Abstract: OpenType fonts have become a standard with desktop published with over 150,000 fonts available each potentially comprising up to 65,535 characters and even more glyphs. Accordingly it is difficult for anybody to know the endless combinations for every font or even a significant subset of these OpenType fonts. At present users must go through a series of trial and error modifications to observe the fonts inherent design variations to find either the one they want or determine that the font is not appropriate. Embodiments of the invention in contrast provide users with a solution wherein the appearance of the characters and/or glyphs is first determined by the system and then presented to the user. Based on the appearance of the characters the user can then select the appearance they desire and the system determines which features are required for that appearance and proceeds accordingly.