A composite glyph is built from references to other glyphs rather than from its own contours. The most common use is accented characters — composing “á” from a base “a” plus an acute mark — but composites work for any glyph that can be assembled from existing parts.

References are live. Changing a source glyph updates every composite that references it. Composites are part of the TrueType outline format and are decomposed automatically on export to CFF-based outlines.

A glyph can also mix contours and components in a single outline. Such a hybrid is converted to a simple glyph on export, as the OpenType font format does not support mixed-content outlines.

Note: most Latin-based composites can be generated through the Complete Composites feature.

Creating a Composite

Open an empty glyph in the Glyph panel, then either choose Insert Component from the Glyph menu, or copy glyphs from the Font panel and paste them into the empty Glyph panel.

Positioning Members

Drag a member to reposition it. Hold Shift to constrain the move to horizontal or vertical; hold Alt to bypass snap-to-grid and snap-to-guidelines.

Transforming Members

For scaling, rotation, or skewing, use the Transform panel.

Duplicating Members

Hold Ctrl while dragging the selection to duplicate it. Combine with Shift for axis-locked duplication, or with Alt to bypass snap. Any combination is allowed.

Replacing a Member

Right-click a member and choose Replace to swap it for a different glyph.

Converting to a Simple Glyph

To bake the composite into outlines, select the glyph and choose Glyph → Decompose → Components from the main menu. To convert only specific selected members, right-click and choose Decompose Components.

Joining Intersecting Members

If members overlap (such as C with cedilla), Get Union of Contours on the Glyph toolbar bakes the composite into a single simple glyph with the overlapping geometry merged.