OS: W10/W7 64bits. PS: CS6
I want to use musical and math symbols, but they do not seem to work.
For example the musical flat symbol: ♭.
According to plenty of websites, the alt code is alt 9837:
However, when i try and press alt 9837 i get an m, i tried alt-gr but nothing happens.
If i try to copy-paste the symbol and paste it in a Photoshop text box, but i get an empty blank square like this: □.
I have num lock enabled and added to the registry EnableHexNumpad with a value of 1, so alt codes should work on photoshop, what is wrong?
1 Answer
You have two different things going on here. First of all, you must use the numeric keypad to type the numbers and not the keyboard. Make sure that the NUM LOCK key is on if your keyboard requires it to type numbers on the numeric keypad. As far as I am aware, there is no need for a registry hack to enable this functionality. (but who knows.. I am sometimes wrong).
Second of all, not every FONT includes this symbol at that given offset. When you see the generic [] box, it indicates that a char is being used that is not renderable using the current font for that photoshop element you are trying to paste it into. Change the font to Arial for that element.
- Try using the numeric keyboard.
- Try using the unicode Arial font (aka Arial Unicode MS) as it does include the music note and most "common" symbols. Of course the font "symbols" has even more ;)
- If all else fails, use the Windows Character Map program to visually see what is included in a particular font.
To use the windows character map:
- Type "character" in the search box on the task bar, and choose Character Map from the results. or
- Open the "run dialog" and type charmap [enter]
Fonts get more complicated still when you start to talk about codepages but you don't need to know about that to answer this question.
I already knew this stuff but for the specific reference, here is the bible on the subject when talking about windows.
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