Is there a way to edit preexisting glyph members within multiple composites at once?

[fbslyunfbs]

Hello.

I am currently working on a Korean font, and since there are 11,172 glyphs in the Korean language, I used a premade fcp file that uses 221 glyph members to generate all of those composites. I just replaced those 221 glyph members, and it automatically generated the 11,172 composite glyphs.

However, due to the nature of this process, some of the member glyphs are misaligned in their respective composites.




For example, this is the composite glyph of 곡, and the lower ㄱ(the hook-like shape at the bottom) is in the desired position and is completely fine.



This is the composite glyph of 각, and the same lower ㄱ glyph member is slightly to the left than what is desirable. So, I could just drag it to the right to fix it.

The problem rises that there are literally hundreds of composite glyphs that uses the lower ㄱ glyph member, and the same problem applies to the other 27 lower Korean glyph members, which means thousands of glyph members need to be repositioned while leaving another thousands of glyph members that are completely fine and shouldn't be changed.




After some testing, I figured out that I could go in the Glyph Transformer and use Override Range to select and move the glyph members in all of the composites. But since some composites are completely fine, like the aforementioned 곡 composite glyph, I need to exclude those glyphs from that process.

I also tried only selecting the composite glyphs I want to edit and then using the Glyph Transformer, but it seems that the Glyph Transformer is forced to add new member glyphs first and then move them around. I couldn't find a way to select preexisting member glyphs within a composite glyph.

The next method I can think of is editing the CompositeData.xml file, but this would require me to type in thousands of scripts for each individual composite, and it seems like it also doesn't have a feature to select glyph members within a preexisting composite glyph.

What would be wise is contacting the creator of the Korean font fcp file I'm using to know how they made this and hopefully get whatever data they used and modify it, or I am forced to manually correct the positions of thousands of glyph members.


Is there actually a way to edit glyph members within only a selection of preexisting composite glyphs, or is there none?

What I was hoping to find was a way to exclude composites that contain certain glyph members within a selection, like, "Filter Out Range by Glyph Name" within the Glyph Transformer,

or a way to select glyphs members within a preexisting composite, such as "Select Glyph lowerㄱ".

From what I've researched, I don't think there is. But I would be glad to know if there is a way.

Thank you.

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

I suspect that you need to learn how to use Anchors to position the composite glyph members.

If you're still using an old version of FontCreator, you may need to upgrade.

[fbslyunfbs]

Thank you for your answer.



I used the OpenType Designer to make a first subtable to position the first and second member glyphs, (ㄱ + ㅏ = 가)



and then I made a new subtable to position the second and third member glyphs ( 가 + ㄱ = 각)

This way, the glyphs get assembled in order and I end up with thousands of glyphs that are successfully positioned.




The only downside of this method is that I also have to add blank subtables that combine the fine glyphs without repositioning them,

since if I don't, they will end up getting jumbled and all over the place as seen in the result screenshot.

But that's way less and manageable work, so I can deal with it.

Once again, thank you for guiding me to the right way.

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

Take a look at my Video Tutorial on Anchored-based Glyph Positioning.

I only create Latin script fonts, which have relatively simple composites compared to Arabic and other scripts, but it will help you understand how to adjust anchors, and disable Auto-attach when needed.

Editing CompositeData.xml still has a few uses, but for most composites, anchored-based positioning is more efficient.