The better a glyph outline to begin with, the less hinting you’ll have to do. If the glyph has irregularities, such as kinks in what should be a straight stroke, edit the glyph even before you start hinting. It may have too many or too few control points or some of the control points might need to be moved.
Note Some irregularities might be part of the design and needed for a good quality font on high-resolution printers.
The toolbar has four tools for controlling points: Move Point, Swap Point, Delete Point, and Add Point. When you select a point tool, the pointer changes shape according to the tool:
Toolbar icon |
Mouse cursor |
Tool name |
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Move point |
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Swap point |
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Insert point |
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Delete point |
Edit the outline until you’re satisfied with the glyph. Then compile the font (see “Compiling Your Results”) and save your font file.
A good time to edit the glyphs is while you’re reviewing them to determine the ‘cvt’ values. You can add, move, or delete control points. Make sure each glyph has a control point wherever the outline changes direction relative to the X or Y axis (extrema). Also make sure that features, such as shapes and stem thickness, are consistent from one glyph to another.
As you hint a glyph, you may find that you want to change the control points again. By refining the outlines before you start, however, you may need to do less hinting overall.
Usually, you refine the existing outline rather than create a glyph from scratch. However, sometimes you may need to create a new glyph—for example, a diacritical mark—or a composite glyph may need a control point for attaching another glyph. If you click with the right mouse button as you add the new point(s), they start a new contour that will not affect the outline of the current glyph.
In general, working on a glyph with many control points will be easier if you:
· Maximize the size of the main window.
· Work in one direction at a time: the Y direction only (in the Visual TrueType menu, click to select Show Y Direction and clear Show X Direction), or the X direction only (select Show X Direction and clear Show Y Direction)
· Show fewer points to hide the off-curve control points.
· Hide the control point numbers.
Note To change individual options for control points, choose commands from the Display menu. To change several options, use the Options command on the Display menu to open a dialog box where you can click to select and clear check boxes as needed, then click Set.
To show or hide control points
1. On the Display Options dialog, set the Points option.
To add a control point
1.
If necessary, set the Show Fewer points option in the Display Options
dialog.
Note: If the Show Fewer Points option is selected, all points you add will be
on-curve points. Otherwise, all points you add will be off-curve points. Later,
you can swap the point between on-curve and off-curve.
2. Select the Add point tool by clicking its icon in the toolbar.
3. If the new point should be part of a new glyph, hold down the Shift key.
4. Click where you want the new point.
To move a control point
1. Select the Move point tool by clicking its icon in the toolbar.
2. Select the control point(s) you want to move:
· To select a single point, click it.
· To select multiple points, select one point, then select additional points by clicking on them with the right mouse button. OR drag to form a marquee that encloses all the points you want to move. OR drag a marquee with the left mouse button to select a group of points, then drag additional marquees with the right mouse button to select additional groups of points.
· To select all points for the glyph, double-click any point.
3. Point on the selected point. OR if multiple points are selected, point on any selected point.
4.
Drag the selected point(s) to a new location.
To move the selected point(s) one F-unit at a time, press the arrow key for the
direction you want to move the point(s).
To move the selected point(s) 10 F-units at a time, hold down the Shift key as
you press an arrow key.
To delete a control point
1. Select the Delete Point tool by clicking its icon in the toolbar.
2. Click the control point you want to delete.