Re: Use another font for some characters

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Alex Kost <alezost@gmail.com>
> Date: Sat, 01 Oct 2016 21:10:38 +0300
> 
> Hello, in Emacs 24.5.1 (and earlier) I can use this:
> 
>   (set-fontset-font "fontset-default" '(#x2190 . #x2195) "Symbola")
> 
> and this range of characters (which is the following arrows: ← ↑ → ↓ ↔
> ↕), is displayed using "Symbola" font.
> 
> However in Emacs 25, the same set-fontset-font call doesn't take any
> visible effect – the arrow characters are still displayed with my
> default font (Liberation Mono).

Emacs 25 will use the default font for any punctuation and symbol
characters supported by that font, even if the fontset specifies
another font for them.  That's because switching to another font has
some unpleasant effects, like slower redisplay, misalignment of text,
inability to compose characters, etc.

Many fonts used for the default face have good coverage of symbols and
punctuation, but don't advertise that by stating the support for the
'symbol' script in their metadata.  Previously, on many systems, these
characters needed a special setup in the default fontset, for no good
reason.  Now you only need to set up those which your default font
doesn't support, and for which the default fontset doesn't already
specify a font that is installed on your system.

May I ask why you don't want these characters displayed by your
default font?