What's the process for proposing a symbol in the Unicode table?

[Freek Dijkstra]

Hi Peter,

Thanks for your references. However, I'm a bit confused with your 
argument. Are you talking about the krul symbol or about icons in 
general in the discussion with William?

I can't find the word "icon" in the referred chapter 1 of Unicode 15.0, 
so I assume you refer to this text in the document:

> Note, however, that the Unicode Standard does not encode 
> idiosyncratic, personal, novel, or private-use characters, nor does it 
> encode logos or graphics.

In case you refer to the "krul" character I want to propose: that is 
neither an icon nor a personal or private-use character, nor a logo, nor 
a graphics. At least not in the sence that it is not a graphical 
representation of a physical object (like all examples I see on the home 
page of https://fontawesome.com/icons).

If your argument is referring to the general use case, my apologies. I 
do not have any opinion about that.

With kind regards,
Freek Dijkstra

On 22-02-2024 20:07, Peter Constable via Unicode wrote:
>
> > in practice an end user is likely to want to introduce the krul 
> character from a font. So encoding the krul character in regular 
> Unicode would be helpful to end users and in my opinion being helpful 
> to end users and consumers is what is important in encoding decisions.
>
> By this line of reasoning, every icon in any symbol font, such as Font 
> Awesome <https://fontawesome.com/icons> would be a candidate for 
> encoding. UTC has already explicitly decided against that argument for 
> encoding. Moreover, the successful, widespread use of fonts like Font 
> Awesome clearly demonstrates that encoding in Unicode is not necessary 
> for users to easily use graphic symbols in content.
>
> The Unicode Standard encodes characters, where “character” is 
> understood to mean an element of textual content and the encoding is 
> intended for purposes of text processing. Not every graphic element 
> qualifies for encoding simply because it can be presented using a font 
> and placed in a text frame of a DTP application.
>
> Cf. https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode15.0.0/ch01.pdf
>
> Peter
>
> *From:*Unicode <unicode-bounces at corp.unicode.org> *On Behalf Of 
> *William_J_G Overington via Unicode
> *Sent:* Monday, February 19, 2024 5:54 AM
> *To:* unicode at corp.unicode.org
> *Subject:* Re: What's the process for proposing a symbol in the 
> Unicode table?
>
> I wonder if the encoding rules are no longer fit for purpose.
>
> The encoding process should be to be helpful to consumers, not to lead 
> to an agreement to restrict progress.
>
> I get the impression - and if I have got it wrong please correct me - 
> that if one were using the krul character in a desktop publishing 
> program that the likely scenario is that there is a large rectangular 
> text frame filling most of the page and containing text in the Dutch 
> language, in, say, 14 point, and there is in the right margin, near 
> the lower edge of the page, a small rectangular text frame into which 
> the krul character is inserted, quite possibly at a larger size than 
> the other text, at, say, 36 point or 48 point.
>
> Thus the krul character is not within a line of running text involving 
> other characters as well as itself.
>
> I say that the fact that the krul character is not within a line of 
> running text involving other characters as well as itself should not 
> go against the encoding of the krul character as a regular Unicode 
> character.
>
> This is because, in practice an end user is likely to want to 
> introduce the krul character from a font. So encoding the krul 
> character in regular Unicode would be helpful to end users and in my 
> opinion being helpful to end users and consumers is what is important 
> in encoding decisions.
>
> William Overington
>
> Monday 19 February 2024
>
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