can't guarantee that people are using the fonts you want. A smart text rendering system, when told to render a character that the desired font doesn't have, will look for a suitable replacement from some other font. I believe that's what happens now. It wasn't happening in 2007.
  
==Fonts on my system that contain ==
+
So, in 2007, I did some testing with my browsers at home, and put my notes on this wiki page. The idea was to see what worked and what didn't, and whether we could maybe implement a workaround that would force the proper display of on everyone's browsers.
  
{|
+
However, soon after I started doing that, browsers became more robust and were able to display the proper ℗ character without us having to resort to workarounds or doing anything fancy with web fonts. At least, I think it's working for most people, most of the time.
|+
 
|Font
 
|7pt
 
|8pt
 
|9pt
 
|10pt
 
|11pt
 
|12pt
 
|13pt
 
|14pt
 
|16pt
 
|18pt
 
|-
 
|<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">Arial Unicode MS</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: Arial Unicode MS; font-size: 7pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: Arial Unicode MS; font-size: 8pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: Arial Unicode MS; font-size: 9pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: Arial Unicode MS; font-size: 10pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: Arial Unicode MS; font-size: 11pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: Arial Unicode MS; font-size: 12pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: Arial Unicode MS; font-size: 13pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: Arial Unicode MS; font-size: 14pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: Arial Unicode MS; font-size: 16pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: Arial Unicode MS; font-size: 18pt">℗©</span>
 
|-
 
|<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">Lucida Sans Unicode</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: Lucida Sans Unicode; font-size: 7pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: Lucida Sans Unicode; font-size: 8pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: Lucida Sans Unicode; font-size: 9pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: Lucida Sans Unicode; font-size: 10pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: Lucida Sans Unicode; font-size: 11pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: Lucida Sans Unicode; font-size: 12pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: Lucida Sans Unicode; font-size: 13pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: Lucida Sans Unicode; font-size: 14pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: Lucida Sans Unicode; font-size: 16pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: Lucida Sans Unicode; font-size: 18pt">℗©</span>
 
|-
 
|<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">MS Gothic</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS Gothic; font-size: 7pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS Gothic; font-size: 8pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS Gothic; font-size: 9pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS Gothic; font-size: 10pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS Gothic; font-size: 11pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS Gothic; font-size: 12pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS Gothic; font-size: 13pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS Gothic; font-size: 14pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS Gothic; font-size: 16pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS Gothic; font-size: 18pt">℗©</span>
 
|-
 
|<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">MS Mincho</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS Mincho; font-size: 7pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS Mincho; font-size: 8pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS Mincho; font-size: 9pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS Mincho; font-size: 10pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS Mincho; font-size: 11pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS Mincho; font-size: 12pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS Mincho; font-size: 13pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS Mincho; font-size: 14pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS Mincho; font-size: 16pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS Mincho; font-size: 18pt">℗©</span>
 
|-
 
|<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">MS PGothic</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS PGothic; font-size: 7pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS PGothic; font-size: 8pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS PGothic; font-size: 9pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS PGothic; font-size: 10pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS PGothic; font-size: 11pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS PGothic; font-size: 12pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS PGothic; font-size: 13pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS PGothic; font-size: 14pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS PGothic; font-size: 16pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS PGothic; font-size: 18pt">℗©</span>
 
|-
 
|<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">MS PMincho</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS PMincho; font-size: 7pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS PMincho; font-size: 8pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS PMincho; font-size: 9pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS PMincho; font-size: 10pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS PMincho; font-size: 11pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS PMincho; font-size: 12pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS PMincho; font-size: 13pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS PMincho; font-size: 14pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS PMincho; font-size: 16pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS PMincho; font-size: 18pt">℗©</span>
 
|-
 
|<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">MS UI Gothic</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS UI Gothic; font-size: 7pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS UI Gothic; font-size: 8pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS UI Gothic; font-size: 9pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS UI Gothic; font-size: 10pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS UI Gothic; font-size: 11pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS UI Gothic; font-size: 12pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS UI Gothic; font-size: 13pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS UI Gothic; font-size: 14pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS UI Gothic; font-size: 16pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS UI Gothic; font-size: 18pt">℗©</span>
 
|-
 
|<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">MS Reference Sans Serif</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS Reference Sans Serif; font-size: 7pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS Reference Sans Serif; font-size: 8pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS Reference Sans Serif; font-size: 9pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS Reference Sans Serif; font-size: 10pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS Reference Sans Serif; font-size: 11pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS Reference Sans Serif; font-size: 12pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS Reference Sans Serif; font-size: 13pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS Reference Sans Serif; font-size: 14pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS Reference Sans Serif; font-size: 16pt">℗©</span>
 
|<span style="font-family: MS Reference Sans Serif; font-size: 18pt">℗©</span>
 
|-
 
|}
 
  
==Analysis==
+
So as of 2013, I've deleted my notes. If you really want to see them, there's a history link at the top of this page, and you can go back and look.
On Windows XP with ClearType on, Lucida Sans Unicode looks great. With standard smoothing, however, at some point sizes the hinting causes the P to be off-center within the circle. MS Reference Sans Serif does better when ClearType is off. I haven't seen what it does with ClearType on.
 
 
 
==Availability==
 
Lucida Sans Unicode should be available on all Windows 2000 and newer systems, maybe also Windows 98 (I found conflicting references). Lucida Grande is the equivalent on Mac OS X.
 
 
 
MS Reference Sans Serif will only be present if Encarta or Office 2007 is installed.
 

Latest revision as of 12:58, 7 February 2020

Content removed

In 2007, I did some research into whether Discogs should encourage the use of the Unicode character for the phonorecord copyright symbol is ℗ (U+2117). Some users were opposed to it because their browsers couldn't display ℗; they wanted to instead use Ⓟ (U+24C5) or ⓟ (U+24DF), which were somewhat more widely supported. I hated this idea, because they are the wrong characters, both semantically and aesthetically.

The main problem is that fonts, as used in computer operating systems, generally only contain glyphs for a subset of the bazillion characters in Unicode. On top of that, you can't guarantee that people are using the fonts you want. A smart text rendering system, when told to render a character that the desired font doesn't have, will look for a suitable replacement from some other font. I believe that's what happens now. It wasn't happening in 2007.

So, in 2007, I did some testing with my browsers at home, and put my notes on this wiki page. The idea was to see what worked and what didn't, and whether we could maybe implement a workaround that would force the proper display of ℗ on everyone's browsers.

However, soon after I started doing that, browsers became more robust and were able to display the proper ℗ character without us having to resort to workarounds or doing anything fancy with web fonts. At least, I think it's working for most people, most of the time.

So as of 2013, I've deleted my notes. If you really want to see them, there's a history link at the top of this page, and you can go back and look.