Composition and Reuse

Many glyphs share a base letter, an accent, or a smaller piece of drawing. Reusing that content gives related forms a common source. A component is a placed reference to another glyph; a composite assembles such references into a new form. This chapter begins with arranging those components and controlling the composite’s spacing, then introduces written recipes for constructing glyphs.

Named anchors specify where parts attach, and auto layers retain a recipe so that the construction can be rebuilt as its sources change. The final section looks inside the glyph at elements, the containers that hold its content. Element references let you reuse smaller parts with independent placements. The distinction between editing shared content and changing one placement remains central to choosing and maintaining either kind of reuse.

Manual Composites and Glyph Recipes

Assemble glyphs from source glyphs, control composite spacing, and describe constructions with recipes.

Reuse and Composition

Understand how components reuse source glyphs and how composites combine those references into new forms.

Building Composites by Hand

Add, position, replace, and reorder components, inspect their sources and dependents, and decompose them when independent content is needed.

Controlling Composite Metrics

Link a composite’s spacing to its base and control whether placed marks contribute to metric bounds.

Using Recipes for Composite Building

Build glyphs from written recipes, use the supported construction syntaxes, and understand the role of built-in recipes.

Anchors and Auto Layers

Use named attachment points and retain recipes as live constructions that can update with their sources.

Anchors for Positioning

Name and position paired anchors, reference them in constructions, and distinguish attachment instructions from automatic updating.

Auto Layers

Maintain recipe-driven construction in auto layers, manage stored and implicit recipes, and freeze results for manual editing.

The Element Model and Element References

Organize the content inside glyphs and reuse shared drawing elements with independent placements and transformations.

The Element Model

Understand elements as content containers, read their properties and states, and organize contours, groups, and stacking order.

Element Transformations

Transform an element’s placement separately from its shared drawing, and align or distribute elements and groups.

Element References

Create and manage shared element references, attach them through pins, and distinguish them from glyph components.

Building Glyphs from Element References

Assemble glyphs from reusable parts and choose between element references and helper glyphs placed as components.