Back, and a question about a glyph manager

**Aeneas** · 10 January 2008, 09:53 AM

Hello all,

I am not a new user but due to ilness I haven't touched Xara for a long, long time, so I guess I'll have to restart from scratch.

I just bought the upgrade to XaraXtreme 32 and whilst opening it, I noticed that all fonts are indicated as TrueType. Many I have installed are actually OpenType fonts with lots of extra's like ligatures etc etc.
Can anyone tell me please how I can get access within Xara to some kind of Glyph Manager?

**Aeneas** · 10 January 2008, 10:40 AM

When I re-read the above, I find it a bit confusing. I'll try to make it more clear:

- I know that within windows Open Type uses the TrueType contours but I would like to see an Open Type font indicated as Open Type because of its options like swash, ligatures,...

- What I call a glyph panel here is in fact like one finds in InDesign (Insert special characters pallette): you can call it up with a shortcut and simply add or replace a character by an alternative version , use small caps etc.

If this isn't implemented, then it might be a good idea to do so.

BTW: I don't have InDesign, but I saw this pallette in action and it's much handier than the Windows character map.

**Jon G** · 10 January 2008, 07:21 PM

The Glyphs window is common to Adobe programs, and yes it is quite handy. Not present in Xara... yet.

Type in Xara has seen many great improvements lately, I hope this continues in the future as well.

**Aeneas** · 10 January 2008, 07:43 PM

Unfortunately it is lacking in Photoshop CS2. ( And no, I won't upgrade.

)

I really hope it will be added very soon in an update to Xara but I can imagine that other people have other wishes.

**Jon G** · 11 January 2008, 03:42 AM

You're right, but it's not in PS CS3 either. I've never touched the type tool in PS, didn't occur to me that ther even should be one.

**Fred C** · 12 January 2008, 04:04 PM

It's not a 'Glyph manager', but try Character Map Pro-It displays the characters much larger than the MS version.
http://www.xaraxone.com/html/tip_of_the_week_4.html
Scroll down to bottom of the page.
HTH

**Aeneas** · 17 January 2008, 07:36 PM

Thanks. I'"ve been looking around all over the Internet and it looks like, to get full support of Open Type options I do will need to go the Adobe way and get InDesign.

I haven't found one application that is even able to show the alternative letters, let alone allow one to use them.

Bummer. I could have saved the money I spent on Xtreme 3.2.
Well, I've been to fast and too confident.
Price paid, lesson learned.

**ss-kalm** · 18 January 2008, 02:24 AM

I'm not sure why you think that you wasted your money on Xara Xtreme just because it doesn't have a glyph manager? And if the solution is going and buying Indesign, then you really did buy the wrong package. Xara is a drawing package, Indesign is Desktop publishing. It's like saying I wasted my money buying a motorcycle, because it doesn't have an MP3 player. I should have bought a car instead. The two are not related in any way. If you really wanted a desktop publishing package, then you really did waste your money foolishly.

Using Windows character map you can copy a vast range of open type font characters and paste them into Xara Xtreme. Although Xara shows all the fonts as true type, Windows Character Map shows the fonts as both Open Type and True Type. There doesn't appear to be a problem pasting Open Type fonts into Xara.

Can you give a clear example of what you are trying to do. Even if it means posting a picture of what you want to achieve.

**Aeneas** · 18 January 2008, 12:43 PM

Thanks for the answer.
Thing is, like I wrote earlier, I have been using Xara since Xara X, and it has always been my favourite vector application.
I'm not interested in manipulating photographs with it as to me it is vector drawing. For photographs I use Bibble Raw and CS2? But that could also be PSP, theGimp or Elements. I personally wonder why Xara added those options, but I can understand other people like them.

But Xara has always been ahead of the others in options (think of transparancy,...) so I was convinced that, seen the years OpenType now has been around, it would be one of the applications that has full OT support. Text and fonts are more linked with vectors than photography and red-eye removal. Unfortunately it hasn't. Hence my disappointment.

I work a lot with texts, but not for magazines, so: no, I don't *need* InDesign. You are right in that. But Illustrator and InDesign do have that Glyph palette that I miss in Xara. As Illustrator is not what I need, having Xara, ID was the choice that would extend my tools better. But, indeed: extend them too far. And also too much to invest in.

Now, to focus more on your answer: Someone has already suggested an alternative for the character palette, but it is not what I need/ had hoped to find. Several typefaces I use have variant forms of uppercase and lowercase letters, for example several variants on the "M". These are not shown in the Character map. So I cannot get access to them in Xara.
What I asked for was an application or a method to be able to use them.
I tried a serach myself, and as far as I now found, only InDesign and Illustrator offer full support for OT. Hence my disappointment as InDesign is quiite an investment and I could have done with Xara what I need to do in a previous version.

I'm still trying to find an application. I wrote a letter to Ergonis

http://www.ergonis.com/products/popcharwin/

and wait for an answer.

Perhaps you have another idea?
That is why I started this thread after all...

**ss-kalm** · 18 January 2008, 12:56 PM

If you can give me a specific font face, that contains these swaths or ligatures that you need to use (and if possible the specific characters), I will have a better idea what software will use them or not. I'm curious now and would like to investigate this further for my own interest. As far as I am aware Xara has the ability to use all 255 characters of any given font. You just have to know the character number.