Multiple Formula Composites

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designbylaney
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Joined: Tue Nov 15, 2022 6:28 pm

Multiple Formula Composites

Post by designbylaney »

Is there a way to create multiple formula composites at once? For instance, I'd like to add 2 full stylistic sets with beginning / ending swashes on lowercase letters. So I was thinking of adding the swash component, and then creating a composite of that swash with a, b, c, and so on. I can do it with a formula composite one at a time, but is there a better way to do this automatically?
Thank you!
Erwin Denissen
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Re: Multiple Formula Composites

Post by Erwin Denissen »

Open the Font Overview panel and use Insert > Glyphs to add new glyphs to your font. In the Insert Glyphs dialog, make sure you’re inserting glyphs by name.

For each glyph you want to create, you can define a composite formula by writing the new glyph name, followed by an equals sign, and then the existing glyphs separated by plus signs—without any spaces. For example:

f_i_j=f+i+j

This will create a new glyph named f_i_j and build it from the outlines of f, i, and j.
Erwin Denissen
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designbylaney
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Re: Multiple Formula Composites

Post by designbylaney »

Wonderful, thank you! And there's not any way to do this in batch? Like all lowercase letters + a swash? This is definitely a big step in the direction, but wasn't sure if there was a way to kind of automate it a bit more! Thanks!
Bhikkhu Pesala
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Re: Multiple Formula Composites

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

Moved to the correct forum.

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Erwin Denissen
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Re: Multiple Formula Composites

Post by Erwin Denissen »

designbylaney wrote: Tue Jan 14, 2025 6:16 pm Wonderful, thank you! And there's not any way to do this in batch? Like all lowercase letters + a swash? This is definitely a big step in the direction, but wasn't sure if there was a way to kind of automate it a bit more! Thanks!
What do you want to accomplish?
Erwin Denissen
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Proven Font Technology
designbylaney
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Nov 15, 2022 6:28 pm

Re: Multiple Formula Composites

Post by designbylaney »

Thanks for the help! The goal was to create beginning and ending swash letters - so for instance, all of the lower letters + a beginning swash, and then all of the lower letters + an end swash as well! With your previous answer, it takes some of that time off, but just curious if there's a way to kind of select those characters and tell FC that I want to add a glyph with a+swash, b+swash, c+swash, etc. for all of them?
Erwin Denissen
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Re: Multiple Formula Composites

Post by Erwin Denissen »

You can add multiple formulas to the Insert Glyph by name option, one per line:

Code: Select all

a.start=a+swash
b.start=b+swash
c.start=c+swash
...
a.end=a+swash.end
b.end=b+swash.end
c.end=c+swash.end
...
You might also be interested in this tutorial:
Creating Handwritten Fonts with Contextual Alternates
Erwin Denissen
High-Logic
Proven Font Technology
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