Alternates, or alternate glyphs, are design variants offered for the same character within a font: a single- or double-story “g”, an “R” with a straight or curved leg, a more expressive ampersand. They make it possible to adjust the tone of a text without changing fonts.
Where to see it
Alternates appear in the Glyphs panel of InDesign or Illustrator, where a small triangle marks the letters that have them, and Illustrator even suggests them directly on the selected letter. On the web, they are enabled through the OpenType salt or aalt features, using the CSS font-feature-settings property.
Why this detail matters
Used well, alternates enrich a composition without making it more complicated:
- They make it possible to adapt the tone of a font, more restrained or more expressive, without changing type family;
- In a headline or a logotype, a well-chosen alternate adds a distinctive touch and makes the design more recognizable;
- Used sparingly, they keep the text consistent: too many different variants give an impression of disorder.
Related term
Stylistic sets are groups of alternates designed to be activated together, so as to change several glyphs consistently.