Unlock hidden OpenType features like ligatures, swashes, and stylistic sets in the WordPress block editor with advanced typography controls.

matthewneilcowan

Typography Stylist provides advanced typography controls for WordPress. This plugin allows you to apply OpenType features directly in the block editor, and access glyphs and ligatures hidden within fonts. Additionally, set properties like letter spacing, line-height, responsive sizing, font-weight, and more in the editor, so you can get exactly the look you want from your typefaces.
Manage fonts from the settings page, either by uploading webfont kits or adding Adobe Typekit embeds. Fonts load intelligently only when they are used. With support for ligatures, stylistic sets, swashes, and alternates, you can create elegant headlines and premium typography effects with ease.
Accessibility features ensure that your styled text remains readable by screen readers and assistive technologies: breaking up strings of text with the inline span elements necessary to apply complex features can cause screen readers to read words in fragments or skip them entirely. The plugin includes a custom Typography Stylist block that provides a clean, unbroken set of text to maintain screen reader compatibility while allowing for complex typography to be presented visually. When applying features to partial words in standard heading blocks, the plugin detects potential accessibility issues and provides a warning with options to convert to the Typography Stylist block for maximum accessibility, or to apply the features anyway. When the block cannot be converted (e.g., inside a locked pattern), the conversion option is hidden and the warning adjusts accordingly. The warning can be disabled entirely in Settings → Typography Stylist → Accessibility.
<h4>Key Features</h4>
<ul>
<li>Custom Typography Stylist Block: Create complex typography with maximum accessibility using the dedicated block. Screen readers can “stumble” over complex inline formatting required to display specific ligatures and alternates. This block preserves the document outline while providing styled text for visual users.</li>
<li>Inline Text Selection: Highlight any text within richtext blocks like headings, and apply basic typography features quickly. A warning will pop up if your selection breaks words and causes accessibility issues, with options to convert to the Custom Typography Stylist Block for maximum accessibility or apply anyway. The warning can be disabled in Settings → Accessibility.</li>
<li>Live Preview: Preview changes in real-time before applying.</li>
<li>Rich Feature Support: Ligatures (liga, dlig, calt), Stylistic Sets (ss01-ss20), Swashes, Alternates, and more.</li>
<li>Visual Interface: User-friendly, resizable, moveable popover with organized feature categories.</li>
<li>Advanced Typography Controls: Adjust letter spacing, font weight, responsive font sizes, and more.</li>
<li>Block Editor Native: Seamlessly integrates with Gutenberg.</li>
<li>Custom Fonts Management: Upload webfont kits from MyFonts, Font Squirrel, or other providers, connect Adobe Fonts, or define custom fonts loaded through themes or CDNs. Fonts are loaded intelligently only on the pages you need them for optimum performance.</li>
<li>Font Fallbacks: Facing a rebranding and needing to change fonts? No worries. Delete a font previously defined, and use the fallback system to seamlessly replace them.</li>
<li>Font Preview: Test OpenType features with any uploaded font in the settings > admin page to find exactly the styles you need.</li>
<li>Accessibility Features: Screen reader support with ARIA markup and a heading structure that maintains proper semantics for both screen reader and visual views</li>
<li>ARIA Label Support: Optional aria-label attributes for screen reader compatibility for rich text blocks with inline formatting</li>
<li>Automatic Archive Detection: Custom fonts load automatically on blog archives, category pages, and tag pages without requiring manual configuration</li>
</ul>
<h4>Supported OpenType Features</h4>
Ligatures: 
* Standard Ligatures (liga) 
* Discretionary Ligatures (dlig) 
* Contextual Alternates (calt) 
* Contextual Ligatures (clig) 
* Historical Ligatures (hlig)
Stylistic Sets: 
* ss01 through ss20
Swashes & Alternates: 
* Swashes (swsh) 
* Contextual Swashes (cswh) 
* Stylistic Alternates (salt) 
* Titling (titl) 
* Historical Forms (hist)
Decorative: 
* Ornaments (ornm)
Numerals & Figures: 
* Proportional Figures (pnum) 
* Tabular Figures (tnum) 
* Lining Figures (lnum) 
* Oldstyle Figures (onum) 
* Fractions (frac) 
* Slashed Zero (zero)
Capitals & Case: 
* Small Capitals (smcp) 
