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19-20 July: Glyphs at Granshan 2014

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At this year’s Granshan conference hosted by tgm, Rainer Erich Scheichelbauer (@mekkablue) will be present and happy to answer your Glyphs-related multilingual and non-Latin questions.

Get all details at the Granshan 2014 website.


30 July: Glyphs pro workshop at TypeCon

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We will host a workshop at this year’s TypeCon in Washington, D.C.! Also, we will be present throughout the conference and available to help you with all questions about Glyphs.

‘Glyphs.app for the Pros’

  • When: Wednesday, July 30th, 9:00 am – 4:30 pm
  • Where: Corcoran College of Art + Design
  • Who: Rainer Erich Scheichelbauer (mekkablue) & Georg Seifert (schriftgestalt)
  • Language: English
  • How much: Cost: USD 100
  • Prerequisites: some prior experience in type design or font production; MacBook Pro with OS X 10.7 or later; the latest version of Glyphs.app, and a text editor such as TextMate or Sublime Text
  • Attendees can purchase a Glyphs.app license at a discount price.

Batch-processing, importing VFBs, hinting, using metric keys for spacing, applying custom parameters, and automating tasks through scripting: in this workshop, type design pros can get all their Glyphs.app questions answered.

26–29 August: Glyphs at tga Symposion in Raabs

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Glyphs is one of the sponsors of ‘Qualität–buchstäblich’, this year’s edition of the tga symposion in Raabs, Austria. Glyphs creator Georg Seifert (schriftgestalt) will be present, and Rainer Erich Scheichelbauer (mekkablue) will provide Glyphs first aid throughout the symposium.

Glyphs-Erste-Hilfe-Station in Permanenz

  • What: ‘Glyphs first aid’ in permanence
  • When: Tuesday 26 through Friday 29 August
  • Who: Rainer Erich Scheichelbauer (@mekkablue)
  • Language: German, English, Dutch
  • Symposium attendees are eligible for a Glyphs.app license discount.

17 September: Glyphs 2.0 at ATypI in Barcelona

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Save the date: On the first day of ATypI in Barcelona, we will unveil Glyphs 2 to the public.

‘Glyphs 2.0’

  • When: Wednesday, September 17th, 10:40 am
  • Where: BAU Design College, Barcelona
  • Who: Georg Seifert (schriftgestalt) & Rainer Erich Scheichelbauer (mekkablue)
  • Language: English

In 2011, Georg Seifert’s font editor Glyphs pushed the boundaries of what has to be expected from a 21st century font editor on the Mac. Now, the app is taking a major leap forward, and not only in terms of interface improvements. Version 2 will add some missing puzzle pieces, making Glyphs the full-fledged, all-in-one solution that type designers expect it to be. This presentation will give you a quick walkthrough of all major new features. Have fun with the new ‘font editor for everyone’.

Later that day, Rainer Erich will present a 10-minute Typo Tapas:

‘Typo Tapas: Font Gamification’

  • When: Wednesday, September 17th, 12:55 pm
  • Where: BAU Design College, Barcelona
  • Who: Rainer Erich Scheichelbauer (mekkablue)
  • Language: English

OpenType fonts can do fun stuff. Their built-in glyph substitution tables enable surprising and playful typographic interventions, or even small games in fonts. This Typo Tapas is a tour de force through a few GSUB table goodies, all live, no prefabricated slides. Sit back, relax, and have fun!

Find all the details in the ATypI program

24–26 October: Glyphs workshops at TDC, New York

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Register now for one, two, or all three days of Glyphs workshops at the TDC in New York. But beware, registration is required and space is limited, so reserve your seat as soon as possible. You can find all details on the TDC page.

  • All workshops are held in English, and take place at Type Directors Club, 347 West 36th Street, Suite 603
  • Students can choose the amount of days they wish to attend.
  • All attendees will be given a complimentary 6-month license to Glyphs and some third-party software.
  • Attendees can purchase a Glyphs license at the discounted price of USD 250.

Day 1: Introduction To Font Design

  • When: Friday, 24 October, 8:30 am
  • Who: Matteo Bologna (mrmucca) & Rainer Erich Scheichelbauer (mekkablue)
  • For whom: This session is recommended for type novices, as well as for expert-level type designers
  • Prerequisites: No prior experience is required, some experience with Bézier-based vector drawing tools is useful. Bring your MacBook (OS X 10.7+)

In the morning session, we will sketch a few letters, digitise them, export the font, and use it in InDesign. In the afternoon, we will add additional letters to the font, kern them, optimize them for the screen, add diacritics, and produce the combined letters. At the end of the day, we will not have a finished font, but a respectable start.

