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AsiaFont Studio User Manual

1. 0 Aligns to the closest grid line Pes e lt gt v Pe 1 Aligns to the left or bottom grid line x lt 4 x v yY oO 2 Aligns to the right or top grid line TE mp x gt lt gt K py 3 Aligns to the closest center of pixel x gt Y4 lex E p Aligns to closest edge of pixel or center of pixel A E g gt Y me y To set an alignment command on the outline 1 on the toolbar 1 Press the align button 2 Position the mouse cursor on the point that you want to align 3 Click the left mouse button Hold the SHiFt key if you are setting vertical commands and the point is inside an alignment zone In the Program panel the Align command appears as AlignV 12 1 AlignH 22 0 where 12 and 22 are point indices and 1 and 0 are the codes of the alignment rounding method as shown in the table above 933 534 Align commands are the very first commands in any hinting program They do not have base points and affect only one point Customizing the Align Instructions You can customize Align instructions with the context menu Right click the point to which the align command is to be applied and you will see the menu w Closest pixel edge Lefti bottom edge Right top edge Alignment type Center of pixel Double grid You may delete the command attach or detach it from the alignment zone this option is available o
2. Copy Ctrl E raste Ctrl Append Delete Delete Mark j Sort glyphs g oils Select 45 Default Edit in new window Remove Unicode aa Edit metrics Bo Add Note Create Glyphs Properties Alt Enter i bea Select encoding Macro Transform Ckrl T Ctrl Sh T Transform Range If you are creating glyphs in the yellow zone names and Unicode indexes are assigned to the newly created glyphs according to the selected encoding table 107 108 Highlighting Glyphs Sometimes you need to visually differentiate groups of glyphs to easily examine and select them AsiaFont Studio provides two methods of differentiation marking and definition of a glyph collection Marking Glyphs With marking you can add color to a glyph cell in the Font window There are five predefined colors red blue green magenta and cyan Marking is useful when you want to add structure to a font for example make a visual difference between digits uppercase and lowercase characters If you want to use this information internally in macros we recommend you use glyph classes described in the OpenType Fonts chapter but if you only want to have visual differentiation marking is OK ees ele eel 0 ta To mark the glyphs select them in the Font window right click and select the marking color in the Mark submenu of the context menu Mone Red Blue Green Magenta Cyan
3. nt Hame of the axis weight LE j All existing source glyphs Blend amount 150 Selected destination glyphs Tears e Do not interpolate compatible outlines J C Select the first and second fonts in the combo boxes in the top area of the dialog box and choose the Build the Multiple Master font option Enter the name of the Multiple Master font axis in the Name of the axis control You can select one of the standard names or you can enter any other name Click the OK button and wait while AsiaFont Studio generates a font Some glyphs cannot be blended usually these glyphs have different number of contours If they are present AsiaFont Studio will show a warning dialog box and these glyphs will have the first font on the outline layer and second font on the Mask layer so you can correct outlines and use the Mask to Master feature described below to build the MM font To not let AsiaFont Studio add nodes to compatible contours leave the Do not interpolate compatible outlines option switched on Those glyphs that had compatible outlines and do not get additional nodes during the blend operation will be marked with green color in the font window 615 616 Assigning a Master With this command you can take glyphs from one font and put them into one of the masters of the current MM font The glyphs of the fonts are linked using their names so the gl
4. Placerrent X and Y a Advance X and Y A single positioning lookup may tweak any of four values placement_X placement_Y advance_Y and advance_Y Modification of the origin point of the glyph will shift it and all following glyphs Modification of the advance vector will shift the next glyph in the glyph string 681 682 Value Record A lt valuerecord gt is used in positioning rules to define offsets to shift glyph origin or advance vector It must be enclosed by angle brackets except for format A in which the angle brackets are optional Note that the lt metric gt adjustments indicate values in design units to add to positive values or subtract from negative values the placement and advance values provided in the font in the hmtx and vmtx tables Value record format A lt lt metric gt gt Angle brackets are optional Here the lt metric gt represents an X advance adjustment except when used in the vkrn feature in which case it represents a Y advance adjustment All other adjustments are implicitly set to 0 This is the simplest feature file lt valuerecord gt format and is provided since it represents the most commonly used adjustment i e for kerning For example 3 without lt gt lt 3 gt with lt gt Value record format B lt lt metric gt lt metric gt lt metric gt lt metric gt gt Here the lt metric gt s represent adjustments for X placement Y place
5. Converting a Menu to a Toolbar In AsiaFont Studio some menus can be converted to toolbars If you open a popup menu and can see a tiny caption in the top area of it you can drag it to any place on screen and it becomes a toolbar view view Snap to Layers gt aes Snap to Layers gt t Guidelines Ctrl Sh L Toolbars at Hints Ctrl Sh H Toolbars gt Show Layers B Rulers FEI v Rulers Hi aii Glyph Metrics Zoom gt vertical Metrics Zoom gt zoom In va Nodes Ctrl Sh N Zoom In Zoom Out 2 Control Vectors Ctrl Sh W Zoom Out 7 Connections Ctrl Sh C amp Preview Mode Sh Not all menus have this feature but you may find it really useful OK that s almost all about customizing toolbars and menus Just a couple more things To reset changes you ve made in toolbars use the Reset All button on the Toolbars page in the Customize dialog box Customize Commands Toolbars Keyboard Menu Toolbars Menu Bar Show Layers w Standard Reset All Ww Tools New Use the New command on the same page to create a new toolbar After doing this add commands to it by the drag drop method described earlier in this section Customization of the Keyboard Open the Keyboard page of the Customize dialog box Customize Commands Toolbars Tools Keyboard Menu Category Set Accelerator for ej we ow Commands Current Keps Assign Remove Fress New Shortcut
6. The Meter tool panel appears k 0 364 bh 28 304 wR STE 378 grSi ABD This is a brief description of the fields on the Meter panel t s2346 Absolute position of the point relative to the glyph zero point R685 346 Reference distance relative to the position of the reference point 119 215 Horizontal and vertical distance from the beginning to the end of the metering line Ah G10 Angle of the metering line Note that you can open the panel at any time if you click on the E button in the bottom left corner of the Glyph window A second click on this button will close the panel 2 Position the mouse cursor on your first point 3 Press the left mouse button and drag the mouse to the second point In the Meter tool panel you will see the vertical horizontal and direct distance between two points and the angle of the vector connecting these points Hold down the SuHtFT key while you drag the mouse to constrain the measurement to 15 degree increments You may dock the meter panel to the top or bottom edge of the Glyph Window 375 376 While you are dragging the mouse you will see that the Meter tool sticks to any object that it can find in the editing field To measure the distance from a contour 1 Put the mouse cursor on the contour from which you want to measure 2 Press the left mouse button and drag the mouse to what you want to measure to Hold down the Suirt key and the direction of the mouse s mo
7. 1 Activate the Bitmap Positioning operation Select the Position Background command from the Tools gt Operations menu or press the a button on the Tools box or simply double click on the bitmap background while the Edit tool is active 2 You will see a control box surrounding the bitmap and a standard operation control panel with two buttons OK and Cancel Press the OK button to accept the new position of the background and the Cancel button to reject changes 3 Drag the handles in the corner of the control box to scale the background Hold the SHIFT key to keep the proportions 4 Position the mouse inside the control box and press the left mouse button and drag the mouse to position the background 5 Use the arrow keys on the keyboard or SHIFT arrow keys to move the background 6 Press the right mouse button to open a popup menu with the following commands Fit to glyph Aligns the Bitmap background so it will fit the glyph outline Delete Remove the contents of the background layer Click the OK button on the control panel or press the ENTER key on the keyboard to finish positioning the background 331 332 Hints And Links Layer Hints are used by the font rasterizer to improve a glyph s appearance on devices with low output resolution like computer monitors or low res printers A detailed description of the hinting methods and manual and automatic hinting features available in AsiaFont Studio is in the H
8. LETTERS_UC ABCDEFGHIJKL amp LETTE v MNOPQRSTUVWXYZAE rrr r gt oj 125 glyphs in this class SS OpenType Features Preview Anchors cpsp A feature cpsp E Script Language DFLT v He jaj BTL kem a pos LETTERS_UC PUN aalt cpsp Clepsp A ABCabet23 c2sc smcp Source onum case inum pnum amp Hu 2i tnum FIGURES a ho sups z FIG_TAB_LINING FIG_Fl qos a x Hee J B dove objects by dragging them left mouse button or press right button to open popup menu l To prevent the panel from docking hold down the CTRL key while dragging the panel s caption Multiple panels can be docked on the same side Use separator lines to adjust their positions With this button _ you can quickly enlarge a panel Click the button again to return the panel to its original size All panels that are not dockable stick to the edge of the AsiaFont Studio window and to each other so you can easily arrange them to create the most comfortable environment Every time you exit AsiaFont Studio the positions of all toolbars and panels are stored in Windows registry so when you run AsiaFont Studio the next time the environment will be restored Editing Fonts In this chapter we will discuss the editing of fonts A font is a collection of glyphs with similar design and some encoding and header information The information includes font identification names
9. Type 1 XUID More advanced identification codes for Type 1 fonts This number Numbers is used only in PostScript Level 2 printers Please refer to Adobe documentation for more information concerning the XUID field TrueType An up to four letter length code that is assigned to most Vendor Code TrueType producers to identify their fonts An uppercase vendor code must be registered with Microsoft or Apple All registered Vendor codes known at the time of AsiaFont Studio s release are placed in the drop down list box If you want to identify yourself without registering you may enter a lowercase four letter vendor code Below the vendor selection list you can see the full name of the registered vendor Click the name to open the vendor s page in a Web browser Use it as default Check this option to use the current vendor code as the default in all new fonts You may make your own code the default so you will not have to enter it every time Vendor dat File AsiaFont Studio stores information about registered vendors in the vendor dat file located in the AFS4 Data folder This is a text file with a simple structure 2REB 2Rebels 39BC Finley s Barcode Fonts 3ip Three Islands Press 918 RavenType As you can see it is just a vendor code followed by vendor name A single space is used as a separator If you want to change the file or add a new entry just open it in any text editor such as Notepad or WordPad and make changes 1
10. 666 OpenType Features Preview Panel When OpenType features are compiled you can preview them with the OpenType Features page of the Preview panel To open the Preview panel use the Window gt Preview panel command or click on the 2 button located on the OpenType panel toolbar When there are OT features defined the OpenType Features preview panel looks like this Preview x OpenType Features Preyiew Anchors Script llin ise Language DFT _ cpsp A ABCabel 23 ker a _Jaalt Source Iw c2sc z2 ABCabc123 _ case lrum prurm r Fesult _Jthumi _ sups ABCabC123 nue drom In the top part of the panel you find a command bar that contains script and language selection lists and some buttons When more than one script or language is referred to by the feature definition they are listed in the combo boxes on the command bar Use them to select the script and language to preview When a script is selected you will see a list of the features that are defined for that script and language Please note that when you select the non default language only features that are unique for the selected language are listed Every feature name has a check box Use it to turn the feature on or off When several features are selected they are applied in the order in which they are listed To the right of the list there are 3 fields source text
11. D When you click ENTER key to accept changes the data will be copied from the source glyph The Measurement Line To activate the measurement line click on this button You will see a red line appear in the editing area When the measurement line is active and visible the glyph sidebearings are measured not from the extreme points of the character but from the point of intersection of the measurement line and the contour Right sidebearing along the measurement line lt lt Standard right sidebearing The measurement line is very useful when you are setting metrics in a serif font usually serifs are ignored when sidebearings are calculated and the measurement line gives you a natural way to do that 421 422 Automatic Metrics Generation AsiaFont Studio can automatically define a glyph s metrics using a special algorithm This algorithm usually produces good results but we recommend manual editing for the best results To define the metrics parameters automatically click on the button on the toolbar or select the Auto command in the Operations menu or select the Auto Metrics command in the popup menu The Automatic Metrics Generation dialog box appears Automatic Metrics Generation You want to generate metrics for Curent character only wt How much white space do you want to leave around glyphs Custom metrics W3 ie i When do you want to keep existing
12. To add a component you select the glyph you want to use as a component in this dialog box and press the OK button Another way to add a component is to drag it from the Font Window and drop it in the Glyph Window while the CTRL key is pressed 391 392 Decomposing To decompose a composite glyph select the Decompose command from the Glyph menu or from the Glyph Window default popup menu The outlines of all components will be scaled and shifted according to their settings and added to the composite glyph If the component glyphs had hints then these hints will also be added and a hint replacement program will be automatically generated The link to the original component will be lost To decompose an individual component in a composite glyph right click the component and select Decompose in the context menu Component Positioning To activate the component positioning operation activate the Edit tool position the mouse cursor on the component s outline and click the left mouse button Alternately if the current glyph is composite only so if doesn t have any normal outlines use the PAGE Up and Pace Down keys to select a component for editing You will see a control box surrounding the component with four corner handles a cross in the center a centerline and the number of the component in the components list To select another component use the PAGE Up and Pace Down keys or the Tas key To move the comp
