Contextual substitution not working by default in InDesign but working in Illustrator by default

Glyphs
1

Hi guys

Ive got an issue with the calt feature.
I have a /f with a longer top, and a /f.alt with a shorter top, for avoiding collisions with letters where the ascender is to the left. I did everything according to your tutorial.

Features look like this:

38
381386×966 164 KB

58
581386×966 169 KB

The calt feature is on by default in Ilustrator but not in Indesign.
It worked before in Indesign as well.
Its not a cache problem as I already cleared it and tried again.

I know how to turn on the Contextual Alternate option in de OpenType menu of Indesign.
If I do this then it works fine, but I would need to it to work by default.
Any idea how to do this?

Best M

2

If you ever added a glyphs from the glyph palette, the calt feature will be deactivated for that piece of text.

3

I didnt. Each time I tested it InDesign I openend a new document and just typed the sample words with the /f/l combination.

4

The calt feature is on by default in InDesign as well until you disable it globally.

It is the user’s responsibility to use your font properly. You can try and find hacks that force a substitution in one environment but may fail in another and it may break functionality. AFAICS the substitution You show in the screenshots is meant as a contextual alternate, so I would expect it in calt. Leave it like it is.

5

Thanks for your reply. I wanted to make sure its in default as it is quite an essential substitution.

I noticed something strange. I opened several new documents. First I thought it was quite random if its on by default or not. Then I noticed the calt feature was on by default in documents for print like the A4 preset, and off by default in documents for web.
Looks like a thing in InDesign but Im curious if you ever heard about something like this? Or Im completely mistaking here.

6

You change the default when no document is open.

7

Yeah youre right of course.

8

I know, but I still was not able do make it work all over but I guess its an Indesign problem and nothing that I did wrong in Glyphs. Thanks for helping out!