Problem with "view alternative glyphs" feature of IllustratorCC 2017

Glyphs
1

I have created a font that supports Latin, Greek & Cyrillic. All letters of the font come in 4 stylistic sets (.ss01, .ss02, etc.). When using the font in Illustrator (CC2017) its “view alternative glyphs” feature seems to work only for capital letters.

Something that may be of importance: The font is a capitals-only font. When I finished with everything else, I wanted to make sure that the font works when someone types in lowercase letters. To do that I followed an advice I found in the forum which suggested using the “Add Glyphs” command and duplicate all letters by using this kind of code: A=a, B=b, etc.

Can someone help me please?

2

Did you update the feature code after you added the lowercase? And did you duplicate the .ssXX letters, too?

3

How are you testing? Are you using the Adobe Fonts folder?
http://www.glyphsapp.com/tutorials/testing-your-fonts-in-adobe-apps

4

No, how do I do that? All I did was to make sure that all lowercase glyphs were in the same kerning groups as their uppercase counterparts.

5

I’m using Suitcase Fusion 5. Do you think I should use the Adobe Fonts folder instead?

6

Yes. Here is why: Eliminating Font Cache Problems

7

Ok, I will try that then and see how it goes.
Thanks!

8

I tried it and it didn’t work I’m afraid (plus I got another problem but I will have to start a new topic I suppose). Any more ideas? Maybe it has to do that I still use the older version of Glyphs and not Glyphs2?

9

Can you send me the .glyphs file please to support (at) (this website without www). I will have a look.

10

You need to make sure that the font is really gone from the system before starting to use the Adobe Fonts folder. Or change the name of the font.

11

Just did, you should get my email in a few minutes. Thank you so much for helping me.

12

I am sure that is gone from the system but I haven’t tried changing the name. Will try that as well. Thanks!

13

I exported an OTF from the .glyphs file you sent me, typed ‘abcde’ in lowercase, switched to your font, selected letter, and was presented with the stylistic alternates as expected:

It appears that the features work as expected in Illustrator. Or did you mean something else?

14

No, this is exactly what I meant. Plus, as I understand, you didn’t come across the other problem (described it in my email). The only thing I can think of in this case is that it has something to do with my version of Glyphs (I’m still using 1.4.5). It could also be my adobe software I guess but I doubt it.

What do you think?

15

Are you sure you eliminated all font cache problems? Delete all copies of the font until Illustrator is starting to show a replacement font. Then export the font again.

16

Well I still don’t know what is wrong, but I’m happy to report that I don’t have to deal with this problem anymore.
I was using Glyphs 1.4.5, just hadn’t bothered to update until now. Downloaded Glyphs 2, opened my file, exported, placed font in Suitcase, and now Illustrator’s “view alternative glyphs” feature works just fine!
Looks like all I need to do now is register the new version to make sure that nothing like this happens again in the future.
Georg & Rainer thank you for all your efforts. Having someone you can rely on is wonderful, especially for newbie font designers like me. The money I spent on Glyphs two years ago were indeed money well spent!
Thanks guys.

17

DON’T DO THAT until the font is finished. You will run into cache problems otherwise.

18

ok sorry! Just wanted to make sure that whoever gets the font in the future will be able to use either if he/she uses Suitcase or not.

1 Like
19

But only do the installation tests in the very end.

20

Will do. Thanks Georg.