13. To remove marking select the marked glyphs right click and select the empty rectangle d in the Mark menu To simplify repetitive marking operations you can drag the mark menu by its tiny header and convert it into a toolbar Mark 109 110 Glyph Collection Another method of differentiating glyphs is to put them into a glyph collection A glyph collection is a simple list of the glyph indexes visually represented in a special panel To begin working with the glyph collection open the Collection Classes panel using the command from the Window menu You will see a panel with two pages Collection and Classes We will discuss glyph classes later so activate the Collection page now Collection Classes EJ Collection tiv x A Name Unic Width Type Ala 0041 554 237 30 EJB 0042 480 59 465 cje 0043 590 O3 2 _ 3 E1 oo44 Grd In the top of the panel you will see a small toolbar Opiy X A Ed and a list of glyphs below it To add a glyph to the collection select it in the Font window and drag it to the Collection panel s glyph list The list works in Report mode by default and has several columns Name Glyph icon and name Type Glyph type normal glyph ligature or accent mark To switch the list to a different mode use this button on the toolbar and select one of the modes in the menu 00 Large Icons oa List 0 Details Other buttons on the toolbar
14. You can see little numbers giving the position and slanting angle of each guideline near the edges of the editing field of the Glyph Window where the guidelines cross the rulers There are local and global guidelines Local guidelines appear only in the glyph where they were set Global guidelines appear in all glyphs of the font Global guidelines are very useful to mark important levels in the font by using horizontal global guidelines or to set the base direction of an italic or oblique font using slanted vertical guidelines Editing Guidelines Be sure that the Edit tool is active and the guidelines layer is visible use the View gt Show layers menu to switch it on Note that the Guidelines layer will automatically switch on if you add a new guideline To add a new guideline 1 Position the mouse cursor on the horizontal ruler bar for a horizontal guideline or on the vertical bar for a vertical guideline 2 Press the left mouse button The bar will appear pressed and the new guideline will appear 3 Holding the left mouse button down drag the guideline to the desired place and release the button To move the guideline 1 Move the mouse cursor onto the guideline that you want to move Be sure that no other objects such as nodes or hints are near the cursor 2 Press the left mouse button and drag the guideline to the new place To slant the guideline 1 Move the cursor onto the guideline near one
15. for the OpenType features GDEF Glyph definition table Contains information about font glyphs including their type simple mark or ligature cursive attachment points and position of the caret inside the ligature character GPOS Glyph positioning features Other tables may exist in OpenType fonts for example the BASE table that defines different baseline positions for non Latin scripts but AsiaFont Studio cannot work with these tables yet Please note that the presence of any one of these tables makes a TrueType font an OpenType font 642 Feature Definition Language Information about OpenType features is stored in a binary form inside the font file This is not easy to modify and not easy to handle with visual tools like the tools that AsiaFont Studio provides to edit outlines that are also stored in a binary form To define features in human readable form Adobe has developed the feature definition language It is very easy to read and it is the most compact way to represent OpenType font features Let s take a simple example a ligature feature that covers the basic fi and fl ligatures that are present in almost every Western font In feature definition language this feature will be defined as follows feature ligaf sub f i by fi sub f l by fl liga Other possible features are defined in a similar way keeping the feature definition both compact and readable When AsiaFont Studio opens an OpenT
16. unicode index or code notation where unicode index is the Unicode index of the character if the name record is for the Unicode 0 or 1 platform and code is the character code in the Mac Roman codepage if the name record is for the Macintosh platform For example you may enter 0411 for the Cyrillic beh Note that you can use the same notation in AsiaFont Studio s Metrics window or Preview panel so if you open a Unicode font you may test the name records there To remove a record select it in the list and click on the button Click on the amp button to remove all name records You can use the OpenType page of the Options dialog box to control the import and export of the additional name records OpenT ype Import Read only non English name records w OpenType Export Append OpenType name records to the names exported by default wt Import options Read only non English This is the default choice AsiaFont Studio will read name records only those additional records that cannot be interpreted to standard name records which have dedicated pages in the Font Info dialog box Do not read OpenType With this selection any record that cannot be name records interpreted by the default algorithm is ignored 177 Export options Append OpenType name This is the default choice AsiaFont Studio will export records to the names English names and then add only those additional exported b
17. 680 Positioning Lookups The OpenType specification allows you to define many positioning lookups The lookup types may be separated into three groups 1 Basic lookups single and pair positioning 2 The Cursive attachment lookup that allows smooth connection of script and cursive glyphs SWe 3 Mark attachment lookups that define relative positions of glyphs and marks 2 yg at gr AsiaFont Studio 4 can support only the first group of lookups single and pair positioning We expect to support cursive and mark attachment lookups in one of the next releases of AsiaFont Studio As in the case with substitution positioning lookups may be context free and context dependent Context dependent lookups are the same as context free but add a context that is verified against the source sequence of glyphs Only when the context is matched is positioning performed Please note that glyph positioning is performed after substitution and that all positioning lookups must be defined for the glyph string that is a result of substitution Glyph positioning rules begin with the keyword position this keyword may be abbreviated as pos The enumerate or ignore keywords may precede the position keyword in some cases The GPOS lookup type is auto detected from the format of the rest of the rule Glyph Geometry Positioning lookups may change one of the glyph positioning metrics
18. OpenType Panel In AsiaFont Studio you can see OpenType features in the special OpenType panel To open the panel use the Window gt OpenType panel command Below is the illustration of the panel that appears if you open the Palatino Linotype font pala ttf OpenType a 7 Si 2 oa oy A feature mep iS LC by LETTERS_SC sub GLE TTEF DEFAULT by G iPUNCT_SC aalt sub PUNCT 3 LINING by GaFlG_TABLOLDST LE CC sub GUFIG_TAE LINING by FIG_FIT_OLDSTLE smcp sub GUFIG_FIT EY _LINING by CURRENCY TAB OLDSTYLE armii sub GUCUARE S_LC by ACCENTS_SC ace sub ACCEN T n percent perhousand by numbersign taboldstyle TR sub numbersig lic E script cyrl Cyril LE by CYR_SC Papl eub CyR_SC v thm smep i gt aaa lt ee m zini Pi num wFGURES NING foFIG FIT LINING GiFIG_FIT_OLDST LE drom COFIG_TAB_LI frac yt laz w bS At the top of the panel you find a toolbar at the left a list of the features with two buttons below and a split field at the right The top part of the field contains the feature definition text for the feature selected in the list and the bottom part contains the global definition data which usually is a definition of the glyph classes You can use the separator bar between top and bottom panels to adjust their relative vertical sizes 657 658 Buttons on the toolbar mean Lary Open the menu The contents of the menu are described belo
19. Round distance There are three main options Automatic connection to the stem Manual connection and no connection at all In automatic mode AsiaFont Studio will automatically select the standard stem that is closest to the linking distance It will not connect the link with the stem if the difference between the distance and the stem width is more than either the stem or the distance In manual mode you select a stem to which you want to connect a link in the stems combo box and switch on the Select option However if the difference between the distance and the selected stem is too high AsiaFont Studio will not connect the link to the stem To keep from connecting a link with a standard stem switch on the None option Single Links The single link connects an outline point to a point whose position is set by another command If you set a single link that linked point will always be at the given distance from the base point Original stem vw lt Resulting stem Single link instruction A single link may be linked with one of the standard stem widths If it is so linked then the distance to the base point is replaced by the scaled and rounded stem width So if several links are connected to the same stem width the distances from the base points will always be the same Single links are very straightforward they have one base point and one affected point If a single link is connected with one of the st
20. To remove all actions from the program press the button To move an action one step up in the program select it and press the button or press the button to move an action one step down 479 480 Using the Preview Window When you make a program that includes several actions you can see an instant preview of the transformation program that you have made Press the Open Preview Panel button to open a preview window Original caim You see that this panel includes a sample glyph that is incrementally transformed You can see the results of each step of the transformation so it s very easy to control how your transformation program works With the Glyph to preview list box you can select the glyph that is used to preview the transformations Use the scroll bar at the bottom of the window to see further samples of the transformation actions program Press the Close button to close this window Saving and Opening a Transformation Program You can save the transformation program that you created and you can open and use previously saved transformation programs To save the transformation program press the ll button You will see a Standard dialog box where you can select a directory and enter a file name for the program Note that if you save a program in the Programs directory it will automatically appear in the Transformation programs list box the next time you open the Transform Range dialog box After
21. all Font Files All Font Files TrueType teh OpenT ype CFF otf Type 1 binary pth Multiple Master pth Type 1 ASCH Ure pal Multiple Master AS ClUn pta Available formats are TrueType ttf TrueType and TrueType flavored font format Depending on the OpenType export options discussed below AsiaFont Studio may write the additional data and tables that make the difference between plain TrueType and TrueType based OpenType OpenType CFF otf CFF flavored OpenType font format Refer to the OpenType chapter for more information about the OpenType fonts Type 1 binary pfb Single master Type 1 font format in a binary form This is the format for Type 1 fonts that is expected by Windows Multiple Master fonts exported as single master Type 1 fonts are converted to a single master font with the default weight vector of the font Multiple Master Multiple Master Type 1 font format If your font is single pfb master then this selection is the same as the Type 1 Type 1 ASCII Unix Single master Type 1 font format in ASCII 7 bit form This pfa format is used in most UNIX systems and can be directly downloaded into PostScript printers Multiple Master ASCII 7 bit form of the Type 1 Multiple Master format ASCII Unix pfa FontLab AsiaFont FontLab and AsiaFont Studio internal font format This Studio vfb format it is used when you select the File gt Save As command Below the format
22. y COUN 529 530 AlignTop and AlignBottom Instructions These instructions are available only when the vertical hinting direction is selected To add AlignTop or AlignBottom commands 1 Select the Align tool 2 Position the cursor over the point that you want to align and click the left mouse button 3 Ifthe selected point was in one of the alignment zones an AlignTop or AlignBottom command will be added to the hinting program If the selected point is not in the zone the free Align command will be added The AlignTop command appears as a Align top command Alignmentzone oe g The AlignBottom command is similar to the AlignTop command How AlignTop and AlignBottom Commands Work 1 In the prep program this program interprets every time the PPM is changed all alignment zones stored in the cvt table are aligned to the closest integer position 2 When the glyph program interprets the position of the point aligned to the zone by the AlignTop or AlignBottom command is set equal to the aligned position of the zone if the scaled distance between it and the zone is no more than 16 17 pixels The AlignTop and Align Bottom commands have two arguments the index of the point that is aligned by the command and the index of the zone In the Program panel these commands appear as AlignBottom 12 1 AlignTop 5 0 where 12 and 5 are point indexes and and 0 are indexes of the bottom and top zone respect
23. 152 A M 188 A y 188 A iii 4 ms Fight count 4 Total pairs 867 Lett court 9 AT Show keming only for the cu In the top half of the dialog box you see a table that has information about all the kerning pairs in which the current glyph is on the left Each row of this table includes the name of the paired glyph on the right and the kerning value You can sort this list by the names of the right glyphs or by the kerning value To sort the list click on the header of the column that you want to use as the sort key You can edit a kerning value or change the right glyph of the pair using the edit controls below the list The sample window in the bottom part of the dialog box previews the selected kerning pair You will immediately see the result of the changes in the Metrics window To add a new kerning pair press the Add button The currently selected pair will be duplicated and you can change it This is very useful when you want to add a kerning pair that has a value equal to an existing pair but the right glyph is different as in the Ta and Ta pairs To remove a kerning pair select it and press the Del button You may also remove all kerning pairs associated with the current glyph by pressing the Reset button 429 430 Automatic Kerning Generation The easiest way to apply kerning to a font is to use AsiaFont Studio s auto kerning algorithm This algorit
24. 398 Here is a preview of the Star s panel Star Properties Number of rays 5 Internal Radius 200 External Radius 100 In this properties panel you can change the number of the star s rays and the values of the internal and external radii AsiaFont Studio has a standard for primitives modules so if you visit our Web site you may find more primitives as add on modules Importing and Exporting Glyphs The most common format for contour based data is Encapsulated PostScript EPS Because this format is a native format of a well known contour manipulation program Adobe Illustrator another name for it is Adobe Illustrator format AI If we go deeper we see that EPS is much more common than AI but due to a well defined internal structure AI format has become a standard way of exchanging contour based graphics With AsiaFont Studio you can export any glyph as an AI compatible file and use it in any other program and you can import any EPS AI file compatible with Adobe Illustrator to add to any glyph of your font To export a glyph as an EPS AI file 1 Select the Copy to EPS command from the Glyph menu 2 Select the export directory and enter the name of the EPS AI file in the standard File Save dialog box 3 Press the OK button in the dialog box and the EPS ATI file will be exported to the designated directory To add an EPS AI file to the current glyph 1 Select the Paste fro
