Ubuntu – How to get Ubuntu to display unicode supplementary characters

Two options: (See my blog for more details and screenshots for option 1)

First option (much simpler)

Upgrade to the python 3 port of autokey (because python 3 deals with unicode characters better than python 2)

For me, the installation worked as follows:

# Edit (April 2018). Autokey now uses python 3 by default. So try
pip3 install autokey

# Install the original autokey
sudo apt-get install autokey-gtk
# Update autokey to python 3 using pip3  
pip3 install --user autokey-py3

Then make sure you run the python3 version, which is probably at

~/.local/bin/autokey-gtk

With this method, you can enter your unicode characters as phrases

Second option (if you can't get autokey-py3 to work)

Use a python script (File -> New -> Script) together with the system's clipboard

Paste the following into the script

import sys                                                                                                                                                              
reload(sys)                                                                                                                                                             
sys.setdefaultencoding('utf8')                                                                                                                                          
from subprocess import Popen, PIPE                                                                                                                                        

def paste_character(symbol):                                                                                                                                                   
    c = Popen(['xclip', '-selection', 'clipboard'], stdin=PIPE)                                                                                                           
    c.communicate(symbol.encode('utf-8'))                                                                                                                                 
    keyboard.send_keys('<ctrl>+v')

paste_character('γ')

This works by changing the default python settings to work with unicode correctly. It then sends the chosen character to the clipboard (ensure you have xclip installed). Here I've used γ as an example). Then it sends control+v to paste the character.

Extras for second option

The second method can be improved by taking all but the last line of the script and putting it in a file (lets call it MyCopy.py). Then, in Autokey's preferences (Script Engine), tell Autokey where this file is. Then the script becomes

from MyCopy import paste_character
paste_character('γ')

Some applications don't use control+v for paste (eg terminal uses control+shift+v). But the character will still be on the clipboard.

For the above symbol, there are two options:

1. Xdotool generates the character and types it:

   xdotool key U2200
   

2. The shell (Bash) generates the character, and Xdotool types it:

   xdotool type $'\u2200'