This document records user-interface work to provide access to smart-font features.
Contents
Scribus is a desktop-publishing (DTP) application built with the Qt
application framework. As of version
1.5.3 from December
2016, the Text Properties palette includes controls for activating
OpenType smart-font features.
In addition, Scribus supports complex script-shaping features. The project wiki provides details on a per-script basis and examples: https://wiki.scribus.net/canvas/Complex_Script_Functionality
Inkscape is a cross-platform vector-graphics editor built with the GTK+ application framework. As of version 0.92, the Variants tab of the "Text and Font" palette provides controls for manipulating a small set of common OpenType smart-font features:
Common ligatures (`liga`)
Discretionary ligatures (`dlig`)
Historical ligatures (`hlig`)
Contextual ligatures (`clig`)
Subscripts (`subs`)
Superscripts (`sups`)
Small capitals (`smcp` and `c2sc`)
Petite capitals (`pcap` and `c2pc`)
Unicase forms (`unic`)
Titling forms (`titl`)
Lining and Oldstyle numerals (`lnum` and `onum`)
Proportional and tabular widths (`pnum` and `tnum`)
Fraction styles (`frac` and `afrc`)
Ordinals (`ordn`)
Slashed zero (`zero`)
Note: The Inkscape interface does not show the four-letter feature tags listed in parentheses, only the human-readable names.
In addition, users can enter CSS-like syntax into the "Feature Settings" entry widget to further specify smart-font features.
The Variants tab presents the features above in a fixed order, separated into four groups ("Ligatures","Position","Capitals", and "Numeric").
- The features under "Ligatures" are toggleable with checkboxes.
- The features under "Position" are presented as a single radio-button selection: 'Normal', 'Subscript', and 'Superscript' are mutually exclusive.
- The features under "Capitals" are presented as a single radio-button selection: 'Normal', 'Small', 'All small', 'Petite', 'All petite', 'Unicase', and 'Titling' are mutually exclusive.
- The features under "Numeric" are further subdivided. 'Default style', 'Lining' and 'Old Style' are one mutually-exclusive radio-button selection. 'Default Width', 'Proportional', and 'Tabular' are one mutually-exclusive radio-button selection. 'Default Fractions', 'Diagonal', and 'Stacked' are one mutually-exclusive radio-button selection. "Ordinal" is a separate checkbox. "Slashed Zero" is a separate checkbox.
There is no preview of the effects of changing the smart-font feature settings.
The "Glyphs" palette provides a grid of all glyphs
available in the selected font, akin to the functionality of the
aalt feature.
Version 0.93, which has not yet been released but is available in nightly builds, expands the set of smart-font features supported and provides a different interface.
LibreOffice is a cross-platform office suite that includes a word processor and presentation builder (among other components). As of version 5.3.0 from February 2017, it supports activating OpenType and Graphite smart-font features by appending a CSS-like syntactic expression to the name of the active font in the Font drop-down selector. For example,
Cardo:ss01&tnum
activates stylistic set #1 (ss01) and enables tabular numerals
(tnum) in the Cardo font.
Version 6.2.0, which has not yet been released but is available in nightly builds, adds a graphical interface to select and configure all available smart-font features. Issue 58941 on the LibreOffice bug tracker follows the progress of this implementation work. This screenshot is from the bug tracker:
The dialog includes checkboxes for on/off features and drop-down selectors for features that have more than a simple on/off setting.
Feature labels are taken from the active font.
The features are ordered in the dialog box in the order that they are encountered in the font binary.
A single sample-text string is shown.
Firefox is a cross-platform web browser. It supports the standard CSS syntax for expressing smart-font features in web-page content.
As of version 63, which has not yet been released to the stable channel, it features a font-editor tab in the Page Inspector. Modifying the settings in the tab affects the active web page.
The font-editing tab does not currently offer controls for manipulating smart-font features, but it does offer controls for manipulating variable-font axes. However, users can manipulate OpenType and Graphite smart-font features in the Page Inspector by directly editing the page's CSS rules.
This screenshot is from the Mozilla Hacks blog post by Dan Callahan about variable-font support:
GTK+ is an application platform and widget toolkit developed with the GNOME desktop project for Linux.
GTK+ Font Explorer is the standard font-selection widget provided as of the GTK+ 3.24 release from September 2018.
The interface provides set of controls for previewing the available OpenType features in the currently-chosen font, as well as adjusting the settings of any variable-font axes.