Displaying Special Characters

[ASC]

So this is just more of an annoyance than anything else, But when I'm on certain websites on my phone or get some emails that are using special characters, the characters usually show up as empty boxes. I believe this is due to the use of International Phonetic Alphabet characters? Is there a way to add these to my phone so I can start seeing them? Or is it not supported?

I have a Stock Droid X

Thanks!

Here's an example from the same webpage on my phone and then from my computer.

 

[mikedt]

Seems that the International Phonetic Alphabet characters and diacritics are not supported in Android. Not sure about adding them, but it's something which should be fixed

 

[arnould]

renders symbols as empty squares. This means that Unicode support is
working, but the font does not have those symbols.

What is missing is that Droid.ttf fonts do not have all the unicode characters
implemented in them.

This is an issue with the fonts.

Java Programming

 

[ASC]

Is there any way to add them? Or are we SOL?

 

[arnould]

There are solutions but you need to use a developer tool to install and root the phone which is more than any user could do.

I hope that Google does that ASAP,for an open-source OS it's a shame to not have that, It should be relatively easy to fix the issue then. All it needs is an extended character set in the Droid's Unicode font.

 

[ASC]

Maybe we'll get it with ICS!

 

[mikedt]

The missing unicode IPA characters and diacritics are serious enough to stop me from using an Android device for some of my work. They're more or less essential for teaching pronunciations to ESL students.

BTW my United Kingdom version Galaxy S wouldn't even do Chinese properly when I first got it. It does now though thanks to CyanogenMod.

 

[arnould]

Yeah, I've seen people with rooted phones, who have installed Arabic fonts, also got their problems resolved! So most of the issues, seem to be resolved out of the box anyway!

Seems we just need to get an Arabic enabled font on the device .. then possibly all major issues would be resolved

 

[mikedt]

Now my Galaxy does have Arabic fonts and menus enabled, but it wont show many characters like:
ɸ β f v θ

 

[mikedt]

How my previous post appears on the Galaxy S, presumably it would be the same for any Android phone or tablet....

...All the IPA characters show just fine on my PC of course.

 

[ASC]

^^^ Checked this thread from my DX and I was like AAAHHH! More boxes!! lol.

I can see about 15 of them on my phone, but not the rest. A Couple aren't even the same.

Edit: ^^^ Looks the exact same from my Droid X

 

[mikedt]

As I said, it all looks great on my PC of course.

Click for larger view of attached screenshot.

 

[chanchan05]

I'd really think all you need to get is a tff file of a font with those characters. I mean, its really not that hard to change fonts, there are apps available on market to change fonts, and in theme-ing our phones, we change fonts a lot anyway.

 

[mikedt]

Bumping this year old thread.

Unfortunately things don't seem to have improved any with ICS 4.0 and JB 4.1, Many of the unicode IPA characters are still missing, or are incorrect. This is serious enough to prevent me from using Android for my day job as an ESL teacher. I have to use Windows or a desktop Linux OS like Ubuntu or Mint. IPA support is complete and correct in Apple's iOS as well.