I've observed that "Alternates for selection" (AFS) behavior varies amongst Adobe programs. Although that shouldn't come as much of a surprise, I'm intrigued if there's a solution because I'm working on releasing a Variable remaster that includes a ton of alternates. InDesign and Illustrator both function as expected when using "Alternates for selection."
I gave a few of the Adobe fonts I had loaded a try. AFS was provided by a few, but not by all. Is there something Photoshop is looking for in the OTF code? The sample fonts were installed via Adobe Fonts, thus I am unable to open them to analyze them.
I'm using "FEA syntax (compatible with AFDKO 2.5 and FLS 5.1)"
Has anyone had this experience? Is this merely a Photoshop glitch or a Adobe software team dynamic?
Thanks,
Comments
As someone who also designs type, these inconsistencies and lack of prominence in the apps are doubly frustrating since Adobe is a key to the use and success of these typography technologies.
Most designers I know, have little knowledge of OpenType features. Most have heard of variable fonts, but few have used them. This doesn't surprise me since Adobe has inconsistently scattered access to these capabilities in various obscure submenus and icons that are often buried multiple layers deep in their menu system.
Of course, if you are already doing this, my assumptions about what is going awry are incorrect!
Some background:
Historically, Photoshop shares a text engine with Illustrator, while InDesign does its own thing. But all these apps are moving to Harfbuzz.
BUT… at least originally (this could have changed since! My knowledge is old) each of them programmed their own glyph panel and its access-all-single-sub-alternates functionality.
Although the 'aalt' feature was created specifically to enable app functions such as the glyph panel subsitutions, some apps (at least InDesign) supplement the info they get from 'aalt' by crawling the rest of the font’s GSUB.
But that doesn’t mean all apps do that, and maybe Photoshop does not. So, I would try adding 'aalt' and see if that fixes things.