Libertinus: Add Maltese Cross (U+2720)

[tukusejssirs]

I often work with Roman Catholic liturgical books and I miss a cross symbol used at many places (like in the Eucharistic prayers or before a bishop’s/pope’s signature.

It does not actually have to be the Maltese Cross (U+2720, ✠), however, I could not find any similar cross in Unicode. You could also inspire yourself with the cross on romcal project logo.

[tomwinger]

I second this request heartily, as I also set liturgical texts.

[alerque]

Sometimes I think Unicode has gotten a little carried away. Here are some other overtly religious crosses:

✝🕆🕇✞✠♱✟🕈☨☩⛨♰🕀🕂☦🕁🤂🤀🤁

Note this doesn't include all the Greek cross variants which are more commonly used as geometrical shapes that for religious accents. It also doesn't include all the variants intended for use as punctuation, some assorted Coptic glyphs that have crosses embedded in them, or probably others that I missed.

For the record my approach is usually to have Symbola or a similar font as a fallback to catch all the oddball pictograph glyphs that whatever current workhorse font I'm using doesn't have. I realize not all typesetting systems make that process easy and I'm not opposed to adding some of the more common ones to this project and would probably accept contributions that did that, but neither am I in a hurry to sink a bunch of time into it since for my own use pulling these sort of glyphs from other specialty symbol fonts works pretty well.

[tomwinger]

Thanks for the detailed reply. You know best where to focus your time and effort. I'm not a font expert, but a working theologian, so I can only add input on what I think is needed.

I would simply add that this glyph (whether the Maltese cross or something similar) appears extremely frequently in religious/liturgical texts. It's probably the most regularly-used cross glyph. I certainly can use Symbola, etc. But for me it works better if the glyph is taken from the same font as the rest of the text. This speeds insertion and also ensures it doesn't get accidentally changed.

A quick search of the term "cross" in Babelmap on the Libertinus Serif font only turned up the Chi Rho cross (2627) and the Latin cross (271D), so it seems to me that there is a gap to fill.

Thanks again.

[alerque]

it seems to me that there is a gap to fill

I agree, I was just ranting about the excesses of the emoji era.

[tukusejssirs]

I agree, I was just ranting about the excesses of the emoji era.

While I am not opposed to emoji usage, I don’t think they should used in the liturgical books; they are quite conservative.

And I fully agree with @tomwinger that _I certainly can use Symbola, etc. But for me it works better if the glyph is taken from the same font as the rest of the text._

[KrasnayaPloshchad]

The so-called Maltese Cross in Unicode is actually _cross formée_ as defined in the official code chart, and looks similar to the Iron Cross.