OpenType Initial Forms cannot be disabled

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

On opening the attached PDF file, OpenType Initial Forms are enabled for all text frames, but they are not listed in the OpenType Features, so cannot be turned off. 

Advanced Typography.pdf

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

Here are other files that cannot be opened at all. 

 

Edit: This files now open OK in the latest Beta 1.5.0.4. 

Cankama Typeface.pdf

Anjana Typeface.pdf

[Sean P]

On opening the attached PDF file, OpenType Initial Forms are enabled for all text frames, but they are not listed in the OpenType Features, so cannot be turned off. 

Where are you seeing the Initial Forms listed as being enabled? I've opened the PDF with both Mandala and Pali fonts installed and cannot see where they are enabled. Are you referring to the overly stylized letters?

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

Initial Forms, which are called Word Start Alternates are not enabled in the original PagePlus publication, and are not seen if you open the PDF file in a PDF viewer. 

 

However, if you open the PDF in Affinity Designer, the Initial Forms feature, which is supposed to be enabled by default, is enabled, but there the feature is not supported in the Typography dialogue, so there's no way to disable or enable it. In PagePlus or DrawPlus, one can enable or disable this feature.

 

 

[Sean P]

which is supposed to be enabled by default, is enabled, but there the feature is not supported in the Typography dialogue, so there's no way to disable or enable it.

Just to be sure do you mean 'which is supposed to be disabled by default, is enabled... ?

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

The Mandala font does not have initial forms, but the Pali Typeface does. The Odana Typeface suffers from the same problem too. 

 

The Pali font also shows some strange purple highlighing of some of the text. I don't know what's causing that. 

 

 

Mandala Typeface.pdf

Odana Typeface.pdf

Pali Typeface.pdf

[Sean P]

The Pali font also shows some strange purple highlighing of some of the text. I don't know what's causing that. 

The purple highlighting is Snapping Candidates - it looks as though the text there is being imported as curves. When you imported the PDF had you ticked or unticked the two options on the import dialog?

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

Just to be sure do you mean 'which is supposed to be disabled by default, is enabled... ?

 

The OpenType Tag registry states this:

 

Application interface: The application is responsible for noting word boundaries. For GIDs at the beginnings of words and found in the init coverage table, the application passes a GID to the feature and gets back a new GID.

UI suggestion: This feature should be active by default.

 

However, my original PagePlus file has this feature disabled and the resulting PDF output also has it disabled. Howeer, when the PDF file is opened in Affinity Designer, the feature becomes enabled without any option to disable it. This happens because of the Microsoft recommendation. The same thing will happen in PagePlus if we choose, "Use default OpenType features," in Format, Character, Font. Contextual ligatures will also be enabled by default, but these can be disabled in Affinity Designer, whereas Initial Forms cannot. 

 

The problem comes down to lack of support for Initial Forms (Word Start Alternates) in Affinity Designer. 

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

The purple highlighting is Snapping Candidates - it looks as though the text there is being imported as curves. When you imported the PDF had you ticked or unticked the two options on the import dialog?

 

Both options (Favour editable text and Group lines of text into text frames) are disabled. The text is not imported as curves. It is editable text. This is with Pali Typeface.pdf, which shows the purple highlighting. 

[Sean P]

Both options (Favour editable text and Group lines of text into text frames) are disabled. The text is not imported as curves. It is editable text. This is with Pali Typeface.pdf, which shows the purple highlighting. 

They are still snapping candidates (I forgot text objects can still be snapping candidates). If you leave your mouse to hover over them they will appear purple to indicate they are snapping candidates (If you have 'Show Snapping Candidates' enabled in Snap settings).

 

With regards to the Initial Forms, I'm getting the same behaviour on the Mac version so I've reported it to the developers now. 

[sfriedberg]

I just purchased a new font (Object by Fontador) and every freaking letter has an initial form.  OK, I exaggerate slightly, but every word except those beginning with a lower case 's' is starting with a pronounced swash that fills the width of the preceding interword space.  The result is totally unlike all the text specimens I looked at before buying the font, as none of the them display an initial form!  And since I was aiming at a stripped down sans for this project, the result is unusable.

So, four years later, we really need a way to turn off the OpenType "init" feature.  I've been through all the Typography features: Alternative sets, Stylistic Alternative sets, none of that turns off the unwanted initial swashes.  Can we please have a set of check boxes added to Typography that lets us disable the various OpenType features?

[ADDED IN EDIT] When I turn on the "Hide irrelevant features" checkbox in the Typography panel, it exposes the Positional Alternate section, which offers the ability to suppress Initial Forms.  So I am going to submit a bug report about "hide" meaning "show".