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# NSGlyphInscription

Constants that specify how a glyph is laid out relative to the previous glyph.

```
enum NSGlyphInscription : NSUInteger;
```

## Overview

The glyph inscription constants are possible values for the glyph attribute [`NSGlyphAttributeInscribe`](/documentation/AppKit/NSGlyphAttributeInscribe); glyph inscriptions are set during glyph generation. The only constants that the text system currently uses are `NSGlyphInscribeBase` (for most glyphs) and `NSGlyphInscribeOverstrike` (for nonbase glyphs). Nonbase glyphs occur when diacritical marks are applied to a base character, and the font does not have a single glyph to represent the combination.

For example, if a font did not contain a single glyph for ü, but did contain separate glyphs for u and ¨, then it could be rendered with a base glyph u followed by a nonbase glyph ¨. In that case the nonbase glyph would have the value `NSGlyphInscribeOverstrike` for the inscribe attribute.

## Topics

### Constants

[`NSGlyphInscribeBase`](/documentation/AppKit/NSGlyphInscription/NSGlyphInscribeBase)

A base glyph; a character that the font can represent with a single glyph.

[`NSGlyphInscribeBelow`](/documentation/AppKit/NSGlyphInscription/NSGlyphInscribeBelow)

A glyph is rendered below the previous glyph.

[`NSGlyphInscribeAbove`](/documentation/AppKit/NSGlyphInscription/NSGlyphInscribeAbove)

A glyph is rendered above the previous glyph.

[`NSGlyphInscribeOverstrike`](/documentation/AppKit/NSGlyphInscription/NSGlyphInscribeOverstrike)

A glyph is rendered on top of the previous glyph.

[`NSGlyphInscribeOverBelow`](/documentation/AppKit/NSGlyphInscription/NSGlyphInscribeOverBelow)

A glyph is rendered on top and below the previous glyph.


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