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Alternates (also known as alternate characters or alternate glyphs) are substitute letterforms that supplement the default character set.

They usually serve one of two purposes:

  1. To add variety to repeated characters (for example, you might use multiple alternate glyphs in text that’s meant to appear hand-lettered, or hand-distressed).
  2. To account for the end user’s preference for different characteristics, such as the more unusual z and g glyphs in Yanone Kaffeesatz.
![The phrase “ziggy, meet ziggy” set in a sans serif typeface that has alternate glyphs enabled for the z and g characters in the second version of “ziggy.”](images/thumbnail.svg)

Accessing alternates can be achieved via OpenType either on a per-glyph level or by applying a stylistic set to an entire piece of text. Contextual alternates, if enabled, can intelligently appear according to which glyphs they sit next to.