From Gordon Tomlinson, "I have attached the 3 files we had to change to fix a proble we were seeing with using Symbol Fonts

// GT: fix for symbol fonts (i.e. the Webdings font) as the wrong character are being
// returned, for symbol fonts in windows (FT_ENCONDING_MS_SYMBOL in freetype) the correct
// values are from 0xF000 to 0xF0FF not from 0x000 to 0x00FF (0 to 255) as you would expect.
// becuase Microsoft uses a private field for its symbol fonts ........
 "

src/osgPlugins/freetype/FreeTypeFont.cpp

@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ FreeTypeFont::~FreeTypeFont()
         FreeTypeLibrary* freeTypeLibrary = FreeTypeLibrary::instance();
         if (freeTypeLibrary)
         {
-            // remove myself from the local regsitry to ensure that
+            // remove myself from the local registry to ensure that
             // not dangling pointers remain
             freeTypeLibrary->removeFontImplmentation(this);
         
@@ -69,9 +69,9 @@ void FreeTypeFont::setFontResolution(unsigned int width, unsigned int height)
         osg::notify(osg::WARN)<<"         sizes capped ("<<width<<","<<height<<") to fit int current glyph texture size."<<std::endl;
     }
 
-    FT_Error error = FT_Set_Pixel_Sizes( _face,   /* handle to face object            */
-                                         width,      /* pixel_width                      */
-                                         height );   /* pixel_height */
+    FT_Error error = FT_Set_Pixel_Sizes( _face,      /* handle to face object  */
+                                         width,      /* pixel_width            */
+                                         height );   /* pixel_height            */
 
     if (error)
     {
@@ -87,7 +87,22 @@ void FreeTypeFont::setFontResolution(unsigned int width, unsigned int height)
 
 osgText::Font::Glyph* FreeTypeFont::getGlyph(unsigned int charcode)
 {
-    FT_Error error = FT_Load_Char( _face, charcode, FT_LOAD_RENDER|FT_LOAD_NO_BITMAP );
+    //
+    // GT: fix for symbol fonts (i.e. the Webdings font) as the wrong character are being  
+    // returned, for symbol fonts in windows (FT_ENCONDING_MS_SYMBOL in freetype) the correct 
+    // values are from 0xF000 to 0xF0FF not from 0x000 to 0x00FF (0 to 255) as you would expect.  
+    // Microsoft uses a private field for its symbol fonts
+    //
+    unsigned int charindex = charcode;
+    if (_face->charmap != NULL)
+    {
+        if (_face->charmap->encoding == FT_ENCODING_MS_SYMBOL)
+        {
+            charindex |= 0xF000;
+        }
+    }
+
+    FT_Error error = FT_Load_Char( _face, charindex, FT_LOAD_RENDER|FT_LOAD_NO_BITMAP );
     if (error)
     {
         osg::notify(osg::WARN) << "FT_Load_Char(...) error "<<error<<std::endl;

src/osgPlugins/freetype/FreeTypeLibrary.cpp

@@ -13,13 +13,15 @@
 
 #include "FreeTypeLibrary.h"
 #include <osg/Notify>
+#include <ft2build.h>
+#include FT_TRUETYPE_IDS_H
 
 FreeTypeLibrary::FreeTypeLibrary()
 {
     FT_Error error = FT_Init_FreeType( &_ftlibrary );
     if (error)
     {
-        osg::notify(osg::WARN)<<"Warning: an error occured during FT_Init_FreeType(..) initialisation .. "<<std::endl;
+        osg::notify(osg::WARN)<<"Warning: an error occurred during FT_Init_FreeType(..) initialisation .. "<<std::endl;
     }
 
 }
@@ -29,7 +31,7 @@ FreeTypeLibrary::~FreeTypeLibrary()
     // need to remove the implementations from the Fonts here
     // just in case the Fonts continue to have external references
     // to them, otherwise they will try to point to an object thats
-    // definiation has been unloaded along with the unload of the FreeType
+    // definition has been unloaded along with the unload of the FreeType
     // plugin.
     while(!_fontImplementationSet.empty())
     {
@@ -66,6 +68,11 @@ osgText::Font* FreeTypeLibrary::getFont(const std::string& fontfile,unsigned int
         return 0;
     }
     
+    //
+    // GT: Fix to handle symbol fonts in MS Windows
+    //
+    verifyCharacterMap(face);
+    
     FreeTypeFont* fontImp = new FreeTypeFont(fontfile,face);
     osgText::Font* font = new osgText::Font(fontImp);
 
@@ -113,6 +120,11 @@ osgText::Font* FreeTypeLibrary::getFont(std::istream& fontstream, unsigned int i
         return 0;
     }
     
+    //
+    // GT: Fix to handle symbol fonts in MS Windows
+    //
+    verifyCharacterMap(face);
+    
     FreeTypeFont* fontImp = new FreeTypeFont(buffer,face);
     osgText::Font* font = new osgText::Font(fontImp);
     
@@ -120,3 +132,24 @@ osgText::Font* FreeTypeLibrary::getFont(std::istream& fontstream, unsigned int i
 
     return font;
 }
+
+void FreeTypeLibrary::verifyCharacterMap(FT_Face face)
+{
+    //
+    // GT: Verify the correct character mapping for MS windows 
+    // as symbol fonts were being returned incorrectly
+    //
+    FT_CharMap charmap;
+    if (face->charmap == NULL)
+    {
+        for (int n = 0; n < face->num_charmaps; n++) 
+        { 
+            charmap = face->charmaps[n]; 
+            if (charmap->platform_id == TT_PLATFORM_MICROSOFT) 
+            { 
+                FT_Set_Charmap(face, charmap);
+                break; 
+            } 
+        }
+    }
+}

src/osgPlugins/freetype/FreeTypeLibrary.h

@@ -36,6 +36,9 @@ public:
 
 protected:
 
+    /** Verify the correct character mapping for MS windows */
+    void  verifyCharacterMap(FT_Face face);
+
     /** protected constructor to ensure the only way to create the 
       * library is via the singleton instance method.*/
     FreeTypeLibrary();