Zero advance width
Auto-fixAudit code: zero-advance
Definition
The glyph's advance width is 0. Text containing this glyph will have all following glyphs stacked at the same position.
How Patens surfaces this
The Patens audit module checks for zero-advance across five teaching surfaces: the edit-panel inline issue list, the
project-wide audit page, the release pre-flight check, the family hub,
and the home-page project tile. Every surface shows the same plain-English
explanation and links back to this page. This rule has a one-click Fix button in
the editor — the audit module both detects the issue and applies a
deterministic correction with a labelled snapshot, so the ⌘Z path back is preserved.
Run this check yourself
Patens runs every audit rule live as you draw — including this one.
The editor (in private alpha) shows zero-advance firing on real
glyphs, or check your own work from the CLI:
npx patens audit your-project.font.jsonCanonical references
Primary literature where this rule is established or explained. Drawn from the open-licensed corpus — browse the full 42-source canonical library or read the research artifact.
- OpenType Specification 1.9.1 ↗
Microsoft Typography · 1997 · Microsoft Corporation· § Horizontal Metrics Table
A zero advance-width on a non-combining glyph leaves the cursor stationary; valid only for combining marks (anchored via GPOS).