First Public Release

Author: rickmcgowan

LICENSE.md

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+This Font Software is licensed under the SIL Open Font License,
+Version 1.1.
+
+This license is copied below, and is also available with a FAQ at:
+http://scripts.sil.org/OFL
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------
+SIL OPEN FONT LICENSE Version 1.1 - 26 February 2007
+-----------------------------------------------------------
+
+PREAMBLE
+The goals of the Open Font License (OFL) are to stimulate worldwide
+development of collaborative font projects, to support the font
+creation efforts of academic and linguistic communities, and to
+provide a free and open framework in which fonts may be shared and
+improved in partnership with others.
+
+The OFL allows the licensed fonts to be used, studied, modified and
+redistributed freely as long as they are not sold by themselves. The
+fonts, including any derivative works, can be bundled, embedded,
+redistributed and/or sold with any software provided that any reserved
+names are not used by derivative works. The fonts and derivatives,
+however, cannot be released under any other type of license. The
+requirement for fonts to remain under this license does not apply to
+any document created using the fonts or their derivatives.
+
+DEFINITIONS
+"Font Software" refers to the set of files released by the Copyright
+Holder(s) under this license and clearly marked as such. This may
+include source files, build scripts and documentation.
+
+"Reserved Font Name" refers to any names specified as such after the
+copyright statement(s).
+
+"Original Version" refers to the collection of Font Software
+components as distributed by the Copyright Holder(s).
+
+"Modified Version" refers to any derivative made by adding to,
+deleting, or substituting -- in part or in whole -- any of the
+components of the Original Version, by changing formats or by porting
+the Font Software to a new environment.
+
+"Author" refers to any designer, engineer, programmer, technical
+writer or other person who contributed to the Font Software.
+
+PERMISSION & CONDITIONS
+Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining
+a copy of the Font Software, to use, study, copy, merge, embed,
+modify, redistribute, and sell modified and unmodified copies of the
+Font Software, subject to the following conditions:
+
+1) Neither the Font Software nor any of its individual components, in
+Original or Modified Versions, may be sold by itself.
+
+2) Original or Modified Versions of the Font Software may be bundled,
+redistributed and/or sold with any software, provided that each copy
+contains the above copyright notice and this license. These can be
+included either as stand-alone text files, human-readable headers or
+in the appropriate machine-readable metadata fields within text or
+binary files as long as those fields can be easily viewed by the user.
+
+3) No Modified Version of the Font Software may use the Reserved Font
+Name(s) unless explicit written permission is granted by the
+corresponding Copyright Holder. This restriction only applies to the
+primary font name as presented to the users.
+
+4) The name(s) of the Copyright Holder(s) or the Author(s) of the Font
+Software shall not be used to promote, endorse or advertise any
+Modified Version, except to acknowledge the contribution(s) of the
+Copyright Holder(s) and the Author(s) or with their explicit written
+permission.
+
+5) The Font Software, modified or unmodified, in part or in whole,
+must be distributed entirely under this license, and must not be
+distributed under any other license. The requirement for fonts to
+remain under this license does not apply to any document created using
+the Font Software.
+
+TERMINATION
+This license becomes null and void if any of the above conditions are
+not met.
+
+DISCLAIMER
+THE FONT SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
+EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTIES OF
+MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT
+OF COPYRIGHT, PATENT, TRADEMARK, OR OTHER RIGHT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
+COPYRIGHT HOLDER BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY,
+INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
+DAMAGES, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING
+FROM, OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE FONT SOFTWARE OR FROM
+OTHER DEALINGS IN THE FONT SOFTWARE.

