Why are unicode characters not rendering correctly

Posted by sw1nn on Super User See other posts from Super User or by sw1nn
Published on 2012-11-24T10:28:14Z Indexed on 2012/11/24 11:13 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 286

Filed under:

unicode

|

urxvt

Background:

I have some unicode characters in my prompt (git status markers essentially)
I'm running urxvt under xfce on arch linux.
I'm using DejaVu Sans Mono for Powerline font, specified via .Xresources line:

URxvt*font: xft:DejaVu Sans Mono for Powerline:pixelsize=14

When I start urxvt the unicode characters do not render correctly.

For example

? renders as â

However, if I then start a new urxvt from inside the first terminal everything renders correctly.

There doesn't appear to be any difference in the environment between the two terminals.

What could be the difference between the first invocation and the nested invocation? I suspect the font is not correct in the 'outer' instance, but I'm unsure how to check the font of a running X window

screenshot demonstrates the problem:

enter image description here

Note: I moved this question from serverfault.com - i hope this site is more appropriate

© Super User or respective owner

Related posts about unicode

Translating Between Unicode and Non-Unicode Character Sets in Java

as seen on Internet.com - Search for 'Internet.com'
You can use Java APIs not only to help translate characters, strings, and text streams to other languages, but also to convert Unicode character sets to non-Unicode and vice versa. >>> More
SQLite, python, unicode, and non-utf data

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I started by trying to store strings in sqlite using python, and got the message: sqlite3.ProgrammingError: You must not use 8-bit bytestrings unless you use a text_factory that can interpret 8-bit bytestrings (like text_factory = str). It is highly recommended that you instead just… >>> More
SQLite, python, unicode, and non-utf data

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I started by trying to store strings in sqlite using python, and got the message: sqlite3.ProgrammingError: You must not use 8-bit bytestrings unless you use a text_factory that can interpret 8-bit bytestrings (like text_factory = str). It is highly recommended that you instead just… >>> More
notepad sql Unicode and Non Unicode

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
Hi, I have a Microsoft Notepad flate file with data and Vertical Bar as column delimiter. I get following message: cannot convert between unicode and non-unicode string data types It seems it is my nvarchar(max) that creates my problem. I changed to varchar(max); but still the same problem. How… >>> More
On Windows 7, dir or tree can't show unicode characters, even starting cmd with cmd /U

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
On Windows 7, dir or tree can't show unicode characters, even starting cmd with cmd /U So I would press Window Key + R to run something, and type in cmd /U so that the content might handle Unicode. And then using dir or tree /F, the content in Unicode won't show as Unicode. (in Window Explorer… >>> More

Related posts about urxvt

Tunning scrolling in urxvt

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
Hello, I'm using rxvt-unicode version 9.06 at Ubuntu 9.10. I was used to aterm, where you can use SHIFT + up/down arrow to scroll the printed output with a line up or down. You can also use SHIFT + pgup/pgdown to scroll one screen up or down. In urxvt I can use the pgup/pgdown combination as well… >>> More
vim-powerline colors are out of whack in urxvt

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I have attached two images showing what my vim-powerline looks like. As you can see, something has happened to the colors and I cannot figure out how to fix it. I'm running Fedora 17 on a clean install with i3 (default config) and urxvt. Here is my bashrc: # .bashrc if [[ "$(uname)" != "Darwin"… >>> More
Mouse wheel scrolling in less and vim using urxvt

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I have started working with rxvt-unicode (aka urxvt) but found an issue with mouse-wheel scrolling, as compared to gnome-terminal and konsole. The mouse wheel works fine for going through the scrollback buffer, but it doesn't work for automatic scrolling in less/most or vim (though in vim, setting… >>> More
How do I make urxvt render xft fonts?

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I wonder whether there's a way to make urxvt render xft fonts: URxvt.font: xft:Droid Sans Mono Slashed:pixelsize=9:Regular URxvt.boldFont: xft:Droid Sans Mono Slashed:pixelsize=9:Bold URxvt.talicFont: xft:Droid Sans Mono Slashed:pixelsize=9:Italic URxvt.bolditalicFont: xft:Droid Sans Mono Slashed:pixelsize=9:Bold:Italic If… >>> More
Porting GNOME keyboard shortcuts to URXVT

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I recently switched from gnome terminal to urxvt (and installed tabbed extensions). I am also a heavy emacs user which uses a lot of key combinations similar to urxvt (tab related stuff) like Shift-Left and Shift-Right. These key-combinations are set for selecting text in emacs. Is there a way to… >>> More