Hey everyone!
I know the headline is not the best, but it’s hard to describe in a few words.
I scanned and build a font from my handwriting and already figured out the kerning and it looks good now. But as I wanted it to look more handwritten I wondered if it is possible to add alternative glyphs for the basic glyphs. So for example, there are 3 versions of the letter a (a, a.alt1, a.alt2).
Basically like described here: http://blog.theleagueofmoveabletype.com/post/238296379/how-to-add-opentype-alternates-in-fontlab
Is the same thing possible in Font Creator? If so, would somebody be so kind to explain it to me?
Thanks for the help in advance!
Yes, you can add ligatures like that in the OpenType layout feature editor if you have FontCreator 7 Professional or later.
Which version do you have? And do you have an application that supports OpenType features to use it with?
I recommend creating a contextual alternates feature similar to the one explained in this thread.
I have version 8.0 professional and also all the Adobe programms ( CS5 PS,ID etc) who are able to support OTFeatures as far as I know.
Thank you so much for pointing me to the other thread!
One question though, in this case it’s just one “letter” rotating, can I define classes/groups/sets for one whole alphabet and one for another alphabet or do I have to write the code for every character and possibility individually (that would be definitely to much code, wouldn’t it?)
Thanks for your help!
How much code you need depends a lot on what the desired outcome is.
Often, with contextual alternates, all you want is for a different form of certain vowels to be used before or after certain consonants.
The example they give for calt feature is in Caflisch Script, o is replaced by o.alt2 when followed by an ascending letterform.
Take a look at my code for Ordinals in my fonts. Superscripts are substituted, but only after digits.
I don’t much like using Stylistic Sets, like in Gabriola, because the user has to intervene. For an authentic handwriting appearance, what you want is letter forms that change automatically to suit the context.
In my case I’m working on a comic font, which is just freestanding letters (no ligatures or joints) with upper and lowercase letters. So it doesn’t really matter if there is a “t” after the “o” for example.
I basically try to do, what Duncan MacLeod is trying to do here: http://typophile.com/node/19625 ( I can’t link to a specific post unfortunately) Random letters, maybe with 2 alternatives.
So do I understand correctly, that you defined the group ordinals and what it includes on the second line (whole paragraph) of the code? When I look at the code of the linked thread with Duncan above: How would the font know to take the “a” of set1 and change it with “a.alt2” from set2 and not “b” from set2? That’s the only thing that’s confusing me.
I hope that’s a better explaination.
I think that’s beyond my pay-grade.
Look again at the method proposed by Erwin in this thread to create a pseudo randomise feature.
Haha, okay, no problem, I understand! 
Thanks for your help nevertheless!