Customer How To On Editing Glyphs & Special Ligatures

[nyclosangeles]

Hello All. 😏
Could some one please tell me how a customer would modify special characters within a font family on our products that use glyphs and ligatures. For example, let's say that the name "Maya" is used in a specific font, but when the customer goes to change the name to "Casey", those glyph letters will disappear and the customer may be discouraged enough to leave the product without buying it. 

Would there be a way to list, within the design tool, all glyphs to each font so that we can produce more designs using these fancy and attractive font characters?  Or is there already a solution? 

Thanks All!!!
Happy & Hopeful Designing As Always!

[Cat]

My solution is to not use glyphs in template fields unless they are separate characters - like where the glyph is just the swash, not the letter with the swash attached.

[nyclosangeles]

Oh, wow, okay, 
so then the process creating a swash on a letter would be to just fetch the swash and not the swash with the letter attached? Is that correct?  I really never thought of that..I'll go experiment and return..lol...thanks! @Cat 😉

[nyclosangeles]

Oh, and just wanted to add, that if not, the customer would literally have to either purchase the font, or receive access to the glyphs within the design tool, but I honestly didn't look close enough at the ligature list that was so kindly provided by a member a while back!!!
I did read your post @Cat about the link to the "unicodes" and do have access to the ligature list as well...

[Cat]

I think you've got it - but here's my explanation just in case:

It depends on how the designer created the glyphs. Some fonts (like Morgana, Sunglone, Orleans & Everglow) have the tails or swashes as a completely separate character which can be attached to the beginning or end of any letter. For those fonts, you can pretty safely create a template field that is basically like ~name~ (with the tilde being the swashes or tails.) When the customer goes to edit the text on the product page they'll see a little square box where the swashes go, so most people can figure out that they should just change the name and leave the little squares alone. Occasionally the little squares don't show up though - and I don't know why. It may be if there's a space after the glyph character or something - or maybe it's just random, I'm not sure.

But most fonts that have glyphs aren't designed so that the swash or tail is a separate letter. On most of them there's a separate character for an "a" with a tail and a "b" with a tail etc. For those sorts of fonts it's virtually impossible for the customer to successfully edit the text without losing the tails on the letters unless they somehow have access to a glyph chart for that font.

Hope that makes sense!

[nyclosangeles]

Yes, It does make sense @Cat !!!
Actually, I'm using a font that does NOT have any "tails, swoops, swashes" apart from the character as you stated!  Shucks! It looks GREAT on the design, but the customer would have NO WAY to edit it as you stated before, so now the million dollar question, WHY have these BEAUTIFUL fonts with all of these WONDERFUL possibilities WITHOUT the access of EDITING to the consumer?....This is a question for Z 😉.  I truly think I will REPOST addressing this further.
Bottom line, more sales would hit both designers and Z if design tool would make accessible glyphs to BOTH of us...Sheeeeeeezzzzzzzz....but THANK YOU . You have been QUITE HELPFUL.
Another idea, I've often thought of creating a channel JUST FOR CUSTOMERS on HOW TO BASICS of the design tool😎 I'll keep you posted dear.

[Cat]

It would be nice, but I don't think Zazzle has much control over that - it's the designer of the font who makes those decisions, and there aren't many fonts out there that have those ligatures as separate characters. Maybe Zazzle should design its own fonts!

[nyclosangeles · Accepted solution]

Update:
I've found a new platform that I'm thrilled with! It's a digital only platform, but it's a great tool to have as a back up plan for your designs, example, customer orders or wants to orders wedding invites, but has read nightmare reviews on how theirs never showed up or showed up after the wedding...which may not happen that often, but still, it does.  So, what you do as a designer who truly cares, and not just about making a sale, you offer plan B. (SMILING).  You offer a back up digital format, and hey, this platform even offers custom upload of any font and get this. A GLYPH FONT PANEL!!! Yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss!!! I'm not going to suggest this again, but have both agreed and STRONGLY suggested that Z design tool swiftly move into this direction. The world is heading towards DIGITAL!!!  So, I will call this a SOLUTION SOLVED. 
Maybe for someone this will be helpful news to you.  Not MOVING, but ADDING a digital platform has made the world of difference for me!!!

[LauraLee]

It's not impossible for Zazzle, entirely.  If they searched for text tails on Creative Fabrica, there are some there.  SVG types too. Why not add them as elements, similar to the line, triangle, square and circle?  That's my question.  If it's possible to add the regular elements, why not add them, so anyone/everyone can use them how and when they want to?  Now granted, not all will work well with all fonts, but isn't that the fun of creating a different look though?   

[nyclosangeles]

Zazzle CAN offer and update the design tool with a GLYPH panel for BOTH designer and for customers, but it will COST them, maybe downtime because they have ALREADY purchased COMMERCIAL LICENSING to use the fonts that they have PURCHASED. 

The BIG question is, will they THINK BILLIONARE instead of MILLIONARE~
Zazzle, please, it will be WORTH it. We have to keep up with our COMPETETORS.
There are some very good COMPETITION that will and CAN blow us out of the water.
We MUST offer MORE not LESS , and we must CARE