Day 2: Glyphs Pro Workshop

  • When: Saturday, 25 October, 8:30 am
  • Who: Rainer Erich Scheichelbauer (mekkablue)
  • For whom: This session is recommended for type novices who learned the basics on Day 1, expert-level type designers, and prior Glyphs users.
  • Prerequisites: Some prior experience in type design recommended (the words OpenType and Multiple Master should not sound foreign to you) or the introductory workshop. Bring your MacBook (OS X 10.7+), and know your admin password, because we will make some installations

In the morning, we will start with a monoline (open paths) design in Glyphs. We will export it using a Glyphs feature called Custom Parameters. By adding glyph variations, we will make Glyphs auto-generate OpenType features for us.
In the afternoon, we will expand the monoline to a single-axis Multiple Master set-up, making use of built-in features as well as third-party scripts and plugins.

Day 3: Python with Glyphs

  • When: Sunday, 26 October, 8:30 am
  • Who: Rainer Erich Scheichelbauer (mekkablue)
  • For whom: This advanced-level session is recommended for the type novices who learned the basics on Day 1 and Day 2, expert-level type designers, and prior Glyphs users.
  • Prerequisites: Bring your MacBook (OS X 10.7+), with the latest Glyphs.app beta and a Python-ready text editor installed (I recommend TextMate 2 or Sublime Text 2, personally, I use TextMate). No prior knowledge of Python required, but we will assume you have used Glyphs.app before

In the morning, we will learn some basic concepts of programming in Python: variables, loops, functions, etc. We will put our knowledge to use by writing a report script and batch-modifying font attributes through Python scripting.
In the afternoon, after a short summary of the morning session, we will use Python for creating and modifying glyphs in an existing font. At the end of the day, we will take a brief look at the so-called Python Objective-C Bridge in order to directly access app functions.

Creating a Layered Color Font

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Layer fonts are fun for the user, but always have been a lot of work for the creator. Well, it has just gotten a lot easier: Glyphs 2 has some major improvements for the layertype designers amongst you.

Create masters and instances

Masters are your layers. So you go into File > Font Info > Masters, and add as many font masters as you need layers. Make sure you give each of them a different Custom name and value, e.g., ‘Front’, ‘Side’, ‘Bottom’, and 1, 2, and 3.

And, while we are at it, you can assign different preview colors to your master layers. That is because layer fonts are no fun if all the layers have the same color. This is how you do it: Add a new custom parameter by clicking the little green plus button just above the Custom Parameters section. In the Property pop-up, you pick Master Color, and in the Value field, a color swatch will appear. Click on the swatch to pick a different color:

Hint, hint: You can even choose a transparency, if you want to simulate an overprint effect.

When you are done, select the Master Color parameter, and copy it to the clipboard (Cmd-C). Then go into each of the other masters, and each time, click into the Custom Parameters section, and paste (Cmd-V). Then you can conveniently click on the swatch and change the color for each layer. The power users amongst you can Cmd-select more than one master in the sidebar, and add or paste the parameter for all master layers at once.

Now, in the Font Info window, switch to the Instances tab. There, you create instances with the exact same weight values we used before. To do that, click on the Plus button in the bottom left, and choose Add Instance for each Master from the menu that pops up.

Using the exact same values makes sure we are not interpolating. That is good because we do not want to interpolate, we just want to draw and export different layers.

Edit the layer glyphs

Once you close the Font Info window, you are taken back to the Font window. Let’s double click the uppercase I, an easy letter, ideal for experimenting and trying some editing.

Using the Master buttons at the top of the window, or the shortcuts Cmd-1, Cmd-2, and Cmd-3, you can switch between the layers. In the Layers section of the sidebar palette (Cmd-Opt-P), the custom names should pop up, along with an indication of the layer color. To the left of each layer name, there is a little eye symbol. Click on all closed eyes to open them. So, all master layers are displayed at once while you edit them.

Press Cmd-1 to go to the ‘Front’ layer, and draw a rectangle from the cap height to the baseline, for the uppercase I:

Then, while the rectangle is still selected, copy it to the clipboard (Cmd-C), switch to the ‘Side’ layer (Cmd-2), and paste (Cmd-V). Select the two leftmost nodes with the Select tool (V), and move them to the bottom right, like this:

Select all (Cmd-A), copy to the clipboard (Cmd-C), switch to the ‘Bottom’ layer (Cmd-3), and paste. Now move the two top nodes to the bottom left position, so that the top of the ‘Bottom’ layer aligns with the base of the ‘Front’ layer:

Now is a good time to hold down your Option key, and choose Correct Path Direction for All Masters (Cmd-Opt-Shift-R) from the Paths menu. Hold down the space bar to temporarily see a Preview, or simply switch to the Text tool (T), and you can see if everything works out as expected:

Congratulations, you have your first layered glyph.