25. Axis 49 Defining 604 Editing Settings 623 Removing 624 axis graph 601 Axis Graph 628 axis map 601 Axis Panel 608 Background 232 236 329 378 baseline 311 314 417 Baseline Properties Panel 314 Bezier curves 58 245 bitmap background 329 Bitmaps 572 Bitstream 198 blend coordinates 597 blue marks 244 BlueFuzz 205 206 499 BlueScale 205 498 BlueShift 205 BlueShift 205 498 Bold 470 Break 271 362 BTBD 194 717 C Caps height 191 Caret Positioning 692 cell 160 CFF flavored 139 CFF flavoured 640 character 75 Character 20 identifier 62 Character List 478 Character mapping standard 74 Character set OEM 198 ShiftJIS 198 Symbol 198 Character Set 198 Characters Deleting 106 characters cells 70 CID 15 55 62 63 66 121 CID font 21 importing 61 structure 61 CJK 62 class Anchor 714 Component 714 Feature 712 Font 712 FontLab 710 Glyph 714 Hint 714 Node 714 TrueTypeTable 712 Class Based Kerning 435 classes 116 Classes Panel 436 CMap 15 21 61 65 66 121 Codepages 85 197 Double byte 88 Codepages mode 76 codes 74 Collection 110 Collection Panel 112 Collection Classes 49 277 College 472 Compiling 663 Component 392 Adding 391 composite 345 Composite 57 390 570 composite characters 390 Composites 350 connections 247 Connections 304 461 Context 676 Context Menu 23 92 Context Dependent Substitutions 676 con
26. But if you want to see the information and correct it select the Rename Glyph command from the Glyph gt Glyph Names menu Or just press CTRL on the keyboard You will see a dialog box Rename Glyph x Current glyph name and Unicode indexes UY 0041 Hew glyph name and Unicode indexes UY 0041 g Options 3 9 Replace existing glyphs with the same name or Unicode index Keep replaced glyphs with the new name or Unicode index Rename glyph in all classes OF Rename Next Glyph In the top part of the dialog box you see the current name and Unicode index indexes of the glyph In the middle there are two edit fields where you may change the information Below them lie the options controls To change a glyph s name enter a new name in the Name field If this glyph has a properly assigned Unicode index and you want to find the name mapped to that index in AsiaFont Studio s database press the Auto button to the right of the edit field and AsiaFont Studio will fill in the Name field for you 115 116 If the option Replace existing glyphs with the same name or Unicode index option is not checked then if you enter a name that is already assigned to one of the font s glyphs the OK button will be disabled and you will not be able to assign that name Switch the option on to allow AsiaFont Studio to replace glyphs Use the next option to control how AsiaFont Studio does the replacement
27. Getting Started When you run AsiaFont Studio 4 for the first time to run AsiaFont Studio double click on its icon 3 you will see a welcome screen for a few seconds and then the AsiaFont Studio window jw AsiaFont Studio 4 SE File Edit view Glyph Tools Window Help Ose sEBloa Bs FontLab on the Web Like almost all Windows programs AsiaFont Studio has a menu a few toolbars and a status bar at the bottom There is nothing special about the AsiaFont Studio menu except that you can position it any place on the screen The usual location is at the top of the screen but if you want to put it somewhere else just drag it there The same thing can be done with any toolbar you can leave them at the top or drag them anywhere You can easily choose which toolbars you want to see use the Toolbars command in the View menu or simply click the right mouse button on a menu toolbar or toolbar docking panel and you ll get exactly the same menu 7 Panels EE Tools Fm Macro Auto hide Customize Following is a list of common toolbars with a few comments about each Standard Contains basic commands like file open and save copy paste print and help Panels Controls the appearance of AsiaFont Studio panels shared windows used to control most professional AsiaFont Studio features Options Controls the appearance of basic Editing layers Tools Probably the most important toolbar gives access
28. If this command is not accessible it means that this stem is already in the list To automatically calculate standard stem widths press the TF Auto stems burton How AsiaFont Studio Calculates Standard Stems AsiaFont Studio can calculate standard stem widths only if some characters in the font have Type 1 hints so it converts links to hints first in memory using the most important glyphs in the font 1 It builds a table of all hints that are used in the font sorts this table by frequency of usage and selects the most frequently used hints 2 All selected hints are then compared with these most frequently occurring stem widths and hints with widths that are close together are combined into a single record 3 The list is then sorted again 4 The most frequently used elements are then selected and used as standard stems 497 Additional Control Data Some additional data may be set to control the hinting process BlueScale Controls PPM when overshoot suppression is switched off BlueFuzz Expands alignment zones in both directions You can set all these values on the Additional Hinting Parameters page of the Font Info dialog box Type 1 hinting global hinting parameters JEH Set values for the master FE threshold Blue Scale as it is s is egualto 0 039625 BlueShift BlueFuzz Cii g BlueScale is the PPM size at which overshoot suppression is switched off If PPM is less than BlueScale then oversho
29. In the options list you can choose what to do with glyphs that are thinner than the requested width vector A glyph may be aligned to the left or right margins or it may be centered in the width vector 467 468 Set Sidebearings Lett sidebearing s et egual to gt 50 Top E E MM Right sidebearing Set egual ta 50 Bittom m M Shift Mask Limit bounding bos D Use this action to change the sidebearings values of the glyphs You can set new values for the left or right sidebearings or change these values by entering the amount in font units So if you think that your font needs some more white space just select this action choose the Increase by option in the list boxes and enter the value by which you want to increase the sidebearings Here is a sample of increased glyph widths vf Autospacing Leave Medium white space around glyph HM Shape of glyph should Medium s inflate on metrics This action analyses the glyph s outline and automatically calculates its sidebearings It uses the same algorithm that is used to automatically calculate metrics in the Metrics window Refer to the Editing Metrics chapter for more information about the autospacing algorithm and options Adjust Metrics Lett sidebearing Adjust by 0 Units HM Fight EEEN Shift the Mask layer width Use the measurement line Kerning This action lets you ch
30. Right Classes Pl AA B B _AL left A keie _B B E right E _B left B G G meas J right J C _E tight E _H H GG KK C d right J There iz no kerming defined for this pair Expand Kerming The dialog box has a toolbar at the top two lists of kerning classes for left and right glyphs in the pair and a sample panel that shows the result of kerning of the pair The idea of this dialog box is simple use the check boxes in the left list to select kerning classes that contain glyphs that may be on the left in the kerning pair Then check the kerning classes that contain glyphs that will be on the right in the pair in the right list For example if you have a kerning class that contains glyphs similar to K it is unlikely that this glyph will be on the right in a pair but it definitely will be used as a left glyph in pairs like Ko The actual kerning positioning and the exact kerning value come from the kerning of the key glyphs of each of the kerning classes This means that if you have an _A class and a _V class which have A and V as key glyphs in each class respectively you must define the kerning for the AV pair using the Metrics window If you then checked _A class in the left list and _V class in the right list all glyphs in these classes would be kerned by the same value as the AV pair A preview panel in the bottom of the dialog box can preview the result of the cla
31. S00 ped p10 if m0 eng EDH Son qn w m HE a n 4 Here is a brief description of what appears in the editing field unlini Thick green lines Currently active set of stem hints Thin gray lines All other hints Inserting And Removing Replacement Points The contour segments to which you may assign hints lie between two hint replacement points green marks To define a new contour segment you add a new replacement point Remember that the node where you put the hint replacement mark will be the first node to which the hint set is applied To add a hint replacement point 1 Position the mouse cursor on the node where you want to set the hint replacement mark 2 Press the right mouse button You will see the popup menu with two commands Cancel does nothing and Add replace point here adds the replacement point Select the latter command and a new replacement point will appear When you insert a new replacement point AsiaFont Studio automatically selects the hints that should be set in the new contour segments To remove a hint replacement point 1 Position the cursor on the node that has an HR mark 2 Press the right mouse button and select the Remove this replace point command from the popup menu AsiaFont Studio will combine hints from the two segments trying to make an optimal hint selection It will not let hints overlap 505 Adding and Removing Hints AsiaFont Studio aut
32. Sample printing of fonts sample strings and individual glyphs Automatic Multiple Master compatible font blending OpenType based Kerning and Metrics assistants Smooth outline preview 15 16 About this Manual This manual covers the Windows version of AsiaFont Studio 4 We strongly recommend that you read CID Keyed Font Technology Overview Tech Note 5092 by Adobe Systems located on the Fontlab website to better understand the structure of CID fonts and CMap files The following chapters describe all of AsiaFont Studio s features in full detail They are organized to cover all the functions in their usual sequence AsiaFont Studio User Interface This chapter covers the basic definitions of the AsiaFont Studio user interface and its customization and gives a short description of all the AsiaFont Studio editing windows and panels Editing Fonts This chapter explains how to modify fonts copy characters change encoding tables select characters for editing and edit font info fields The Font Header This chapter provides a detailed description of the Font Header data and the AsiaFont Studio tools intended to manage it The Glyph Window AsiaFont Studio includes powerful outline editing tools that are described in this chapter Editing Font Metrics If you want to create a professional looking font you have to edit the font s metric data The glyphs widths sidebearings and kerning can be edited in AsiaF
33. The operating system needs to know which codepages a TrueType font can support To set this information you select all the codepages that this font can cover from the list of standard codepages that are available to the operating system To select the supported codepages automatically press the Auto button AsiaFont Studio will analyse the Unicode information available in the font and will automatically detect which codepages this font can support To add a codepage to the list of supported codepages select a codepage in the left list and press the Add button To remove a codepage from the list of supported codepages select a codepage in the right list and press the Del button To reset the list of supported codepages press the Reset button The Meaning of Supported Codepages in Windows In Windows 3 1x this information is not used In Windows 95 and Windows NT a font that has more than one standard 1252 Latin 1 codepage supported will appear as a font available for different scripts So if for example you set Latin 1 and Cyrillic codepages for a font with the name MyFont in Windows 95 and NT it will appear as MyFont Western and MyFont Cyrillic 197 198 Type 1 Character Set Type 1 fonts do not have such extensive support for multiple codepages The character names they use to identify characters are mapped to codes through the encoding vector There is one parameter that is used to tell Adobe Type Manag
34. Weight This axis allows you to change the weight of the font Tla PA a ne Ap ERRAR T EE LTS ks over the set dog The quick brown fox jumps ed over the lazy dog The quick brown fox jump pedoverthelazydog The quick brown fox jum nped over the lazy dogThe quick brown fox jur Changes in the weight the defined dynamic range may be very different in different fonts for example from normal to bold or from light to black or from bold to heavy depending on the designer s intentions Width This design axis allows you to change the width of the font The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog This is very useful in making text fit in a given space on the page If the Condensed style is too narrow and the Normal style is too wide with a MM font you can select an intermediate width style and the text will fit perfectly Optical Size This is an axis for high end typography In the pre computer age typographers used metal fonts that were aligned in strings manually or with the help of complex mechanical machines In those times fonts were not scalable and there was a separate physical typefont for each point size of a typeface And fonts that were designed for different point sizes of the same typeface had slightly different designs for improved legibility Designs of the same character for 6and 72 pt point size Wh
35. _kem 4 Agrve Aacute Acircuntles Atide Adieresis Aring After you accept the changes made in the class definition string the key glyph will get a yellow background in the preview panel 440 Editing Class Based Kerning To define kerning for a class you need to define the kerning for the key glyph of the class using the standard tools of the Metrics panel in kerning mode When you enter glyphs that are used as key glyphs into the kerning editing string and select a pair of them for kerning editing you will see two buttons appear below the glyph images 1543 Ea 1255 If you click on one of these buttons you will see a popup menu that lists all classes where the glyph works as a key glyph Pa Fi left Select the class name and it opens for preview in the Classes panel Similar buttons appear when you edit kerning using the Kerning Editor dialog box a olf olhe Their purpose is the same to preview classes in which the currently selected glyph serves as a key glyph 441 442 Kerning Assistance AsiaFont Studio has a special dialog box that can simplify the creation of class based kerning Before you start working with it define some kerning classes which have their name preceded by an underscore and one of the glyphs in the class is selected as a key glyph To open the Kerning Assistance dialog box use the Tools gt Kerning Assistance command Openlype Kerning Assistance
36. gt Paste offset to zero and Duplicate offset to 400 x 0 Duplicate offset 400 7 Bo Copp Faste offset lo p Close the Options dialog box and use the Edit gt Paste command to place a copy of the T bottom E Use the Edit gt Duplicate command to make a second copy l e __ 9 10 Duplicate it again and drag it to a place above the first segment a a Ma a Caii Sia Caii ia k oo ae el gic a L Use the contour snap function to position the segment Activate the contour snap with the View gt Snap to Layers gt Outline We also recommend that you activate the feature that will snap a point which you are moving to all outline nodes by X and Y direction aac abana Use the Tools gt Spron gt da one box Align to all contour points if snap to contour is on Use the Tools gt Outline gt V Mirror command to flip the selected segment 4 301 11 Duplicate the top segment and locate the copy above the bottom right segment wo Pu L 12 Left click on an empty area of the Glyph window and then click on the top left node of the top left segment to highlight it t 13 Activate the Add Corner tool F click somewhere and drag the line to connect the left line of the top left and bottom left segments 302 14 Then click on any other starting or ending node of the
37. master fonts in one font file A program that uses a Multiple Master font can select not only one of the master fonts but also any intermediate style created by interpolation of the master fonts So it can use not only Bold Normal Narrow or Wide styles but any style in between such as 30 Weight and 47 Width We will discuss this process in full detail in the next sections The Multiple Master font format is an extension of the Type 1 font format This means that Multiple Master fonts or MM fonts for short are compatible with all PostScript printers MM fonts can be used on Windows or Macintosh computers with the help of Adobe Type Manager ATM versions 3 0 or later For technical details and an excellent background in this subject we strongly recommend you read Designing Multiple Master Typefaces a book published electronically by Adobe Systems It is available at http partners adobe com asn developer pdfs tn 5091 Design_MM_Fonts pdf 589 AsiaFont Studio 4 590 Multiple Master Fonts Theory A simple picture can describe the main idea of the Multiple Master font format In the example we used only two master fonts and we changed only one property of the font using interpolation But we can define more master fonts and get even more choices for changing the design of the font For instance here s what happens when we use four master fonts now we can vary both the fonts width and weight 591
