Including diverse unicode symbols inside LaTeX document

Question

I write LaTeX on a Ubuntu Linux system using emacs. I have a LaTeX document where I would like to have some characters from other various numeral systems (cuneiform, hieroglyphic, Chinese, and others, see numeral systems). Most of my document is English in a default LaTeX font and math typeset as usual in LaTeX. Initial research has suggested that XeLaTeX might be better than pdfLaTeX. Many of the answers I have found are for including just one family of unicode characters (just cuneiform or just hieroglyphics). They often suggested installing new fonts which I do not know how to do. Many of these answers also suggest setting the main font to be one which includes the desired unicode characters. Since I would like a diverse range of characters and I do not want to change the font for the main body of my text, how do I accomplish this?

Answer 1

XeTeX is not the only option. You may use also LuaTeX, which provides some additional and useful features. With babel you can switch the fonts based on the Unicode ranges, as the following example shows. You need also some fonts with the required characters, and a complete solution is Noto.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[english]{babel}

% Declare the locales:
\babelprovide[onchar=fonts]{chinese}
\babelprovide[onchar=fonts]{hieroglyphic}
\babelprovide[onchar=fonts]{cuneiform}

% Declare the fonts:
\babelfont{rm}{FreeSerif}
\babelfont[chinese]{rm}{FandolSong}
\babelfont[hieroglyphic]{rm}{NotoSansEgyptianHieroglyphs-Regular.ttf}
\babelfont[cuneiform]{rm}{NotoSansCuneiform-Regular.ttf}

% The Chinese range is predefined by babel, but not the
% following:
\babelcharproperty{"13000}["1342F]{locale}{hieroglyphic}
\babelcharproperty{"12000}["12474]{locale}{cuneiform}

\begin{document}

Text 𓀀𓀀𓀁𓀂𓀃 text 𒐀𒐁𒐂𒐃 text 一二三四五.

\end{document}

Answer 2

With xelatex and ucharclasses one can set what fonts to use and when.

% !TeX program = xelatex
% !TeX encoding = UTF-8 Unicode
\documentclass[xetex,a4paper]{article}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont[Ligatures=TeX]{Symbola}
\newfontfamily{\defaultfont}{Symbola}
\newfontfamily{\Egyptfont}{Noto Sans Egyptian Hieroglyphs}
\newfontfamily{\Cuneifont}{Noto Sans Cuneiform}
\newfontfamily{\cjkfont}{Noto Sans CJK TC}
\usepackage{polyglossia}
\setdefaultlanguage[variant=british]{english}
\usepackage[Latin, CJK, EgyptianHieroglyphs, NumberForms]{ucharclasses}
\setDefaultTransitions{\defaultfont}{}
\setTransitionsFor{NumberForms}{\defaultfont}{}
\setTransitionsFor{Cuneiform}{\Cuneifont}{\defaultfont}
\setTransitionsFor{EgyptianHieroglyphs}{\Egyptfont}{\defaultfont}
\setTransitionsForCJK{\cjkfont}{\defaultfont}
\usepackage{unicode-math}
\setmathfont[Ligatures=TeX]{STIX Two Math}

\begin{document}

東南西北零一二三四五六七八九十百千萬億

ō α β γ δ ε ϝ ζ η θ ι 

𓀺𓁖𓂉𓁓𓃝𓀛

{\Cuneifont 𒐀𒐁𒐂𒐃}

{\fontspec{STIX Two Text}0123456789 ₀₁₂₃₄₅₆₇₈₉}

\end{document}

Link to fonts:

symbola, Noto Egyptian, Noto Cunei, Han Sans