Windows 10: Font differences between applications such as Terminal, VSCode, Word

I've been playing with C# scripting lately, primarily using VSCode as the IDE on Windows 10.
Whilst displaying a table of some of the more esoteric characters from the old IBM PC codepage 437 that have been adopted into Unicode, I noticed differences in the rendering of the same character using the same font while in different applications.

Take for example character D8 which in Unicode is 0x256A. The Wikipedia article on codepage 437 (Code page 437 - Wikipedia) shows this as a single vertical line with two parallel horizontal lines cutting across its middle.
When I ran my program in the Console or in Windows Terminal, the single vertical line becomes two parallel vertical lines, and no lines cutting across any others. This seems to be consistent with any font, such as Consolas.
When I display this character using Consolas in Word, I get a single vertical but it doesn't continue across the two parallel horizontals - it breaks so that there is an uninterrupted gap between the horizontal lines.
When I display it in DEBUG CONSOLE in VSCode it displays the same as Word displays it. I have not been able to determine what font is used on this panel in VSCode though.



I'm clearly not a font expert - I was under the impression that the whole point of the operating system managing fonts meant that they look the same in all applications, but clearly that is not the case. So what's the story here?

Regards,
Michael

:)

 

Font differences between applications such as Terminal, VSCode, Word

I've been playing with C# scripting lately, primarily using VSCode as the IDE on Windows 10.
Whilst displaying a table of some of the more esoteric characters from the old IBM PC codepage 437 that have been adopted into Unicode, I noticed differences in the rendering of the same character using the same font while in different applications.

Take for example character D8 which in Unicode is 0x256A. The Wikipedia article on codepage 437 (Code page 437 - Wikipedia) shows this as a single vertical line with two parallel horizontal lines cutting across its middle.
When I ran my program in the Console or in Windows Terminal, the single vertical line becomes two parallel vertical lines, and no lines cutting across any others. This seems to be consistent with any font, such as Consolas.
When I display this character using Consolas in Word, I get a single vertical but it doesn't continue across the two parallel horizontals - it breaks so that there is an uninterrupted gap between the horizontal lines.
When I display it in DEBUG CONSOLE in VSCode it displays the same as Word displays it. I have not been able to determine what font is used on this panel in VSCode though.



I'm clearly not a font expert - I was under the impression that the whole point of the operating system managing fonts meant that they look the same in all applications, but clearly that is not the case. So what's the story here?

Regards,
Michael

 

Font differences between applications such as Terminal, VSCode, Word

Thanks for the reply Berton. If I'm following you correctly, I think you're saying that programs can choose whether or not to make use of the fonts provided by Windows. That means that different applications may display characters differently because they are not using the same fonts. That much I follow without difficulty.
My problem arises with applications that have all chosen to apply the same font but the characters still appear differently. In the case of the Console, Windows Terminal, and Microsoft Word, these applications all allow me to select the font. I select the same font (Consolas), but the characters look different across the set of applications.
It's very possible that I have misunderstood the point you were making though...

 

Font differences between applications such as Terminal, VSCode, Word

Yes, but again you seem to be describing different programs using different fonts - they will of course appear different because they are. And browsers are a special case because they have to try to render something that was defined elsewhere - i.e. they may not have the font that has been specified in the document.
I am talking about pure Windows desktop programs. A Windows program will only allow the user to select the fonts that it can actually use - it will never give the option to choose Consolas if it cannot render a Consolas font. In my example all three programs (Console, Terminal, Word) include Consolas among the available set of fonts that the user may choose. But when I tell them to render Consolas, I see different results on some characters.
The rendering should be performed by the relevant subsystem of the operating system and not by the applications themselves (no one writes character rendering code when the O.S. provides it ready-to-use), so what explains the different renderings?