<i>&gt;Assuming that it is using font substitution (as it should be whether or not you’ve chosen Sofia Pro as your browser’s default sans-serif font… unless you’ve also changed some other settings too),</i><p>Yes, actually. The <i>only</i> two fonts my browser is permitted to use are Sofia Pro and Meiryo. My point being nothing is wrong with alphanumeric representations of hexadecimal. Short of glyph fonts like Webdings, every font supports alphanumerics - even CJK fonts.<p>Some users change settings - heavily so. The &quot;safest default&quot; should be the assumption. Changing something that works for most people to work only for &quot;people with a proper supporting font installed&quot; is breaking the web as far as any devs should be concerned.