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Fonts: OpenType Features

Owned by Fabian Schaich
Last updated: Apr 03, 2023
2 min read

From version 15.1.0 upwards the word channel supports the usage of OpenType features of fonts. Such OpenType Features include the proportional or tabular number spacing.

This feature currently only works for Windows and is not supported on Linux (VM-NGIS): https://bmpi.atlassian.net/browse/NGR-3463

VM-NGIS uses a secondary font inter-tabular in order to display tabular formatted numbers in tables (see: https://bmpi.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/NGIS/pages/3215327233)

Enable OpenType Features support of the word channel

In the word channel options add the option:

"pdf.useOpenTypeFeatures": true

This will enable the usage of an external shaper (learn more: Enable OpenType Features in Java )

The external shaper is required to parse font files which is expensive. Caching is enabled by default

See OpenType Features of a font

To find out what features are available for your font, upload your font to FontDrop! and compare its output with the documentation of the OpenType Features.

It is not guaranteed that all OpenType Features are supported by the word channel

Apply a feature: Word Template

An example on how to enable the proportional number spacing feature in the word template:

  1. Open your template and mark the corresponding locations

  2. Click on the advanced font settings

  3. Under the tab Advanced enable switch the Number Spacing option to Tabluar