Rotating Alternates

Vasil Stanev · June 2023

I am searching for the code that is used in a font for the following:
I want to have a font that imitates handwriting, with 3-5 alternative versions of all Latin characters, and two consecutive alternates of a letter never appear one after the other - just like the human hand rarely writes the exact same letter twice. Does the size of the set matter in regard to the code?

PabloImpallari · June 2023

Grab the OT code from Caveat (3 alternates of each letter)
https://github.com/googlefonts/caveat

Simon Cozens · June 2023

Think about the general pattern of what you want: if an alternate appears after the same glyph, switch it for the next alternate in the set.

Then write (or script!) that:


# When you see <alternate> <alternate>, replace the second one by <next alternate>
#
# sub <alternate> <alternate>' by <next alternate>;
#
# So for all alternates a.alt1, a.alt2, a.alt3, etc.:
sub a.alt1 a.alt1' by a.alt2;
sub a.alt2 a.alt2' by a.alt3;
sub a.alt3 a.alt3' by a.alt1;

Craig Eliason · June 2023

https://glyphsapp.com/learn/features-part-3-advanced-contextual-alternates (potentially helpful even if you don’t use Glyphs)

https://opentypecookbook.com/common-techniques/ (scroll down to Fun Stuff)

Craig Eliason · June 2023

PabloImpallari said:

Grab the OT code from Caveat (3 alternates of each letter) https://github.com/googlefonts/caveat

Just curious, would taking the OpenType code from an OFL font require using that license for the new font?

Igor Petrovic · June 2023

Ulrike Rausch's talk on Typo Labs 2018 deals with that matter:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCviu05n_XA

Vasil Stanev · March 3

PabloImpallari said:

Grab the OT code from Caveat (3 alternates of each letter)
https://github.com/googlefonts/caveat

Actually I don't know which of the files is the code and how to put it inside my font. A little help for a luddite?

Johannes Neumeier · March 3

Vasil Stanev said:

PabloImpallari said:

Grab the OT code from Caveat (3 alternates of each letter)
https://github.com/googlefonts/caveat

Actually I don't know which of the files is the code and how to put it inside my font. A little help for a luddite?

This seems to be the relevant section of the feature code; you need the class definitions from above it, too, of course.

Rotating Alternates

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