Tag: workspace

Font Collection

Font collection window

The Font Collection displays an overview of all the glyphs contained the font. It has several tools and functions to create and manage glyph collections, and to order the glyphs in the window.

Users can define a preset character set to display ‘glyphs-still-to-draw’.
(see Preferences)

single click Select single glyph
single click + alt (multi window mode) Opens a new glyph window.
single click (single window mode) Select single glyph and send it to the glyph view
double click (single window mode) Send the glyph to the glyph view
click + drag

Drag the selection on the same Font Overview

  • drop between the glyph cells: reorder the glyph order of the font.
  • drop on a glyph cell: copy the dragged glyphs in the destination glyph cell, use alt down to copy as component.

 

Drag the selection to other views

  • other Font Collection View: add the glyphs to the other font and set the order of dropped between glyph cells.
  • Space Center: set the glyph names to as input for spacing, use alt to append the glyph names.
  • Smart sets: creates a new set with the dragged glyphs.
click + command + drag Alter the selection while moving the mouse.
copy Copies the selected glyphs to the clip board as glyph objects and the glyph names as string representation.
copy as component Copies the selected glyph as component, only if a single glyph is selected.
paste
  • If there is no selection it appends the copied glyphs to the font.
  • If amount of the selected glyphs is the same as the amount of copied glyphs, RoboFont will replace them with the copied glyphs.
undo/redo Undo or redo the selected glyph(s)
start typing a glyph name Tries to find and select that glyph
⌘ + J Opens a Jump To Glyph window.
delete Remove the glyph from the font
alt + delete Remove the glyph from the font and the template glyph from the Font Overview.

Glyph Editor

Glyph editor

The place to add and edit glyph specific data such as contours, point, anchors, components, glyph level metrics, guides, image,…

The glyph editor always displays one glyph to edit, and allows the user to show/hide different layers of glyph data.

 

Global actions available for each tool

Menu bar ⇢ Glyph
Next Glyph display the next glyph for the selected set in the font collection (the behavior can be changed in the preferences)
Prev Glyph display the next glyph for the selected set in the font collection (the behavior can be changed in the preferences) 
Editing selects the editing tool
Drawing selects the drawing tool
Slice selects the slice tool
Transform set the current selection in transform mode, if there is no selection the whole glyph will be in in transform mode. (if a tool does not support transformation it will not be usable)
Lock Guides Locks the guides.
Lock Side Bearings Locks the side bearing of a glyph of being edited.
Lock Images Locks the images.
Show Measurement Info Toggles displaying measurement info in the glyph view.
Layers navigate through layers
Menu bar ⇢ Windows
Zoom In zooms in
Zoom Out zooms out
Zoom To Fit zooms the current glyph to fit the glyph view
Global Glyph view events (these are valid for all tools)
space click drag move the glyph view in the scroll view
command space click zooms in
command space drag zoom to marque rectangle
command space alt click zooms out
alt mouse scroll zooms in or out
dragging an image (png, jpeg, tiff) create an image object in the current glyph (there can only be 1 image for each layer)
Hot keys (set in the preferences)
Preview fill the glyph in the foreground color and hide all other display options
Zoom In hot key for zooming in
Zoom Out hot key for zooming out
Next Glyph hot key to display the next glyph for the selected set in the font collection (the behavior can be changed in the preferences) 
Previous Glyph hot key to display the previous glyph for the selected set in the font collection (the behavior can be changed in the preferences)  
Layer Up hot key for jumping up to an other layer
Layer Down hot key for jumping down to an other layer
Jump To Glyph hot key to a pop up jump to glyph window. Typing the glyph names will sorter the possible glyph names. Also possible to type unicode values. The input field will also trying to convert characters according their unicode value. Arrow keys will alter the selection.
Remove Overlap hot key to perform a remove overlap
Reverse Contours hot key to reverse contours
Auto Contour Order hot key to set the order of contours atomically
Correct Contour Direction hot key to correct the contour direction
Add Extreme Points hot key to add extreme points
Add Anchor hot key to add an anchor
Add Component hot key to an add (see components)
Decompose Component hot key to decompose components
Toggle Point Smoothness hot key to toggle the selected points smoothness
Toggle Transform hot key to toggle transform mode
Toggle Oncurve / Offcurve selection hot key to jump to the next point
Break Contour hot key to break the contour at the selected point(s)
Close Contour hot key to close the selected contour(s).
Toggle Show Fill hot key to toggle the display fill
Toggle Show Metrics hot key to toggle the display of metrics
Toggle Show On Curve Points hot key to toggle the display of on curve points 
Toggle Show Off Curve Points hot key to toggle the display of off curve points
Toggle Show Point Coordinates hot key to toggle the display of point coordinates
Toggle Show Point Indexes hot key to toggle the display of point indexes
Toggle Show Anchors hot key to toggle the display of anchors
Toggle Show Labels hot key to toggle the display of point labels
Toggle Show Curve Length hot key to toggle the display of contour curve length
Toggle Show Outline Errors hot key to toggle the display of outline errors
Toggle Show Blues hot key to toggle the display of blues values 
Toggle Show Family Blues hot key to toggle the display of family blues values
Toggle Rulers hot key to toggle the display of rulers
Toggle Bitmap hot key to toggle the display of bitmap representations
Toggle Lock Guides hot key to toggle to lock guides
Toggle Lock Sidebearings hot key to toggle to lock the sidebearings
Toggle Lock Image hot key to toggle to lock the image
Flip horizontal hot key to flip the selection horizontal
Flip vertical  hot key to flip the selection vertical
Rotate 90° clockwise hot key to rotate 90° clockwise
Rotate 90° counterclockwise hot key to rotate 90° counterclockwise
Rotate 45° clockwise hot key to rotate 45° clockwise 
Rotate 45° counterclockwise hot key to rotate 45° counterclockwise
Copy / Swap to layer hot key to a pop up copy / swap layer window
Test Install the Font hot key to test install the font

