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Unicode characters are used to display characters in the Universal Unicode Character Set (UCS), which includes over 1 million code points. Unicode fonts may only provide graphic data for a subset of characters, and the relationship between a character and UCS is handled by software. A Unicode font includes the UCS and information on how to display the characters as glyphs, which can be images or vector data. Complex characters in non-Western languages can be built from multiple elements.
A Unicode® character is the graphic information required to display characters in the Universal Unicode® Character Set (UCS). There are more than 1 million characters in the UCS, each called a code point, and they are continually being revised and expanded. For this reason, many Unicode® fonts choose to only provide graphic data for a subset of the characters that could be represented, such as only Western English letters and numbers, although there are some fonts that attempt to provide display information for as many characters as i am possible. Ultimately, the connection between a Unicode® character and the UCS is handled by the software that uses the characters, because there is no real definition of how characters should behave programmatically.
The use of a Unicode® font implies the delivery of the two elements that make up a complete font. The first is the UCS, which is a definition of which characters map to which specific numbers. This means that, in the UCS, the English number 1 would be represented overall by a specific index number. This number can then be used to determine the index into the typeface to find the graphic data so that the character can be reproduced on a screen or printed on paper. The Unicode® standards deal only with the underlying UCS and not with the typefaces or implementation of the relationship between the two, so this can vary from program to program.
The information within a Unicode® font can be almost anything that somehow fulfills the role of displaying or representing the UCS character. The graphical representation of a UCS character is known as a glyph. The glyphs in a typeface can be images or vector data so that the characters can be drawn and scaled to any size needed. There is no definition of how the Unicode® font should be implemented, so it could also contain information to render letters in three dimensions (3D) or even audio signatures instead of visual data.
There are some typical methods of implementing complex characters into a Unicode® font, especially in non-Western languages where there may be tens of thousands of individual characters. One way is to provide information on how to build a single glyph from several elements that could each be used in more than one font. This can allow a typeface to contain less repetitive graphic data and replace it with a layering system to create the unique images needed.
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