38. these tables may have 256 or 65 536 records one for each possible character code Long codepages are called double byte codepages and are primarily used to represent codes used in Chinese Japanese Korean or Vietnamese languages Codepages are necessary because we need to somehow encode text written in different languages in the one byte code space So when we have a text file encoded according to some codepage we use the codepage table to find which characters were used in this text We may have two different texts with the same code 192 decimal but in one case it may mean the Russian A and in the other case it may mean A Agrave Codepages are used not only to identify characters but also to simplify text sorting conversion of lowercase to uppercase characters spell checking and in many other applications where it is necessary to know which characters are used in the text 85 86 Because the Unicode character identification standard covers most languages it is usually used as the destination information in the codepage tables Here is an example of fragments from two different codepages that map the same codes to different Unicode indexes MS Windows 1252 Latin 1 MS Windows 1251 Cyrillic OxCO Ox00C0 OxCO 0x0410 OxC1 Ox00C1 OxCl1 0x0411 OxC2 Ox00C2 OxC2 0x0412 OxC3 Ox00C3 OxC3 0x0413 OxC4 Ox00C4 OxC4 0x0414 0xC5 0x00C5 OxC5 0x0415 OxC6 0x00C6 OxC6 0x0416 0xC7 0x00C7 0xC7 0x0417 OxC8 Ox00C8 OxC8 0x0418 OxC9 O
39. we recommend that you set advanced hinting information only after you finish editing the character s outlines at the last stage of font development Type 1 Hinting Tool Use the Type 1 Hinting Tool to create a hint replacement program To activate the Type 1 Hinting tool select Type 1 Hinting in the Tools gt Operations menu or in the Operations submenu of the Glyph Window popup menu Or just click on the E button in the Tools toolbar If the glyph that you are hinting contains TrueType curves AsiaFont Studio will open the warning dialog box Attention Contours have wrong directions or 4nd order curves are present AN Current glyph doesn t match Type 1 requirements Do you want to corect problems before continuing Always do correction Cancel Click Cancel to avoid activating the Type 1 hinting tool or OK to convert the glyph to Type 1 curves Check the Always do correction option to convert all glyphs that are opened for Type 1 hinting When the Type 1 hinting tool is successfully activated you will see a small toolbar Type 1 Hinting X The buttons on the toolbar mean lt Auto Automatic hinting fii 3 Hint V Allows vertical triple hints when pressed 503 504 When the Type 1 hinting tool is active the contents of the Glyph window change Glyph 66 B from Utopia Semibold Sele E doa piion e i z Type 1 Hinting X gt a e 5 ang dog Sng 500
40. window t tar tr A 2 ae rT gt of The main area of the window has scroll bars to change the view of the glyph and vertical and horizontal ruler bars 41 42 You can switch the ruler bars on and off with the Rulers option in the View menu A quicker way is to right click the ruler and choose the option in the context menu v Rulers zoom Bar Remove Hints d Remove Guidelines 4 Add New Horizontal Link HO Add New Vertical Link At the very bottom right corner of the Glyph window you will find a little expand button that when clicked on opens the Glyphs bar Greater question ak A gt ek sle etelelely This is nothing more than a slice of the Font window making it easier to access cells in the font window while the glyph window is maximized for precise editing work At the bottom left corner of the windows you will find two more buttons Lock and Meter The Lock button controls quick access to the font glyph when it is in the unlocked state s you can use the keyboard to directly access the glyphs I e when you press a key the corresponding glyph will automatically open in the glyph window The Meter button t controls the appearance of the Meter panel which usually sits at the right end of the glyph window toolbar and shows the current coordinates and other parameters of the cursor k 51451 hy 408 63 0 RSET OSS OEDS A 325 To the right of the meter button you will find
41. 1252 to better understand what the standard Windows glyphs are Windows Symbol Encoding If you want to have full control over glyph codes and you want to occupy all 256 glyph cells of the first byte range you should create your font using the Windows Symbol codepage The Symbol codepage begins from Unicode index FO00h and continues to FOFFh All glyphs in this range are mapped to the 0000h O000FFh range So the glyph with code F041h will be seen in Windows as A and so on To make a font using the Symbol codepage you have two options 1 Switch the Font window to the Codepages mode select the Windows Symbol codepage and place all glyphs in the codepage Export the font in TrueType format in Unicode mode 2 Switch the Font window to the Names mode select any encoding vector place glyphs as you want in the yellow area and export the font in Names mode Use Unicode indexes as the base for TrueType encoding should be off In either case select Symbol Microsoft Glyph Set in the Codepages page of the Font Info dialog box Without this the font will not be exported as Symbol and you will not have access to the glyphs at all The Problem of Glyph 183 middledot The glyph cell with decimal code 183 has different behaviors in Windows 95 and Windows NT In Windows 95 it is mapped to the Unicode index 22C5h but in Windows NT it is mapped to OOB7h So when AsiaFont Studio exports your font in the Names mode it automa
42. 2 Scale 4 and Slant Er tools on the Edit toolbar 1 Select the part of outline you want to transform or remove all selections to transform the whole outline 2 Choose the tool to perform the transformation 3 Click the left mouse button on the center of transformation and drag the mouse to rotate scale or slant Hold down the SHIFT key to constrain the transformation 361 Selection Operations You may copy paste delete and duplicate a selected part of the Sketch outline Use the following commands from the Edit menu Copy Copy the selection to the Clipboard Paste Add the clipboard contents to the current sketch Delete Remove all the selected points Duplicate Add a copy of the selection When you use the Paste or Duplicate command the selection is added with a shift from the original position You may control the amount of this shift on the Glyph page of the Options dialog box Tools gt Options Breaking and J oining the Sketch Outline You may break the sketch outline at any point with the Knife or edit tool To break the outline with the Knife tool select the tool 7 and click on the node where you want to make a break To break the outline with the Edit tool hold the ALT key and click the point where you want to make a break To join two contours position the starting or ending point of the first contour over the ending or starting point of the second contour Hold the ALT key down while moving the
43. 49 Output Panel 665 p Pair Positioning 684 Panel Transformation 295 Panels 48 PANOSE 186 PCLT 216 pfa 141 PFA 52 55 pfb 141 PFB 52 55 PFM 15 145 406 448 450 PID 176 Polygon 397 Popup Menu Guideline and Hint 337 Positioning Lookups 680 PostScript 15 78 141 184 399 406 language 21 PPM 213 486 529 572 preview mode 47 Preview mode selecting a string 410 Preview panel 276 Preview Panel TrueType 524 Type 1 508 Primitives 396 Primitives 49 Primitives Panel 396 Property Panel Baseline 314 Hint 341 Metrics 314 Python 15 17 49 134 697 698 699 700 703 704 705 707 712 713 Q Quick Save 424 R Random 475 Rearrange Contours 389 red marks 245 reencoding 117 reference points 380 Registry 366 Remove Overlap 462 rename 115 Reordering Features 660 Replacement Points 505 Reverse all 461 Right to Left 414 rotate 291 Rotate 460 Rulers 42 224 S Sample String Navigating 412 save current encoding 72 Scale 459 Script 650 Scripts 639 Searching 113 selection scale 291 selection move 291 rotate 291 skew 291 slant 292 Set Sidebearings 468 Set Width 467 Shadow 473 Shift 458 Show Connection mode 250 Control vectors 250 Show Nodes 250 Single Link 537 580 Single Positioning 683 Single Substitution 671 Single Master Font 631 Sketch mode 232 Sketch Mode 355 slant 292 317 Slant 460 Small caps 636 Smoo
44. AsiaFont Studio Windows There are only three types of Windows in AsiaFont Studio Font window Represents one of the opened fonts Glyph window Used to edit glyphs Metrics window Used to edit glyph metrics and kerning In this chapter we will provide only very basic information about the main windows Please refer to the Editing Fonts Editing Glyphs and Editing Metrics chapters to get detailed information about the windows and their features 37 38 Font Window As an exercise lets create a font in order to demonstrate the AsiaFont Studio Windows Use the New command in the File menu or click this button i on the Standard toolbar You will see the Font window 4 Font Untitled Kax LANI y ae DE 123 Wee oe Se ee a A dagaa o Kaa i EE La l 5 a 3 a lt i T Q E m D io S ta LA nQ U S a Do jca je a i ee ee es 1 Wi Beale a jor fos ete u e w ix y __ braceleft bar bracerigh asciitilde t ODE E gt oe lt As you can see this window has a caption with a few buttons and options and a big table of cells that represent characters and glyphs Each cell has a caption that contains glyph identification information name Unicode index or some other data Cells can also contain little icons that show properties of glyphs but more about that later There are no gly
45. Click on the button to the right of the Transformation range control to open the Fonts List dialog box Fonts List Options Destination directory Preferences 3 Click on the button to add fonts to the list using the standard File Open dialog box Note that you may select multiple font files to add Fonts C AAPSFONTS EBLG85 C PFE CNPSFONTSSBLG66 C PFB CANPSFONTSSFAS46 C PFB CAPSFONTSSFRS65_ C PFB 4 To remove a font from the list select it and click on the button Click the button to remove all fonts from the list 483 484 5 Use the Options controls to define the optional suffixes that will be added to the font name and to the file name during transformation M Append suffix to the font names Duine M Append suffix to the file names o In the same area you can select the destination format in which the font will be exported Destination format Sane as source w Same a source Type 1 PFE TrueType TTF FontLab VFB Type 1 PFA 0 Use the Same as source choice to leave the font s format unchanged The font s customized export options if source fonts are in AsiaFont Studio format or the currently selected export options will be used to build the destination font Note that you are not required to have any transformation program and you can use this batch transformation feature to convert fonts from one format to another 6 Enter
46. Converts all links to hints Same commands are duplicated in the Glyph Window context menu which appears if you right click in an empty area of the editing field 338 Autohinting Options You can customize the autohinting algorithms using the Type 1 page of the Options dialog box Tools gt Options Type 1 Autohinting Options Min width Max width Min length Aspect ratio Horizontal Vertical 200 All values are relative to UPM 1000 units o J oj o ii Remove all existing hints before autohinting Width limits Declares the minimum and maximum width of hints that the autohinting algorithm is allowed to create Min length Declares the minimum length of the nearest vertical or nearest horizontal vectors or curve control vectors that can be a candidate for building a hint Minimal length Declares a critical correlation between the width of a width aspect ratio candidate for the hint and the length of the vector that builds that candidate Remove all Allows you to remove all existing hints before autohinting the existing hints glyph If this option is switched off new hints will be added to before autohinting the existing hint set Of course a hint substitution program will be built 339 Some recommendations 1 If you want AsiaFont Studio to generate thin hints horizontal serif hints for example set the Min width parameter to a value less then the width of the serif Us
47. File Switch this option on to create a PFM Printer Font Metrics file when exporting a Type 1 font PFM files are used in Windows to register Type 1 fonts They contain metrics kerning and partially font header information You cannot install a Type 1 font without a PFM file Make AFM and INF files Switch this option on to make AFM Adobe Font Metrics and INF font INFormation files when exporting a Type 1 font These files are text files and contain descriptions of the font metrics kerning and header font names weight width encoding and other information It is possible to install a Type 1 font with Adobe Type Manager if you don t have the PFM file but do have the AFM and INF files because ATM will automatically build the PFM file using data from the AFM and INF files The AFM file is necessary to install a Type 1 font in ASCII form with pfa extension in most Unix based operating systems 145 146 To install an exported Type 1 font in Windows you must have the PFM or AFM IMNF files We recommend making all these files when you finally produce a font so that your font will be compatible with various environments Encoding Selection Options The dialog has a list of possible encoding export options Encoding options Always write custom encoding Always write Standard Encoding Export Unicode codepage if codepage mode tt active When a Type 1 font is exported you have the choice of including a custom
48. Folder name Description of the associated menu Bitmap Context menu when the bitmap background manipulating tool is active eect sn aL RT ARATE OSE AE nnn aa eee Ser ae eee ree eee cere nn ee FontsList Popup menu that appears when you click on the button in the Fonts list panel Sick ee cere arene ann nnn nnn nnn oe nnn ee e ar ee ae eee ee ERE a Sia de er ae ee Fae ae eae ae a ee een 703 704 Macro Tool With AsiaFont Studio you can define special editing tools that are entirely written in Python By default AsiaFont Studio provides 3 sample tools Curve Line and Drops To activate a tool 1 Open a glyph for editing in the Glyph window 2 Select the tool in the leftmost list of the Macro toolbar 3 Click on the button on the toolbar to activate a tool Activate one of the standard editing tools on the Tools toolbar to finish using the macro tool The default macro tools do the following Line tool draws lines Click the left button anywhere and drag the mouse to draw a line If the nodes are visible View Show layers Nodes you can continue defining a new contour by drawing a new line from the end node of the previous line Curve tool does the same but draws curves It emulates the curve drawing process that is common for Macromedia Fontographer and Freehand Drop tool just a whimsical example when you drag the mouse it adds a series of filled circles of random radius We will not doc
49. Info Dialog Box The control center where you define font parameters is called the Font Info Dialog box and is accessible from the File menu The Font Info dialog box consists of three parts Font Info FreeFontPro SB Names and Copyright Basic set of font names E Version and Identification Metcs and Dimension Fen Name E Encoding and Unicode l rn Type 1 specific settings Width Medium normal s Foti cele E TrueType specific settings Fort Nae ful Nane FOND Nane Build Hames Ad Check at MyFonts com i Font note seei ODAN 164 At the left there is a page selection control where you can choose one of the sections in order to edit part of the Font Info information When you select one of the pages it immediately appears to the right of the list I d 3 Basic set of font names ae Font is bold Width Medium normal z L Font is bo Use the arrow buttons in the top right area of the page to browse all available pages com Alternately you may use the CTRL TaAB and CTRL SHIFT TAB key combinations to browse pages 165 Command Bar In the bottom area of the dialog box you find the command bar prey sedchovgs tone JEL The Left part of the bar allows you to select a font for header information editing without closing the Font Info dialog box Use the arrow buttons to browse fonts ac or click this button to select a font from the list wf FreeFo