Multiple-layer editing

Speaking of editing, there is a new Select All Layers tool, which allows you to edit any points on any visible layer.

Some menu commands work for all layers at once. You can now Glyph > Update Metrics for All Masters (Cmd-Opt-Ctrl-M) and we have already used Paths > Correct Path Direction for All Masters (Cmd-Opt-Shift-R).

Applying layer fonts in InDesign

You export the fonts just as you would in any other font project. As always, it is a good idea to use the Adobe Fonts folder.

Now, what you need to do in InDesign, is to have multiple text frames with the exact same content exactly on to of each other, each of them with a different font style. You can use InDesign’s place-and-link tool to achieve that.

In any event, you can do pretty good stuff with this:

SAMPLE FONT: SAPPERLOT, COURTESY OF THOMAS MAIER.

16–20 October: Advanced Arabic type design workshops in Dubai

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The Khatt Foundation Advanced Type Design Workshop will consist of intensive five days of advanced instruction for type designers.

Advanced Arabic Type Design Workshop

  • When: Thursday, 16, through Monday, 20 October, 9:00 am – 6:00 pm (1 hour lunch break)
  • Where: Tashkeel, Dubai
  • Who: Lara Assouad-Khoury, Khajag Apelian, Georg Seifert
  • For whom: Designers with prior experience in Arabic type design
  • Fee: 5500 Dhs
  • Registration deadline: Tuesday, 30 September
  • Prerequisites: Bring your MacBook (OS X 10.7+), make sure Glyphs is installed.

The workshop will teach the participants some advanced tools on further expanding the character set and fine tuning the font file into a more comprehensive and professional font. Instruction will include the following:

  • Localised alternates (farsi, urdu)
  • Proportional and stylistic variations (i.e., condensed, italics, etc.)
  • Contextual alternates
  • Special ligatures
  • Multiple Master and alternative interpolations
  • Class kerning

Read all details on the Khatt website.

14–16 November: Glyphs at BITS MMXIV in Bangkok

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At the BITS MMXIV Conference in Bangkok, Georg will give both a workshop and a stage presentation. Don’t miss it.

Make your own Thai font with Glyphs.app

  • Workshop with Georg Seifert
  • Where: TCDC Auditorium B
  • When: Friday, 14 November, 3:30 pm to 5:30 pm
  • Available seats: 20
  • No prior experience in type design required, but some experience with vector graphics useful (e.g. Illustrator, Sketch or Freehand)
  • Bring your MacBook with OS X 10.7 or higher, with Glyphs.app installed, and Adobe InDesign for testing
  • Bring pencil and paper for sketching

This workshop will explore what Glyphs, the ‘font editor for everyone’, can do for Thai type design: We will create a new Thai OpenType font, add and draw the necessary letters, as well as export and test it. Georg will show you many useful tips and tricks for streamlining your font production.

Why does Glyphs support Thai?

  • Presentation by Georg Seifert
  • Where: BACC, 5th floor auditorium, Bangkok
  • When: Sunday, 16 November, 2:00 pm

‘The story why I started making Glyphs, why it was easy to support Asian languages and what I learned on the way.’

Read all details on the BITS MMXIV Conference. Or watch the trailer, or visit the BITS FaceBook page, or better yet, get your ticket while you can.


Starting in November: TGA Schriftlabor 2014/15 in Vienna

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In eight installments, Rainer Erich Scheichelbauer will give an introduction to type design, but also discuss advanced topics in detail, at the TGA Schriftlabor (‘type lab’):

Schriftlabor: Schriftgestaltung mit Glyphs

  • When: workshops at 11am and 2pm on these Saturdays:
    • 22 November
    • 29 November
    • 17 January
    • 24 January
  • Where: FaceType studio, Vienna
  • Price: 20 Euros per session
  • Language: German
  • Prerequisites: bring your own MacBook (OS X 10.7 or later)
  • Signing up for the Schriftlabor newsletter is obligatory

The Schriftlabor in Vienna has become an institution over the past ten years. If you understand German, have an interest in type design, and happen to be in Vienna this winter, feel free to stop by!

