A “Character-Level Font Linker” provides character-level linking of fonts via Unicode code-point to font mapping. A lookup table is used to identify glyph-level support for runs of particular characters on a Unicode code-point basis for relative to a set of available fonts. This lookup table enables automatic selection of one or more specific fonts for rendering one or more runs of characters comprising a text string. The lookup table is constructed offline by automatically evaluating glyphs comprising a set of common or default fonts. The table is then used for automatically selecting fonts for rendering text strings. Alternately, the lookup table is generated (or updated) locally to include some or all locally installed fonts. Finally, in another embodiment, if no supporting font is identified in the table for a particular character, the system automatically downloads the necessary glyph from one or more remote servers.