50. Metrics Window Just press the ll button on the Metrics Window toolbar The Standard Save File dialog box appears_ Select the destination format AFM or PFM for single master fonts and AMM or MMM for Multiple Master fonts and the destination directory Enter the file name and press the OK button to save the metrics file You may choose whether to save the font information inf file along with the afm metrics file or not Printing a Sample String While you are in the Metrics Window you can print sample strings with or without metrics and kerning information To do so select the Print command in the File menu You will see the standard print dialog box where you select the printer and modify printing options Press OK to begin printing AsiaFont Studio will print the string that is currently selected for editing or previewing in the Metrics Window The size of the printed string will be the same that is selected for previewing on the screen The string may occupy more than one line or even more than one page on the paper if necessary If metrics or kerning editing mode is selected additional information will be printed below the baseline in metrics mode the widths of the glyphs and the glyphs sidebearings and in the kerning mode the pair kerning values In the metrics editing mode kerning will not be applied to the printed string 451 Transformations In AsiaFont Studio you can transform glyphs in many ways You ca
51. Names Basic set of font names J Family Hame weight Normal 0 m Width Style Hame Font Name Full Hame Menu Name FOND Hame Font b Id Medium normal n Medium normal n Font is bo gt Build Names A Check at MyFonts com Family Name ac name 1 this mark i i me ID of the name in the TrueType and http microsoft com APIE otspec name htm The name of the typeface to which the font belongs All fonts that are from the same typeface must have the same Family Name field The Family Name is uged as the root of the Font Name so we recommend that you f li in this field first Weight of the font You may enter a custom value in this field or select one of the predefined weight names in the box Values in this list are sorted by increased weight value Choose Normal or leave this field empty if you do not care about the font s weight 169 Font is bold OS 2 fsSelection The Font is defined as bold Usually this checkbox is related to the Weight setting but it is not required For example if you are making a family containing Light and Normal styles you may need to mark the Normal style as Bold so you will not need to split these styles into two separate families More styles Press this button to open a popup menu where you can select one of the additional font styles This information is used only by TrueType fonts but
52. No Variation Gradual Diagonal Gradual Transitional Variation Gradual Vertical Gradual Horizontal Rapid Vertical Rapid Horizontal Instant Vertical Instant Horizontal Arm Style Straight Arms Horizontal Straight Arms Wedge Straight Arms Vertical Straight Arms Single Serif Straight Arms Double Serif Non Straight Arms Horizontal Non Straight Arms Wedge Non Straight Arms Vertical Non Straight Arms Single Serif Non Straight Arms Double Serif Letterform Normal Contact Normal Weighted Normal Boxed Normal Flattened Normal Rounded Normal Off Center Normal Square Oblique Contact Oblique Weighted Oblique Boxed Oblique Flattened Oblique Rounded Oblique Off Center Oblique Square Midline Standard Trimmed Standard Pointed Standard Serifed High Trimmed High Pointed High Serifed Constant Trimmed Constant Pointed Constant Serifed Low Trimmed Low Pointed Low Serifed X height Constant Small Constant Standard Constant Large Ducking Small Ducking Standard Ducking Large A detailed description of the PANOSE categories and values the so called Gray Book may be found on the PANOSE web site at 187 188 Other Identification Systems IEH and other identifications Kole IBM Class IBM Subclass Other Identification Systems YP ID Brush Script rr MS ID 4 Sotarereeinlie allio rakes IBM Identification The IBM Identification system uses a different approach from the one used in the PANOSE system This
53. Unicode indexes in the selected range will be arranged in order in the yellow zone at the top of the Font window In order to simplify working with Unicode ranges in AsiaFont Studio all the official ranges in the Unicode standard are subdivided into subranges You can work with the whole range or select one of the subranges For example you can select the whole Cyrillic range that includes all currently used and historic Cyrillic characters or you can select just the historic letters or only the Russian alphabet To select a range in the Font Window 1 Switch the Font Window to the Unicode Ranges mode by clicking the Ranges AX button The encoding selection combo box will show the names of all available Unicode ranges and subranges co Controls and Basic Latin CO controls ASCII Ci Controls and Latin 1 Supplement ISO 8859 1 aka Latin Latin Extended 4 European Latin Latin Extended B Latin extended B Croatian digraphs matching Serbian C Pinyin diacntic vowel combinations Additions IFA Extensions IPA extensions Spacing Modifier Letters Phonetic modifiers derived from Latin Miscellaneous phonetic modifiers Spacing clones of diacritics Additions based on 1989 IPRA Range names are aligned to the left of the list box and the subranges names are indented to the right Select the range or subrange that you want to work with and you will see the Font Window change so that only characters from the selecte
54. Use the Unicode edit field to change a glyph s Unicode indexes You may enter more than one Unicode index separated by a space Use the Auto button to find the Unicode indexes mapped to a glyph s name in AsiaFont Studio s database Rename glyph in all classes this option will automatically change the glyph name in all classes that contain the glyph being renamed Press the OK button to assign a new name to the glyph You will see that the glyph moves to a new place in the Font window depending on the currently selected encoding vector Unicode range or codepage If you want to rename more glyphs press the Rename Next Glyph button A new name will be assigned to the current glyph as if you had pressed the OK button and data from the next glyph will appear for editing Reencoding the Font In AsiaFont Studio you can assign names from the encoding vector to glyphs that are sorted in the Font Window according to a different encoding vector Or you can assign Unicode indexes from one codepage to the currently selected different codepage if the Font window is in Codepages mode In this operation AsiaFont Studio takes encoded glyphs glyphs that are in the yellow area of the Font window s glyph chart one by one and assigns names or Unicode indexes from the encoding vector or codepage that you select To reencode glyphs select the Encoding or Codepages mode in the Font window Select the Encoding mode to assign new names and
55. When you import or create OpenType features they exist as text based definitions To convert them to the usable binary format of the GSUB and GPOS OpenType tables they must undergo a process called compilation During compilation the feature definition source code text is checked for errors and glyph reverences are verified When is everything is confirmed OK the text is converted to binary form which you can preview or export To compile feature definitions click on the 2 button on the toolbar AsiaFont Studio will try to compile the features and if there are errors during the compilation they are put into a special Output panel There is one special error message if glyphs are referenced by the feature definition but do not exist in the font AsiaFont Studio will show the warning message 2 Some glyphs do not exist in the current Font Do you want FontLab to create those ghyphs If you click Yes AsiaFont Studio will try to create the glyphs using their names as the source of information The same algorithm as in the Generate Glyphs operation described on page 350 is used If you hold down the CTRL key when you are clicking the 2 button to compile the features AsiaFont Studio will compile the features and decompile the resulting binary tables as if you had imported them from an OpenType font file 663 664 Compiling the Classes There are two set of classes text based class definitions made in the feature definitio
56. Windows Open File dialog box when you select this command Save Background Saves the background layer to a bitmap file BMP or TIFF You will see a standard Windows Save File dialog box when you select this command Copy Background Copies the contents of the background layer to the Windows Clipboard You can also use the Paste command from the Edit menu to paste the bitmap contents of the Clipboard to the background layer Trace Background Automatically traces the background layer and adds the tracing results to the outline This action is available only if ScanFont 3 x is installed on the same computer You can customize the autotracing options in the Trace page of the Options dialog box Remove Background Removes the contents of the background layer Note that if you apply the Save Background command to the glyphs selected in the Font Window when the Font Window is active then the backgrounds of all selected glyphs will be saved using filenames that have the last two letters replaced by the sequential number of the glyph starting from 0 You can change the color which is used to render the bitmap background in the Glyph window in the Colors dialog box accessible from the Glyph page of the Tools gt Options dialog box Background Positioning This operation lets you set the size and position of the background layer Different sizes and positions of the bitmap background layer To set size and position of the background layer
57. _ Replace existing gl In the dialog box enter the composite name using the simple syntax base glyph name mark glyph name for example C caron A dieresis You may enter more than one name separated by a space or colon With the same dialog box you may create ligature glyphs like fl ffl or others Just enter the name of the ligature using the simple syntax first component name _ second component name _ third component name _ For example f_l f_i c_t 350 99 Check the decompose ligatures option below the names field to paste all the components outlines and make a decomposed glyph oo oy I I I I 1 r 1 r a If you click on the button you can choose and open the text file with glyph name definitions prepared in advance Check the Mark new glyphs option to mark created glyphs in the Font window with color Check the Replace existing glyphs option to place created glyphs in the occupied cells of the font chart An old glyph will be moved to the end of the chart in this case 351 352 Aliases Table AsiaFont Studio comes with an alias dat file located in the AFS4 Mapping folder which is the text file that defines the decomposition of common composite glyphs Here is a part of the alias dat file F ONTLAB ALIASES nbspace space hyphen minus periodcentered middot onesuperior one ordmasculine o onequarter one_slash_four onehalf one_slash_two As you can see ever
58. a distance to move the selection 4 Rotate Fotate o o a Center Zero paint Enter the rotation angle degrees clockwise and select a center of rotation Center of selection Eottom left comer Reference point 295 296 Scale Scale y 100 0 eN Uniform a Center Zero point Enter the scaling factor and select a center point of transformation Use the Uniform option to scale proportionally Center Zero point r Enter the slant angle degrees positive value slants to the right and select a center point ih Mirror Miror axis Center Center of selection Enter the direction of the mirror axis and select the center point of the transformation Use the buttons to mirror horizontally or vertically quickly Press the Apply button to apply the transformation to the selected area If you press the L button the Transform dialog box will open see the Transformations chapter below Pressing this button is the same as choosing the Tools gt Transform command If you press the button the previous transformation action will be repeated It is the same as choosing the Tools gt Repeat Transformation command Find and Replace Operation In AsiaFont Studio you can perform a unique outline find replace operation that allows you to replace an identical part of an outline that occurs in many glyphs with an alternative form It is also very useful in ana
59. a zoom selection menu If you click on it you will get the zoom menu that has same options that you may find in the zoom toolbar This menu is useful if zoom toolbar is not visible We will return to a more detailed description of the glyph window properties in the Editing Glyphs chapter Finally lets quickly preview the last window in AsiaFont Studio the Metrics window 43 44 Metrics Window The Metrics window is used to adjust glyph metrics glyph sidebearings and kerning Open any existing font from the disk e g FREESERF VFB from the AFS Samples folder To open the metrics window select some glyphs in the Font Window and click on the New Metrics window command in the Window menu You will see a new window Preview Metrics FreeFontPro Glyphs that are currently selected in the Font window or the glyph that is in the active glyph window will appear in the metrics window The metrics window has a main editing field scroll bars a command area and a local toolbar F ABCD aeco wy de ye J e nr eee a a te no mail m Me Fl Pete ae To choose a string of characters to preview or modify use the string selection control A B IE The button to the right of the control allows you to choose a pre defined string To the right of the button there is an options ial button Click it to get access to the Metrics windows Options dialog box where you can customize the
60. all pixels that are different in the rendered outline and in the bitmap are highlighted in red You can use this feature to separate the artistic and technical parts of the hinting process make good bitmaps activate the Highlight differences feature go into hinting mode and set hints so there are no red pixels Exporting Bitmaps To export embedded bitmaps make sure that this option M Export embedded bitmaps is active in the Tools gt Options gt TrueType gt TrueType Export dialog box Please note that the operating system will display embedded bitmaps only when a font is rendered in black white mode If font smoothing is activated in the system and allowed for the point size in the font bitmaps will not appear 577 Hinting Strategies This section will give some examples of visual hinting strategies that are 578 But even if the middle delta command is set on an untouched point it is applied to the point before final interpolation of the untouched points This point becomes touched after interpretation of the middle delta command so the position of other untouched points will be changed proportionally to the shift of that point Middle delta instructions We recommend using the middle delta command with untouched points when it s necessary to shift several points at once Usually you have such a situation on diagonal and curved stems 579 580 Single Link or Double Link We recommend using the
61. assigned Unicode indexes and codepage assigns new ones Visually this means that glyphs are moved to their new places Copy glyphs Add new Unicode indexes Visually this means that glyphs having more than one Unicode index assigned are copied to their new places Encoding mode Automatically generate If a glyph with the same name as one of the names for conflicting reencoding glyphs needs to be changed a new name glyphs will automatically be generated Exchange names of the If a glyph with the name that needs to be assigned conflicting glyphs already exists it will get the name of the reencoded glyph so visually the glyphs will be exchanged Some Examples Situation 1 You want to make a TrueType font that will have a non windows codepage in Windows say one of the DOS codepages 1 Select the desired new codepage in the Codepages mode of the Font window Place all glyphs as necessary Save this properly encoded version of the font Select the Reencode Glyphs command Choose the Windows Symbol codepage and the Move option Press OK OY OT eer NS See the results in the Font window Do not forget to set the Symbol glyph set in the Font Info before exporting this font Situation 2 You imported a Type 1 font with non standard encoding and want to save it with standard encoding to be sure that it will work in all Windows 1 Select the Reencode Glyphs command 2 Choose the Default Encoding and Generate Name