Dutch Glyphs course available

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Together with his former teacher Ann Bessemans, Belgian designer Maarten Renckens wrote an introduction to type design with Glyphs, in Dutch. And best of all, he made the manual available online, complete with exercise materials on his website.

Maarten’s master thesis was the digitisation of people’s handwritings, which led him to deal with OpenType features, and, lucky for us, with Glyphs. And since his school faculty is switching to Glyphs, he and Ann Bessemans prepared the course materials in Dutch language. Veel plezier en succes!

Creating a Layered Color Font

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Layer fonts are fun for the user, but always have been a lot of work for the creator. Well, it has just gotten a lot easier: Glyphs 2 has some major improvements for the layertype designers amongst you.

Create masters and instances

Masters are your layers. So you go into File > Font Info > Masters, and add as many font masters as you need layers. Make sure you give each of them a different Custom name and value, e.g., ‘Front’, ‘Side’, ‘Bottom’, and 1, 2, and 3.

And, while we are at it, you can assign different preview colors to your master layers. That is because layer fonts are no fun if all the layers have the same color. This is how you do it: Add a new custom parameter by clicking the little green plus button just above the Custom Parameters section. In the Property pop-up, you pick Master Color, and in the Value field, a color swatch will appear. Click on the swatch to pick a different color:

Hint, hint: You can even choose a transparency, if you want to simulate an overprint effect.

When you are done, select the Master Color parameter, and copy it to the clipboard (Cmd-C). Then go into each of the other masters, and each time, click into the Custom Parameters section, and paste (Cmd-V). Then you can conveniently click on the swatch and change the color for each layer. The power users amongst you can Cmd-select more than one master in the sidebar, and add or paste the parameter for all master layers at once.

Now, in the Font Info window, switch to the Instances tab. There, you create instances with the exact same weight values we used before. To do that, click on the Plus button in the bottom left, and choose Add Instance for each Master from the menu that pops up.

Using the exact same values makes sure we are not interpolating. That is good because we do not want to interpolate, we just want to draw and export different layers.

Edit the layer glyphs

Once you close the Font Info window, you are taken back to the Font window. Let’s double click the uppercase I, an easy letter, ideal for experimenting and trying some editing.

Using the Master buttons at the top of the window, or the shortcuts Cmd-1, Cmd-2, and Cmd-3, you can switch between the layers. In the Layers section of the sidebar palette (Cmd-Opt-P), the custom names should pop up, along with an indication of the layer color. To the left of each layer name, there is a little eye symbol. Click on all closed eyes to open them. So, all master layers are displayed at once while you edit them.

Press Cmd-1 to go to the ‘Front’ layer, and draw a rectangle from the cap height to the baseline, for the uppercase I:

Then, while the rectangle is still selected, copy it to the clipboard (Cmd-C), switch to the ‘Side’ layer (Cmd-2), and paste (Cmd-V). Select the two leftmost nodes with the Select tool (V), and move them to the bottom right, like this:

Select all (Cmd-A), copy to the clipboard (Cmd-C), switch to the ‘Bottom’ layer (Cmd-3), and paste. Now move the two top nodes to the bottom left position, so that the top of the ‘Bottom’ layer aligns with the base of the ‘Front’ layer:

Now is a good time to hold down your Option key, and choose Correct Path Direction for All Masters (Cmd-Opt-Shift-R) from the Paths menu. Hold down the space bar to temporarily see a Preview, or simply switch to the Text tool (T), and you can see if everything works out as expected:

Congratulations, you have your first layered glyph.

Multiple-layer editing

Speaking of editing, there is a new Select All Layers tool, which allows you to edit any points on any visible layer.

Some menu commands work for all layers at once. You can now Glyph > Update Metrics for All Masters (Cmd-Opt-Ctrl-M) and we have already used Paths > Correct Path Direction for All Masters (Cmd-Opt-Shift-R).

Applying layer fonts in InDesign

You export the fonts just as you would in any other font project. As always, it is a good idea to use the Adobe Fonts folder.

Now, what you need to do in InDesign, is to have multiple text frames with the exact same content exactly on to of each other, each of them with a different font style. You can use InDesign’s place-and-link tool to achieve that.

In any event, you can do pretty good stuff with this, like Thomas Maier (DrTypo) did with his font Sapperlot. Thomas open-sourced the .glyphs file, so head on over to his GitHub page and take a closer look:

SAMPLE FONT: SAPPERLOT, COURTESY OF THOMAS MAIER.

