fontspdftexunicode
Following this answer, I tried to use Unicode emoticons with pdflatex like so:
{\fontfamily{DejaVuSans-TLF}\selectfont 😎}
The font is selected but the emoticon does not show.
There are some TTF fonts which support the characters, such as Symbola, but apparently getting TTF fonts to work with pdflatex is a pain in the butt.
Is there a way out?
Well in theory you can type your whole text in ascii, you only need to know which octets (8-bit-packets) to use:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{textcomp}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\begin{document}
Euro (€): ^^e2^^82^^ac
ä: ^^c3^^a4
\end{document}
The main problem is to get the utf8-hex-notation (e282ac) from the unicode name (U+20AC). In theory it can be calculated (and inputenc is doing it when processing \DeclareUnicodeCharacter{20AC}{\texteuro}) but I don't know a simple way to use the inputenc commands to get the values.
This input notation should work with the cjk-package (with utf8-option) too.
With the ucs-package (loaded when you use the option utf8x) you can use the command \unichar. But you should be aware that ucs can clash with some packages, e.g. it is mentioned in the biblatex list of incompatible packages.
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{textcomp}
\usepackage[utf8x]{inputenc}
\begin{document}
\unichar{"00E4}
\unichar{"20AC}
\end{document}
I have no idea if it would work together with cjk.
cjk offers also some text commands to enter symbols, e.g. \Li4 \chun1. but I don't know if this covers your symbols too.
Hoping to have a file that compiles with both XeLaTeX and pdflatex is, I'm afraid, generally hopeless.
In any case, XeLaTeX doesn't accept input such as ^^e2^^82^^ac; actually it does, but the result is not what you seem to expect.
You can set up replacements for missing symbols. I also redefine the Euro symbol for pdflatex, because the one you get with European Modern is “funny”.
\documentclass{article}
% general packages
\usepackage{iftex}
\usepackage{newunicodechar}
% specific packages
\iftutex
% XeLaTeX or LuaLaTeX
\usepackage{polyglossia}
\else
% pdflatex
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{pifont,eurosym}
\fi
% settings
\iftutex
% XeLaTeX or LuaLaTeX
\setdefaultlanguage{english}
%\defaultfontfeatures{Ligatures={TeX}}
\setmainfont{cmun}[
Extension=.otf,
UprightFont=*rm,
BoldFont=*bx,
ItalicFont=*ti,
BoldItalicFont=*bi
]
\setsansfont{CMU Sans Serif}
\setmonofont{CMU Typewriter Text}
\newfontface{\extrasymbols}{FreeSerif}[Extension=.otf]
\newunicodechar{✔}{{\extrasymbols ✔}}
\else
%\usepackage{textcomp}
%\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\newunicodechar{✔}{\ding{52}}
\newunicodechar{€}{\euro}
\fi
\begin{document}
Euro (U+20AC): €
Heavy Check Mark (U+2714): ✔
\end{document}
pdflatex
Best Answer
Prepare the following file
and compile it with XeLaTeX. Then you can use the glyph via the so built PDF file:
Probably some tweaking with the borders in the
standalonefile is necessary.You can get the height of an uppercase letter in the current font by saying