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How do I get Safari to display all unicode characters?

That ones that do show up display correctly, but many have the default broken box. View > Text Encoding > Unicode doesn't change anything. I already had a ton of fonts installed, but I installed all the Unifont 16.0.01 OTFs and Noto Sans TTFs just in case, and that didn't help anything either.


I even tried forcefully changing the used font (changing webpage source code with debug tools) to Unifont, but all that did was change the broken identifying rectangle with an X through it to a broken identifying rectangle without an X through it… They do display correctly in other apps on my computer, and in other web browsers like Opera. So I've eliminated both my computer and the webpage itself as a possible cause, it's only Safari that prevents certain (rarer) unicode characters from loading somehow.

Mac Studio, macOS 14.6

Posted on Oct 10, 2024 8:25 AM

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9 replies

Oct 11, 2024 8:12 AM in response to Moorgan

Moorgan wrote:

. I also noticed some mistakes in the default fonts; like Helvetica and Geneva. For example they have the Combining Latin Small Letter Insular D (U+1DD8) and Combining Latin Small Letter Eth (U+1DD9) reversed; while Unifont and Noto Sans display the correct character for these.

Let Apple know about these errors via


http://www.apple.com/feedback


Oct 11, 2024 11:06 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

There are very many, but I can name some I suppose. Keep in mind they all show up on Opera and anywhere outside of Safari; so it's definitely a Safari issue. I'm also up to date with macOS 15.0.1, and was able to change my system default font to Noto Sans (Google's complete unicode font) using Tinker Tool.


The 672 Signwriting characters starting at U+1D800.

Some uncommon accented characters like U+AB39, U+AB4C, U+AB54, U+AB56, U+AB58, et cetera…

The 246 Byzantine Musical Symbols starting at U+1D000.

Uncommon combining characters like U+1AB0-U+1AC0, U+1DD0-U+1DD2, U+1DDA, U+1DE7-U+1DF9, U+1DFC, U+1DFD, et cetera…

Oct 11, 2024 11:41 AM in response to Moorgan

Moorgan wrote:

There are very many, but I can name some I suppose. ...


Thanks! The more you can name, the more are likely to get fixed. I tested this page on my Ventura machine with Noto Signwriting installed with Safari, Firefox, and Chrome and the defect with Safari is clear.


You should submit this also as a bug report. Include a link to this discussion so they can see all your info.

Oct 18, 2024 5:25 PM in response to Moorgan

Moorgan wrote:

One can quickly identify all the broken unicode characters by browsing the list at the Unicode organization's website: https://www.unicode.org/charts/nameslist/

Great site, thanks! But Apple doesn't provide fonts for all of it, so you need to install some, and new characters are added every year. What do you recommend that is up to date covering all 155,000? Or even not bothering with CJK U+20000 and higher?

How do I get Safari to display all unicode characters?

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