Creating a Microsoft Color Font

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The Microsoft approach to color fonts employs two additional OpenType tables, CPAL and COLR. CPAL describes a palette of colors, and COLR defines how the colors from CPAL are used by which glyph. Technically, what appears to be multiple colors in a single glyph, is actually multiple glyphs stacked on top of each other, each of them displayed in its individual color. But you need not worry, Glyphs will take care of all that techy stuff.

Setting up a color palette

You start by adding a Custom Parameter called Color Palettes in File > Font Info > Master. For starters, we will add one palette with three colors. So, once you added your Color Palettes parameter, double click its Value field, and increase the Count of colors to three. Double clicking a color field brings up the OS X color picker:

You can pick any color from any color scheme, even with transparency. Eventually, it will be stored as RGBA (red, green, blue, alpha) in the font file. Note that the numbers 0, 1, and 2 have been assigned to the three colors we just created. Keep that in mind for later.

Once you are done, confirm the dialog sheet by clicking OK. If everything is alright, the Custom Parameter line should indicate the number of palettes and colors:

Creating the fallback glyph

So far, so good. There is one problem though. Support for Microsoft-style color fonts, like the one we are about to make right now, is not quite universal yet. So, for all non-compliant software, we need to have an old-style black and white glyph that can be displayed just in case. We call this a fallback glyph.

As it turns out, the fallback glyph is already set up: Anything on the master layer is considered to be the fallback. So, for instance, in the Regular master of the uppercase I, we can draw our sans-serif rectangle between cap height and baseline. The little diamond symbols indicate that the nodes are exactly on the metric lines:

Adding the color layers

Now, in the Layers palette in the sidebar (Cmd-Opt-P), create a duplicate of the Regular master. You can do so by clicking the Copy button. Rename the layer to Color 0, with an uppercase C and a space before the zero. You will notice a color indicator appear on the right, showing the first color, or Color number 0:

You can add the other two colors by duplicating the color layer we just created. But this time, you do not need to change the name of the layer. Instead, you can click on the color circle, and pick any other color from the palette we created before:

Now, all we need to do, is draw our layers. I will leave the Color 0 layer as it is, and make the Color 1 and Color 2 layers the side and bottom of a three-dimensional uppercase I:

You will notice that you get a color preview as soon as any of the color layers (Color 0, Color 1 or Color 2) is selected. Activate a Master layer (Regular in our case), and you will see the fallback glyph again. In Font View, Glyphs will preferably display the color glyph:

Export your font

It does not matter which format you pick, CFF/OTF, TTF, WOFF, WOFF 2, or EOT. Since all of them are OpenType-based, Glyphs will be able to insert the necessary tables for viewing. Because CPAL and COLR tables are a fairly recent technology, most apps will only display the fallback. But starting in Windows 8.1, Internet Explorer can display the color glyphs nicely:

Cool! Now, for all those other letters besides the uppercase I…

Additional masters for individual glyphs: the brace trick

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For interpolation, two-master setups work surprisingly well. Well, except that sometimes you need an extra step in between. Sure, you could sort of fake it with the Bracket Trick, or an alternative glyph that kicks in in some instances only. But that can turn out to be complicated, as we may have to add (and redraw) many masters per glyph.

Create and name a brace Layer

In Glyphs 2 or later, you can employ something called the ‘Brace Trick’. Similar to the Bracket Trick, we copy one of the master layers, and adjust the name. You do that by opening the Palette sidebar (Window > Palette, Cmd-Opt-P), selecting your first master in the Layers palette, and clicking the Copy button.

Double click the name of the new layer, and type in a brace layer name. The name structure is as follows:

optionalDescription {weightValue, widthValue}

In short, it is curly braces containing a comma-separated list of interpolation values. If you like, you can use a descriptive prefix such as ‘Intermediate’. What it does is insert an intermediate master for this very glyph at that very position in the interpolation space. For instance, a layer called Intermediate {120, 100} will act as a master at 120 on the weight axis, and at 100 on the width axis.

All that rests to be done now, is actually draw the layer. You can get a head start if you choose Re-Interpolate from the gear menu in the bottom right of the Layers palette. This will put a new interpolation into the brace layer. Careful, it overwrites what is there.

By the way, you can temporarily deactivate the brace layer by deleting a curly brace or writing a suffix between braces, e.g. Intermediate {90, 100 off}. You can check if the layer is active or inactive by choosing Show all instances from the instance pop-up in the Preview section of the Edit tab.

