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# Glyph naming scheme for automatic feature generation

Glyphs can automatically generate a number of OpenType features if it finds glyphs with certain names in the font. To get the automatic feature generator to work, use the following name suffixes. For a more complete list, see the Glyphs Handbook.

Feature

Glyph name

aaltAll Alternatives

Glyphs automatically builds the aalt feature based on all features that substitute glyphs.

ligaLigature

Join the glyph names of the components with an underscore (‘_’). The common ligatures with f, i and l are placed in the liga feature, all others go into dlig. If you want to force a ligature into the liga feature, you can add a ‘.liga’ suffix, e.g. ‘f_b.liga’ or ‘yi_yi-cy’.

dligDiscretionary Ligatures

Join the glyph names of the components with an underscore (‘_’), e.g. ‘f_odieresis’.

c2scSmall Capitals from Capitals

Add ‘.sc’, ‘.c2sc’ or ‘.smcp’ to the glyph name.

If you have separate sets for c2sc and smcp, you can use ‘.c2sc’ for uppercase glyph names and ‘.smcp’ for lowercase glyph names.

smcpSmall Capitals

Add ‘.sc’, ‘.c2sc’ or ‘.smcp’ to the glyph name.

supsSuperscript

Add ‘.sups’ to the glyph name. Or extend figure names with ‘superior’, without the period, e.g. ‘onesuperior’.

subsSubscript

Add ‘.subs’ to the glyph name.

sinfScientific Inferiors

Add ‘.sinf’ or ‘.subs’ to the glyph name.

dnomDenominators

Add ".dnom" to the glyph name.

numrNumerators

Add ".numr" to the glyph name.

fracFractions

The frac feature is generated from the .numr, .dnom and fraction glyphs. Pre-built fractions are also added: onehalf, onequarter, threequarters, oneeighth, threeeighths, fiveeighths and seveneighths.

onumOldstyle Figures

Add ‘.osf’ (for proportional oldstyle figures) or ‘.tosf’ (for tabular oldstyle figures) to the glyph name. Can be applied to other characters as well, e.g. currency signs.

tnumTabular Figures

Add ‘.tf’ (for tabular figures) or ‘.tosf’ (for tabular oldstyle figures) to the glyph name. Can be applied to other characters as well, e.g. currency signs.

pnumProportional Figures

Add ‘.osf’ (for proportional oldstyle figures) or ‘.lf’ (for proportional lining figures) to the glyph name. Can be applied to other characters as well, e.g. currency signs.

lnumLining Figures

Add ‘.lf’ (for proportional lining figures) or ‘.tf’ (for tabular figures) to the glyph name. Can be applied to other characters as well, e.g. currency signs.

ordnOrdinals

Automatically built if ‘ordfeminine’ and ‘ordmasculine’ are found in the font.

histHistorical Forms

Add ‘.hist’ to the glyph name.

caseUppercase Forms

Add ‘.case’ to the glyph name or ‘.lf’ to the name of a figure.

cpspCapital Spacing

Add uppercase letters to your font.

loclLocalized Forms

Add ‘.loclXXX’ to the glyph name, where XXX represents the three letter language tag, e.g. ‘.loclENG’ for English. There also is a built-in list of glyphs which are added automatically to the feature, e.g. idotaccent, scommaaccent and tcommaaccent will trigger locl substitutions for Turkish, Romanian and a range of related languages.

For a complete list of language tags, see: microsoft.com/typography/otspec/languagetags.htm

ssXXStylistic Set XX

Add ‘.ssXX’ to the glyph name, where XX is a double-digit number between 1 and 20, e.g. ‘.ss01’ or ‘.ss02’. Add ‘Name:’ plus the feature’s descriptive name to the feature note at the bottom. This will generate the feature name entries for stylistic set names. Alternatively, you can add the whole featureNames definition to the note.

saltStylistic Alternate

By default, Glyphs will duplicate the ss01 feature in salt. Adobe Illustrator makes use of this feature in its OpenType palette.

vertVertical Alternates

Add .vertical to the glyph name.

### Related Topics

Glyph naming

Font Info – Features