How to insert a lookup/feature after generated mark feature

Glyphs
1

I want to contextually adjust some mark glyph, but for this to work the lookup needs to come after the mark positioning lookups or it wont have any effect (the default anchors of the mark will be used). There does not seem to be any obvious way to do this in Glyphs.

2

You want to shift the mark?

3

Yes, basically. Any other option (as long as it can be done in a contextual lookup) would be fine.

4

So it has to come in mark, but after all other code in mark. Go to Font Info > Features, create a new Feature called mark, and start its code with:

# Automatic Code End

Then add your custom code below. It will be added as a lookup at the end of the mark feature.

Example:

# Automatic Code End
pos [d x f] tildecomb' <-50 100 0 0>;

… will move tildecomb 50 to the left and 100 up, but only after glyphs d, x and f.

5

Thanks, this works!

I tried mark initial as that was the obvious choice but it prevented the auto-generation of mark feature. Is the
# Automatic Code End trick documented anywhere? can I use it with any generated feature (e.g. kern)?

6

It was introduced in 2.4.2, and only applied to mark at first. Since 2.5, it should be possible with all calculated GPOS features that do not show up in the Font Info > Features sidebar.

2 Likes
7

Thanks. I wish this was more discoverable in the UI, like a checkbox in the feature windows “[] don’t generate XXXX feature”.

8

We have some improvements on the list.

1 Like
9

is there a corresponding # Automatic Code Start as well?

1 Like
10

Yes.

11

Thanks. However it’s unclear whether the two special comments can be combined in the same feature block, see: https://github.com/googlefonts/ufo2ft/issues/351#issuecomment-557489418

12

Currently the idea is to only use one of them.