Example

A typical use case would be the lowercase e, interpolating from Light to Heavy. While the stems can increase equally up until a medium weight, the horizontals cannot grow as quickly as the verticals in heavier weights. If we just have a Light and a Bold master, the horizontals thin out too soon. Pay attention to the middle bar of the e:

We can fix the wacky interpolations with an intermediate master for this glyph. Like described above, we add a brace layer with a sensible descriptive name and an appropriate weight value. We can leave the width value at its default. So, in our example, this happens to be Intermediate {90, 100}:

Now you have an extra master, just for this glyph, and the e interpolates much better. Look how well the middle bar behaves, while the outer masters remain the same:

That’s it. High five.

14-15 November: Glyphs at Typomad 2014, Madrid

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In Madrid in the middle of November? Don’t miss Typomad 2014, taking place on Fri 14 and Sat 15 November.

We are proud to announce that we are among the sponsors. Conference attendees are entitled to a Glyphs license discount!

Eric will give a refined and extended version of his ATypI presentation as part of the main conference program:

‘Font Gamification: The Power of OpenType’

  • Where: Matadero, Plaza de Legazpi, Madrid
  • Who: Rainer Erich Scheichelbauer (mekkablue)
  • Language: English

OpenType fonts can do fun stuff. Their built-in glyph substitution tables enable surprising and playful typographic interventions, but can you also put games in fonts? This presentation is a tour de force through OpenType magic, all live, no prefabricated slides. Sit back, relax, and have fun!

Get all infos at typomad.com.

Working with UFO

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The Unified Font Object is an XML-based file format for storing font data. It was developed by type designers and developers Tal Leming, Just van Rossum, and Erik van Blokland. While the specs for version 3 have been released, UFO 2 is currently in most widespread use.

While you can produce a font or font family in Glyphs alone, the UFO format makes the exchange with other tools possible. UFO gives you access to a variety of other tools. This is why Glyphs supports it out of the box. But why would you want to do that in the first place? Easy: Typically, UFO tools are highly specialized apps, entirely dedicated to a specific task. That means that those tools can pick up where the in-app functionality of Glyphs leaves off. Read on for a few examples.

UFO does not store everything

One thing to keep in mind is that many Glyphs-specific settings, like enabled or disabled automatic alignment of components, or things like the bracket trick, cannot be stored in UFO files. So take extra care and double-check your files where necessary.

Very important: UFOs are single masters. Multiple Master information cannot be stored within a single UFO file. This means that if you want to interpolate, you will need to use one UFO file per master.

Preferences and file settings

If you want to be prepared for tapping into a UFO workflow, you will find two important options in Glyphs > Preferences > User Settings. What they have in common is that they are applied to all non-native files opened in Glyphs, e.g. a file with a .ufo suffix.

Firstly, enabling the option Keep glyph names from imported files will prevent Glyphs from converting the names of the glyphs to its own naming scheme. In a pure Glyphs workflow, there are certain advantages if you stick to the internal naming scheme. But when you are moving a lot between applications, you will usually want to keep the names as set in the file.

Secondly, you may want to keep the placement of components in your file. In other words, you may want to keep Glyphs from enforcing automatic alignment of composite letters. In that case, selecting the option Disable automatic alignment in imported files is a good idea.

What these two settings do, is set the two corresponding options in File > Font Info > Other Settings, namely Use custom naming (or Don’t use nice names in older versions of Glyphs) and Disable automatic alignment. There, of course, you can also set these options manually.

Of course, if you go the opposite direction, i.e., take your .glyphs file for a UFO ride, you can keep the settings at their defaults, and take full advantage of automatic alignment and nice names.

Now that we are prepared, we can get down and dirty with UFO files!

Exporting UFOs

If you want to create a UFO copy of your current font project, pick File > Export > UFO. In the upcoming dialog, you can choose which masters you want to export, and in the following dialog, where you want to save the UFO files.

The option Convert Glyph Names to Production Names will convert the human-readable nice names, such as Zhe-cy, for Cyrillic uppercase Zhe, to their industry-standard counterparts, like uni0416. While these names may be hard to memorize, they are more compatible. Some tools may expect them to be in place. Our advise: Testrun your workflow with nice names, and if it does not work, you can still choose to convert the names.

Important: Please make sure you update to version 1.4.4, which fixes a bug in the UFO export of multiple masters.

UFO as saving format

If you already have a UFO file lying around, you can open it in Glyphs, and stay in UFO mode. Saving (Cmd-S) will save directly to the UFO.

You can also use File > Save As… (Cmd-Shift-S) to save a copy of your frontmost file as a UFO. In order to achieve that, you need to pick Unified Font Object as File Format in the export dialog. Glyphs will warn you if saving as UFO is not possible, e.g., when the file in question has more than one master. In that case, you would need to use File > Export (Cmd-E).

