Access Opentype Features by scripting

[dolce5EC2]

whilst UI displays contextual menu when selecting character, values in code

ligature:
false
discretionaryLigature:
false
contextualLigature:
false
fractions:
false
ordinals:
false
swash:
false
titling:
false
connectionForms:
false
stylisticAlternates:
false
ornaments:
false

does not to seem to do anything, sadly, in either 

tactiveDocument.textFrames[0].textRange.characters[0].characterAttributes

tactiveDocument.textFrames[0].textRange.characterAttributes

what I could be missing?

@m1b

maybe you have insights?

[dolce5EC2 · Accepted solution]

I found a solution for this particular case.

you have to set both 

.characterAttributes.connectionForms = true;

and

.characterAttributes.contextualLigature = true;

for ligature to appear, strangelly when set from context mini menu in illustrator UI

these value do not seem to change in code. 

[m1b]

My (limited) understanding is that the two alternative glyphs shown in your screen shot are derived directly from the font's opentype features, so that by turning the various available opentype features (ie. the ones that you mentioned in your post) on or off you will be able to find one or the other. For example:

item.textRange.characterAttributes.stylisticAlternates = true;

If that doesn't work for some reason, another avenue to try is to get the charCode of the character and see if that's significant. Usually it won't be because you are interested in the glyph which is mapped to the character, not the character itself, for example, my guess is that both "g" glyphs in your screen shot will have charCode 103. Anyway, you can test this:

$.writeln(item.textRange.contents.charCodeAt(0));

 This will show you the charCode of the first character of the text.

Can you try the various opentype features first and see if any work? If you get stuck you might need to share the sample document and font (if appropriate).

- Mark

[dolce5EC2]

thanks for your reply, Mark

at the end I had managed to get swoosh to show by setting both connectionForms and contextualLigature

to true. Strange still, settings from the UI context menu does not seem to change these values in js, I tried to trace them out to "false", so much poking and experimenting was involved.

There is no document involved, just a weird font https://allbestfonts.com/carolina/

[m1b]

Hi @dolce5EC2, glad you got it working.

thanks for your reply, Mark

at the end I had managed to get swoosh to show by setting both connectionForms and contextualLigature

to true.

There is nothing strange here. It is exactly what I suggested.

Strange still, settings from the UI context menu does not seem to change these values in js, I tried to trace them out to "false", so much poking and experimenting was involved.

This might be because those properties will return false if your text contains multiple values. To properly test, you need to target, say, an individual character of the text, not the whole text. Just an idea. In my testing it worked as I expected.

- Mark