How to change default glyph variant

[withoutFeathers]

Hi,
I can't find this in OS X documentation, online, or in this forum, but it seems like it should be simple.

Q: Hoefler text (for example) has several glyph variants for many characters. How do I get it to default to a different variant for a given glyph?

More detail: Dash, for example. My Hoefler text defaults to an 'upper case' dash, which is above the x-height center. But I'm using Hoefler for a regular body font, so almost all my dashes are between lower case letters. So the dash is always too high. So I always have to move it manually ( ie change the glyph variant using the Typography panel) for each one.

I suspect as a workaround that I can create a Nisus style, then find all the dashes, then apply the style.

But isn't there a way to actually change the glyph's default variant? There must be....

Thanks...

BTW, there are also several other characters where the glyph is the wrong variant -- all seem to be the upper-lower difference.

WF

[adryan]

How to change default glyph variant

G’day, WF et al

This question has remained unanswered for some time, so I thought I might venture some thoughts.

The easiest thing would be to choose a different font that acts in the desired manner. Alternatively, one might use Hack-a-Font (fictitious name) software to re-engineer unloved characters in a specific font.

Within Nisus Writer, you could Replace All the elevated dashes with dashes of lesser stature, and Macroize the procedure for posterity. Font and case could be accommodated in this technique.

To avoid the necessity of invoking a macro, and even of creating one, you could include the required character in the Special Characters Palette and assign a keyboard shortcut (perhaps Cmd-hyphen) to it via Preferences > Menu Keys > Insert > Special Character > ….

To make the desired glyph more universally available, you can set up a keyboard substitution via System Preferences > Keyboard > Text. Glyphs can be dragged into the Replace and With fields from Font Book’s Repertoire panel. The stipulation that the Replace field contain at least two characters can be accommodated by a simple duplication (ie, “gg”, where “g” represents the unsightly glyph). The With field merely contains a single instance of the desired glyph. The idea is that typing the unsightly character twice in succession in your document should result in its being replaced by the more comely one — except for another minor inconvenience, namely that the double keystroke needs to be followed by a white space character or by a third instance of the original keystroke, in order to trigger the substitution. In the end, you need to type (for example) the hyphen three times and then hit the Delete key in order to see your picturesque glyph in all its glory.

Why people can’t just be satisfied with Courier 12 is beyond me.

Cheers,
Adrian

[withoutFeathers]

How to change default glyph variant
To avoid the necessity of invoking a macro, and even of creating one, you could include the required character in the Special Characters Palette and assign a keyboard shortcut (perhaps Cmd-hyphen) to it via Preferences > Menu Keys > Insert > Special Character > ….
Why people can’t just be satisfied with Courier 12 is beyond me.
Cheers, Adrian

And how code engineers ever thought we'd be satisfied with just forgetting about n and m dashes entirely amazes me.

Thanks for all the suggestions. The last one (System preference, keyboard substitution, hitting three times) boggled my mind so much I went away and did something else for two weeks.

But the above one, which I knew about but wasn't using, is good to use again, thanks for the reminder.

I'm hoping for something to appear in Nisus that will allow not only easy access to alternate glyphs (such as there are abundantly in Hoefler, and Linux Libertine, and I suspect varyingly elsewhere), but crucially a way to set a default for such a glyph -- including, say, ligatures, but also different forms of the same letter. Then I could just choose the glyph, check a "default" box, and Nisus would happily always use that form until I change the default.

I suspect Open Type would allow this, but only if Nisus takes advantage of it. I hope they're reading this forum. ...Maybe it's already on their to-do list for a future version...

WF