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A
Adam Bresnahan
Participating Frequently
April 12, 2023
Question

Glyph as bullet not functioning in paragraph styles

  • April 12, 2023
  • 3 replies
  • 3662 views

Hello. I would like to use a glyph as a bullet (the opentype digit 3 of Adobe Caslon Pro - an acorn). In the paragraph style box for my "Bulleted list" style, I am trying to add the bullet. When I click "add" and then click "ok," a standard round black dot appears in my list of bullet characters to choose from. If I try to add my preferred glyph (or any of the other opentype glyphs from the font's set, for that matter), the program tells me: "The selected bullet already appears in the Bullets and Numbering dialog box with this font and style association. Specify a different font or style, or select a different bullet." In short, adding a glyph as bullet is not functioning. Could anybody suggest a solution to this problem? Thank you. 

3 replies

Willi Adelberger
Community Expert
Willi AdelbergerCommunity Expert
Community Expert
April 13, 2023
  1. Did you create a Character Style first of the font which contains this bullet? You have to do so.
  2. In the paragraph style select first the created Character Style, the select the bullet of that font.
  3. Use it.
    Brad @ Roaring Mouse
    Community Expert
    Brad @ Roaring MouseCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    April 12, 2023

    I'm on Mac 18.2 and am experiencing the same issue. However, it does seem to be a flaw in the font.

    I inspected the different weights, and for some reason the Regular does not an assigned Character Code/Unicode value for that Glyph, where the others do.

    So, the solution (if you can call it that) is temporarily change your text font to a different weight other than Regular (I used Bold); THEN select and add the acorn (which now shows)

     

    , then change your font back to Regular.

     

    James Gifford—NitroPress
    James Gifford—NitroPress
    Legend
    April 13, 2023

    Mine has it:

     

    Sooo... ? 😛

     

    ETA: Font data:

     

    Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
    Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
    Legend
    April 13, 2023

    I think there might be something amiss with the font's encoding of its ornaments, not just this acorn.

    When I bring up Adobe Caslon Pro in the Glyphs panel and search for Unicode 0033, I get the traditional numberal 3 and, as expected, variations of 3 — subscript, superscript, lining figures, small caps, etc.

     

    But stuck in the middle of this is the acorn ornament — with the same Unicode 0033, but a different GID (glyph ID) from the other variations of 0033.

     

     

    When I view the entire glyph set, other ornaments are scattered throughout the regular alph characters, "borrowing" their Unicode codepoint from the caps and lowercase letters.

     

    This is not the usual method of encoding ornaments into a Unicode font; they should be grouped by codepoints into the ornaments section of the font and not borrowing the codepoint of alpha-numeric glyphs.

     

    For example, if a screen reader came across the acorn glyph in this font, it would voice it as "3" because U0033 = "3", not "acorn ornament."

     

    Maybe this font was incorrectly converted to Unicode way back in 2000 when Adobe and the computer industry switched from old PostScript fonts to Unicode.

     

    But I wouldn't use the font. I don't think it will ever work correctly for you in any form of document. I wouldn't be surprised if it wouldn't work even in print PDFs.

     

     

     

     

    |    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |
      James Gifford—NitroPress
      James Gifford—NitroPress
      Legend
      April 12, 2023

      Not having any problem here —

       

      It might help to know what platform, OS and ID version you're using.

       

      A
      Adam BresnahanAuthor
      Participating Frequently
      April 12, 2023

      Thank you. I am using InDesign version 18.2.1 (x64). I am on a PC using Windows 10. 

      A
      Adam BresnahanAuthor
      Participating Frequently
      April 12, 2023

      That's a possibility. Can you see the glyph in the, er, glyph display? Can you poke it into regular text?

       


      Correct. I can see the glyph in the glyph display in the paragraph styles dialog box. I can also see it if I open the glyphs window. I can enter it into text, either by clicking on it in the glyphs window or by typing a "3" and then selecting the acorn glyph from the opentypes options. I may just end up selecting a different glyph, but that acorn is pretty nice! 

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