Metrics

RoboFont metric editing is based on the idea that setting the white space around a glyph is an act of drawing, so spacing and kerning have their specific views.

Font Info

Font info sheet

The Font Info sheet is an interface to edit font naming fields, vertical metrics and other font meta-data. It also holds RoboFont specific defaults that are local to the UFO. Many of the fields have a default value that only needs to be overridden if you have a need to. This means that for a simple font, all you need to fill in is Family Name and Style Name to get a working font. You only need to set the values where the default doesn't match your needs. 

An example of this would be creating a eight weight font family where you want to style map the italics to the roman of each weight. To do so, you need to set four names in each font:

My Font Light

  • Family Name: My Font
  • Style Name: Light
  • Style Map Family Name: My Font Light
  • Style Map Style: Regular

My Font Light Italic

  • Family Name: My Font
  • Style Name: Light Italic
  • Style Map Family Name: My Font Light
  • Style Map Style: Italic

My Font Book

  • Family Name: My Font
  • Style Name: Book
  • Style Map Family Name: My Font Book
  • Style Map Style: Regular

My Font Book Italic

  • Family Name: My Font
  • Style Name: Book Italic
  • Style Map Family Name: My Font Book
  • Style Map Style: Italic

and so on.

Though RoboFont allows you to only set a few values, you have control of all values —down to setting FOND name info— if you need them:

These values are derived from the Font Info section of the UFO spec.

Features

Write your Open Type features using the Adobe feature syntax in the UFO file. See also Tal Leming's Open Type Cookbook.

Note: If you are using Kern center or MetricsMachine, your kerning is added automatically to the features, you should not define a kerning feature here. If you have defined a kern feature in the feature file, then this will be used instead of the kerning set in the UFO file.

A feature editor accepts drag and drop of .fea files. The dropped files will be inserted as include(path/of/the/dropped/feature/file.fea);.

External Feature Support

RoboFont support .fea as a file format. Double click a .fea file will open the feature file in a separate feature editor which is not connected to a UFO.

 

New Feature

Create a new feature document. This is feature document is not connected to a UFO file. It will be saved as .fea file.

Insert In Fonts Pop up a sheet to add the feature text to the selected fonts.
Save Save the feature file.
Reload Reload the feature file from disk.

Export Feature

Export the features from the current font to a .fea file.

Group editor

The group editor makes it possible to create groups of glyphs.

Groups can be used for several purposes: spacing, kerning, and organizing character sets. Groups, unlike some other font editors, are not used in the OpenType features window.

Group editor

Groups can be created by clicking on the + button at the bottom left of the window. The name of each group can be changed with a double-click.

