Zeichenabdeckung

Zeichenabdeckung, a German term, translates to "character coverage" or "glyph coverage" in English. It refers to the extent to which a font supports a specific set of characters or symbols. When discussing character coverage, the primary concern is whether a particular font contains all the necessary glyphs for a given language, script, or specialized set of symbols. For example, a font with high Zeichenabdeckung for Western European languages would include characters like é, ü, and ñ, alongside the standard Latin alphabet.

Low character coverage can lead to rendering issues. If a document uses characters that are not present in the selected font, the system will typically substitute them with a default font, often resulting in a visually inconsistent and sometimes unreadable text. This substitution can disrupt the intended design and flow of a document.

The concept of Zeichenabdeckung is particularly important in multilingual environments and for specialized applications like scientific notation, mathematical typesetting, or historical scripts. Designers and users often need to verify the character coverage of fonts to ensure their content displays correctly across different platforms and devices. Font foundries and developers often provide information about the character sets supported by their fonts, allowing users to make informed choices.