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How to Access Pretty Open Type Font Glyphs

Megan Martin

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Let’s talk about fonts. Have you ever snagged a fancy font online that had the prettiest swashes and strokes in the advertisement images, only to realize when you went to use the font you didn’t have all those extra little details to use? Technically, you do. You just have to know how to find them! So for today’s episode of Bar Cart Brading, I am going to show you just how to access pretty open type font glyphs in Adobe Illustrator!

 

DIY Branding and Graphic Design Help for Creatives with Megan Martin

 

A “glyph” in the font world is another term for a character alternate. They are often called contextual alternates and stylistic alternates as well.

 

For example: In the image below, the “f” on the right is the standard out of box character style for one of my favorite fonts, Freestyle. On the right, is a font glyph or alternate version of an “f” to get a completely different look!

 

how to access pretty open type font glyphs in Adobe Illustrator on Megan Martin Creative, Freestyle Font, Creative Market, font alternates, brand, branding

 

There are two main reasons you need to know how to use Font Glyphs.

 

First of all, if you are designing a graphic with fonts and want a unique look, accessing the font glyphs will allow you to completely alter the style of your typography!

 

Second, when using specific fonts, especially handwritten or calligraphy style fonts, you may quickly find that the letters look CRAY together. Most people just jump ship right then and there and try to find another font. BUT if you know how to access pretty open type font glyphs in Adobe Illustrator, you can save yourself for sacrificing the font you really want to use and clean things up a bit!

 

Here’s an example of the before and after of altering this graphic with font glyphs:

 

How to access pretty open type font glyphs on Megan Martin Creative, Freestyle Script Font, brand, branding, font alternates

 

On the left, you will see the out of box letters that appear when typing, “how to use font glyphs” and on the right, my edited version of the graphic using the Freestyle font glyph options. On the first line of text, you can see how I changed the “h” and “o” to have longer letter strokes on the front and back end of “how to.” Now, look at the word “glyphs” on the left. While beautiful on their own, when all of those fancy style characters are mashed together, the word glyphs looks a hot mess! Instead of throwing Freestyle in the trash and searching for a better font option, I easily was able to clean things up using font glyphs!

 

So ready to learn how to access these pretty little font alternates in Adobe Illustrator?

 

Let’s do it! I promise it is easy peasy!

 

 

See! Told you it is easier than you think!

 

Now go get to makin’ those pretty little graphics, girl!

 

Related: How to Freshen Up Your Brand with Fonts! – with my Favorite Handlettered Fonts!

 

how to access pretty open type font glyphs in Adobe Illustrator on Megan Martin Creative, Freestyle Font, Creative Market, font alternates, brand, branding, brand design, creative entrepreneur, handwritten font, calligraphy font

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