* Capitals to Small Caps (c2sc) 
* Petite Capitals (pcap) 
* Case-Sensitive Forms (case)
Positional Forms: 
* Initial Forms (init) 
* Medial Forms (medi) 
* Terminal Forms (fina) 
* Isolated Forms (isol)
Superscript & Ordinals: 
* Superscript (sups) 
* Subscript (subs) 
* Ordinals (ordn)
Other Features: 
* Kerning (kern) 
* Localized Forms (locl) 
* Randomize (rand)
<h4>Perfect For</h4>
<ul>
<li>Wedding invitations and event designs</li>
<li>Luxury brand websites</li>
<li>Editorial and magazine layouts</li>
<li>Elegant script fonts</li>
<li>Display typography</li>
<li>Premium web fonts</li>
</ul>
<h4>Recommended Fonts</h4>
This plugin requires fonts that support OpenType features. Many premium script fonts and professional typefaces include these features.
Examples: 
* Script fonts by Alejandro Paul like Inglesa, Gratitude Script (with the wonderful Kathy Milici) 
* Bookmania by Mark Simonson 
* Orpheus, designed by Kevin King, Patrick Griffin, and Walter Tiemann, from Canada Type 
* Elaina and other fonts by Laura Worthington 
* Liza from Underware 
* Memoriam by Patrick Griffin 
* ITC Avant Garde designed by André Gürtler, Christian Mengelt, Ed Benguiat, Erich Gschwind, Herb Lubalin, and others. From Monotype 
* Many other typefaces
Check the font’s documentation or specimen to verify which OpenType features are supported. Not all fonts have alternates or other advanced features.
<h4>How It Works For Headings</h4>
<ol>
<li>Create or edit a heading block (H1-H6)</li>
<li>Type your headline text</li>
<li>Select the text you want to style</li>
<li>Click the “Typography Features” button in the toolbar (a swashy “T” icon)</li>
<li>Select individual features</li>
<li>See the live preview at the bottom of the popover</li>
<li>If using partial word selections, you’ll see an accessibility warning with options to convert to the Typography Stylist Block for maximum accessibility, or apply the features anyway. If the block cannot be converted (e.g., inside a locked pattern), only the “Apply Anyway” option is shown. This warning can be disabled in Settings → Typography Stylist → Accessibility.</li>
<li>Click Apply</li>
</ol>
<h4>How It Works For Custom Blocks</h4>
<ol>
<li>Create or edit a Typography Stylist block</li>
<li>Type your text</li>
<li>Apply any global block settings in the sidebar</li>
<li>Select any text you want to style</li>
<li>Click the “Typography Features” button in the toolbar (a swashy “T” icon)</li>
<li>Select individual features and see the live preview</li>
</ol>
<h3>Technical Details</h3>
<h4>Browser Support</h4>
<ul>
<li>Chrome/Edge: Full support</li>
<li>Firefox: Full support</li>
<li>Safari: Full support</li>
<li>Internet Explorer 10+: Partial support</li>
</ul>
<h4>Performance</h4>
Features are applied using CSS font-feature-settings, which is hardware-accelerated in modern browsers. The plugin includes JavaScript in the block editor but uses only CSS for frontend rendering.
<h4>Data Storage</h4>
Typography features are stored as inline styles and data attributes within post content. No additional database tables are created.
<h4>Extensibility</h4>
Developers can extend the plugin using WordPress hooks and filters. REST API endpoints are available at <code>/wp-json/typography-stylist/v1/</code>.
<h4>Font Management</h4>
The plugin provides three ways to add custom fonts:
Upload Webfont Kits: 
Upload complete webfont kits (ZIP files) from MyFonts, Fontspring, or other providers. The plugin extracts fonts, processes CSS, and stores files securely in your WordPress uploads directory.
Adobe Fonts Integration: 
Connect Adobe Fonts (Typekit) projects by pasting the embed code. Fonts load directly from Adobe’s servers.
Custom Font Definitions: 
Define fonts that are already loaded through your theme, plugins, or CDN (like Google Fonts). Simply provide the font family name and optional fallbacks. No files are uploaded to WordPress—fonts continue loading from their original source.
All three methods make fonts available in the block editor and preview selector.
<h4>Source Code</h4>
This plugin includes both compiled/minified files and their source code to meet WordPress security and transparency requirements.
Minified/Compiled Files: 
* assets/js/.min.js files have corresponding source files in assets/js/ 
* assets/css/.min.css files have corresponding source files in assets/css/ 
* blocks/typography-stylist/build/ files are compiled from blocks/typography-stylist/ source files
<h3>Credits</h3>
Developed by Matthew Cowan.
Special thanks to my wife for her support and inspiration, and to my dog, Sugar, for taking long walks with me between adding features.

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