To add glyphs to a group, simply drag them from the collection at the bottom of the window to the group contents area at the upper right.

The glyphs contained in each group can be visualized as normal glyph cells, or can be stacked on top of each other for easier comparison of the letter shapes. This feature is specially useful when creating spacing and kerning classes.

Stacked glyphs view

Inspector

 

Open the inspector form the application menu Windows or ⌘I

Glyph

Input for common glyph attributes of the current glyph.

Name Change the name of the current glyph. If the name changed a pop up sheet will assist in renaming the glyph in referenced components, groups and kerning as well as setting a new unicode value.
Unicode Change the unicode of the current glyph. Similarly as the name of a glyph a pop up sheet will assist you in re-unicoding the glyph.
Width Set the width of the current glyph.
Left Set the left margin of the current glyph.
Right Set the right marginof the current glyph.
Mark Set the mark color of the current glyph.

 

Preview

A live preview of the current glyph

Layers

A control pane to manage layers.

Select & Drag & drop Change layer order.
Click and hold Rename a layer.
+ - Add or remove a layer.
Display controls Control how the layer is being displayed in the Glyph View.

  • If the selected layer is the active layer the display controls will toggle the display of the active layer.
  • If the selected layer is not the active layer the display controls will toggle the display of the layer in the background.

Read more: layers

Transform

A transform pane.

Select origins to apply the transformation on. No selection will use the zero zero point as transformation origin.
Mirror horizontally.
Mirror vertically.
Align selected objects to the bottom.
Center selected objects horizontally.
Align selected objects to the top.
Align selected objects to the left.
Center selected objects vertically.
Align selected objects to the right.
Move Move selected objects according x, y settings. Optionally equalize x and y.
Scale Scale selected objects according x, y percentage settings. Optionally equalize x and y.
Rotate Rotate selected objects according an angle set in degrees.
Skew Skew selected objects according two angles α, β. Optionally equalize α and β.
Snap Snap selected objects to a grid.
Transform
Transform Apply all transformations on the current glyph. The transformation could be a combination of move, scale, skew and snap transformations.
Transform Selected Glyphs Apply all transformations on a glyph selection in the Font Overview.
Transform All Glyphs Apply all transformations on all glyph in the font.
Mirror Selected Glyphs Vertical Mirror all selected glyphs vertically in the Font Overview.
Mirror Selected Glyphs Horizontal Mirror all selected glyphs horizontally in the Font Overview.
Mirror All Glyphs Vertical Mirror all glyphs vertically in the font.
Mirror All Glyphs Horizontal Mirror all glyphs horizontally in the font.
Transform Again Apply the same transformation again on the current glyph. Handy if the transformation is being set from a transform action in the Glyph View.
Transform Again Selected Glyphs Apply the same transformation again on the selected glyphs in the Font Overview.
Transform Again All Glyphs Apply the same transformation again on all glyphs in the font.
Options
Transform Contours Apply transformations on contours.
Transform Metrics Apply transformation on metrics.
Transform Components Apply transformation on components.
Transform Anchors Apply transformation on anchors.
Transform Image Apply transformation on an image.
Align Off Curve Points Apply alignment transformation on off curve points.
Reset Panel Reset the panel to his default transformation.

 

Points

A list of all contours with points in the current glyph.

 ✓ Select the contour or point.
X The point x value, editable.
Y The point y value, editable.
 ∞ A boolean if the point is smooth.
Name The point name, editable.

 

Components

A list of all components in the current glyph.

 ✓ Select the component.
Base Glyph Name of the referenced glyph, editable.
Transfromation The transformation of the component, editable.

Anchors

A list of all anchors in the current glyph.

 ✓ Select the anchor.
X The point x value, editable.
Y The point y value, editable.
Name The anchor name, editable.

Note

Add a note to a glyph.

Scripting

A python editor to write and execute python files inside RoboFont. There are lots of embedded packages and tools to write code and extent RoboFont lots of possible features.

The code text editor is build for writing python code. Syntax highlights python specific tokens. 

You can browse your predefined scripting folder. Double click will set the selected file in the code editor.

 

Run run the current script
Comment comment the selected line(s)
Uncomment uncomment the selected line(s)
Indent indent the selected line(s)
Dedent decent the selected line(s)
Save save the file as a *.py file
Reload reload the file from disk 
New create a new python document
Open open a *.py file
Edit With... edit the file with the preferred python editor

 

Output Window

This window catches all print statements and tracebacks when a script is not running in the scripting window. 

