some glyphs display strangely only in kitty

[ExpandingMan]

Some glyphs are displaying strangely in kitty. I can't reproduce the issue in any other terminal. I tried to fix this by setting various font features but it doesn't seem to work.

Here is the expected output (in rio, but it looks the same also in wezterm, alacritty)

But here is what it looks like in kitty:

Anyone have any idea how I can get it to look like it does in other terminals? Thanks!

[kovidgoyal]

Use narrow symbols, https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/faq/

[ExpandingMan]

This doesn't seem to do anything, I put

narrow_symbols U+25D6-U+25D7 1

in my config (I also tried a few variations on this such as trying just one or the other or omitting the 1) and it doesn't seem to do anything. It appears the same as in my original screenshot.

This seems to be the case for all fonts.

[kovidgoyal]

That's not the glyph you are using, most likely its the powerline one. Not the unicode one.

[ExpandingMan]

Is there a way to disable powerline? I don't see an option for that in the docs. I'm not sure what's causing it to use them, in this particular case this is a prompt being displayed by starship where I have specified these symbols in the config, and I don't see anything in starship config about powerline. Seemingly ditto for anything else that displays these.

[kovidgoyal]

Powerline is just a set of glyphs. What glyphs you use in your prompt is up to you, not kitty. I cant tell from your screenshot what those glyphs are. I am assuming they are: U+25D6 or U+E0B6 and U+25D7 or U+E0B4 In kitty version 0.40.1 both sets are rendered as a filled D character occupying and filling exactly one cell. This is the correct rendering for them.

From your screenshot it looks like they are occupying more than one cell

for you which is why I initially suggested narrow_symbols, but if they are the filled D characters then they always occupy only one cell. Any terminal that renders them as anything else is rendering them incorrectly.

[ExpandingMan]

I have confirmed they are definitely U+25D6 and U+25D7.

Any terminal that renders them as anything else is rendering them incorrectly.

Again, rio, alacritty, wezterm all render it is the first screenshot, kitty is the only one that I have seen render it as below. It also seems strange that the other character you see in the screenshot, which is U+25AE, does not occupy the whole cell and instead displays as it does in other terminals. I would have expected them to either all be large or all be small.

Regardless, it sounds like the conclusion is that to display in kitty like it is in the other terminals, I would have to patch the font somehow, is that correct?

[kovidgoyal]

The correct block character to use is U+2588 not U+25ae U+25ae is not a block drawing character. It's a geometric shape character.

[ExpandingMan]

Alright, I have done some digging through character maps and descriptions online and it seems there are confusing differences of opinion about these characters. However, most places do seem to describe them has some kind of "block drawing" character, so I do think it's reasonable for kitty to display them this way even though the other terminals do not.

What I want is the smaller symbols, as in the other terminals. Frustratingly, there don't seem to be any other filled half lozenge shapes like this anywhere in the whole character map. I think probably what I should do is either use ⫐ (I wanted it filled but oh well I guess) or pick entirely different shapes as I would not even be totally surprised if the other terminals one day decided to change how they render 0x25d6.

My conclusion from this experience is that I hate fonts 😅

Anyway, thanks for your help.