.. _font_kinds-custom_code_pages:

Custom Code Point Ranges
========================

.. _private_use_area: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_Use_Areas

In addition to the total replacement of :ref:`font_kinds-dingbat_fonts`,
there's also sometimes another option. Many standards or their variants
reserve areas for custom characters. This is sometimes referred to as
a :wikipedia:`code page <Code_page>`.

:term:`ASCII` had :wikipedia:`Extended ASCII <Extended_ASCII>` variants
for additional character sets. :term:`Unicode` has rendered
these mostly obsolete aside from their value as sources of font data and
historical value. However, :term:`Unicode` also reserves similar
:wikipedia:`Private Use Area <Private_Use_Areas>` blocks of
:term:`code points <code point>` for custom code points.

.. _Klingon: https://klingon.wiki/En/Unicode
.. _Tengwar: https://www.evertype.com/standards/csur/tengwar.html

This is how a number of constructed languages and scripts provide
glyphs, including:

* `Klingon`_, per their wiki page on one of the proposed encodings
*  A proposal for `Tengwar`_, one of the scripts J.R.R. Tolkein
   invented for
   :wikipedia:`The Lord of the Rings <The_Lord_of_the_Rings>`