Merge pull request #7640 from dotCooCoo/feat/canvas-character-alternates

Type: a selected character's alternate glyphs show beside it on the canvas

docs/mcp.md

@@ -6371,6 +6371,10 @@ Pen's second anchor at (150, 431), in line with the square's centre.
 - `highlightAlternateGlyphs` (off by default): Preferences › Type › Highlight Alternate Glyphs. On, the canvas paints
   pink behind OpenType substitutions (ligatures, contextual forms). Document Setup's Highlight Substituted Glyphs
   stays separate. Agents set it with `prefs.set`; the desktop canvas reads it on the next paint.
+- `showCharacterAlternates` (on by default): Preferences › Type › Show Character Alternates. On, the desktop canvas
+  shows the alternate glyphs of the one character selected with a Type tool beside it (see
+  [Alternate glyphs](#alternate-glyphs)). Off, it shows none. It is VectorCraft's own option. `prefs.set` refuses a
+  value that is not a boolean.
 - `highlightSubstitutedFonts` (on by default): Preferences › Type › Highlight Substituted Fonts. On, the canvas paints
   pink behind text drawn in a substitute for a missing font, in every open document. Off, no document shows that
   highlight. `document.setup` ignores this key and adds a `warnings` entry that names `prefs.set` to its reply. A file
@@ -9488,6 +9492,15 @@ and a glyph that the character's style does not draw (All Caps, Small Caps or an
 system). Choosing the glyph a character already draws is not an edit. Character styles do not take `glyphAlternate`:
 `charStyle.new`, `charStyle.edit` and `charStyle.setAttrs` refuse it.
 
