You'll need: FontCreator (Windows and macOS), a font with the relevant base glyphs, and a few minutes in the OpenType Designer.
Localized forms let one font behave differently depending on the language of the text. The same Latin letters can need different shapes or substitutions in Turkish, Romanian, or Catalan — and the OpenType locl feature is how a font supplies them. This font editor generates the locl feature for you from a single dialog, the same way on Windows and macOS. This page covers the three most common cases: the Turkish dotted/dotless i, the Romanian comma accent, and the Catalan punt volat.
How localized forms work
The locl feature substitutes localized variants of glyphs for their default forms when the text is tagged with a particular language. Many scripts have developed localized variants — Bulgarian and Serbian Cyrillic differ from Russian, for instance — and locl is the mechanism that swaps them in.
FontCreator ships ready-made handling for several common localized forms (Catalan, Dutch IJ, Romanian, Turkish), so you don't write the substitutions yourself. The general recipe is the same every time:
- Make sure the required glyphs for the case exist (add any that are missing).
- Open the OpenType Designer and click the first icon in the upper-left corner.
- Enable Common Localized Forms (plus any related features you want, such as Small Capitals or Petite Capitals) and click OK.
The OpenType Designer feature-settings dialog with Common Localized Forms checked
Tip — test by language. In the FontCreator preview panel, select the correct Script (Latin) and Language, and enable the _shaper or the locl feature, then type sample text. You can also type a slash followed by a glyph name. To test in Word, apply the font, activate at least standard ligatures, then set the text language; in InDesign, set the language on the Character panel. Use Ctrl + F5 (Test Web Font) to test on the web font page.
Note: Missing required glyphs can be added through the Insert Glyphs dialog, or in bulk via the relevant Transform Script (noted in each section below).
Turkish dotted/dotless i {#turkish-i}
Turkish (and Azerbaijani, Crimean Tatar, Kazakh, and Tatar) is unusual: instead of two i's — lowercase dotted i and uppercase dotless I — it has four. Capitalizing i gives İ (dotted capital), and ı (dotless lowercase) capitalizes to I. The default case rules break here.
This matters for any font that has features touching i and idotless — especially Small Capitals and Petite Capitals. The regular small-caps feature would turn a lowercase i into a dotless capital I, which is wrong for Turkish. The locl feature fixes the language-specific behaviour.
The four Turkish i types — dotted i, dotless i, capital I, dotted capital I
Required glyph
The Turkish locl handling requires a glyph named i.dotaccent, a copy of the regular i. If you've run the Unmapped Latin Small Capitals transform script, you already have it. Otherwise, add it through Insert Glyphs with this formula in the By Name field:
`` i.dotaccent=i ``
If your font has petite capitals as well, add that variant too.
Generate
Open the OpenType Designer, click the upper-left icon, check Common Localized Forms (along with Small Capitals / Petite Capitals if you use them), and click OK. The same fix covers Azerbaijani, Crimean Tatar, Kazakh, and Tatar automatically.
Test with preview text such as:
`` İzin kız iktisadî /newline/otsettings+smcp+c2sc İzin kız iktisadî ``
Note: Turkish also has î (i circumflex), which is rare and causes no trouble — its uppercase is Î, just as in other Latin languages.
Romanian comma accent {#romanian}
Romanian uses S/s and T/t with a comma accent. By legacy — and despite the recommendation to migrate from cedilla to comma — a lot of Romanian text and some fonts incorrectly use the cedilla forms. The locl feature substitutes the comma-accent variants for both Romanian and Moldavian.
Required glyphs
Make sure your font contains:
`` Scedilla, scedilla, Tcedilla, tcedilla, Scommaaccent, scommaaccent, Tcommaaccent, tcommaaccent ``
If you've run the Eastern Europe transform script, you already have them. Otherwise add the missing glyphs through Insert Glyphs.
The S/s and T/t cedilla and comma-accent variants in the font overview
Generate
Open the OpenType Designer, click the upper-left icon, check Common Localized Forms, and click OK. Moldavian is one of several Romanian dialects with the same issue, and it is covered too.
To test, select Latin script and Romanian language in the preview, enable the _shaper or locl feature, and type:
`` /Scedilla/scedilla/Tcedilla/tcedilla şapte cunoştiinţă ``
Catalan punt volat {#catalan}
Catalan has words with a true "double L" (lletres, estrella) and words where two L's belong to separate syllables (col·legi). For the second case a punt volat ("flying point") goes between the two L's — centred between the stems, ideally without adding extra space between them. Typing L + periodcentered + L adds the periodcentered's width, which looks wrong.
The locl feature here adds a contextual lookup that replaces "L periodcentered" with Lmiddledot when it's followed by another L (and the lowercase equivalent with lmiddledot).
The Lmiddledot glyph with the punt volat centred between the stems
Required glyphs
`` L, l, periodcentered, Lmiddledot, lmiddledot ``
Add any that are missing through the Insert Glyphs dialog. If your font has Small Capitals and/or Petite Capitals, add those variants as well.
Generate
Open the OpenType Designer, click the upper-left icon, check Common Localized Forms, and click OK.
To test, select Latin script and Catalan language in the preview, enable the _shaper or locl feature, and type:
`` INSTAL·LACIONS paral·lel col·legi il·luminats ``
Beyond the common three
FontCreator's Common Localized Forms also covers Dutch IJ (substitutions for IJ/ij and the acute-accent variants). For other languages, use custom localized forms: name glyphs with a .loclLANG suffix, where LANG is one or more language tags joined by underscores — for example A.loclFRA or B.loclENG_ESP. Polish, for instance, benefits from kreska forms named Sacute.loclPLK. You can combine suffixes too, e.g. sacute.loclPLK.smcp for a localized small cap.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
locl substitutions don't appear in preview | Wrong script/language, or locl not enabled | Select Latin + the right language, enable _shaper or locl |
Turkish small caps still dotless on i | i.dotaccent missing | Add i.dotaccent=i, then regenerate Common Localized Forms |
| Romanian still shows cedilla | Comma-accent glyphs missing | Add the *commaaccent glyphs (or run Eastern Europe), then regenerate |
Catalan L·L too wide | Lmiddledot/lmiddledot missing | Add them, then regenerate Common Localized Forms |
| Works in FontCreator, not in Word | Language not set in the app | Apply the font, enable standard ligatures, set the text language |
Frequently asked questions
What is the locl feature and when do I need it? locl (Localized Forms) substitutes language-specific variants of glyphs for their default forms when text is tagged with a particular language. You need it whenever the same Latin letters must behave differently by language — the Turkish dotted/dotless i, the Romanian comma accent, or the Catalan punt volat are the classic cases.
How do I add localized forms in FontCreator? Make sure the required glyphs exist (add missing ones via Insert Glyphs or the relevant transform script), then open the OpenType Designer, click the upper-left icon, enable Common Localized Forms, and click OK. FontCreator generates the locl lookups for Catalan, Dutch IJ, Romanian, and Turkish automatically.
Why do my localized forms work in FontCreator but not in my application? The application has to know the text language. In FontCreator's preview you select Script and Language directly; in Word you apply the font, enable at least standard ligatures, and set the text language; in InDesign you set the language on the Character panel. Without a language tag, the shaper has no reason to apply locl.
What to read next
- Add Accents with Anchors & Complete Composites — position the marks these localized forms often depend on.
- Add Characters & Assign Unicode Codepoints (PUA) — make sure the required glyphs exist and are mapped.
- Enrich Your Fonts with OpenType Features — generate, preview, and test layout features.
