How to access Webdings OpenType font in XeLaTeX

Question

Is it possible to use the character set available in the "Webdings" OpenType font which is installed on my PC using XeLaTeX? Other non-symbol fonts seem to work fine, but I just get boxes for every character I try in this font, and other symbol fonts like Wingdings etc.

Answer 1

Webdings is not Unicode encoded. With such fonts \char often fails. You can use \XeTeXglyph instead (the whiledo-loop generate a tabular which shows you which values to use):

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{ifthen}

\begin{document}%
\raggedright
\newcounter{glyphcount}
\setcounter{glyphcount}{0}
\font\myfont = "Webdings"

{char:  \myfont \char50}

{xetexglyph: \myfont \XeTeXglyph50}


\whiledo
{\value{glyphcount}<\XeTeXcountglyphs\myfont}
{\arabic{glyphcount}:~%
{\myfont\XeTeXglyph\arabic{glyphcount}}\quad
\stepcounter{glyphcount}}
\end{document}

See XeTeX Reference Guide for \XeTeXglyph and \XeTeXcountglyphs.