In my version of Mac TextEdit (1.6), there is considerable though not complete access to OpenType features, and they can be controlled through the Typography panel from the Fonts panel.
I notice that Zapfino's many contextual alternates (e.g. changing /Z/a/p/f/i/n/o into the /Z_a_p_f_i_n_o glyph), which are programmed into the dlig feature, show up automatically, and can be turned off by deselecting "Special Ligatures."
Question one: How/why is "Special Ligatures" (e.g. dlig) turned on by default?--I would expect it to be off.
Question two: Why with the font I've designed with discretionary ligatures doesn't the "Special Ligatures" option appear in the Typography panel? I can't seem to access those ligatures.
(Zapfino is a .ttf, my font an .otf, if that matters.)
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Advanced_Typography
I wish that there was better support for AAT in my preferred font editors. As I understand it, it's quite possible for TrueType fonts to include AAT tables in addition to OpenType tables. A lot of Mac apps don't have very good support for OpenType, but full AAT support is built into the OS.
Being able to add AAT features to my fonts would allow better results in apps like Final Cut Pro and Pages. TextEdit has pretty good OT support because it uses the latest font APIs, but other apps (like Final Cut Pro and Pages) still use older APIs, and whomever is in charge of those products doesn't seem to think better font support is a priority. If I could add AAT features in my fonts, they would work better even in older Mac apps that will never get better OT support, such as Final Cut Pro 7.
(Sorry for hijacking the discussion.)
Certainly the possibility of custom names (like "Avoid d-collisions") for features is a welcome possibility as far as user interaction goes.
It shows how disconnected Apple and AAT are from mainstream font development that this is the first I've heard of it.
> "using Helvetica as a UI typeface"
I still rag on this every chance I get. I once jailbroke my iPhone specifically to be able to change the UI font. No other reason. Too much hassle to stay jailbroken, though.