When the European Union introduced its common currency this year, it introduced a nightmare for anyone who has to use the symbol for it in print. Luckily, Apple anticipated the change and bundled a number of different fonts which include the new character. The fonts are: Apple Chancery, Capitals, Charcoal, Chicago, Courier, Gadget, Geneva, Helvetica, Hoefler Text, Monaco, New York, Palatino, Sand, Skaa, Symbol, Techno, Textile and Times. With any of these fonts installed, pressing option-shift-2 produces a euro symbol (except with Symbol, where you press option-T). Apple is only distributing these fonts with Mac OS 8.5.

Also with Mac OS 8.5 (and 8.5.1) Apple gives you the LaserWriter 8.6 printer driver, which automatically substitutes a Euro symbol for any character you create by typing option-shift-2 in most Mac fonts. Of course, this only works with laser printers.

Adobe has also released three free fonts ù sans serif, serif and monospace ù in which you can obtain a euro symbol by pressing any key. You can get these fonts from www.adobe.com/supportservice/custsupport/LIBRARY/503a.htm. I recommend that you use these fonts only if you have Adobe Type Manager installed on your system.

Microsoft, likewise, has TrueType fonts which include the euro symbol. Obtain them from www.microsoft.com/typography/fontpack/default.htm.