BabelMap

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Released 28th September 2023 • Version 15.1.0.3

• Updated Unicode data for Unicode 15.1.0 data.
• Updated Emoji data for Emoji 15.1
• No longer supports bitmap fonts.
• The OpenType Test Framework now supports positional forms for scripts with joining behaviour, such as Arabic and Mongolian.
• Option to show CJK and Tangut source references now split into two separate options.
• Various minor bug fixes and enhancements.
• Various updates to CJK and Tangut data.
• Various bug fixes
• Updated IVD data for 2022-09-13 version.
• New Han Ideograph Search utility (under Tools menu) which allows you to list all Han ideographs that match particular source criteria.
• New tool (under Find menu) to find Han ideographs by their source reference.
• Added a "Status Bar" option that allows you to toggle display of algorithmic character names on the status bar, and toggle the display of source references for CJK and Tangut characters on the status bar.
• Improved font auto-configuration options to allow exclusion of all fonts starting with the same name by prefixing the name with an @ sign (e.g. "@BabelStone" to exclude all BabelStone fonts).
• Renamed "Simple Rendering" and "Complex Rendering" modes to "Glyph Mode" and "Text Mode" respectively. Replaced the "Simple Rendering" checkbox with "Glyph Mode" and "Text Mode" radio buttons (also activated by pressing Ctrl+0 and Ctrl+9 respectively).
• Added a "Colour Glyphs" checkbox next to the Glyph Mode and Text Mode buttons. When checked polychromatic glyphs in COLR/CPAL fonts are rendered in colour (also activated by toggling Ctrl+7).
• Now supports colour glyphs in COLR/CPAL fonts for character sequences that use OpenType features (e.g. emoji sequences, flag sequences, and tag sequences). This includes support for very complex family emoji sequences in the Segoe UI Emoji font, where multiple contextual glyph substitution and glyph positioning operations are required to render the emoji glyph correctly. NB in colour mode (using the Babel rendering system), selecting some of the characters of a multi-character sequence for a colour glyph results in partial highlighting of the glyph, whereas in non-colour mode (using the Windows Uniscribe API) the whole glyph is selected even when only some of the corresponding characters are selected. Note also that colour mode supports some character sequences such as flag tag sequences that are not supported by Uniscribe in non-colour mode (so flag tag sequences supported in a COLR/CPAL font will be rendered correctly in colour mode, but as the fallback black flag in non-colour mode).
• Enhanced rendering of emoji sequences in the Emoji Lookup tool when "Render in colour" selected.
• Removed button to paste arbitrary text in the Emoji Lookup tool.
• Fixed bug in context menu for the edit buffer (casing submenu was available when no text is selected)
• Added an option to specify a default flag font in the Composite Font Mappings dialog. If this option is enabled, the specified font will be used in Text mode for sequences of Regional Indicator Symbols corresponding to flag glyphs, overriding the font configured for the Enclosed Alphanumeric Supplement block (which is where Regional Indicator Symbols are located), as well as for flag tag sequences starting with Waving Black Flag.
• Added an option to customize the background and text colours used in the edit buffer("Customize Colours..." from the Options menu).
• Thoroughly refactored the code used to render text in the edit buffer. This has resulted in some minor changes in display behaviour and editing behaviour.
• In Text mode, backspace deletes a single character, whereas Ctrl+backspace deletes a single grapheme cluster (i.e. a single character or a sequence of characters that form a single glyph, e.g. 'e' with a combining acute accent, or two Regional Indicator Symbols rendered as a flag glyph).
• In Text mode double-clicking selects a word, whereas in Glyph mode double-clicking selects a glyph.
• Rationalised descriptions of some emoji sequences.
• Added an option to filter fonts in the Overview of All Fonts dialog by Vendor ID, Design Language, or Supported Language.
• Added Vendor ID, Design Language, and Supported Language to the Font Information dialog.
• Fully supports the Last Resort High-Efficiency font, which uses a Format 13 cmap subtable.
• Improved the filtering out of last resort and fallback fonts when auto-configuring the font-to-block mappings.
• Added an experimental OpenType Test Framework for rendering text with OpenType features using BabelMap's own rendering system.
• Release Notes

This free Unicode character map is far more powerful than the standard Windows character map. It supports the latest version of Unicode. If you work extensively with special characters I recommend it. The main dialog (below) has buttons on the right to scroll quickly through Unicode blocks, or you can select the Unicode Block from the drop down list. Right-click on any character to zoom in and view it on a popup. Select the font from the Single Font drop down list, or view all characters available across multiple fonts by using a composite font. The font size used by the Edit Buffer can also be set.

Use the search fields to find a character by name (or part of a name), or by its Unicode code-point (hexadecimal or decimal).

Copy characters to the edit buffer with double-click. The edit buffer can show characters, hex codes, decimal codes, or Unicode Character Numbers, and whichever is currently viewed can be copied to the Windows clipboard for pasting into other applications. The edit buffer can thus be used to convert text to codes, and vice versa.

From the menus at the top of the dialog you can access many advanced features to analyse fonts in detail. For example, you can use colour coding to filter characters in various ways. Below, the characters are colour coded by Unicode version, showing how different characters were gradually added to the Unicode standard.

The Font Analysis utility (F7) will show which Unicode blocks are contained in a font, or find which fonts on your system cover different Unicode blocks.

The Font Information dialog will reveal details about the current font such as naming, description, license agreement, designer links, and supported platforms.

The help file is not included with the download, and has not been updated to my knowledge. You can download the old help file for version 1.8, which will tell you most of what you need to know, and quite a lot that you probably don’t.

Page last updated on 02 November 2023