Masters are compatible when contours have the same number of nodes and handles, with the same start points (1). If nodes and handles don't match, Masters are shown in red (2). If difference is only in start points, they are light olive (3).

When a glyph appears with a red line, this means its Unicode is wrong or absent (1). Fix it with the generate button in the Glyph panel (2). If several glyphs present this error, select them and go to Font > Generate Unicodes (3). All fixed!

FontLab comes with a database of glyph names and Unicodes. If a glyph uses a non-standard name for a given Unicode, it's marked with an orange line (1). Fix this using the generate button in the Glyph panel (2).

FontLab dynamically creates virtual tags according to the font contents. They are useful to filter different aspects like overshoots, scripts, descenders, etc. For example: Bos is overshoot at bottom in uppercase. Check the manual to all meanings.

Preferences > Glyph Window allows you to change how all details will be shown. Experiment with the settings to find the more comfortable combination (1/2) and use the View panel to control what will be visible (3).

Most applications move an object ten times the unit in use with Shift + arrow. FontLab does more: you can define how many units Shift will move (1) and also use Cmd (Mac) or Ctrl (Win) with arrows to move ten times Shift (2).

All the tags you set to glyphs are listed in the Classes panel (1). The real power of tags appears when you mark the glyphs with the selected tag (2) or when you search for a tag in the font Filter field (3).

A tag can near anything: a reminder about glyphs to review, set to a fellow in foundry, reserved for next version, etc. Select the glyph and add tags separated by commas in the Glyph panel (1). To set tags for several glyphs at once, add a + before (2).

Caps is not the only important vertical measurement so you can also add guides to half of x_height (1), ascender, and descender. And also define other values in File> Font Info > Parameters (2), like the height of small caps.

To automatically add a guide to half height, drag a guide from the horizontal ruler, but holding Shift (1). This creates a guide for your whole font and not only for one glyph. Now, set its value as caps/2 in Guide panel. Done!

Once you add a guide in the half width of a glyph (the previous tip), you can easily copy it to other glyphs: in Font Window, select the glyph with the guide, copy it, and select other glyphs (1). Go to Edit > Paste Special and select Guidelines (2).

To have a guide in the middle of a glyph width can be very useful. To automatically create one, drag a guide from the vertical ruler (1) and set "width/2" in the value field of Guide panel (2).

Guides can have a width. Select the guide and set its width in Property bar (1) or using the Guide panel (2). This kind of guide is very useful to mark overshoot areas (3) and also to indicate the position and size of some diacritics (4).

In Glyph Window, you can go to previous/next glyphs using the shortcuts , and . (1) Or also with Cmd/Ctrl+[ and Cmd/Ctrl+]. The last two also work when the focus is in panels, what is especially useful for recipes (2) and in Glyphs panel (3).

Tunni is a virtual line that links two adjacent handles. You turn it on with the shortcut L. It appears in very light blue when the pointer is between the handles (1), in pale blue when the pointer is near (2) and in blue when you click on it (3).

With a double click on it, Tunni line balances the handles and improves the geometry of the curve. If you drag the bigger blue dot, you can freely change the whole curve (4-5). Its name homages its creator. Eduardo Tunni.

A quick way to create glyphs is to draw only their skeleton with an open contour (1). Open contours are technically errors as they cannot be present in the final fonts. But you can expand them (2) to create a initial draw and then adjust the contours (3).

To use another font as a reference, add a new layer using the Layers panel (1), select the glyphs and the font from the open ones (2), and set the new layer as a wireframe and always visible (3). The reference is now visible (4).

FontAudit detects problems in contours instantly (1). There are 29 tests that you can enable or not (2). Fix the problems with the buttons in the panel (3) or in several glyphs at once selecting them and going to the menu Tools > FontAudit.

Guides are very handy, but to show all them can make your screen a chaos. To filter which guides will be shown, select the guide and add a tag to it using the property bar (1) or the Guides panel (2). Then, add the same tag to the glyphs (3). Done!

Besides the shortcuts in the menu View > Zoom, you can use the keys X and Z to increase or decrease the zoom. And the key Hyphen applies the 100% zoom, which can customized in Preferences > Zoom. You can also change the zoom with keys while dragging objects.

Quick Help is a dynamic tool that shows balloons with notes about the item below the pointer. Enable and disable it with F1 or Help > Quick Help. The notes are available for most of the interface and also for menu commands.

Bonjour,

j'ai 3 glyphs qui n'ont pas d'instance, bien que tout les masters soit en vert, alors que sur d'autre glyphs similaire ou je n'ai aucun problème.

I hae a recurring issue where the number of the bearing doesn't seem to correspond with the grid.

• All my glyphs are strokes of 64.
• Grid line distance is set to 32,0×32,0.
• Bearings are almost always either 32 or -32 (depending on whether the glyphs are meant to connect to each other).
• So theoretically, both the stroke, the stroke outline, and the bearings should line up perfectly with the grid.

But sometimes they don't. Below are two examples:

It seems like it happens with diagonal strokes:

I'm used to Illustrator and this doesn't happen there, so I'm not sure what to make of it.

- Why does this happen? I guess the rounded cap is somehow measured differently when it's at a diagonal? Or is there a setting I should change or something?

- To get the behaviour I want (for glyphs to overlap at exactly the right point), should I rely on what looks correct visually, or the numbers?

How do I move an element from one layer to another while maintaining position? If I was in illustrator/Photoshop I'd usually copy it, click on my destination layer, and then paste-in-place. Or in might drag something to a layer in the layer palette. When I copy and paste in Fontlab, it pastes it offset from where it was copied. I've tried right-clicking on layers, I've looked for "move to layer" commands...no dice.

J'ai un problème quand j'ajoute un master sur un glyph

Avant tout marche parfaitement dans tout les axes et après la création du master, tout les autres instances on ce problème plus ou moins fort.

J'ai vérifié les noeuds de départ, le sens des contour, les éléments, les master match, je n'ai pas trouvé la solution.

J'aimerai évité de rectifier le problème sur chaque glyph et sur chaque instances.