README.md

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+# Last Resort Font
+
+*Last Resort* is a special-purpose font that includes a collection of glyphs to represent types of Unicode characters. These glyphs are specifically designed to allow users to recognize that a code point is one of the following:
+
+* A specific type of Unicode character
+* In the PUA (*Private Use Area*) for which no agreement exists
+* Unassigned (reserved for future assignment)
+* A noncharacter
+
+## License
+
+The use of the *Last Resort* font is covered under the terms of the [SIL Open Font License, Version 1.1](https://scripts.sil.org/OFL) license. 
+
+## Downloading the font
+
+The latest pre-built binary version of the *Last Resort* font, which corresponds to [Unicode Version 13.0.0](https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode13.0.0/), can be easily downloaded from the [Latest Release](https://github.com/unicode-org/last-resort-font/releases/latest/). This font may be updated for future versions of the Unicode Standard as time and resources permit.
+
+**NOTE**: The *Last Resort* font’s 'cmap' table includes only a [Format 13](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/typography/opentype/spec/cmap#format-13-many-to-one-range-mappings) (*Many-to-one range mappings*) subtable, which may not be supported in some environments.
+
+## Description
+
+The glyphs of the *Last Resort* font are used as the backup of “last resort” to any other font: if the font cannot represent any particular Unicode character, the appropriate “missing” glyph from the *Last Resort* font is displayed instead. This provides users with the ability to more easily discern what type of character it is, and provides a clue as to what type of font they would need to display the characters properly. For more information, see *The Unicode Standard*, [Section 5.3](https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode13.0.0/ch05.pdf#G7730), *Unknown and Missing Characters*.
+
+Overall, there are a number of advantages to using the *Last Resort* font for unrepresentable characters:
+
+* Operating systems are freed from the overhead of providing a full Unicode font.
+* Users see something more meaningful than a black box or other geometric shape for unrepresentable characters.
+* Users familiar with the scripts being represented with the *Last Resort* font will readily identify what type of font needs to be installed in order to properly display the text.
+* Users unfamiliar with the missing scripts are shown easily-identified symbols rather than lengthy strings of unidentifiable characters.
+
+Unicode blocks are illustrated by a representative glyph from the block, chosen to be as distinct as possible from glyphs of other blocks. A square surrounding frame provides a common, recognizable element, and embedded within the edge of this frame, only visible at large size, are a form of the block name and its code point range to help identification.
+
+![Sinhala](./images/LRSinhala.gif) ![Hiragana](./images/LRHiragana.gif) ![EgyptianHieroglyphs](./images/LREgyptianHieroglyphs.gif) ![TransportMapSymbol](./images/LRTransportMapSymbols.gif)
+
+There are two particularly special types of glyphs in the font. One of the types represents any unassigned code point in an existing block. The other type represents the 66 noncharacter code points: U+FDD0..U+FDEF, U+FFFE..U+FFFF, U+1FFFE..U+1FFFF, U+2FFFE..U+2FFFF, U+3FFFE..U+3FFFF, U+4FFFE..U+4FFFF, U+5FFFE..U+5FFFF, U+6FFFE..U+6FFFF, U+7FFFE..U+7FFFF, U+8FFFE..U+8FFFF, U+9FFFE..U+9FFFF, U+AFFFE..U+AFFFF, U+BFFFE..U+BFFFF, U+CFFFE..U+CFFFF, U+DFFFE..U+DFFFF, U+EFFFE..U+EFFFF, U+FFFFE..U+FFFFF, and U+10FFFE..U+10FFFF.
+
+![UndefinedBMP](./images/LRUndefinedBMP.gif) ![UndefinedPlane3](./images/LRUndefinedPlane3.gif) ![NoncharacterBMP1](./images/LRNoncharacterBMP1.gif) ![NoncharacterBMP2](./images/LRNoncharacterBMP2.gif)
+
+Example glyphs were chosen in a number of ways. For example, almost all of the Brahmic scripts show the initial consonant *ka*, such as ක for Sinhala. Latin uses the letter *A*, because it’s the first letter, and because in each Latin block there is a letter *A* that is easily distinguished. Greek and Cyrillic use their last letters, *Ω* and *Я*, respectively, due to their distinctiveness. Most other scripts use their initial character where distinctive.
+
+The *Last Resort* glyphs were drawn by Apple Inc. and Michael Everson of [Evertype](https://www.evertype.com/).
+
+## Building the fonts from source
+
+**NOTE**: *The sources and build scripts may be added after Unicode Version 14.0.0 has been released (2021), and as time and resources permit.*
+
+## Getting Involved
+
+Although the *Last Resort* project is considered to be stable with no guarantee that it will be updated, suggestions can be provided by submitting a [new issue](https://github.com/unicode-org/last-resort-font/issues/new).