Hello Chris, 

To access OpenType characters, I've been doing the following (generalized) three steps.

Note: these work for me and should not be seen as documentation beyond an approach I've used to work around this limitation. 

Step 1: Re-point the Unicode address

Modify the corresponding cmap file(s) to tell XPP which character name to look for in the OTF/TTF file. For tabular figures this might mean changing stuff like the following:

<0024> /dollar
<0030> /zero
<0031> /one
<0032> /two
<0033> /three

To 

<0024> /dollar.tf
<0030> /zero.tf
<0031> /one.tf
<0032> /two.tf
<0033> /three.tf

Step 2: Update the character width

Update the Character Width in the Phototypesetter spec. For each of the numbers you adjust in the previous step, you will need to tell XPP the width of the character you specified in the cmap.

For example, if the width of the oldstyle zero was d421 and the tabular version of the zero was d576, you would update the Char Width in the Phototypesetter spec row for x30 with d576. 

Step 3: Regen the FAST

After updating both the cmap and the Phototypesetter spec, head over to the FAST Generation area in your font library, right click on the corresponding FAST and select Tools > Generate FAST. 

Hope this helps.

- Thomas

Hello Thomas —

I really appreciate your reply. I'll try your suggestions when I get the opportunity. If I need further clarification, I'll let you know.

Thanks again!

— Chris

Just noting that there is already an XPP Idea on this subject: Method for accessing characters in an OTF font not bound to a Unicode value

We will be considering this for XPP 9.7 when we perform additional font work. Please reference the XPP Idea going forward as that is where will be provide updates on this topic.