Is there a way to specify the usage of a specific alternate glyph?

[philipt18]

I'm using a font that has a number of alternate glyphs. One in particular, for the number 1, I want to use all the time (as the normal number 1 looks like an I).

I'm actually having trouble setting it. At best it seems inconsistent. I seem to be able to set it to by selecting 'Stylistic Alternate 1' in Typography, or by selecting 1 in Stylistic Alternates in the style settings, but these don't always work. Are they exactly the same thing? Is there another way to do it? Is there something that could prevent those settings from taking effect? Right now I set both of those in my footnote style, and the glyph isn't changing.

Is there a way to set a specific alternate glyph to be used? As it just switch the number 1?

Thanks.

[kenmcd]

6 minutes ago, philipt18 said:

Is there a way to set a specific alternate glyph to be used? As it just switch the number 1?

Depends on the font, and what OpenType features the font developer has included.

What font are you using?

 

[philipt18]

Coelacanth

[Alfred]

7 minutes ago, philipt18 said:

Coelacanth

I hope that font is more modern than it sounds!

https://fontlibrary.org/en/font/coelacanth

[MikeW]

21 minutes ago, Alfred said:

I hope that font is more modern than it sounds!

https://fontlibrary.org/en/font/coelacanth

Here is the latest Github version that I found:

https://github.com/Fuzzypeg/Coelacanth/blob/master/release/coelacanth_v0.008.zip

 

[Alfred]

1 minute ago, MikeW said:

Here is the latest Github version that I found:

https://github.com/Fuzzypeg/Coelacanth/blob/master/release/coelacanth_v0.008.zip

 

Thanks, Mike. I just found that too, after discovering that the download link on FontLibrary.org didn’t seem to do anything.

[Alfred]

On 4/3/2024 at 3:59 PM, philipt18 said:

I'm using a font that has a number of alternate glyphs. One in particular, for the number 1, I want to use all the time (as the normal number 1 looks like an I).

I'm actually having trouble setting it. At best it seems inconsistent. I seem to be able to set it to by selecting 'Stylistic Alternate 1' in Typography, or by selecting 1 in Stylistic Alternates in the style settings, but these don't always work. Are they exactly the same thing? Is there another way to do it? Is there something that could prevent those settings from taking effect? Right now I set both of those in my footnote style, and the glyph isn't changing.

Is there a way to set a specific alternate glyph to be used? As it just switch the number 1?

Thanks.

For Coelacanth you need to choose both Stylistic Alternates/1 and the Lining figure style.

I also set Figure Widths to Tabular here, so that the figures would line up vertically.

[kenmcd]

The OpenType setup is a bit odd.
That alternate one is only an alternate of the lining figures one character.
It does not appear anywhere else - which is odd.

The default figures are proportional oldstyle.
And that alternate one is taller, because it is for the lining figures.
Normally you would have also have a shorter alternate to match the oldstyle figures.
So it may look a bit odd if you do not make all the figures lining.

But, you can get directly to that single character.
The developer did assign Unicode code points to all alternate characters.
The code points are up in the PUA (Private Use Area).
That alternate one is assigned to U+E433.

Another option - the lowercase dotless i looks like a one.
And it looks the same height as the default oldstyle figures.
It is at U+0131.
This would be my choice for running text.

Warning: the name fields in those fonts are big mess (looks like a bomb went off).
So if you have them all installed - weird stuff may happen.
Only install the exact fonts you are using (to try to avoid name conflicts).
And you may avoid issues.
Check your PDF output to make sure the correct fonts actually got embedded.

If you have issues, and are only using a few of the fonts - I can make you a set which will work without problems.

 

[philipt18]

Thank you.

[philipt18]

While we're on the topic, I just noticed something odd and I don't know if it's a font issue, or a Publisher issue. Using the same font, there is a section in my text where it says Esq. however the text is in small caps. The q in Esq. takes on the alternate form (which stretches the line of the Q under the next letter) even though Contextual Alternates isn't selected. It's only when the q is in small caps that this happens. It's all-caps there isn't a problem.

[kenmcd]

4 hours ago, philipt18 said:

While we're on the topic, I just noticed something odd and I don't know if it's a font issue, or a Publisher issue. Using the same font, there is a section in my text where it says Esq. however the text is in small caps. The q in Esq. takes on the alternate form (which stretches the line of the Q under the next letter) even though Contextual Alternates isn't selected. It's only when the q is in small caps that this happens. It's all-caps there isn't a problem.

The issue is in the font.

Both the Small Caps and the Petite Caps only have the long-tail version of the Q. There is no short-tail version in either - there are no such glyphs available. 

So, some more odd stuff in there. 

I like the font. Kinda amazing what he has done with the tools being used. But it really needs a lotta love.

[philipt18]

8 hours ago, kenmcd said:

The issue is in the font.

Both the Small Caps and the Petite Caps only have the long-tail version of the Q. There is no short-tail version in either - there are no such glyphs available. 

So, some more odd stuff in there. 

I like the font. Kinda amazing what he has done with the tools being used. But it really needs a lotta love.

 

Thanks. He hasn't made recent changes to it, so I'm beginning to wonder about it. I've made some suggestions, and I guess I'll add these in case he goes back to work on it eventually. Won't help me for this book, however.