Use the Complete Composites feature to add composite glyph members to your glyphs. To use this powerful feature, select a glyph, or a range of glyphs, right-click and select Complete Composites. You can choose between these:

•Auto - uses a combination of Anchor Based and Composite Data as fallback

•Anchor Based - Uses anchors to create and position common composites that are made out of a base glyph and one or more combining marks

•Anchor Based Reposition - Same as Anchor Based, but will also reposition the anchors

•Composite Data - uses definitions from CompositeData.xml as explained below

 

Anchor Based

Using anchors allow you to build composites and to add OpenType features. Even though FontCreator automates most of this, there are some things crucial to make it work as expected.

If you want custom combining marks for capital letters, do give such glyphs a name with suffix .case, for example:

gravecomb.case

If you want to include custom marks for narrow glyphs, then add suffix .narrow to the marks, e.g.

dieresiscomb.narrow

If the font contains stacking marks, ensure the glyph names use the correct glyph name convention. For example, if you’ve created a glyph which consist of circumflexcomb and gravecomb, then name that glyph circumflexcomb_gravecomb.

The order of the glyph outlines/members within a stacking marks glyph is important, as the algorithm will position anchors based on the outlines of the first mark. So with circumflexcomb_gravecomb.case the first one should be the one that defines circumflex. To change the order, open the stacking mark in a Glyph panel, then select and right-click the specific mark, then click Order -> Bring to Front.

If you want to adjust the position of a mark on a base glyph, change the anchor on the base if you want to make the change for the whole group of marks. If you want to move the mark on all base glyphs, do change the anchor on the mark. After these changes, do select the composite glyphs that need to be repositioned and click Complete Composites -> Anchor Based.

If you want to revert to the automatic anchor positions, select the composites and click Complete Composites -> Anchor Based Reposition. Your manual adjustments to the specific anchors will be lost.

Note: FontCreator will position anchors based on the glyph outline. It will also take into account the Italic Angle, so be sure it is set correctly.

 

Composite Data

The selected glyphs will be composed using data in CompositeData.xml, which is read when FontCreator first uses the feature. This feature works with over three thousand glyphs that are defined in this file. To get the most out of this feature follow these guidelines:

•The selected glyph(s) must be defined in the composite data file; either known by Unicode code-point or by glyph name.

•If the selected glyph(s) are empty or simple they will be replaced wherever composites are defined. Do not include simple glyphs in your selection if you don’t wish to replace them with composites.

•If the selected glyph(s) are already composites they will be replaced only if the composite glyph members are different, not if their positions or scale factors are different.

•All composite members must be present in the font. If any composite members are mapped, but still empty, the composite glyph will be completed, though obviously missing the contours that have not been defined yet.

 

Info: Read the documentation about the content of the file CompositeData.xml and an explanation about how to modify and add glyphs. This document is available from our website:

http://www.high-logic.com/font-editor/fontcreator/tutorials.html

Note: Complete Composites is not available in the Home Edition of FontCreator.