Academic fonts glyph coverage comparison

See also: Glyph coverage by standard.

This page shows the glyph coverage for various popular academic fonts.

Fonts were selected based on recomendations on various sites, or for having wide glyph coverage, particularly in mathematics and historical languages.

The focus is on western academia, so I did not consider CJK-and-related coverage. Font styles are typically "classical" serif, with a few sans-serifs. Arial is included, but not Calibri, due to its peculiarities. Neither is really recommended for serious publications.

I am not including the actual fonts, or links to them, due to wanting to keep the page weight down, and avoid dealing with licensing issues. Your friendly neighbourhood search engine will find them for you.

The "defining features" of a font are usually in how certain letters are drawn, in particular capitals A C E G I J K M O Q R S W, lowercase a e g i j l o y, some punctuation like ? , . (&), and the numerals. These are highlighted in the custom sentence, which also gives a feel for the "darkness" of the font, and its typical kerning. "Smirnoff" highlights issues with r n looking like m, and how ff renders.

You could also check the full Kurinto fonts collection (some included here), and the TypoPro collection. The Kurinto fonts are based on and extend popular free fonts like Arimo, Kelvinch, Cardo, Carlito, Noto Sans, Fira Sans, Junicode, Libertinus Sans, Tinos, Charis SIL, and Courier Prime.

I have included Arial, Helvetica and Times New Roman, since they are so pervasive. I did not include the usual Latex fonts because they are getting old and their glyph coverage is not keeping up.

The text samples were generated programmatically using PHP and GD. The maths samples were done in LibreOffice, and then screenshotted (?). LibreOffice seems to have a bug and ignores the specified font for the Σ and ∫ symbols. Setting up custom fonts (converting from TTF and OTF) for Latex would have been a lot of work, hence LibreOffice.

First are sample images of each font, and abbreviation for the column headings in the table below.
Font size for the letterforms is 28pt, while the sentences are 12pt.
The user-selectable glyph coverage tables are below.

We also have the Google Fonts collection as at 11 April 2022 analysed according to these criteria, as a spreadsheet (.ods).

1. Arial 7.00 (Arial), 3361 glyphs
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Catrinity 1.14 (Cat), 14842 glyphs
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Code2000 1.171 (Code), 53068 glyphs
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Dehjuti 1.1 (Deh), 6827 glyphs
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. Everson Mono 7.000 (Ever), 9638 glyphs
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. Fairfax HD 2021.03.22 (Fair), 18284 glyphs
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. FreeSerif 0412.2263 (FSer), 8086 glyphs
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
8. Helvetica 10.0d4e1 (Helv), 2006 glyphs
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
9. Iosevka 5.0.4 (Iosev), 4740 glyphs
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
10. Julia Mono 0.034 (Julia), 9515 glyphs
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
11. Kurinto Aria 2.196 (KAria), 17488 glyphs. Based on Arimo.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
12. Kurinto Arte 2.196 (KArte), 18910 glyphs. Based on Kelvinch.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
13. Kurinto Book 2.196 (KBook), 20073 glyphs. Based on Cardo and others.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
14. Kurinto Book UFI 2.196 (KBkU), 9100 glyphs. Based on Cardo and others.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
15. Kurinto Cali 2.196 (KCali), 16577 glyphs. Based on Carlito.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
16. Kurinto Mono 2.196 (KMono), 8539 glyphs. Based on Noto Sans Mono.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
17. Kurinto Plot Bold 2.196 (KPlot), 17496 glyphs. Based on Fira Sans.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
18. Kurinto Roma UFI 2.196 (KRomU), 7967 glyphs. Based on Junicode.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
19. Kurinto Sans Music 2.196 (KSansM), 21744 glyphs. Based on Noto Sans.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
20. Kurinto Seri 2.196 (KSeri), 18153 glyphs. Based on Libertinus Sans.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
21. Kurinto TMod 2.196 (KTMod), 18927 glyphs. Based on Tinos.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
22. Kurinto Text Music 2.196 (KTxtM), 22659 glyphs. Based on Charis SIL.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
23. Kurinto Type 2.196 (KType), 17316 glyphs. Based on Kurinto CNew, which is based on Courier Prime.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
24. Libertinus Math 7.040 (LibMa), 3648 glyphs
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
25. Quivira 4.1 (Quiv), 11091 glyphs
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
26. Rursus Compact Mono 1.10 (Rurs), 6012 glyphs
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
27. STIX Two Math 2.13 b171 (STIX2), 4605 glyphs
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
28. Segoe UI Symbol 6.23 (Seg), 7361 glyphs
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
29. Symbola 14.00 (Sym), 12217 glyphs
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
30. Times New Roman 7.00 (TNR), 3634 glyphs
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

Glyph support comparison

The table excludes U+058B, U+058C, U+169E, U+2065, U+208F, U+4E2D, U+A8FB, U+FB10, U+FB11, U+FB12, and U+FFFF codepoints, any blocks not present in any of the fonts, and the following blocks which are in some of the fonts:

• 0F00..0FFF; Tibetan
• 2E80..2EFF; CJK Radicals Supplement
• 2F00..2FDF; Kangxi Radicals
• 3400..4DBF; CJK Unified Ideographs Extension A
• 4E00..9FFF; CJK Unified Ideographs
• A000..A48F; Yi Syllables
• A490..A4CF; Yi Radicals
• A960..A97F; Hangul Jamo Extended-A
• AC00..D7AF; Hangul Syllables
• D7B0..D7FF; Hangul Jamo Extended-B
• E000..F8FF; Private Use Area

Select fonts (maximum 12) to compare. You probably don't want more than 5 or 7 at a time. Trust me.

 

The table below is supposed to render using Symbola font, your browser may substitute different glyphs as needed..