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.