I just came across a new (and better) way of inserting different text critical symbols. I have done a post on the papyrus symbol, and there I mentioned that you need a different font. I use Gentium for Greek and English (because it’s unicode), and so I didn’t want to have to switch fonts for just one symbol. I just learned that the text critical symbols are in Gentium, but you can’t find them through MS Word’s Insert Symbol function (see the HT link below for details). Here’s how you do it:
- Type in the unicode number for your symbol. E.g., 1D510 (see below).
- Keystroke: Alt-X
- Voila – the symbol appears
Majority Text symbol, 1D510
Papyrus symbol, 1D513
Septuagint, Greek Old Testament, 1D516
Lectionary symbol, 1D459
HT: NT Resources
Dunelm Road 
Wednesday, 23 December 2009 at 2:57 pm
Hi Ben. Thanks for the Alt+X trick. I wasn’t aware of that!
I’m not sure, however, that Gentium does have the Majority Text or Papyrus symbols. If you examine the font in Windows’ Character Map or something like BabelMap, those glyphs are not actually ‘in’ the font. I think that MS Word is basically substituting in a font that does happen to have those glyphs. Thankfully, through the magic of Unicode, this is possible because the Fraktur Capital P and the Fraktur Capital M, etc., have their own Unicode assignments – so you don’t have to worry about the actual glyph changing when switching to a different font.
Wednesday, 23 December 2009 at 11:15 pm
I didn’t even think of it not being in Gentium, but that is the beauty of unicode.
What’s your favorite biblical studies unicode font? I imagine that I’ll switch to the SBL font when they join up Greek and Hebrew into one font.
Wednesday, 6 January 2010 at 10:40 pm
I’m a mac user and every time I use the “alt-x” trick it switches over to Times New Roman font… is it different for mac users?
Thursday, 7 January 2010 at 11:53 am
Anybody else got ideas on this? As PC only, I don’t have a clue.
Tuesday, 13 April 2010 at 9:07 am
[…] its Greek and Hebrew unicode, I’m sure I’ll move to it. Plus you can get the cool text critical symbols easily. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)PhD Fellowships – GroningenPhD Studies: […]
Thursday, 5 April 2012 at 8:37 am
A couple of problems you may come across.
You may need to get the latest version of Cardo – get it at http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/Cardo
Also, you may not find any characters above FFFF in the Symbol Insert in Word. So use the keyboard method instead, with the decimal numbers.
eg to insert the Majority Text symbol, 1D510:
hold down Alt and type “+120080” (all on the number pad) then let go of Alt
(remember to use the + on the number pad)
Papyrus symbol , +120083
Septuagint, Greek Old Testament, +120086
Lectionary symbol, +119897
Friday, 1 November 2013 at 1:10 pm
After a lot of googling I managed to get the 𝔓 (papyrus) character in MS word. You can do it also by using the following procedure for the Mac:
1. Add the Unicode Hex to the available languages
Load up Language and Text in System Preferences, then choose the Input Sources tab. There’s a list of languages on the left. Scroll down the list and check the box next to Unicode Hex Input. Also check the box “Show input menu in menubar”. You should see a small flag appear in your menu bar, representing the current input language of your keyboard. Click that flag and choose Unicode Hex Input from the list. It’s now possible to type any Unicode character that you know the code for.
2. Install the (latest version of the) Cardo font, I currently use 1.04.
http://www.scholarsfonts.net/cardofnt.html Download the ZIP and double click all the *.ttf fonts. If conflicts are reported, let the system resolve the conflicts.
Note: I am not sure whether this step is necessary, but it does not do any harm as well 🙂
3. Start the Character Viewer from the language menu.
You will see some categories in the left-hand column. If the category unicode is missing, press the gear-sign above the left-hand column and add the Unicode category. Then select the 𝔓 character from the Unicode symbols (to be found under the number indicated above, add it to your favorites so you do not need to look it up every time. From there you may doubleclick the symbol to enter it in the application you’re working in.
Hope this helps!
Wednesday, 10 September 2014 at 7:04 pm
Thanks for this guidance on how to make the symbol for the majority text!
Tuesday, 9 February 2016 at 4:08 pm
Just a quick note: the unicode for LXX is U+1D50A.
Tuesday, 9 February 2016 at 4:59 pm
Thanks!
Wednesday, 10 February 2016 at 4:20 am
It is easy to see other similar characters using the Word Insert Symbol command, on both Mac & PC.
After you have typed (eg) 1D50A and pressed Alt-X, Word finds a font that contains that character, switches to it, and writes the character.
If you then press Atl-I and S, you open the Insert Symbol box with that font, so you can see all the other characters that are available.
Thursday, 3 March 2016 at 8:06 am
I feel that you should know this was really helpful to a struggling Bible college student tonight, and for that I am deeply thankful.