Editing Metrics

Each glyph has two side-bearing control points: one on the left and one on the right. The right side bearing point also determines the advance width of the glyph, measured from the left side bearing point.

Links and other hints often start or end at side bearing points. By default, Visual TrueType rounds the side bearing points to the grid. You can’t change the rounding method.

You usually don’t move the side bearing points either. However, sometimes you may need to adjust them. For example, the font might have some rounding errors incurred in the conversion from a Fontographer file (where the font height is 1,000 units) into a TrueType file (where font height is 2,048 units).

Or the side-bearing points might be very close to other control points, so distinguishing the points becomes difficult, even at enlarged views. If that happens, you might move the problematic side-bearing point an easy-to-remember distance (say, 100 units), finish hinting the adjacent control points, and then restore the side-bearing point to its original location.

Edit metrics dialog

Use the Edit Metrics command to move the left side-bearing point or the advance width, which moves the right side-bearing point.

Editing the metrics of composite characters involves additional considerations. For details, see “Composite Characters: Using the ‘Glyf’ Table”.

To move a side-bearing point

1.       On the Edit menu, click Edit Metrics.

2.      If you want, type a new value after Left Side Bearing.

3.      If you want, type a new value after Advance Width.

4.     Click OK.