Positional alternates, only some letters?

Glyphs
1

I am not sure if you can have only a few letters instead of the complete All.
What is possible, how?
Would I still need the 4 categories, and generate all the alternative letters even though they might be the same, or can the script contain just those letters, presumably in all 4 categories in the same order?
Just learning about this, not sure at all how this all works, will need to re-read this information a few times :slight_smile:
I am not sure how to script anything so an example would be very helpful.

My main aim is to have a few initial letters, and a few isolated ones, and a few final, not all necessarily the same letters, just here and there (handwritten font).
Thank you

2

This is perfectly possible, you don’t need initial, medial and final forms for every isolated letter.

3

Then each of the 4 classes and the All only have those glyphs, and all in the same order, is this correct?

4

Yes, you can do it, why not? But I don’t know what you want to do and if it fits your design.

5

I am working on a handwritten font where I wanted to have a little randomness in the letter forms, so some letters vary. I have made some ligatures to help in the randomness, various combinations.

If you have any other ideas feel free to mention them here so I can research it more.
Thank you for your replies :slight_smile:

6

Combine it with the coffee from the advanced alternates tutorial. That is the most randomness you can get in a font.

7

Just a personal thank you @mekkablue for your information pages, well written and clear. I have just started learning Glyphs and font design (as you know, there is a lot to learn from knowing nothing! In the olde days it was Postscript type 1, no Open type) and am finding everything in Learn/Resources is easy to follow. As I learn, I find there is something else to know, then find yet another page you have written.

As you know there is a range of software for creating glyphs. I choose Glyphs because of your Resources/Learn sections, and although I did not really understand much about what I was reading, I saw it was put together in a concise way that seemed to be clear if I was to purchase Glyphs and start to use it. I did not get the trial, I just thought I would jump in and see what happens.

As I learn the terminology I am starting to search here for various threads. Thank you to @GeorgSeifert and everyone else answering here at the forum.

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