File: groff.info,  Node: Special Fonts,  Next: Artificial Fonts,  Prev: Character Classes,  Up: Using Fonts

5.19.6 Special Fonts
--------------------

Special fonts are those that 'gtroff' searches when it cannot find the
requested glyph in the current font.  The Symbol font is usually a
special font.

   'gtroff' provides the following two requests to add more special
fonts.  *Note Using Symbols::, for a detailed description of the glyph
searching mechanism in 'gtroff'.

   Usually, only non-TTY devices have special fonts.

 -- Request: .special [s1 s2 ...]
 -- Request: .fspecial f [s1 s2 ...]
     Use the 'special' request to define special fonts.  Initially, this
     list is empty.

     Use the 'fspecial' request to designate special fonts only when
     font F is active.  Initially, this list is empty.

     Previous calls to 'special' or 'fspecial' are overwritten; without
     arguments, the particular list of special fonts is set to empty.
     Special fonts are searched in the order they appear as arguments.

     All fonts that appear in a call to 'special' or 'fspecial' are
     loaded.

     *Note Using Symbols::, for the exact search order of glyphs.