': Q Uick

a`` q~uick &``` di|rty_ g__u_id~~~e to_
<`ma~est|r_a```le ma`nua```l```>` © 2013 by Christian Thalmann

(Catharsis Fonts)
1. Purpose
This document is intended to help owners of the font Maestrale Manual make full use of its
inventory of 1299 glyphs. If you don’t own Maestrale Manual yet, feel free to take it for a ride in
the sample window on http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/catharsis-fonts/maestrale/!
Maestrale Manual is the «do-it-yourself» version of the Maestrale calligraphic font by Catharsis
Fonts, intended to make its entire inventory of 1300 glyphs manually accessible even in
typographically unsavvy applications. This is achieved through a simple trick exploiting the
widely supported «Standard Ligatures» mechanic of OpenType fonts. In order to get an
alternate form of a certain base character (say, an «a»), just type the base character followed by
one or more trigger keys. For instance, the exuberant «a» that appears twice in the Maestrale
Manual title above is obtained by typing a ` ` ` (that’s a regular «a» followed by three grave
accents). Give it a try and watch the letter change shape with each additional key!
a` a` a`` a`` a``` a```

In fact, the title was typeset with the following string. See for yourself!
<`ma~est|r_a```le
ma`nua```l```>`
Sections 2—6 of this document describe the philosophy behind the different trigger keys, which
should enable you to explore Maestrale Manual in an intuitive way without looking up the key
combinations. For reference, the full glyph set of Maestrale Manual is listed in Section 7. The
names of each glyph tell you the key combination — for instance, the alternate form of «a»
mentioned above has the name «a_grave_grave_grave». Readers familiar with OpenType fonts
will recognize this as the canonical nomenclature for a four-letter ligature.
Have fun! If this document leaves any of your questions unanswered, don’t hesitate to send me
an e-mail at christian dot d dot thalmann at gmail dot com.
2. General-purpose stylistic alternates — grave, tilde
The two most common trigger keys in Maestrale Manual are the lone grave accent (`) and the
ASCII tilde (~). Both of these characters are easily accessible (they have their own dedicated
key on the US keyboard), yet they very rarely used outside of computer code. This makes them
ideal for this purpose. Most stylistic alternates in Maestrale Manual can be obtained by typing
the base character followed by one or more (up to four) grave accents or ASCII tildes. In many
cases, the alternate forms are sorted conceptually — for instance, all stylistic alternates of «a»
with upward flourishes are triggered with grave, whereas all downward-pointing forms are
triggered with the tilde.
Here are all stylistic alternates of unaccented «a» triggered with graves and tildes:
a` a` a`` a`` a``` a``` a```` a````

a~ a~ a~~ a~~
The grave and tilde triggers are also used for alternate forms of uppercase letters and even
symbols:
A` A` A`` A`` A~ A~ A~~ A~~

& & &`&` &`` &`` &``` &```
3. Linking forms — underscore
The letters «f» and «t» naturally have horizontal crossbars at x-height. When they appear next
to each other, Maestrale offers the option to link up their crossbars. Simply type the
underscore (_) trigger key after the second «f» or «t» to extend its crossbar backwards. In fact,
there are a number of other letters that also have linking forms compatible with the «f/t»
crossbars.
f`ft f`ft f`f_t_ f`f_t_

fi_ fi_ fa_ fà_ fo_ fò_ fu_ fù_
ty_ ty_ tw_ tw_ tr_ tr_ tj_ tj_
In some letters, the underscore trigger produces a link towards the right-hand side, allowing it
to be combined with a leftwards-oriented linking glyph.
di di d_i_ d_i_ gw gw g_w_ g_w_

4. Multi-character ligatures — bar
All previously discussed trigger keys only affect a single preceding base character. In order to
obtain glyphs composed of several base characters (ligatures in the traditional sense), use the
vertical bar (|) as a trigger key.
st| st| of|of| of|| of||

ou| ou| TT| TT| pp| pp| ee| ee|
5. Initial and terminal forms — less`, greater
Maestrale includes characteristic swashes with which to adorn the beginnings and endings of
words. Initial forms of the swash are essentially stylistic alternates of the less base character
(<) whereas final forms are alternates of the greater base character (>). Triggering these base
characters with one to four graves produces free-standing low, crossbar-downwards, high, and
crossbar-upwards swashes for use together with lowercase letters:
<ò <ò <``t <```v <``v

<``t
o>` o>` t>`` t>`` v>``` v>```
<````t <````t t>```` t>````
Similarly, triggering the less and greater characters with one or two tildes yields slightly
stronger low and high forms for use with capital letters:
<~H <~H <~~H <~~H

Not all base characters play well with these free-standing swashes. Therefore, Maestrale also
offers a set of dedicated initial and final forms for a few base characters. These are built as
multi-character ligatures of the base character and the greater or less characters, triggered
with the bar trigger key as usual.
a<| a<| e>| e>| s<| s<| k>| k>|

Note that the base character always comes first, even though the initial swash graphically
precedes it. This convention ensures that, for instance, the initial forms of «a» will be sorted
together with the other «a» glyphs in the glyph inventory list, which makes them easier to
find.
6. Escaped trigger keys

In case you should want to use the trigger keys grave, ASCII tilde, or bar for their original
purpose, just type a backslash (\) before them to prevent them from triggering preceding
characters.
a~b a~b a\~b a\~b

Just as a side note — if you feel like using tildes, you might be interested in the long and
superlong tildes accessible by triggering the en-dash (–) and em-dash (—) with the ASCII tilde:
~ ~ –~ –~ —~ —~
7. Glyph inventory
The following pages list all glyphs of the Maestrale Manual font, together with descriptive
names that indicate how to type the glyphs using trigger keys.

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a`` q~uick &``` di|rty_ g__u_id~~~e to_

<`ma~est|r_a```le ma`nua```l```>` © 2013 by Christian Thalmann

a` a` a`` a`` a``` a```

a` a` a`` a`` a``` a``` a```` a````

A` A` A`` A`` A~ A~ A A

f`ft f`ft f`f_t_ f`f_t_

di di d_i_ d_i_ gw gw g_w_ g_w_

st| st| of|of| of|| of||

<`o <`o <``t <```v <``v

<~H <~H <H <H

a<| a<| e>| e>| s<| s<| k>| k>|

6. Escaped trigger keys

a~b a~b a\~b a\~b

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