Hello, I need to admit, that I do not understand enough to get it running successfully. But let me please summarize what I tried: somewhere early in the init.el: (require 'x-symbol-unicode) According to the default face font the behavior was much different: (set-face-font 'default "SImPL-14") the charsyms redefined in x-symbol-unicode.el get displayed nicely. In case I set: (set-face-font 'default "Arial-14") only the charsyms contained also directly in the arial font get displayed. This does not change if I specify SImPL to be part of the preferred alias of sans defined in ~/.fonts.conf the font forwarding of x-symbol-init-cset reaches not until object-x.c where patternxft always contain the font specified either via .Xdefaults or set-face-font. This might have something to do with x-symbol-xmacs.el x-symbol-set-face-font, I would guess. Thanks for all your help Stefan -- Stefan Holst http://numerik.mathematik.uni-mainz.de/~juengel FB Mathematik u. Informatik Email: holst(a)mathematik.uni-mainz.de Joh. Gutenberg Univ. Mainz Telefon: ++49(0)6131/39-20172 D - 55099 Mainz Fax: ++49(0)6131/39-23331 (provide 'x-symbol-unicode) (make-charset 'unicodeMathSymbol "Unicode Block for (some) Math Symbols" '(dimension 1 chars 96 columns 1 final ?5 long-name "Unicode Block for (some) Math Symbols" short-name "MathSymbols")) (defvar unicodeSymbolList '(("forall" #x20 #x2200) ("partialdiff" #x21 #x2202) ("exists" #x22 #x2203) ("nexists" #x23 #x2204) ("emptyset" #x24 #x2205) ("Delta" #x25 #x2206) ("nabla" #x26 #x2207) ("elemof" #x27 #x2208) ("nelemof" #x28 #x2209) ("contains" #x29 #x220b) ("ncontains" #x2a #x220c) ("prod" #x2b #x220f) ("coprod" #x2c #x2210) ("sum" #x2d #x2211) ("mp" #x2e #x2213) ("bslash" #x2f #x2216) ("asterisk" #x30 #x2217) ; ("sqrt" #x31 #x221a) ("proport" #x32 #x221d) ("infty" #x33 #x221e) ("mangle" #x34 #x2221) ("parallel" #x35 #x2225) ("land" #x36 #x2227) ("lor" #x37 #x2228) ("cap" #x38 #x2229) ("cup" #x39 #x222a) ("int" #x3a #x222b) ("dint" #x3b #x222c) ("vint" #x3c #x222d) ("cint" #x3d #x222e) ("cdint" #x3e #x222f) ("cvint" #x3f #x2230) ("simeq" #x40 #x2243) ("congruent" #x41 #x2245) ("almosteq" #x42 #x2248) ("neq" #x43 #x2260) ("equiv" #x44 #x2261) ("leq" #x45 #x2264) ("geq" #x46 #x2265) ("muchless" #x47 #x226a) ("muchgreater" #x48 #x226b) ("subset" #x49 #x2282) ("supset" #x4a #x2283) ("nsubset" #x4b #x2284) ("nsupset" #x4c #x2285) ("subseteq" #x4d #x2286) ("supseteq" #x4e #x2287) ("oplus" #x4f #x2295) ("ominus" #x50 #x2296) ("otimes" #x51 #x2297) ("oslash" #x52 #x2298) ("odot" #x53 #x2299) ("top" #x54 #x22a4) ("perpendicular" #x55 #x22a5)) ) (dolist (entry unicodeSymbolList) (set-unicode-conversion (make-char 'unicodeMathSymbol (car (cdr entry))) (car (cdr (cdr entry)))) ) ;(set-unicode-conversion ; (make-char 'unicodeMathSymbol #x20) #x220F) ;;N-ARY PRODUCT ;(set-unicode-conversion ; (make-char 'unicodeMathSymbol #x21) 8704) ;; FOR ALL ;(set-unicode-conversion ; (make-char 'unicodeMathSymbol #x22) #x222B) ;; INTEGRAL ;(set-unicode-conversion ; (make-char 'unicodeMathSymbol #x23) #x2202) ;; PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL (setq x-symbol-tex-user-table '((Xso (math letter user) "\\Xso") (mus (math bigop) "\\mus") (fa (math letter user) "\\fa") (emptyset (math letter user) "\\varnothing") (Upartialdiff (math letter user) "\\partial") )); "Table defining the new macros" ) (setq x-symbol-compose-key '(control +)) (setq x-symbol-8bits t) (x-symbol-initialize) ;(defalias 'x-symbol-make-char 'x-symbol-unicode-make-char) (require 'x-symbol) ;(require 'x-symbol-mule) ; (defun x-symbol-unicode-make-char (cset encoding charsym face coding) ; "THis is a journey into sound. I don't know anything. But let's try everything" ; (warn "encoding of character %s is %s " charsym enconding) ; (let* ((char (if (> encoding 265) (unicode-to-char encoding) (x-symbol-mule-make-char cset encoding charsym face coding)) ; ) ; ) ; ) ; ) (defvar x-symbol-myfont-fonts ; '("OpenSymbol-%d") '(("SImPL-%d")("SImPL-%d")("SImPL-%d")) ) ; ("-misc-opensymbol-medium-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-iso10646-1") (defvar x-symbol-myfont-cset '((("iso10646") ?