62. autokerning algorithm The most used option is How much white space do you want to leave between glyphs This controls how close the glyphs will be moved together while computing kerning in the pair The Allow for positive kerning check box lets the autokerning algorithm produce positive kerning in pairs Positive kerning moves glyphs apart from each other Positive kerning is usually not reeommended but there may be occasional circumstances where it is needed If you want to save the existing kerning the combo box lets you control the disposition of the existing imported or manually created kerning pairs You can replace existing pairs by automatically generating new ones keep them unchanged or select the condition mode The Maximum number of generated pairs and Maximum absolute value for generated kerning options control the possible number of automatically created pairs and the maximum normal negative or positive kerning value 431 432 Resetting Kerning To remove the kerning information for some glyphs or for the entire font you must use the Reset Kerning feature To open the Reset Kerning dialog box press on the or select the Reset Kerning command in the popup menu The Reset Kerning dialog box appears Reset Kerning What exactly do you want to do Reset kerning for all pairs in the string O Reset keming for all glyphs in the string Limit the number of kerming pairs to 1000 Delete all pairs th
63. buttons to change the order of the commands You may use special parameters to run external programs with the currently opened font as an argument When AsiaFont Studio recognizes this argument it will replace it with the file name of the currently active font or with some other parameters Suppose that current font was last saved into file named e fonts sample vfb Special arguments are p Full file name of the current font c fonts sample vfb f Name of the file with extension sample vfb n File name only sample x File name extension vfb d Path where file was saved c fonts a Path to AsiaFont Studio installation usually it is program files fontlab AFS4 Now you know everything about the customization of menus toolbars and the keyboard so you can click the Close button at the bottom of the Customize dialog box to exit the customization mode Important note in the following manual we will describe all commands buttons and keyboard shortcuts as they come with AsiaFont Studio without any customizations If you changed the interface but want to follow the manual reset all changes with the Reset buttons on the Toolbars Keyboard and Menu pages of the Customize dialog box Faster Method to Customize Commands You can customize toolbars and menus without opening the Customize dialog box by pressing and holding the ALT key on the keyboard and dragging buttons between toolbars or toolbars and menu
64. by the glyph class name For example dash endash emdash figuredash Assignment Space dash space Usage The part of the glyph class name after the is subject to the same name restrictions that apply to a glyph name except that its maximum length is 30 Glyph class assignments can appear anywhere in the feature file A glyph class name may be used in the feature file only after its definition When a glyph class name occurs within square brackets its elements are simply added onto the other elements in the glyph class being defined For example Vowels lc aeiou Vowels uc AE I O UJ Vowels Vowels lc Vowels uc y Y Here the last statement is equivalent to Vowels aeiouAE IOUYy Y No square brackets are needed if a glyph class name is assigned to another single glyph class name For example Figures_lining_tabular FIGSDEFAULT Ranges glyphs and glyph class names can be combined in a glyph class For example zerooldstyle nineoldstyle ampersandoldstyle smallCaps In AsiaFont Studio you can include AsiaFont Studio classes into the list of the OpenType classes so it will not be necessary to copy the information twice We will discuss this later 647 648 Including files Including files is accomplished by the directive include lt filename gt In this AsiaFont Studio implementation an included file must be located in the Features directory A maximum include depth of 5
65. classes 10 et ga il Save classes Close panel Reset classes removes all classes Open classes opens the class information from the text file Save classes saves information about the font classes to a text file Close panel closes the Classes panel Choose view mode Use this button to select one of the class preview modes in the drop down menu OO Large Icons D 0 List DL Details Select class Selects all glyphs that belong to the current class in the Font window 4 Mark class Marks all class glyphs in red A Remove glyph Removes the glyphs selected in the class preview panel from the class A3 Add component Adds the glyph selected in the class preview panel to the current glyph window as a component Three additional buttons are in the status bar Add class Defines a new class Remove class Removes the current class Accept Click the button to accept the changes made to the class definition code 437 438 Class Definition Every class is defined as a list of glyph names preceded by the class name _kern105 scircumflex scaron Kerning class names must begin with the underscore glyph this is necessary to distinguish them from the plain classes used in OpenType The class definition appears in the bottom part of the panel and you can edit it to add or remove glyphs After you make changes click the ENTER key on the keyboard or the Accept button and the p
66. collection of characters CMap files add mapping information to CID files allowing you to make references between character codes and character images Encoding When text is printed an important process takes place character to glyph mapping The source text in computer form is a list of codes that represents a list of characters A font see above is a collection of glyphs So there must be some way to relate characters to glyphs so that when the computer s operating system encounters a certain character it knows which glyph to print This mapping or vector is called the encoding Sometimes the encoding information resides within the font itself as part of the header and other times it is in a separate file Font Family It is important to know the difference between a font and a font family A font family is a set of fonts that represents some design idea Times is a font family sometimes called typeface Times Bold Italic is a font A font family may include from one to a few dozen fonts 21 Glyph name The only identification of a glyph other than its visual appearance is its name A Western glyph name consists of Latin characters digits and punctuation It is highly reeommended you name glyphs in accordance with the following rules 1 No spaces 2 No digits at the beginning 3 Only And _ punctuation marks are allowed in the name Menu When we refer to menu items in the mai
67. copyright data character encoding information and other data that is necessary for font usage 51 52 Opening Fonts With AsiaFont Studio you can create new fonts or open existing fonts for modification When you open an existing font however please be sure that modifying it does not violate copyright laws some fonts are copyrighted as software so it is not legal to change them in any font editor Carefully read the license agreement that comes with every font You can find two one serif and one sans serif royalty free non copyrighted fonts that you can use as a basis for your own fonts or characters in the Sample folder on your CD or on our website www fontlab com To open a font for editing select the File gt Open command or click the amp button on the toolbar You will see the Open File dialog box in which you can select a font file to open Note that in this dialog box you will see all the fonts that can be imported TrueType TTF TrueType font collection TTC Type 1 in binary PFB and ASCII form PFA PC CID CID OpenType OTF and fonts in AFS FontLab formats VFA and VFB Files of ype All Font Files M Font name me a TT OTF options keep instructions If you want to list only fonts in a particular format select that format in the combo box located at the bottom of the Open dialog box All Font Files All Fort Files FontLab fb FontLlab 2 5 vtal When
68. curve point End on curve point Some TrueType curves may appear linked together and form a long supercurve where intermediate on curve points do not really exist but are implied by the rasterizer On curve points ff Implied on curve UN Off curve points TrueType curves end with points that look exactly like vector points Off curve points of the TrueType curves have a plus in black white mode or light blue in color mode appearance 246 Connections The type of connection between graphical primitives is very important if you want to keep the contour smooth at appropriate nodes There are two types of connections sharp and smooth At a sharp connection the two connected graphical primitives curve and curve or vector and curve are absolutely free in their angle relative to each other at the connecting node At a smooth connection the direction of the vector and the control vector of a curve or the control vectors of two sequential curves are kept collinear lie on the same straight line I e the angle between the two primitives at the node is fixed at 180 degrees a Smooth connection o gt 7 Sharp connection a O u a It is very important to maintain the smoothness of the glyph s contours at the appropriate places Small corners sharp connections that are invisible when glyphs are small become visible and ugly when you print large text Furthermore rasterizing progr
69. defined for the glyph To change the properties of one of the anchors select it in the list and the anchor will be highlighted To change the position of the anchor use the editing fields below the list Position 127 459 To rename the anchor left click the selected anchor in the list and rename it in the editing field 127 409 Using Anchors to Build Composites The main purpose of anchors is to mark important positions in the glyph space In addition anchors may be used to link some glyphs and form composite glyphs Y ho Tt You can define a composite glyph using the Composites tool any time but that operation creates fixed composites and you would need to perform it manually for every composite glyph you want to create For composites that consist of a base glyph and one or more accent glyphs this operation may take a lot of time In contrast with anchors you can create virtual composites which can be converted to the fixed state at any time with the Create Glyphs command Glyph menu To define a virtual composite the first thing you need to do is to open the base glyph OES 345 346 Then you place one or two link anchors which must be named top and bottom at the points where accents will be attached SOP To gt T Tm To add anchor points use the Add Anchor command from the
70. easier to do it with the Metrics window When a MM font is opened in the Metrics window its three modes preview metrics and kerning work slightly differently The preview mode shows the intermediate font in the sample window Use the Axis panel to select the design coordinates of this intermediate font In metrics and kerning modes only a master font can be previewed in the Metrics window You can use the Masters panel to select the master to preview and edit or you can select it from the master selection combo box that looks and works exactly as in the Glyph window fwit wid ha So to edit metrics and kerning information select the master that you want and edit it as a single master font AsiaFont Studio will automatically track all changes and complete the Multiple Master data for the font Another difference is the save format for the metrics file If a MM font is open then a binary MMM Multiple Master Metrics file is used to store the metrics data Or you can save a set of text AFM files for each master and linked MM file Select the format that you want to use in the Format combo box of the Save File dialog box that appears when you press the Save button in the Metrics window Editing Axis Settings When you are editing a Multiple Master font you can change the axis names at any time Select the Tools gt Multiple Master gt Modify Axis Names command and you will see a dialog box Modify Axis Names Choose the axi
71. embed the name into the program code The latter way is recommended it allows you to keep the filename small but descriptive To name a program put the following line at the very beginning of the program FLM lt program name gt where the lt program name gt is the name of the program as on the following example FLM Shadow Effect note that there is exactly one single space between FLM and the name First Steps Lets write a few basic programs The Hello World program is a typical benchmark of the simplest useful program you can write It is very easy to do in AsiaFont Studio Python 1 2 Open the Edit Macro panel If there is something there click on the button and select the New program command to clean the editing field Enter the following code print Hello World Edit Macro w E print Hello world Click on the fi button to run the program You will see the output panel appear on the screen containing our text Output Helle world All text you output with the Python print operation appears in the Output panel There is more information about using this panel in the OpenType chapter on page 665 OK now let s do something more useful using AsiaFont Studio classes which are partially described below Suppose we want to find all the glyphs that are empty i e don t have an outline or any components The space is a good
72. encoding vector in its body or just exporting a StandardEncoding key word that means that the font has the standard set of glyphs and that the standard system remapping tables may be applied to it StandardEncoding is the recommended choice if your font is a typical Latin font If the font is in a non standard encoding like Cyrillic Greek or Arabic you must export it with the specific encoding In this case the encoding that is currently selected in the Font window will be saved with the font and Windows will use it to access glyphs If your font contains many glyphs that can cover more than one encoding then Windows will take the main encoding if present in the font or if assumed as in the case of StandardEncoding as the base encoding and will take all the other possible encodings from it How Windows ATM Interprets a StandardEncoding When a Type 1 font has StandardEncoding ATM assumes that this font includes all the glyphs from the first 128 glyph range digits alphabet and basic punctuation and the European glyphs 128 255 range The first 128 glyphs are called the top zone The 128 255 range is called the bottom zone The Adobe StandardEncoding includes very few glyphs from the bottom zone compared to the number of glyphs in the WinANSI actual Windows encoding encoding When a Type 1 font in StandardEncoding is installed with ATM ATM uses a special encoding instead of the real StandardEncoding as it is documented
73. ensures against infinite include loops files that include each other Specifying features Each feature is specified in a feature block feature lt feature tag gt specifications go here lt feature tag gt For example feature liga aoe liga A feature file rule is a statement that specifies glyph substitution or glyph positioning A feature block may contain glyph substitution rules glyph positioning rules or both AsiaFont Studio automatically separates features into feature records and provides feature templates that simplify definition of new features Language system In practice most or all of the features in a font will be registered under the same set of language systems and a particular feature s lookups will be identical across the language systems that the feature is registered under The languagesystem statement takes advantage of this fact It is the simplest way to specify a language system in the feature file One or more such statements may be present in the feature file at global scope i e outside of the feature blocks or any other blocks and before any of the feature blocks languagesystem lt script tag gt lt language tag gt When these statements are present then each feature that does not contain an explicit script or language statement will be registered under every language system specified by the languagesystem statement s If no languagesystem statement is
