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Robbie5C90
Participant
February 3, 2021
Question

Automatically switching to an alternate glyph

  • February 3, 2021
  • 1 reply
  • 963 views

I'm using a font with a capital "R" that I want to replace everywhere with its "Stylistic alternate (salt)", which is much more suitable than the default glyph. The font doesn't seem to contain any stylistic sets that I can enable, nor does this alternate glyph seem to be enabled by changing any of the OpenType options, such as swashes or contextual alternatives. I can't seem to generate a character style that will do this. I also haven't had any success using find and replace to make this change. The only way I currently have of changing this is using the hover-over contextual menu, and this isn't practical for every instance of this glyph in the text.

 

My question is, is there a way within InDesign for this change to occur automatically? I've searched other questions here and can't find an answer for this particular case. 

 

 

 

 

 

    1 reply

    L
    Community Expert
    LaubenderCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    June 15, 2022

    Robbie5C90 said:

    "I also haven't had any success using find and replace to make this change. "

     

    Hi Robbie5C90,

    I know this is an old thread, nevertheless there is a solution to your issue. With Find/Replace.

    The two "R"s may share the same Unicode value, but they differ in their Glyph-ID number, the GID number.

    You should be able to do a Glyph Find/Replace action.

    Here a sample from my German InDesign:

     

     

    Note that the GID numbers in your font sample are not the same as the ones in my screenshot.

    Glyph IDs follow a different numbering scheme compared to Unicode code point values. They are just counted inside a given font style from 1 onward. Depending on the different number of glyphs used in a particular font the ID values can be different compared to a another font.

     

    Regards,
    Uwe Laubender
    ( Adobe Community Professional )

    B
    bemboozled
    Participant
    October 7, 2025

    I'm having this same issue, but the problem is that I want to update an InDesign template file so that any books laid out using the template (with paragraph/character styles, etc.) in the future will have the short-tailed R swapped in by default (Bembo Book MT Pro, looks like Robbie5C90 was using the same font). Does anyone have any ideas, beyond the Find/Change? I'm looking for a way to "set it and forget it" rather than always have a Find/Change that needs to be performed after a book has been typeset.

     

    I don't know why Monotype ships the long-tailed R as the default and doesn't even enable the short-tailed one in a stylistic set... seems like many people must have this issue.

    BobLevine
    Community Expert
    BobLevineCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    October 7, 2025

    This discussion is almost five years old. Please start a new discussion which will get a lot more attention.

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