Displaying Unicode symbols in Windows XP. Maybe web font?

Question

I want to display the unicode U+1F589 (🖉) in a web page, but in Windows XP I can't make it work. Installing fonts or something in the OS is not an option, because it is complicated for the user; I need something that works out of the box.

I try with Google fonts, but no. Is there any web font that has support for symbols? Is there a way to force the browser to fallback to a font with that character?

Answer 1

If you're absolutely intent on doing it this way, then you can host a font that supports the character yourself. Symbola and Unifont do, and can be loaded in via something like this:

@font-face {
  font-family: 'xyz-font-name';
  src: url('/path/to/font.ttf');
}

You can then use font-family: 'xyz-font-name' when required. All that said, keep in mind these fonts are not small in terms of size. If you're after something that is less difficult to work with, then simply hosting an equivalent image might be a better alternative.