Why does Notepad++ display some Unicode characters as square?

Question

It can display ₐ₊₋ but some other subscripts (like ₂ₙ) are converted to squares. When I copy that square and paste on here the problem disappears: ₂. Why is that? The file is encoded in UTF-8.

FYI: Unicode subscripts and superscripts

Solution

It depends on whether the font you use has these symbols defined or not.

I found a basic way to change the font here:

• Choose the menu option Settings - Style Configurator…
• In the Style configurator dialog, choose the Global Styles language
• Then, select the Default Style style
• Finally, in the Font Style area, you can select your favourite font and/or its size, too

When I pick a font from the list, it is applied immediately, so it's easy to see which one supports characters you need. Of course if you use more than "Global Styles" / "Default Style" then you should modify the above solution accordingly.

Comments

[Berend]

It seems that on Windows, Segoe UI Symbol is the only font that includes that particular symbol: ₙ

[Ooker]

@Berend how about Arial, Time News Roman?

[Berend]

No. At least on my system (Windows 8.1) these do not contain subscript n.