74. even into a different font With AsiaFont Studio you can put any part of a glyph or an entire glyph with hints guides etc into the Windows Clipboard and paste it into a different place To copy parts of the glyph s outline use the commands from the Edit menu or the buttons on the Standard toolbar Cut 4 To copy a selected part of the glyph onto the Clipboard and delete it from the glyph Copy To copy a selected part of the glyph onto the Clipboard Paste al To add a contour part copied to the Clipboard into the current glyph as a new contour Insert To replace the current selection with the Clipboard contents Delete To remove the selected part of a glyph s contour Duplicate To insert a copy of the selection into the current glyph as a new contour 286 When you use the Paste command the selection is offset from the original location You can change the amount of this shift in the Options gt Glyph dialog box Tools gt Options command LCopyPaste offset fion y foo On the same page you can adjust the amount of shift during the Duplicate operation Duplicate offset fioo 1100 Because the Clipboard is used as a buffer for copying contours you can paste glyphs and their parts not only to the current font but to any glyph of any font of any application that is compatible with AsiaFont Studio ScanFont 3 0 for example 287 288 Copying an Outline to Other Applications With AsiaFont Studio you can
75. everything about font level hinting and know how to set and edit stem hints from the Glyph Window chapter It s time to talk about hint programming The Type 1 hinting system requires that stem hints not overlap each other Because stem widths have no length limits and are applied to the whole character sometimes it is necessary to give special instructions to hints in order to avoid such overlaps Each of these hints should however work only on part of the outline 15 STARTPOINT Hint set 1 15 STARTPOINT 14 2 l Hint set 2 501 502 This program is called a hint replacement program and the process that it performs is called hint replacement AsiaFont Studio will generate hint replacement programs for every character where necessary but you can also set hint replacement programs manually if necessary to get the best possible results You can see the state of the character s hints and hint replacement program instantly in the Font Window There is a small mark in the left bottom area of each character cell If this mark is present it means that a hint replacement program is present If the mark is green it means that the program is OK that is there are no overlapping hints If this mark is red it means that the character has overlapping hints The hint replacement program will be removed if you insert or delete a hint or a node or apply any transformation operation to the character Consequently
76. example of such a glyph 707 708 First open the font that you want to check and open and clear the Edit Macro panel Type in the following simple program for g in fl font glyphs if len g 0 and len g components print g name Run the program and check the results in the output panel Lets talk a little about the code above for g in fl font glyphs This line starts a loop that assigns the variable g to each of the glyphs contained in the current font which is referenced as fl font if len g 0 and len g components 0 This line compares the length of the glyph outline and the length of the components array which contains all components with zero and if there are neither outline nor components it executes the next line print g name If the condition given in the second line is true this line prints the glyph name As you can see with only 3 lines of code we have solved a problem that typically takes about 30 minutes to perform AsiaFont Studio Python Classes In this section we will discuss a basic set of AsiaFont Studio we will use FontLab wording here since AFS is based on FontLab code classes and variables The full specification is available as a separate document for download from our site www fontlab com and most classes are also self documented For example to print a short reference of the class Font type in the Edit Macro panel print Font __doc__ And ch
77. exchange outline data with other vector editing programs Supported programs are Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia FreeHand To copy part of the glyph s outline to a vector editing program use the usual copy procedure The selected portion of the outline will be copied to the Clipboard Then switch to your vector editing program using the Task Bar and select the Paste command from the Edit menu You can change the size of the copied outline using the scale transformation that is supported by your vector editing application To copy an outline from a vector editing program into AsiaFont Studio select the outline object that you want to copy and choose the Copy command from the Edit menu in the source application To place the copied outline in AsiaFont Studio switch to AsiaFont Studio Glyph Window and select the Paste command from the Edit menu Notes 1 AsiaFont Studio can only edit font outlines not features such as color of outline outline width or fill color Regardless of the settings you have in the vector editing application only information about outlines will be copied to AsiaFont Studio 2 To see how an outline will look in AsiaFont Studio before you copy it in the source vector editing application select the object and set the fill color to 100 black and the width of the outline to none When you paste an outline from another application into AsiaFont Studio it scales it to fit the font s UPM To prevent the ou
78. fill a sample string is using the drag drop method You can simply drag any glyph from the Font Window and drop it in the Metrics Window and it will be added to the sample string If you hold the CTRL key while dropping the selected glyphs they will replace the sample string Selecting Previewing Size In the String Size combo box a you can select the size of the previewed string By default Auto is selected and the size of the previewed text is calculated dynamically depending on the height of the window If the string becomes too large to fit in the window a vertical scroll bar will appear allowing you to view all the editing areas of the Metrics Window 413 414 Right to Left Mode If you are working on a font that requires right to left reading like Arabic or Hebrew you can change the Metrics window to the right to left mode Click on the button on the toolbar and you will see that the preview string is written from right to left Preview Metrics Tahoma ABP ho macro m K Tuto ENES FBES ABCD ABCD amp Editing an Underline In the Preview mode of the Metrics Window you can view and edit the position of the underline that appears in a text editing application when the underline style is chosen The position and thickness of an underline are considered a font parameter and are part of the font s design To view an underline in the Metrics Window Preview mode switch on th
79. fina 687 Final Delta 554 578 Find and Replace 297 Font 21 Metrics 404 reencoding 117 Font class 712 Font Family 21 171 Font Features 636 Font Formats 139 font height 241 Font Info 72 164 Creation year 179 Font Map Panel 124 Font Metrics What are 404 Font window 38 Font Window 69 71 89 92 159 222 413 Customizing 159 popup menu 92 selecting 91 FontAudit 15 253 FontDirectionHint 215 FontInfo Copyright 179 Notice 179 FontInfo Ascender 191 Caps height 191 Created by 179 Descender 191 Description 179 Family Name 169 Font Name 170 Full Name 170 174 Italic 169 Menu Name 170 Revision 183 Style Name 170 Subscript 195 Superscript 195 719 TrueType Unique ID 184 TrueType Version 183 Unique ID 184 Vendor Code 184 Version 183 Weight 169 Width 169 x height 191 XUID 184 FontLab 15 139 format 141 FontLab 2 0 55 FontLab 2 5 55 FontLab class 710 Font Level Type 1 Hints 490 Fonts 49 Opening 55 Fonts List 477 Fonts Panel 131 Fotinfo Italic angle 191 FreeHand 288 G GDEF 60 642 Generate Names 122 Glyph 20 Glyph class 714 Glyph classes 646 Glyph Geometry 681 Glyph name 22 Glyph Window 40 221 open the 222 glyphs 74 Glyphs bar 42 Glyphs Bar 225 GPOS 60 642 Gradient 474 graphical primitives 15 green marks 245 Grid 315 Gridfitting 487 GSUB 60 642 guideline 321 Guidelines 236 316 377 Tracking 32
80. font Composite glyphs have no unique outline themselves but borrow outlines from other font glyphs Good examples of composite glyphs are accented glyphs like A a or i In each of these the composite character is composed of a character glyph outline and an accent glyph outline from elsewhere in the font AsiaFont Studio has all the necessary tools and operations to work with composite glyphs so it s usually not necessary to decompose them on import But if you want to markedly rearrange the glyphs and do not want to worry about composites you can use this option Of course you can always decompose or recompose the glyphs later using AsiaFont Studio commands When AsiaFont Studio opens TrueType fonts it always decomposes composite glyphs that have rotated or slanted components The second option is usually on We strongly recommend keeping it that way if you plan to convert your Type 1 font to the TrueType format The TrueType font format uses Unicode indexes to access characters so having the indexes set properly is paramount However if you do not plan to make a TrueType font you may switch this option off As in the case of the first option you can always make Unicode indexes later How AsiaFont Studio Makes Unicode Indexes In the AsiaFont Studio directory you will find the file STANDARD NAM This file contains a database that links the PostScript names of characters with Unicode indexes When you import a Type
81. from Fontographer In latter case AsiaFont Studio will automatically generate kerning classes and check them in the list similarly to Fontographer Kerning Assistance dialog box Ke ae ore ee coe file so you can apply it to a different font a mee ee F See E ere ee E i ee See iscsi canon ia E Editing Font Metrics Metrics Assistance Another way to use a kerning class is to adjust the metrics advance width and left and right sidebearings in the glyphs that belong to the class Use the Tools gt Metrics assistance command to open the Metrics assistance dialog box Metrics Assistance Ed a MO Class Mame Copy Metrics d d d d d d ull I MiMi Ow fo auns JITI N INIT Tit eresis Igrave Ntilde Eng Hbar Heircumfles Ibrew a H H I H lacute Icircumtles Idi App and Save _Save _ Cance It has a toolbar a list of the kerning classes a command area a preview panel and a class information panel that lets you change class definitions and define new classes Before you start working with the class metrics define some classes You can do that inside the Metrics assistance dialog box but adding classes with the Class panel is much easier 445 446 The typical procedure to define class based metrics 1 Select the class in the list 2 Check the checkbox to the left of the class name to indicate that that class must be processed 3 Inthe control area below the list check th
82. glyph window then the glyph in it will be replaced by the glyph from the cell that was double clicked Drag drop feature is turned on Switch this option off to switch off drag drop editing in the Font window 161 162 Smooth glyphs icons Activate this option to have glyph sample images in the Font window appear smooth This increases visible resolution but requires more computing power If you feel that the Font window is slow try deactivating this feature Show note icons If this option is on Note icons will appear in the Font window Sorting glyphs that are out of the encoding Use the options in the list box to choose how AsiaFont Studio will sort glyphs that are not white zone in the current encoding yellow zone Unnamedsunencoded last By the glyph indes By the glyph name Hide all windows with glyphs from inactive fonts When this option is on AsiaFont Studio hides all Glyph and Metrics windows with glyphs from any font whose Font window is inactive This feature helps to avoid screen crowding with many unnecessary windows The Font Header Perhaps the most important information you need to define for a font is its header or font info data This information is mainly used to properly register the font in the operating system and in any program that uses it It is very important to carefully define all font parameters Even the best designed font is useless if it cannot be installed 163 Font
83. height UPM is just a scaling base and for example all Type 1 fonts have the same UPM of 1000 Font height depends on the font design and may be different H 241 242 Contours The most important and most complex information in a font is the glyph s shape All glyphs are defined as a series of contours All contours consist of a series of graphical primitives straight lines and curves Nodes points that know their type define all graphical primitives Open and Closed Contours Contours may be open or closed an ed All known font formats reanskno5rCurs pen or but during outraigsist of Filled and Unfilled Contours Contours can be of two types black or white They can also be of two directions clockwise or counterclockwise The basic rule that applies to Type 1 fonts is simple clockwise directed contours are white and counterclockwise contours are black A simpler form of the rule known as the rule of the left hand is if you face along the direction of a contour black fill will be on your left side 243 244 Startpoint and Closepath All contours have a startpoint The startpoint is the first node of the contour The last node of the closed contour is automatically connected to the startpoint with a straight line which is called closepath The color of the start point in the Glyph Window is blue Optionally a contour direction mark may appear on a startpoint A You can switch this di
84. hints or links Hints are pairs of parallel lines that define the position and width of a vertical or horizontal stem Hints are independent from the outline they exist in a different layer And they are multilayered just like outline nodes are If you use hints to do character level hinting you will have to hint all the masters separately A better way is to use links Links connect nodes so they are not dependent on the number of masters in the font On export of the MM font the links will be automatically converted to hints and hints will be automatically generated according to the master s design So to hint MM fonts most efficiently use vertical and horizontal links to connect the outline nodes and you will save time in direct proportion to the number of masters your font has You can make a hint replacement program using the Type 1 hinting tool if necessary The preview panel of the Type 1 hinting tool will show an intermediate version of the hinted font according to the design coordinates selected in the Axis panel Use the scrollers of the Axis panel to see how your font will look on the screen when different font instances are generated 633 634 Generating a Multiple Master Type 1 Font When you finish your work with a MM font you need to build a font file that you can use on PostScript devices or printers To build a Multiple Master Type 1font choose the File gt Generate font command When the standard Save As dialo
85. ii HBOnBo iz HBOwxBO is HBOxBo 4 HBOxBo HBOxBo w HBOvBo bat th mh The top part of the panel remains the same and the bottom part is the sample string rendered at multiple PPMs You close the panel by clicking the Ee button Preview Panel Options With the Preview panel options dialog box you can customize the PPMs at which the horizontal waterfall and sample string are rendered To open the dialog click on the button to the right of the sample string editing control You will see the options dialog box Hinting Preview Options Liat F DDOkd be eee ee i 5 36 38 40 42 48 List of PPHs in expanded view Z I WA eee ee Contents of the preview text combo box S Open EN eae erri gt RUNAS AS AGREES ABCabel 23 WELMAMOPQRS TU ABCDEFGH E E hamburgewc WONS HAMBLIAGE ASHORE SHE VERSE 1 NAME GORGEOUS 40040 HAHH AAOH 1the preview combo bos Doo O OE Font to use it am At the top of the dialog box you will find two editing fields where you can enter the list of PPMs to preview in the horizontal waterfall line top control and in which to preview the sample string in the expanded mode bottom line Enter the PPMs separated by commas or define ranges of PPMs using the 12 13 15 16 24 Click on the Reset button to the right of the editing fields to reset the list of PPMs to the default values 511 AsiaFont Studio 4 Below the PPM selection co
