Generate automatic class for features

Glyphs
1

is there a way for an automatic class generation where i can collect all “glyph”.ss01 glyphs in one class? or should i have to write every glyph manually in the SS01 class? Or as an other example to collect all lowercase glyphs in one class?

2

You can filter the font view (with the search field and sidebar) select all glyphs you need and the right click > copy glyph names.

3

Georg, I noticed, there are certain clasees you can build automatically, for instance Uppercase, is there a list of all automatic classes? I think it could be great if Glyphs would create certain classes automatically based on suffices. I would definitely appreciate classes ss01, ss02 and their “oposite” classes without suffix, something like “ss01” and “NOss01”.

4

The ss01 feature is generated without classes because that would result in quite a lot classes.
What you need the classes for?

5
Are you aware of the ignore statement?

ignore sub @Uppercase x’;
sub x by x.ss02;

… substitutes x only when it is NOT preceded by a glyph in the Uppercase class.

6

I created a simple font for a translations of a comic book. I wanted to imitate the hand written style so I designed several alternates. So I have:
A-Z 26 glyphs
ss01 26 glyphs
ss02 10 glyphs (the common letters)
ss03 3 glyphs (the most common letters)
I created pseudo random contextual feature. But every time I add a new ss02 glyph, I have to manually modify two classes: @ss02 and @NOss02.

Therefor I thing it would be great if Glyphs would automatically create classes based on features, for instance:
@ss02 = a.ss02 b.ss02 c.ss02
@NOss02 = a b c

I know how to do it in Glyphs manually, I would just love to have automatic classes.

7

If I get it right, then NOss02 is the same as ss02, but without the suffix. This sounds like a very specific application, and is better done with a simple script, if at all:

Not every time. You can add all your ss02 glyphs first and then edit them. *duck*

What is your workflow? This is how I would do it:

  1. Type “.ss02” in search field (or use a Custom Filter),
  2. Right-click, copy glyph names
  3. Paste in both classes,
  4. In @NOss02, Cmd-Shift-F to replace “.ss02” with “”,
  5. Compile.
8

Mekkablue, you did describe my workflow perfectly :slight_smile: My wish to have automatic classes would just make this faster.

(The font is a work in progress, I add new ss02, ss03 etc glyphs to the font randomly while working on the comic book. There is not a decision in the beginning which characters will have alternates.)

9

You could write a script that updates the classes. You would need to run the script every time you add some glyphs.

10

OK, I already ask colleague to write the script for me.

Btw. is there a list of automatic classes? So far I noticed @Uppercase, are there more classes?

11

Hello @filipdesigniq! Did you end up having this script built? If so, would you consider sharing it? Would be a great help to me at the moment.

12

Loop through glyphs, if name contains the suffix add it to class.code. Here is an example:

suffixedGlyphNames = []
thisFont = Glyphs.font

for thisGlyph in thisFont.glyphs:
	if thisGlyph.name.endswith( ".ss01" ):
		suffixedGlyphNames.append( thisGlyph.name )
		
if suffixedGlyphNames:
	newClass = GSClass()
	newClass.code = " ".join( suffixedGlyphNames )
	newClass.name = "SS01"
	thisFont.classes.append( newClass )
	print "Class created."
else:
	print "Warning: No suffixed glyphs found, no class created."
1 Like
13

This is so helpful, thanks Rainer!

14

How will you use the class in your feature code?