Once you have your UFO files ready, you are ready to work with a multitude of specialized applications and tools.

RoboFont

Belgian type designer Frederik Berlaen’s UFO editor RoboFont was built from the ground up for ultimate workflow flexibility. To achieve that, he made it very simple to build your own tools with the easy-to-learn programming language Python. No wonder that, for RoboFont, a wide variety of plugins and scripts are available on GitHub and other places across the web. Many extensions are listed on the RoboFont website itself. To get an idea of the power of the underlying API, take a look at Loïc Sander’s ‘An experiment in parametric type design’ video.

MetricsMachine

Tal Leming’s MetricsMachine is an app completely dedicated to kerning. With specialized tools for kerning group and kerning pair creation, stack views, automatically adapting contextual strings, a range of presets, etc., the app offers a more systematic and analytical approach to kerning than Glyphs can.

The app sports a Pair List Builder for creating all possible kerning pairs out of selected glyphs. Once you have your pairs set up, step through your kerning list with up and down arrows, adjust the kerning in steps of 10 units with left and right arrows, hold down the Shift key for steps of 5 units, the Option key for single-unit steps. Finally, the Spreadsheet function helps you get a grip on your kern table: filter and analyze to your heart’s content.

One little catch: What Glyphs calls a right group (based on the side of the glyph that is involved), MetricsMachine calls a left group (based on the side of the kern pair).

By the way, you can also incorporate MetricsMachine in a pure Glyphs workflow. All you need to do is export your UFOs, and kern them in MetricsMachine. Now, you can bring all the kerning info back into your Glyphs file by selecting all glyphs and choosing File > Import > Metrics… And in the upcoming dialog, pick whether you want to just import the kerning, or also the kerning groups.

Important: all glyphs that are supposed to be affected, need to be selected before you import. So, probably the best idea is to simply select all glyphs, and then import.

Superpolator

While you can do Multiple Masters in Glyphs alone, Erik van Blokland’s Superpolator opens up a whole new universe of inter- and extrapolation. Since the app is entirely dedicated to interpolation, you get things like immediate preview and live measuring options, any number of masters on any number of axes, individual interpolations for any number of glyphs, you name it. For a brief introduction, watch Erik’s Superpolator 3 presentation at Robothon 2012.

More UFO tools

Actually, these are just three examples for UFO-based applications. Keep your eyes open and you will find many tools, like RoboFont author Frederik Berlaen’s roundingUFO, which has proved very handy for creating ink traps. And if you want to go ahead and plunge into the Superpolator universe, Tal Leming’s Prepolator helps you prepare UFO files for interpolation.

Interestingly, also many command line tools work with UFO files. For instance, take a look at ufo2otf, which allows you to compile a ready-to-use webfonts and OTFs directly from a UFO. Speaking of OpenType, Adobe’s own Font Development Kit for OpenType can make use of UFO files. Tal Leming’s ufo2fdk can prove helpful if you make use of it.

Don’t use UFO for FontLab

If you want to move your font project between Glyphs and FontLab Studio, however, it is a bad idea to use UFO as exchange format, because too many things may get lost on the way. In this case, it is better to use the Glyphs Import and Glyphs Export macros for FontLab Studio, provided by Georg on his GitHub repository.


7-8 February 2015: Glyphs 2 Workshops in Munich

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In early February, team member Rainer Erich Scheichelbauer will give two introductory workshops for the Typographische Gesellschaft in Munich: one about Glyphs 2, and one about Python. Both workshops require no prior knowledge and will be held in German.

Schriftgestaltung mit Glyphs 2: Eigene Schriften am Computer entwerfen

  • Who: Rainer Erich Scheichelbauer
  • When: Sat 7 Feb 2015, 10.00 – 17.00
  • Where: Designschule München, Eingang West (Wallstraße), Raum 405/406, Sendlinger-Tor-Platz 14, München
  • Language: German
  • How much: EUR 180 (150 for members)
  • Bring your MacBook (OS X 10.9+) with Glyphs preinstalled
  • More info on the tgm website

Für Einsteiger wie erfahrene Schriftgestalter: Einführung in die Schriftgestaltungs-Software »Glyphs«. Im Workshop beginnen die Teilnehmer einfach, eine Schrift zu entwerfen, und lernen dabei alle für die Schriftproduktion wichtigen Funktionen kennen.

