OpenType Guide · OpenType Panel
Stylistic Alternates
Many fonts include more than one design for some letters: a single storey a, a straight legged R, a rounder g. You can reach them two ways. Picked one by one, they change the tone of a word or fix a spot where the default does not sit well. Grouped in a stylistic set, they change a whole text in one go. A font can have up to twenty sets, numbered Set 1 to Set 20, and they can be combined.
See it in Normandi
Flip the switch to see what changes.
Where to find it
One letter at a time
- Window
- Type & Tables
- Glyphs
Open the Glyphs panel ⌥ ⇧ F11 Mac Alt Shift F11 Windows
InDesign has no menu item for single alternates. Select one letter and pick from the alternates that appear underneath, or set the Glyphs panel to Show: Alternates for Selection.
A whole set at once
- Character panel
- Panel menu ☰
- OpenType
- Stylistic Sets
- Set 1…
Tick as many sets as you like. Some fonts show a name next to the number.
One letter at a time
- Window
- Type
- OpenType
- Stylistic Alternates
Open the OpenType panel ⌥ ⇧ ⌘ T Mac Alt Shift Ctrl T Windows
Selecting one letter also shows its alternates right on the artboard.
A whole set at once
- Window
- Type
- OpenType
- Panel menu ☰
- Stylistic Sets
Opens a dialog with a checkbox for each set the font has.
How to use it
- For one letter: select it, look at the alternates offered and click the one you want.
- For a whole text: select it, open Stylistic Sets and tick a set.
- Try other sets, alone or together, until the text looks the way you want.
Good to know
- If you keep picking the same alternate by hand, look for it in a stylistic set: it changes them all at once.
- Every one of our families has stylistic sets. The font pages show what each set changes.
- The Glyphs panel shows every alternate in the font, handy for finding the ones you did not know were there.
- Put the sets you like in a paragraph or character style so they stay consistent across a project.