A stroke is the easiest way to assure a uniform width on a diagonal. Created by dragging with the Stroke tool, a stroke connects a “parent” control point to a “child” point, then links that linked pair to another linked parent and child. The two parent points don’t have to be on the same side of the diagonal.
You use the same tool for all strokes because strokes aren’t specific to an X or Y direction.
When you select the Stroke tool, the pointer looks like this:
Before creating the stroke, you should add links, interpolations, or other hints to control the parent points and possibly round them to the grid. In addition, make sure both Show X Direction and Show Y Direction are selected in the Display Options dialog. This is necessary because a stroke can cause the child points to flex in either the X or Y direction. Because Visual TrueType determines that flexing after applying the stroke, both directions must be available.
To begin the stroke, you drag the Stroke tool to connect the first parent point to its child point. This leaves a black arrow between the two points.
Then you drag to connect the second parent point to its child point. As you drag, solid black fills in the area between the four points. When you release the mouse button, black lines replace the solid black. If the stroke is within ± 45° of the vertical, the lines are horizontal; otherwise, the black lines are vertical.
Note A stroke with all horizontal black lines will be considered closer to vertical than horizontal. Consequently, Visual TrueType applies same logic it uses to determine circular dependencies in links in the X direction to determine circular dependencies in the two arrows at either end of the stroke. Likewise, a stroke with all vertical black lines will be considered closer to horizontal than vertical, with its arrows subject to the same logic applied to links in the Y direction.
Like links and anchors, strokes can refer to a value in the control value table (‘cvt’). When Cvts or Cvt Numbers is selected in the Visual TrueType menu, a highway sign appears in the black stroke. (Cvt Numbers tells Visual TrueType to display a larger version of the highway sign, along with the ‘cvt’ number, if any, applied to the stroke.)
When you hold down the Shift key and click the sign with the Stroke tool, Visual TrueType displays entries from the ‘cvt’ table. You can scroll that list until you find the entry that relates to the weight of the stroke.
The following example shows two strokes applied to the two legs of an uppercase “A.” Because two arrows cannot end at the same point, all strokes move from the inside edge of the glyph to the outside edge. Both strokes display ‘cvt’ values, too:
Two strokes define the width of the diagonals on an “A.” Because the strokes are within ± 45° of the vertical, the stroke lines are horizontal.
Tip When you’re not working with strokes, you can hide them to make more room on the screen for other visual hinting. On the Visual TrueType menu, the Strokes command toggles between hiding and displaying all strokes.
To create Strokes via the keyboard, you must type the appropriate VTT Talk commands into the VTT Talk window (Ctrl + 5).
To select the Stroke tool
1. In the Visual TrueType Options submenu of the Display menu, ensure that the Strokes option is enabled.
2. Select the Stroke tool by clicking its icon in the toolbar.
To create a stroke
1. Select the Stroke tool by clicking its icon in the toolbar.
2. Point to a parent point.
3. Drag to a child point.
4. Point to another parent point.
5. Drag to the other child point.
To assign a ‘cvt’ value to a stroke
1. In the Display Options dialog, ensure that the Cvts and Cvt Numbers options are set.
2. Select the Stroke tool by clicking its icon in the toolbar.
3. Point to the highway sign for the Stroke you want to control.
4. Holding down the right mouse button, scroll through the list of ‘cvt’ entries and select the entry that corresponds to the desired distance.
To delete a stroke
1. Select the Stroke tool by clicking its icon in the toolbar.
2. Drag the arrowhead off one child point.
3. Drag the arrowhead off the other child point.