Access All Alternates

Tag: aalt

Function: This feature makes all variations of a selected character accessible. This serves several purposes: An application may not support the feature by which the desired glyph would normally be accessed; the user may need a glyph outside the context supported by the normal substitution, or the user may not know what feature produces the desired glyph. Since many-to-one substitutions are not covered, ligatures would not appear in this table unless they were variant forms of another ligature. A user inputs the P in Poetica, and is presented with a choice of the four standard capital forms, the eight swash capital forms, the initial capital form and the small capital form.

Fractions

Tag: frac

Function: Replaces figures separated by a slash with 'common' (diagonal) fractions. The user enters 3/4 in a recipe and gets the threequarters fraction.

Standard Ligatures

Tag: liga

Function: Replaces a sequence of glyphs with a single glyph which is preferred for typographic purposes. This feature covers the ligatures which the designer/manufacturer judges should be used in normal conditions. The glyph for ffl replaces the sequence of glyphs f f l.

Superscript

Tag: sups

Function: Replaces lining or oldstyle figures with superior figures (primarily for footnote indication), and replaces lowercase letters with superior letters (primarily for abbreviated French titles). The application can use this feature to automatically access the superior figures (more legible than scaled figures) for footnotes, or the user can apply it to Mssr to get the classic form.

Contextual Alternates

Tag: calt

Function: In specified situations, replaces default glyphs with alternate forms which provide better joining behavior. Used in script typefaces which are designed to have some or all of their glyphs join. In Caflisch Script, o is replaced by o.alt2 when followed by an ascending letterform.

Tag: dpng

Function:

Discretionary Ligatures

Tag: dlig

Function: Replaces a sequence of glyphs with a single glyph which is preferred for typographic purposes. This feature covers those ligatures which may be used for special effect, at the user's preference. The glyph for ct replaces the sequence of glyphs c t, or U+322E (Kanji ligature for "Friday") replaces the sequence U+91D1 U+66DC U+65E5.

Initial Forms

Tag: init

Function: Replaces glyphs at the beginnings of words with alternate forms designed for this use. This is common in Latin connecting scripts, and required in various non-Latins like Arabic. In the typeface Ex Ponto, the default t in the word 'type' is replaced with the t.begin form.

Terminal Forms

Tag: fina

Function: Replaces glyphs at the ends of words with alternate forms designed for this use. This is common in Latin connecting scripts, and required in various non-Latins like Arabic. In the typeface Poetica, the default e in the word 'type' is replaced with the e.end form.

Glyph Composition/Decomposition

Tag: ccmp

Function: To minimize the number of glyph alternates, it is sometimes desired to decompose a character into two glyphs. Additionally, it may be preferable to compose two characters into a single glyph for better glyph processing. This feature permits such composition/decompostion. The feature should be processed as the first feature processed, and should be processed only when it is called. In Syriac, the character 0x0732 is a combining mark that has a dot above AND a dot below the base character. To avoid multiple glyph variants to fit all base glyphs, the character is decomposed into two glyphs...a dot above and a dot below. These two glyphs can then be correctly placed using GPOS. In Arabic it might be preferred to combine the shadda with fatha (0x0651, 0x064E) into a ligature before processing shapes. This allows the font vendor to do special handling of the mark combination when doing further processing without requiring larger contextual rules.

Isolated Forms

Tag: isol

Function: Replaces the nominal form of glyphs with their isolated forms. In Arabic, if the Alef is followed by Lam, the default glyph for Alef is replaced with its isolated form.

Medial Forms

Tag: medi

Function: Replaces glyphs in the middles of words (i.e. following a beginning and preceding an end) with alternate forms designed for this use. Note: This is different from the default form, which is designed for stand-alone use. This is common in Latin connecting scripts, and required in various non-Latins like Arabic. In the typeface Caflisch Script, the y and p in the word 'type' are replaced by the y.med and p.med forms.

Required Ligatures

Tag: rlig

Function: Replaces a sequence of glyphs with a single glyph which is preferred for typographic purposes. This feature covers those ligatures, which the script determines as required to be used in normal conditions. This feature is important for some scripts to insure correct glyph formation. The Arabic character lam followed by alef will always form a ligated lamalef form. This ligated form is a requirement of the script's shaping. The same happens with the Syriac script.

Tag: lowercase

Function:

Tag: uppercase

Function: