Why won't Special Characters display certain characters?

Question

When I access Special Characters (⌘+⌥+T), many groups of characters will not display any characters. Coptic, Glagolithic, Runic, Gothic, etc. (Mostly more obscure characters) I'm running OS X Lion.

Answer 1

First, you may need to enable these groups by clicking the button in the upper left and choosing "Customize List…":

Then find the desired list and check the checkbox:

If you have done this and you see boxes instead of characters, it just means you don't have a font that supports those characters. If you download and install an appropriate font you should start seeing the characters.

Answer 2

There are many characters for which you need to add fonts in order to display them on your Mac. These sites will help you find any you might want:

http://www.alanwood.net/unicode/fontsbyrange.html

http://www.wazu.jp/