Syllable Bows

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1

I could use a little help with my current issue.
I’m trying to add a special school feature to my font: syllable bows. Like this:
silbenboegen.jpg
This sample is made with a special software, so mine is not going to be that perfect, but that’s alright.

I want to add a bunch characters with bows in different lengths to my font, from very short to quite long, all with Advance Width = zero. The user can then insert the bow with the desired length by typing a combination (like ^01) before the letter where the bow is supposed to begin. So far that works as expected.

My problem is that, if one syllable ends between two letters that are kerned, the kerning of course no longer works.

Simple example: the word LAVA. The bows would need to go under LA and VA, so I’d have to insert the second one before the V, so the kerning pair AV is no longer recognized.
Does anyone have any idea how position those pairs right again?

Any help would be much appreciated!

2

They are basically the same as combining diacritical marks.

Create them with a negative left side-bearing, and have users type them after the syllable.

3

That wouldn’t solve my problem I guess. For LAVA I’d have to type the bow for LA before the V, so again there would be a glyph placed between A and V which would mess up the kerning pair, right?

4

You might be able to fix that with more kerning pairs for Bow:A, Bow:V, Bow:Y, etc.

5

I thought about that too at first, but then those pairs would always be kernend, even in words that don’t need kerning. Like BA-NA-NA.
What I’d need is a way to for instance position the V in combinations like A-Bow-V.
There’s this feature, chained context positioning. I just don’t really understand how it works. Would this be usable for my issue?

6

I suspect that it would, but it is beyond my experience. Maybe others can offer a suggestion?

7

That would be great.
Thanks for trying to help anyway!