Handbook March 2017 Glyphs Mini 2 Create – Produce – Release Affordable Font Editing for Everyone You are reading the Glyphs Mini Handbook from March 2017 for the application version 2.0. Please download the latest version of this handbook at: glyphsapp.com/get-started © 2011–2017 glyphsapp.com Written by Stella Chupik, Rainer Erich Scheichelbauer and Georg Seifert. Thanks to Jeff Kellem, Rob Keller, Toshi Omagari and Claus Eggers Sørensen for their invaluable input. Contents 1 Glyphs 6 2.4.1 Compound and Positioning 1.1 Glyphs Mini 6 Anchors 21 1.2 Installation 6 2.4.2 Ligature Carets 22 1.3 Community 6 2.4.3 Adding, Editing and 1.4 Updates 7 Removing Anchors 23 1.5 Keyboard Shortcuts 7 2.4.4 Mark to Base Positioning 23 1.6 Glyphs 7 2.4.5 Mark to Mark 1.7 Crash Reports 7 Positioning 24 2.5 Guidelines 24 2 Edit View 9 2.5.1 Magnetic Guidelines 24 2.1 Editing Glyphs 9 2.5.2 Local and Global 2.2 Drawing Paths 9 Guidelines 24 2.2.1 Draw Tool 9 2.6 Glyph Display 26 2.2.2 Pencil Tool 10 2.6.1 Zooming 26 2.2.3 Pixel Tool 10 2.6.2 Panning 26 2.2.4 Primitives 11 2.6.3 View Options 27 2.3 Editing Paths 12 2.6.4 Glyph Colors 27 2.3.1 Selecting Nodes and 2.7 Background 28 Paths 12 2.8 Entering Text 28 2.3.2 Moving Selected Nodes and 2.8.1 Sample Texts 29 Paths 12 2.8.2 Text Tool 29 2.3.3 Lasso Tool 13 2.9 Measuring 30 2.3.4 Converting Nodes and 2.9.1 Info Box 30 Segments 13 2.9.2 Measurement Tool 32 2.3.5 Nodes in Alignment 2.9.3 Measurement Guidelines 33 Zones 14 2.10 Images 34 2.3.6 Scaling and Rotating 14 2.10.1 Adding Images 34 2.3.7 Aligning 15 2.10.2 Manipulating Images 35 2.3.8 Duplicating Paths 16 2.11 Previewing and Testing 36 2.3.9 Deleting Nodes 16 2.11.1 Previewing in macOS 36 2.3.10 Opening and Closing 2.11.2 Previewing in Adobe Paths 17 Applications 36 2.3.11 Cutting Paths 18 2.11.3 Previewing in Web 2.3.12 Remove Overlap 19 Browsers 37 2.3.13 Resegmenting Outlines 19 2.3.14 Controlling Path 3 Palette 38 Direction 20 3.1 Palette Sidebar 38 2.3.15 Extremes and 3.2 Dimensions 38 Inflections 20 3.3 Fit Curve 38 2.3.16 Duplicate Nodes 21 3.4 Transformations 38 2.4 Anchors 21 3.4.1 Transformation Origin 39 3.4.2 Mirroring 39 5.6.1 Glyph Info Database 53 3.4.3 Reversible 5.6.2 Naming Glyphs 54 Transformations 39 5.6.3 Renaming Glyphs 55 3.4.4 Aligning 40 3.4.5 Boolean Operations 40 6 Font Info 56 6.1 Family and Style Names 56 4 Filters 41 6.2 Metrics 56 4.1 Filters Menu 41 6.3 Stems and Alignment 4.2 Filters 41 Zones 57 4.2.1 Hatch Outline 41 6.4 Designer and Designer 4.2.2 Offset Curve 42 URL 58 4.2.3 Round Corners 42 6.5 Manufacturer and 4.2.4 Transformations 43 Manufacturer URL 58 6.6 Version 58 5 Font View 45 6.7 Copyright and License 58 5.1 Viewing Glyphs 45 6.8 Style Linking 59 5.1.1 Searching for Glyphs 45 6.9 Weight and Width 59 5.2 Managing the Glyph Set 46 6.10 Grid Spacing and 5.2.1 Generating New Glyphs 46 Subdivision 59 5.2.2 Copying Glyphs Between 6.11 Units per Em 60 Files 47 5.2.3 Removing Glyphs 47 7 Reusing Shapes 61 5.3 Glyph Properties 47 7.1 Components 61 5.3.1 Name 48 7.1.1 Building Compounds 61 5.3.2 Width and Sidebearings 48 7.1.2 Turning Paths into 5.3.3 Kerning Groups 48 Components 61 5.3.4 Export 48 7.1.3 Editing Components 62 5.3.5 Color Label 48 7.1.4 Moving between Base 5.3.6 Unicode 49 Glyphs and Compounds 63 5.4 Batch-Processing 49 7.1.5 Anchors 63 5.4.1 Selecting Glyphs 49 7.1.6 Automatic Alignment 65 5.4.2 Menu Commands 49 7.1.7 Locking Components 66 5.4.3 Batch-Renaming Glyphs 49 7.1.8 Component Colors 66 5.4.4 Palette Manipulations 50 7.1.9 Decomposing 66 5.5 Filtering and Sorting 50 7.1.10 Combining Paths and 5.5.1 Search Box 50 Components 66 5.5.2 Private Use Area 51 7.1.11 Nesting Components 67 5.5.3 Categories 51 7.1.12 Preferred Marks for Glyph 5.5.4 Languages 52 Composition 67 5.5.5 Smart Filters 52 7.1.13 Underscore Components 68 5.5.6 List Filters 53 7.2 Corner and Cap 5.5.7 Manage Filters 53 Components 68 5.6 Names and Unicode 