Python mit Glyphs: Programme schreiben in der Schriftgestaltung

  • Who: Rainer Erich Scheichelbauer
  • When: Sun 8 Feb 2015, 9.30 – 16.30
  • Where: Designschule München, Eingang West (Wallstraße), Raum 405/406, Sendlinger-Tor-Platz 14, München
  • Language: German
  • How much: EUR 180 (150 for members)
  • Bring your MacBook (OS X 10.9+) with Glyphs and a text editor preinstalled, no prior programming knowledge required
  • More info on the tgm website

Der Workshop bietet eine Einführung in die Programmiersprache Python. Wer ihn absolviert, wird in der Lage sein, Python zur Automatisierung in Glyphs einzusetzen. Ziel ist es nicht, Python auswendig zu beherrschen, sondern zu wissen, wo man bei Bedarf nachschlagen muss – und dadurch in der Lage zu sein, selbstständig Python-Scripts zu schreiben.

13-14 February: Two-day type design workshop in Zurich

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This intensive two-day introduction will provide you with all the tools to get your first type design project off the ground. Discounts for Colab, Syndicom, and Syna members, free for Viscom employees!

Einführung in die Schriftgestaltung mit Glyphs

Sowohl für Neueinsteiger als auch für Umsteiger von anderen Programmen: Wir beginnen eine Schrift in Glyphs und decken dabei alle notwendigen Produktionsschritte ab, um einen guten OpenType-Font zu erstellen. Ausführliche Handouts erlauben eigenständiges Weiterarbeiten.

28 February: Introduction to type design with Glyphs 2 in São Paulo

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At the end of February, Brazilian type designer and lettering artist Diego Maldonado will host a type design work shop in São Paulo. This six-hour introduction will provide you with everything to get you started with type design in Glyphs 2. If you’re in São Paulo, don’t miss it!

Introdução ao desenho de letras com o Glyphs 2

  • Who: Diego Maldonado
  • When: Sat 28 Feb 2015, 10.00 – 19.00
  • Where: to be announced
  • Price: BRL 300
  • Language: Portuguese
  • Bring your MacBook (OS X 10.9+) with Glyphs 2 preinstalled
  • More Details
  • Registration

Workshop de 8 horas para quem deseja começar a utilizar o Glyphs como editor de fontes, seja para a vetorização de letterings ou para desenvolvimento de tipografia. O workshop engloba desde boas práticas para trabalhar com vetores até multiple masters e interpolação.

28 February: Introduction to type design with Glyphs 2 in São Paulo

0
0

At the end of February, Brazilian type designer and lettering artist Diego Maldonado will host a type design work shop in São Paulo. This eight-hour introduction will provide you with everything to get you started with type design in Glyphs 2. If you’re in São Paulo, don’t miss it!

Introdução ao desenho de letras com o Glyphs 2

  • Who: Diego Maldonado
  • When: Sat 28 Feb 2015, 10.00 – 19.00
  • Where: to be announced
  • Price: BRL 300
  • Language: Portuguese
  • Bring your MacBook (OS X 10.9+) with Glyphs 2 preinstalled
  • More Details
  • Registration

Workshop de 8 horas para quem deseja começar a utilizar o Glyphs como editor de fontes, seja para a vetorização de letterings ou para desenvolvimento de tipografia. O workshop engloba desde boas práticas para trabalhar com vetores até multiple masters e interpolação.

7-8 March: Introduction to type design with Glyphs 2 in Curitiba, Brazil

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In March, Brazilian type designer Eduilson Coan will host a 2-day type design work shop in Paraná. On day 2, he will demonstrate digitization with Glyphs 2.

Curso introdutório de desenho de tipos

  • Who: Eduilson Coan
  • When: Sat 7 Mar and Sun 8 Mar 2015, 8.30 – 18.00
  • Where: Nex Coworking, Rua Francisco Rocha, 198, Batel, Curitiba, Paraná
  • Price: BRL 350 for a single day or BRL 540 for both days if you register before mid-February, see the workshop page for pricing details
  • Language: Portuguese
  • Bring your MacBook (OS X 10.9+) with Glyphs 2 preinstalled
  • More Details and Registration

Modulo 1: Indicado para o participante que deseja um primeiro contato com o design de tipos. O objetivo do módulo 2 é a qualidade do desenho vetorial. Para poupar tempo com questões técnicas o participante receberá uma apostila digital uma semana antes da data do workshop. O aluno deverá realizar os exercícios para aprender mais sobre o software Glyphs que será utilizado no dia do curso. Dúvidas pontuais poderão ser tiradas em sala de aula.

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