I am working on a font with a full set of Latin superior glyphs. I realize this is a bit odd of a feature. When I let Glyphs handle the glyph order, it throws them all over the place. It was a headache but I was able to track them all down. I’ll probably never run into this problem again but somebody else might. Just letting you guys know…
What naming are you using?
a.superior, b.superior and so on. Would .sups work differently?
Can you try .sups? That shouldn’t mess up your naming.
Well… there is a LOT of feature code with the name .superior included. I suppose I could do a search and replace but I am a little nervous. I was able to track them all down. When I get this project finished I’ll change those names and see what happens.
What do you have in terms of manually written feature code? Glyphs should generate this correctly with the automatic feature generation.
I am not the original author of this font. I think it has been converted from FontLab. It has the .sups feature plus a bunch of alternates in a stylistic set. I am building bold masters to make a variable front from the original light. It is all working right now and I don’t want to blow things up. But things were all out of order and scattered around the font window.
The advantage of .sups is that the code gets automated and also updates automatically, therefore you minimize the risk of unintended gaps in the code. You can typically use the feature tag as a name suffix. So, for automating stylistic sets, use .ss01 and the like. If you combine multiple suffixes, use them in the order of the features in Font Info > Features, e.g., .sups.ss01.
If there is code that is not automatable, you can add a second feature. You can use the same tag multiple times, e.g. once automated, then again with manual code.
What order do you get with the “.superior” suffix?
The q.superior and all the alternate superiors are between the regular lowers and the ligatures.
Superior h, i, j, l, n, r, s, w, x and y follow the small caps.
a, b, c, d, e, f, g, k, m, o, p, t, u, v and z are between the ordinals and numbers in their own group caller Letter.
The easiest way to handle this, is still to follow the naming scheme we suggested above, with the sups suffix.
If you insist on the naming of the glyphs, consider:
- redefining the case in glyph info (Edit > Info for Selection) to Minor for the superiors and inferiors
- deactivating or deleting the glyphOrder in Font Info > Font
- updating the glyph info through the menu item if the same name (Glyph > Update Glyph Info)
I will certainly set things up differently if I ever need to work on superior letters again.