Text combos + the backslash trigger

The font uses \ as an invisible trigger: it forces the next letter onto a different alternate than the one contextual alternates would have chosen, without adding anything to the rendered line. The backslash glyph is zero-width and has no outline, so the copy still reads exactly as typed.

Supported in the final release. Its calt table lists \ alongside Ω as a trigger, and the rule it fires rotates the following letter one step round the cycle: base → ss01 → ss02 → ss01. The backslash glyph itself was redrawn to zero width with no outline, so it disappears from the set line.

Not supported in Beta 10, and it prints. Beta 10 accepts only Ω as a trigger, and its backslash is an ordinary visible glyph 354 units wide: the specimens below show every \ in the copy. It also interrupts the contextual chain, so the letters after it fall back to base shapes. Both halves of this are fixed in the final release: switch to Final above.

The headline, as specified

spacing-visual check

The exact copy from the brief, set as the five lines specified, against the same copy without triggers. Compare it character by character against the foundry's spacing visual: the glyph readout underneath names the alternate each character resolved to, so any mismatch can be pointed at precisely. Settings match the production spec: calt default (no stylistic set forced), TRCK -90, no CSS letter-spacing, breathe 4s.

Line breaks change the character choice. Shaping restarts at every break, so calt sees no context across lines. Set as five lines this copy gives U I.ss01 in BUILT and F in FOR; run together as one wrapping line it gives U.ss02 I.ss02 and F.ss01 instead. The five-line version is the one to check against the spacing visual, so the headline has to be hard-broken rather than left to wrap. Both are in the combo lab presets below.

Glyph readout

from harfbuzz, not guessed

Every character of both headlines above, line by line, shaped through the real font tables. Highlighted cells are where the trigger changed the outcome; red cells are glyphs that carry too little motion data to animate. · marks the invisible backslash itself.

Motion audit

which characters actually move

The same copy drawn twice and stacked, once at the bottom of the motion axis and once at the top, with the upper copy in difference blend mode. Anywhere the two ends of the axis draw the same shape cancels to black; anywhere the outline travels lights up. A character that stays dark is a character that does not animate.

Combo lab

freetype

Type any copy, with or without triggers, and it renders live below along with its own motion audit. Each newline is a real line break, so shaping restarts there exactly as it will on the page. The font is unicase, so lowercase input renders as uppercase glyphs.

Variant

Per-glyph travel

measured from the binary

How far the furthest outline point of each glyph moves between axis 100 and 1800, in font units against a 1000-unit em. Measured straight off the font file, so it settles the "should every character animate?" question independently of anything the browser does. Anything under 80 reads as static at headline sizes and is flagged.