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M
Mathieu Christe CJBG
Known Participant
March 3, 2026
Question

OpenType features stylistic sets

  • March 3, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 41 views

Dear all,

I’ve created a paragraph style for the main text of an article. The type family that I’m using includes two shapes for lowercase a: two-story a (default) + one-story a (alternate (stylistic set 7) looking like Futura’s).

I want to use the alternate a, so I’ve activated stylistic set 7 under OpenType Features in my paragraph style. For some words inside this paragraph, I’d like to bring back the default a.

Been scratching me head, I can’t figure it out. I read posts on forums, using scripts and GREP aren’t new to me, but I’d like to know if there’s a standard way – not hardcoding the letter – for such a case. If not, is it an OpenType limitation, a type mastering’s limitation, or a software’s limitation?

Thanks in advance for you help/ideas!

(using InDesign CC 2019 on macOS Monterey 12.7.6)

    1 reply

    D
    Dirk Becker
    Legend
    March 3, 2026

    Use a character style.

    In character styles all the settings “attributes” are optional.

    There is one attribute for the entire set of opentype stylistic sets.

    Set that attribute to have your ss07 disabled.

    Then apply the character style where you need.

     

    I see your problem though, it is difficult to set the cstyle to use no ss at all.

    Either apply an unused ss19 or alike, or:

     

    Apply your paragraph style to some text.

    Use the character panel (not style) fly-out menu to toggle ss07.

    Create the character style from that override.

     

    Interesting that the info section of the first panel of the character style editor shows nothing for that style.

      M
      Mathieu Christe CJBGAuthor
      Known Participant
      March 4, 2026

      Thank you Dirk for looking into this and offering various solutions.

      Here’s what works on my side:

      • applying an unused ss (I see one limitation: some fonts use all available 20 ss)
      • selecting some text, accessing the ss OT feature to switch it off, then creating a character style from that override (perfect)

      The first method you propose doesn’t work. If I create a character set from scratch all ss are into brackets and I can only activate them. I don’t understand this “There is one attribute for the entire set of opentype stylistic sets.” and I’m not able to disable it.

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