+On the desktop canvas, a Type tool with exactly one character selected shows up to five of that character's alternates
+in a row beside it, in the same order and without the glyph the character is drawn with; a character drawn with an
+alternate gets its default glyph first. A click on a glyph runs the same command as the panel's double-click
+(`text.setRangeStyle {featureChanges}`, or `text.setGlyphAlternate` for a glyph no feature draws there), as one undo
+step. When the character has more alternates than the row shows, an arrow at the end of the row opens the Glyphs panel
+on Alternates for Current Selection. The row has no command of its own: an agent reads the alternates with
+`text.glyphAlternates` and applies one with the commands above. The `showCharacterAlternates` preference turns the row
+off.
+
 ```json
 {"name":"run_command","arguments":{"command":"text.glyphAlternates","params":{"id":7,"start":2}}}
 {"name":"run_command","arguments":{"command":"text.setGlyphAlternate","params":{"id":7,"start":2,"gid":1043}}}

docs/target-app-parity.md

@@ -1366,6 +1366,7 @@ Moved from the ROADMAP's "Shipped so far" on 2026-10-10. Update it when a featur
   The OpenType panel's Position menu lists Default Position, Superscript, Subscript, Numerator and Denominator, as [Format text with OpenType features](https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/desktop/design-with-text/special-characters-glyphs/format-text-with-opentype-features.html) describes; Superscript, Subscript, Numerator and Denominator set `sups`, `subs`, `numr` and `dnom` for the selected type and turn the other three off, and Default Position turns all four off. The menu shows Mixed when the characters it acts on differ, and an entry chosen then applies to all of them. These two rules are VectorCraft's own, as is setting the feature on type whose font lacks the glyphs, which then draws unchanged. The panel's menus and checkboxes change only their own features on each selected character, so characters keep their other OpenType features (`text.setStyle` and `text.setRangeStyle` `{featureChanges}`). Tests: `panels::opentype::tests`, `features::tests::numerators_and_denominators_are_kept_and_shaped`.
   The Glyphs panel's Show menu and panel menu have Alternates for Current Selection, as [Replace characters with alternate glyphs](https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/desktop/design-with-text/special-characters-glyphs/replace-characters-with-alternate-glyphs.html) describes. The grid lists the selected character's alternate glyphs from `GSUB` single and alternate substitutions of `aalt`, then `salt`, `ss01` to `ss20`, `swsh`, `cv01` to `cv99` and a few other alternate features, each glyph once. A double-click applies the feature that draws the variant, or a glyph choice if no supported feature draws it, as detailed below. The list uses the font of the character's text even when the panel browses another font, and the panel shows a note when the character has no alternates, its font is missing or no character is selected; these rules are VectorCraft's own. Native files keep a glyph choice with the face it was made in; another font or version draws the default glyph. Tests: `panels::glyphs::tests`, `tests::alternates`, `tests::textedit::a_glyph_alternate_replaces_one_character_through_undo_and_reopen`.
   The Glyphs panel's Alternates for Current Selection (#5514) applies the OpenType feature that draws the glyph to the selected character alone, as [Replace characters with alternate glyphs](https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/desktop/design-with-text/special-characters-glyphs/replace-characters-with-alternate-glyphs.html) describes (Alternates For Current Selection in the Show menu; double-click the glyph to replace the selected character). One deliberate difference from a literal reading: the text keeps the Unicode character and gains a character-style feature with a value (`salt=2`, `ss03`; `text.setRangeStyle {featureChanges}`) instead of taking an unencoded glyph in its place. The grid lists the alternates of the glyph the shaper makes for the character in its word (a medial letter shows its medial variants; the default glyph comes first and the current glyph is highlighted); a variant no supported feature draws there stays enabled as a replacement glyph (`text.setGlyphAlternate`, including positional alternates), and its tooltip says it may not join its neighbors; the default glyph takes the character's alternate features off again. Runs that differ only in their OpenType features are shaped as one piece of text, each run's features over its own characters, so the letters of an Arabic word keep their joining forms. Show › Entire Font also lists the glyphs no character maps, with the font's name for them (or `gid N`) and the feature that gives them. It applies the selected letter's contextual alternates the same way, and applies a glyph no feature reaches whose name does not belong to another letter as a glyph choice; other glyphs are dimmed with the reason. An Arabic presentation form picked there inserts its base letter. These rules are VectorCraft's own. Tests: `tests::glyph_alternates` in the text crate (a fixture font; Kufi Murabba PIIIX when it is installed), `panels::glyphs::tests` (including positional glyph choices, unlisted glyph name ownership, apply and Undo), `tests::textedit::feature_values_are_set_replaced_and_saved`.
+  With a Type tool and exactly one character selected, the canvas shows that character's alternate glyphs in a row beside it, and a click on one replaces the character's glyph, as [Replace characters with alternate glyphs](https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/desktop/design-with-text/special-characters-glyphs/replace-characters-with-alternate-glyphs.html) describes ("Replace a character with on-canvas alternate glyphs"). The row shows at most five alternates, and an arrow at its end opens the Glyphs panel on Alternates for Current Selection when the character has more, as the [reference manual](https://web.archive.org/web/20210601162814/https://helpx.adobe.com/pdf/illustrator_reference.pdf#page=479) describes. A click runs the command the panel's double-click runs, as one undo step, so a letter of an Arabic word keeps the word joined. These rules are VectorCraft's own: the row leaves out the glyph the character is drawn with and puts the default glyph first for a character drawn with an alternate; it stands under a character of horizontal type and on the right of a character of vertical type, or on the other side when the canvas ends there or the Contextual Task Bar is there; Preferences › Type › Show Character Alternates (`showCharacterAlternates`, on by default) turns it off. Tests: `canvas::alternates_bar::tests`, `tests::prefs::show_character_alternates_preference_is_on_by_default_and_saved`.
   The OpenType panel's Stylistic Sets menu offers `ss01`–`ss20` sets present in the selected text's font, using the font's custom labels when available and numbered labels otherwise. Sets can be combined and deselected individually. With mixed fonts, the menu shows the first selected character's font's sets and applies the feature tag to all selected text; a font without that set draws unchanged. The mixed-font rule is a VectorCraft design choice. Behavior reference: [Add stylistic sets to selected text](https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/desktop/design-with-text/special-characters-glyphs/add-stylistic-sets-to-selected-text.html) and the [OpenType specification](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/typography/opentype/spec/features_pt).
   `text.setStyle {stroke, strokeWidth}` sets the character stroke's color and weight of the selected type or of a range of its characters (the weight in document points, as `stroke.set` sets it), in the same undo step as the command's other changes. Tests: `tests::textedit::set_style_sets_the_character_stroke`.
 - **Paragraph alignment:** the shared Paragraph/Properties alignment row leaves every button unselected when the paragraphs it acts on differ. Auto resolves per paragraph; choosing an alignment uses the existing command. Headless paragraph_mixed_alignment_* regressions exercise mixed → Center → Undo, caret/uniform states, Unicode range boundaries, Auto/direction, split runs and grouped text. These regressions and full integration CI pass. Original captures confirm mixed → Center → Undo in the existing alignment-button layout. The [public Paragraph panel guide](https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/desktop/design-with-text/edit-format-text/paragraph-panel-overview.html) lists the seven controls, but does not specify mixed-state rendering. Other paragraph fields remain outside this change; scores and hours unchanged.