OpenType Features

Some premium fonts include different sets of glyphs that are accessible through as a so-called OpenType feature. These glyphs could be alternate sets, ligatures, different number cases, and so on.

When text is selected, you can access a font’s OpenType features through the *“OpenType Features” pane in the text inspector.

To learn more about OpenType features in general, we recommend this article by Typofonderie.

Here’s a quick overview of what the individual features mean:

• Kerning: This refers to the spacing between individual letter combinations in a font. Some fonts contain sophisticated kerning information between many letter combinations in a special *kern* table. Checking this will enable kerning information from this advanced table.
• Ligatures: These are special glyphs used to correct "awkward" letter combinations, such as ff, ffi or fb, where letters seem to flow into each other in a suboptimal way. Usually, such combinations are joined into a single glyph, making them look nicer. Some fonts include multiple sets of ligatures.
• Letter Case: Small Caps use capital letters, but adapted in width, height and boldness to go well with lowercase glyphs of the font. These are often useful to give emphasis. "Small Caps from Caps" are similar in nature, but actually use a font's normal capital glyphs, just adapting for width and height.
• Number Case: A font might include multiple glyphs for numbers, giving different looks.
• Number Spacing: Sometimes, numbers can be spaced out differently, depending on the use-case: A number might be rendered with more whitespace if it's used in a table, as an example, while it's more narrow in regular text.
• Fractions: Fractional numbers, such as 1/2 or 1/3, can sometimes be rendered differently in a font, such as with a straight or diagonal division line.
• Positioning: While sub- and superscript positioning is genereally available in pagestrip's typography inspector, some fonts even use visually distinct number glyphs for these cases.
• Numeric Extras: In some fonts, the number zero can be written with or without a slash (the slash making it easier to distinguish a zero from a capital O). Annotations can be used if numbers are used for footnotes, as an example.
• Character Alternatives: Depending on context, an OpenType font might enable different letters for the same glyph, such as by using swashes (ornaments often used in handwriting-inspired fonts), contextual styles (like rendering certain letter combinations in a more extravagant way), historical styles (this often included initials and finals) or stylistic styles (such as ornaments or tilting alternates).
• Alternative Stylistic Sets: Some fonts define multiple stylistic sets of all glyphs, which can be accessed individually. If more than one set is selected, pagestrip will pick glyphs in set order, e.g. if set 2 and 4 are selected, a glyph will be chosen from set 2, *unless* it is not defined there. In this case, it will be picked from set 4.

Multiple OpenType features can be enabled at the same time. However, it is advisable to use these features in accordance with the font designer’s intention, as to prevent unintentionally gaudy or unreadable styles.

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