BFH Fonts
Font faces
Barchowsky Fluent Hand OT
This font contains contextual alternates.
Barchowsky Dot OT
The characters in this font have dots placed on them that show students learning how to write where to put their pencils down to start the strokes that make up the characters.
This font does not contain contextual alternates.
Software compatibility
| Software package | Platform | Version | Contextual alternates | Supports BFH OT |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Word | Mac OS X (El Capitan) | 15.18 | yes | yes |
| Microsoft Word | Windows (10) | TBD | TBD | TBD |
| Pages | Mac OS X | 5.6.1 | yes | yes |
| Adobe InDesign | Mac OS X & Windows | CC 2015 | yes | yes |
| Adobe Acrobat | Mac OS X & Windows | TBD | TBD | TBD |
| Mellel | Mac OS, iOS | 4.1.3 | yes | In theory. |
| LibreOffice | Mac OS, Linux, Windows (?) | TBD | yes* | yes* |
| Google Docs | n/a | n/a | no | no |
MS Word for Mac
Version tested: 15.18 (160109)
MS Word supports contextual alternates.
Format > Font... ( ⌘-D) > Advanced tab > Advanced Typography > Check the Use contextual alternates option
MS Word for Windows
Select the text. From the font drop-down menu, select Barchowsky Fluent Hand OT. (Barchowsky Dot OT does not support joins.)
Open the Font dialog either by typing Ctrl+D or clicking the small arrow at the bottom right of the Font pane.
Click the Advanced tab in the Font dialog.
On the Advanced tab, click the Use contextual alternates option, and click OK to close the dialog.
The contextual alternates options apply to a whole document. They are either on or off. Within a single document, all text displayed in Barchowsky Fluent Hand OT can be either joined, or not joined. But it can't be joined in parts of the document and not joined in other instances within the same document.
Mac Pages
Contextual alternates are turned on by default on the Mac. This is a system setting that can affect how different software packages behave.[1]
To toggle contextual alternates in Pages, open up the system Fonts dialog.
Format menu > Font > Show Fonts ( ⌘-T )
Fonts dialog > Family column > select Barchowsky Fluent Hand OT > Gear button > Typography... > Contextual Alternates group > select (or unselect) the Contextual Alternates option
Adobe InDesign
InDesign CC 2016, Mac OS X and Windows
Contextual alternates are supported in Barchowsky Fluent Hand OT.
TK: Document how to enabled contextual alternates in InDesign
Adobe Acrobat
Acrobat version TBD, Mac OS X and Windows
The ideal thing would be to set up a PDF document with BFH OT in editable form fields.
There are some issues:
- Acrobat complains that the font is not licensed for use.
- Couldn't see the joins in the form fields.
LibreOffice
A customer reports that LibreOffice supports the contextual alternates in BFH Hand.
LibreOffice can be installed on Linux.
Mellel
Links from Mellel online documenation:
- An overview of contextual alternates in Mellel.
- How to access OpenType features in Mellel.
- An overview of all the advanced OpenType settings available in Mellel.
Google Docs
Google Docs cannot be used because it cannot access locally installed fonts, i.e. BFH Hand. Possibly there is a work-around using a web font version of BFH Hand, but that is a separate topic.
Google Docs can only add fonts from the online Google fonts library. This can be done within Google Docs using the Extensis add-on for Google Docs. This add-on does not allow you to access fonts that are installed locally on a desktop.
Other packages to investigate
- Web fonts
- Text Edit (Mac)
Notes
- ↑ Accessing OpenType features in Apple’s own applications, ARS Type Log