53 7.2.1 Corner Components 68 7.2.2 Cap Components 70 10.4.2 Wrong Path Orientation 83 10.4.3 Multiple Paths on Top of 8 Spacing and Kerning 72 Each Other 83 8.1 Spacing 72 8.1.1 Spacing Shortcuts 72 11 Import and Export 84 8.1.2 Metric Keys 72 11.1 Vector Drawing 8.2 Kerning 73 Applications 84 8.2.1 Ways to Kern 73 11.1.1 Adobe Illustrator 84 8.2.2 Kerning Groups 74 11.1.2 Sketch 84 8.2.3 Finding and Viewing 11.2 FontLab Studio 84 Kerning Pairs 74 11.2.1 From FontLab Studio 5 to 8.2.4 Deleting Kerning Pairs 75 Glyphs Mini 84 8.2.5 Cleaning up Kerning 75 11.2.2 From Glyphs Mini to 8.2.6 Compressing Kerning 75 FontLab Studio 5 84 11.3 OpenType 85 9 Hinting 76 11.3.1 Opening Existing Fonts 85 9.1 What is Hinting? 76 11.3.2 Generating OpenType 9.2 Font-Wide Hints 77 Fonts 85 9.3 Glyph-Level Hints 78 11.3.3 Generating Webfonts 86 9.3.1 Adding Stem Hints 78 9.3.2 Adding Ghost Hints 80 12 Preferences 87 9.4 Testing the Screen 12.1 Accessing Application Rendering 81 Preferences 87 12.1.1 Updates 87 10 Error Handling 82 12.1.2 User Settings 87 10.1 Glyph Names 82 12.1.3 Sample Strings 88 10.2 Font Names 82 10.3 Duplicate Unicode 13 Appendix 90 Values 83 13.1 Automatic Feature 10.4 Missing Outlines 83 Generation 90 10.4.1 Open Paths 83 1 Glyphs 1.1 GLYPHS MINI Glyphs Mini is a trimmed-down, light version of the application. It is primarily a tool for designing and producing new fonts. Its main principle is that you can edit glyphs in a word context. All tools are optimized for a type design workflow as natural, quick, and intuitive as possible. We believe that you should be able to focus on your design and only be bothered with technicalities if it is really necessary. There is no need for keeping a design version next to a production version of your font. All production steps take place at export time. By default, Glyphs Mini automates a lot of technical details for you. It lacks many of the advanced features of the full application, e.g., support for plug-ins, glyph layers, Multiple Masters, Python scripting, custom OpenType feature code, custom parameters, and manual hinting. It is intended as a simple and affordable entry-level solution for casual type design or putting together a dingbat (symbol) font. All available tools and uses are described in this handbook. Glyphs Mini exports OpenType/CFF (Compact Font Format, suffix .otf) and Webfont (suffix .woff). Glyphs Mini can open existing fonts. However, in the import process, some information stored in the font may be lost. For details, see chapter 11, ‘Import and Export’ (p. 84). 1.2 INSTALLATION Glyphs Mini is a Mac-only application. Glyphs Mini 2.0 or higher requires at least macOS 10.9.5 Mavericks. Download the trial from glyphsapp.com/mini and move the app into your Applications folder, which you can access in Finder via Go > Applications (Cmd-Shift-A). To unlock the trial, open the .glyphsmini2license file you purchased, either by simply double clicking the license file, or by dragging it onto the app icon. 1.3 COMMUNITY If you have questions, bug reports or suggestions, you can register for free in the Glyphs forum at forum.glyphsapp.com . Glyphs Mini Handbook, March 2017 6 1.4 UPDATES The application is updated on a regular basis. The latest feature additions are described on glyphsapp.com/blog. You can check which version you have by choosing Glyphs Mini > If you downloaded Glyphs About Glyphs Mini and trigger an update with Glyphs Mini > Mini from the AppStore, Check for Updates or by activating automatic updates in Glyphs you can keep it up to Mini > Preferences > Updates. For more details, see section 12.1.1, date with AppStore app. ‘Updates’ (p. 87). 1.5 KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS To enable a workflow as efficient as possible, Glyphs Mini employs a number of keyboard shortcuts. You can set your own shortcuts in the macOS System Preferences, under Keyboard > Shortcuts > App Shortcuts.