Enable "Can hide" to hide the window when RoboFont is not the active app anymore. (It acts like a floating window). When disabled the window will still be visible when RoboFont is not active.

'Clear' will empty the all print statements and traceback from the Output window.

 

Command Line

RoboFont is accessible through command line. Install the command line tool in the Preferences.

The command line tool is using a very simple API:

Call RoboFont to execute python files:
roboFont [-h] [-p] [-c] [-o]
--help -h                               options
--pythonpath -p <path> <path> ...      .py files path(s) to run inside RoboFont
--pythoncode -c "print 5*5"             python code to run inside RoboFont
--openfile -o <path>                    files to open with RoboFont

[vimeo https://vimeo.com/42008861]

Read more: API, Preferences

 

Preferences

A window collecting all User defaults. It is required to hit ‘Apply’ in the toolbar to tell RoboFont a default has changed so the related views can be changed.

If a change requires a restart it will be advising note will be displayed in the bottom of the window.

Preferences Options

Reset All Preferences Reset all preferences to the standard defaults.
Reset "Don't Show This" Warnings Reset all "Don't Show This" warnings.
Export Preferences Export user defined preferences to a .roboFontSettings file.
Import Preferences Import user defined preference from a .roboFontSettings file.

Application menu

Robofont
About Show about window.
Preferences Show preferences window.
Hide RoboFont Hide RoboFont.
Hide Others Hide all other open applications except RoboFont.
Show All Bring all RoboFont windows to the front.
Quit RoboFont Quit RoboFont.
File
New Create a new working document.
Open Open a file that RoboFont can read. (see Opening fonts, Scripting)
Save Save the current document.
Save As... Save the current document with a different name.
Save All Save all open documents.
Close Close current document
Revert to saved Open a revert to saved sheet (see Saving Fonts)
Generate Font Generate a font binary (see Generating font files)
Test Install Test install the current document for the current user (see Generating font files)
Features ⇢ New Feature Opens a feature window to write OpenType features. The features aren't attached to any font. It can be exported to all ope
Features ⇢ Export Feature Export/save the features from the current font to a .fea file
Edit
Undo Undos the selected object(s)
Redo Redos the selected object(s)
Cut Cut the selected object(s)
Copy Copies the selected object(s)
Copy As Component Copies the selected glyph as component
Paste Paste into the selected view, object
Delete Deletes the selected object(s)
Select All Selete all possible objects
Font
Add Glyphs Shows an Add Glyphs sheet (see Adding and deleting Glyphs)
Font Info Shows the Font Info sheet (see Font Info)
Sort Shows the Sort sheet (see sort)
Glyph
Next Glyph Jumps to the next glyph
Previous Glyph Jumps to the previous glyph
Editing Makes the Editing tool active (see Editing Tool)
Drawing Makes the Drawing tool acitve (see Bezier Tool)
Slice Makes the Slice tool active (see Slice Tool)
Transform Toggles the selection of the whole glyph into transform mode
Lock Guides Locks guides
Lock Sidebearings Locks the side bearings
Lock Images Locks images
Show Measurement Info Enable visibility of the measurements info
layer ⇢ Layer Up Jumps layer up
Layer ⇢ Layer Down Jumps layer down
Layer ⇢ New Layer Create new layer
Python
Scripting Window Opens a new scripting window (see Scripting)
Jump to line Pops up a jump to line window
Output window Opens the output window
Run Executes the current python script
Comment Comment out the selected lines
Uncomment Uncomment the selected lines
Indent Indent the selected lines
Dedent Dedent the selected lines
Extensions builder Opens the extension builder (see Building Extensions)
Extensions
Write some scripts If you havent wrote a script of set the default python resource folder to an empty one you will see 'Write some Scripts', other wise it will create a menu of all *.py files in the selected folder. (see Preferences, Python)
Windows
Inspector Toggles Inspector (see Inspector)
Space center Toggles Space Center (see Space Center)
Minimize Minimize the current window
Full screen If possible use the current window in full screen
Zoom in Zoom in
Zoom out Zoom out
Zoom to fit Zoom to fit
Bring all to front Bring all Windows to the front
Help
Documentation A link to the Documentation ;)