\200 3000) (unicodeMathSymbol) . nil) "Cset for use of UTF8Characters") (defvar x-symbol-myfont-table '((longarrownortheast 33 (arrow) (size big . arrownortheast)) (Xso 968 (symbol "S") nil nil ("xso") ) (mus 32 (symbol) nil nil ("mus") ) (fa 33 (symbol) nil nil ("forall") ) (universal1 #x20 (symbol) nil nil ("A")) (Upartialdiff #x21 (mathletter "d")) (existential1 #x22 (symbol) nil nil ("E")) (emptyset #x24 (shape) nil nil ("0/" "O/")) (Delta #x25 (greek "D" delta "Delta")) (gradient #x26 (triangle) (direction south . Delta) nil (t "\\-/")) (element #x27 (relation) (direction west) nil ("(-")) (notelement #x28 (relation) (direction west) nil (t "(-/") (element)) (suchthat #x29 (relation) (direction east . element) nil ("-)")) (product #x2b (bigop) (size big . Pi) nil ("TT")) (coproduct #x2c (bigop) (direction south . product) nil (t "|_|")) (summation #x2d (bigop) (size big . Sigma)) (minusplus #x2e (operator) (direction south . plusminus) nil (t "-+")) (backslash1 #x2f (line) nil nil ("\\")) (asterisk1 #x30 (operator) nil nil ("*")) ; Adobe:asteriskmath (proportional #x32 (relation) nil nil ("oc")) (infinity #x33 (symbol) nil nil ("oo")) (bardbl1 #x35 (line) bardbl 120 nil (bar1)) (logicaland #x36 (operator) (direction north . logicalor) nil (t "/\\")) (logicalor #x37 (operator) (direction south) nil (t "\\/")) (intersection #x38(operator) (shape round . logicaland)) (union #x39 (operator) (shape round . logicalor)) (integral #x3a (bigop) (size big) nil (t "|'")) (circleintegral #x3d (bigop) (size big) nil (t "|'O") (integral)) (simequal #x40 (relation) nil nil (t "~_") (similar)) (congruent #x41 (relation) nil nil (t "~=")) (approxequal #x42 (relation) nil nil (t "~~")) (notequal #x43 (relation) nil nil (t "=/")) (equivalence #x44 (relation) nil nil (t "=_")) (lessequal #x45 (relation) (direction west . greaterequal) nil (t "<_")) (greaterequal #x46 (relation) (direction east) nil (t ">_")) (lessless #x47 (relation) (direction west . greatergreater) nil ("<<")) (greatergreater #x48 (relation) (direction east) nil (">>")) (propersubset #x49 (relation) (direction east . union) nil (">")) (propersuperset #x4a (relation) (direction east . union) nil (">")) (notsubset #x4b (relation) (shape round direction west) nil ("</") (propersubset)) (notsuperset #x4c (relation) (shape round direction east) nil ("</") (propersuperset)) (reflexsubset #x4d (relation) (shape round . lessequal) nil nil (propersubset)) (reflexsuperset #x4e (relation) (shape round . greaterequal) nil nil (propersuperset)) (circleplus #x4f (operator) nil nil (t "+O")) (circleminus #x50 (operator) Theta 120 ("-O")) (circlemultiply #x51 (operator) nil nil (t "xO") (multiply)) (circleslash #x52 (operator) nil nil ("/O")) (circledot #x53 (operator) nil nil (t ".O") (periodcentered)) (top #x54 (arrow) (direction south . perpendicular) nil ("T")) (perpendicular #x55 (arrow) (direction north) nil (t "_|_")) ) ) (x-symbol-init-cset x-symbol-myfont-cset x-symbol-myfont-fonts x-symbol-myfont-table) ; (setq x-symbol-tex-user-table ; '((Xso (math letter user) "\\Xso") ; (mus (math bigop) "\\mus"))); "Table defining the new macros" )