86. in the Copying glyphs section or 2 Drag them to the other font and drop them there The drag drop method is easier and more visual Appending Glyphs to the Font Instead of the Edit gt Paste command you can use the Append command from the Font window context menu to add glyphs from the Clipboard to the font When AsiaFont Studio appends glyphs it respects the glyph names and Unicode indexes so on the first attempt glyphs will be placed in the expected code positions in the font Here is an example Your first font contains Latin glyphs but has no Cyrillic glyphs A second font is a Cyrillic font with the matching style and you want to add Cyrillic support to the first font 1 Select the Cyrillic glyphs in the second font this will be easy if you select the 1251 Cyrillic codepage or the Cyrillic Unicode range and copy them to the Clipboard Return to the first font right click the Font window and click on the Append command in the context menu Width Copy Ctrl C T4 Paste Ctrl D The Cyrillic glyphs will be appended to the font with their correct Unicode indexes and names so you will not have to re map the font alalalala velo eee ot olal BS 0 a EL JITRA M EOI afi TOM aFiitO eS TO E E ate H H H H H H H 103 104 Copying Composite Glyphs If you copy composite glyphs instead of having their own outlines composite glyphs are built from references to other
87. links you can just connect two outline nodes and hints will be generated automatically for each master when you export your font Refer to the Multiple Master Fonts chapter for more information about links 333 334 Editing Hints Editing hints is very similar to editing guidelines You can add new hints through the ruler bar of the Glyph Window drag them with the mouse and delete them by using the menu command or by clicking on both mouse buttons In contrast to guides hints consist of two lines that can be moved together or separately Hints cannot be slanted To add a new hint 1 Position the mouse cursor on the horizontal ruler bar for a horizontal hint or on the vertical bar for a vertical hint 2 Press and hold the CTRL key Press the left mouse button The bar will appear pressed and a new hint will appear Release the CTRL key 3 Holding the left mouse button drag the hint to the desired place and release the button To movea hint 1 Move the mouse cursor onto one of the hint s lines 2 Press the left mouse button and drag the hint to its new place Both hint lines will move together To move a hint s lines separately hold down the SHiFt key while dragging one of the hint s lines Using this procedure you can change the width of the hint Note While you are editing the hint its parameters are shown on the status bar To remove a hint 1 1 Start editing the hint I 2 Wh
88. located in the hhea table It is important to correctly define all vertical metrics if you want your font to align properly In most cases AsiaFont Studio can calculate vertical metrics according to the system recommendations but in some cases you may want to customize these values We recommend you generally leave these values untouched in an existing OpenType font Of course if you perform heavy modification of the font you will need to update the advanced vertical metrics If you want AsiaFont Studio to automatically calculate all vertical metrics select the option Calculate values automatically If you want to customize values select the Set Custom values option and edit data in the fields below Note that if you choose Set Custom values but leave all data unchanged AsiaFont Studio will restore the original vertical metrics data from the imported font and the new updated font will align exactly as the original one Here is a description of each value Typo Ascender This is the typographically correct ascender value It is the topmost line of lowercase characters usually the topmost line of the b character Typo Descender The same as Typo Ascender but for the lowest line Usually it is equal to the bottom line of the character p Typo Line Gap Typographically correct line gap value distance between bottom line of the upper line of text and top line of the lower line of text WinAscent OS 2 This value
89. may be set to control the hinting process FB threshold ForceBold threshold this parameter is used only in Multiple Master font and controls when the Force Bold parameter is ON in an intermediate design BlueScale Controls PPM when overshoot depression is switched off BlueShift Gives more precise control over overshoot description see below BlueFuzz Expands alignment zones in both directions You can set all these values in the right part of the Alignment page of the Font Info dialog box BlueScale is the PPM size at which overshoot suppression is switched off If PPM is less than BlueScale then overshoot suppression is applied If it is equal to or exceeds BlueScale overshoot suppression works only if the distance from the aligned point to the base line of the alignment zone is less than the BlueShift value and the scaled distance is less then half of a pixel 205 206 The BlueScale value is stored in Type 1 fonts in a very strange format but in the Alignment page you can set it using one of three different ways directly in the form that the Type 1 specification describes i e it looks like a floating point number as a PPM size or as a point size on a device with 300 DPI resolution Use the BlueScale combo box to select the BlueScale editing method and edit it in the is equal to edit field BlueScale Formulas The actual value of the BlueScale value is calculated as PPM 1 63333 800 0 The BlueFuzz value all
90. mean Reset collection Removes all glyphs from a collection Select collection Selects glyphs in the Font window that are selected in the glyph list in the Collection panel A Add component Adds the glyph selected in the collection to the current glyph window as a component 111 112 Using the Collection Panel You can drag drop glyphs selected in the Collection s list to the Glyph window the first glyph will be selected for editing and to other AsiaFont Studio panels If you double click a glyph icon in the Collection s list you will see a new Glyph window appear with this glyph prepared for editing Select a glyph and press the F2 key to enter glyph renaming mode Enter OK to accept any changes or Esc to exit If you rename a glyph you will see a warning dialog box asking you to accept changes Do you really want to rename glyph D If the list is in the Report mode click on the header to sort the glyphs according to one of the properties Searching for Glyphs Sometimes you need to find a particular glyph in your font especially in large fonts Select the Choose Glyph command in the Glyph menu or press CTRL BACKSPACE on the keyboard You will see a dialog box Get Glyph EJ C E Create unexisting glyph To find a glyph 1 Inthe left top combo box select the method by which you want to search for the glyph Name Searches for the glyp
91. nodes on the screen they will appear on the paper If you are in preview mode the printed glyph sample will be filled Zoom mode on the screen will also be applied to the printed sample of the glyph Using this feature you can print very detailed samples of the glyph 401 Editing Font Metrics Editing Font Metrics The tools in AsiaFont Studio that you can use to edit metrics data are common to all FontLab applications so if you have learned how to use these tools in AsiaFont Studio you will be ready to use these same tools in any of the FontLab programs 403 404 What are Font Metrics A program that aligns and spaces text calculates the total width of all the characters in a paragraph It then adjusts the widths of the space characters that separate the words and tries to put as many characters as possible into one line The information about the words that are used to make a paragraph and the information about the width of the individual characters is the only information necessary This is what is known as font metrics To position the individual characters the page layout program must have information about each character s sidebearings Kerning Kerning information is used to adjust the space between specific pairs of characters As you can see in the following picture some characters may be well spaced with just the bearings rectangle but other characters are not To fix this problem a special technique called ke
92. of the hinting program and does intelligent sorting 1 Align commands are always interpreted first 2 Double links are interpreted first also except that middle delta instructions may set points that are linked by double links 3 Single links and interpolate commands are interpreted in logical sequence Middle delta commands are interpreted after commands that set positions of the points for which they are set but before commands that are based on these points 5 Final delta commands are interpreted after final interpolation of the untouched points 517 518 TrueType Hinting Tool With the TrueType hinting tool you can set and modify visual TrueType hints and preview the real resulting TrueType font using the system TrueType rasterizer To activate the TrueType Hinting Tool select the TrueType Hinting command from the Tools gt Operations menu or press the Zz button on the Tools toolbar When you select the TT Hinting Tool you may see the message Attention A Current gph doesn t match TrueType requirements Sd order curves are present Contour direction is wrong Do you want to corect problems before continuing Always do correction Ignore the direction warning This message appears if the current character has 3 4 order curves that should be converted to 2 4 order curves to set Visual TrueType hints or if the contour direction is wrong The TrueType specification requires that contours in TrueT
93. point in the Current position editing fields Press the Apply button to accept any changes that you have made 629 630 Choosing Dynamic Range When you define a design axis you should choose the proper edge design coordinates and dynamic range for it It is important to make your font compatible with Multiple Master fonts made by other manufacturers Dynamic range is not so important for the Style axis because there is no standard for it and it is relatively easy to set the dynamic range for Optical Size because it is usually known for this axis So we have the Weight and Width axes to choose dynamic ranges for As you know the dynamic range is the distance between the lowest and highest design coordinates so all you have to do is to choose the proper low and high edge values The best way to choose these values is to compare your font with a font that already has these values assigned properly We recommend you use one of Adobe s fonts for this comparison Another recommendation is to choose edge values so that the design coordinate of the Normal style normal weight and normal width of the font will be 500 600 units Generating a Single Master Font You can create a regular single master font from an instance of a Multiple Master font using AsiaFont Studio Use the Tools gt Multiple Master gt Generate Instance command to open the Generate Instance dialog box Generate Instance Choose dezign position to generate insta
94. present in the mask font but absent in the current font The newly defined glyphs will not have an outline but they will have a mask layer that you can use as a template 325 326 Specifying Mask Appearance You can customize the Mask layer s appearance using the Glyph page of the Options dialog box Tools gt Options Open the Glyph panel and press the Colors button Colors e l You will see a dialog box Colors Mask Template Components Contour direction Background Outline echo Vertical metrics Using this dialog box you can adjust the color that is used to render various layers in the Glyph window The first color selection field defines the color of the Mask layer Open the combo box and select the color you want to use to render the mask on screen ZEEE E ETE gE EE E E f DE E g gm Other B If you don t like any of the proposed colors select Other and mix your own color Colors Standard Custom Colorz Fr S Current The check box to the right of the Mask layer color selector controls the appearance of the Mask layer s nodes When this option is on nodes on the mask layer can be seen The Mask layer without and with nodes 327 328 Template Layer A template is a kind of mask that is font wide and a Windows You could think of it as an additional glo all Glyph Template features and operations are very similar t can copy a s
95. sample string and the All glyphs in the glyphs list option will be automatically selected so you can instantly apply transformations to the set of glyphs that are previewed in the Metrics window Transformation Program In the middle of the dialog box there are two list boxes Available actors Prograrn E Contour Shift oP Seale y Rotate Slant Decamnmnzr The left list box called Available actions includes the names of all available transformation actions The actions are grouped in categories for easier selection The right list box previews the current transformation program You may add as many actions as you want to the transformations program delete actions from the program or rearrange actions to make them execute in proper sequence To add an action to the transformations program select the action use the and icons in the Actions list to expand and collapse the action categories and press the button Or double click an action name The action will be added to the bottom of the program with its default parameters To adjust an action s parameters select the action in the program list and enter new parameters in the Action s options area The actions parameters dialog boxes are described in the previous sections To remove an action from the program select the action that you want to remove and press the button Or double click the name of the action in the program list
96. selection list is the Options button that opens the Export Options dialog box and a legend field that describes the currently selected options for TrueType and Type 1 formats Type 1 options make AFM auto encoding TrueType options hinted keep aubohint visual export Unicode 141 142 The last option in a dialog box allows you to install exported font Use this feature with caution you cannot install the font if the font with the same name is already installed and is used in some active application Before installing the font exist all applications that may use it AsiaFont Studio installs exported font temporary They will work as installed ones only until system restart To install fonts permanently you select the Windows Fonts folder replace Windows with a real name of the folder where Windows is installed Editing Fonts Export Options There are two methods of selecting export options The basic set of 143 144 Font Specific Export Options In AsiaFont Studio you can specify export options for individual fonts Use the File gt Font Info command to open the Font I nfo dialog box described in full detail in the Font Header chapter In the dialog select the Type 1 specific settings item in the list of pages to customize Type 1 export options or TrueType specific settings to customize TrueType export Switch off Use default export options in the panel at the l
97. selection processing consists of two stages conversion of the code to a character identifier and searching the font for the location of the character description with the known identifier 41 42 43 20 20 space exellam 5A 5D 6F 55 21 exclam fs 56 57 58 59 22 quotedbl quotedbl 5A 5B 5C 5D 23 nunbersi gn nunbersi gn 5E 5F 60 24 dollar dol ar 25 percent 41A per cent 42 B AA BB Source text Encoding table Font assequence of codes ldenification of characters in the font The Encoding Table can also add more flexibility to fonts You can put many more characters into one font assign a unique name to each character and supply several encoding tables allowing you to select different sets of characters in the font when you use different encodings For example in symbol fonts the Greek characters take places that are usually occupied by Latin characters With the encoding tables you can include both sets of characters Just assign the correct names like alpha for the A character and A for the A character and later you can choose the symbol encoding to work with the Greek version of your font or choose Roman encoding to use the Latin characters In AsiaFont Studio you can include up to 65 000 glyphs in a font You can also select any of the predefined encodings to examine a font and then include it as the default encoding upon export You even can create your own custom encodings and use the
98. set of rectangles or squares Rectangle Simple rectangular contour Ellipse Circle or ellipse Free Rectangle that can be freely rotated rectangle 396 Star Star with customizable number of rays Polygon Polygon with customizable number of vertices To add a primitive to a glyph s outline select the primitive that you want to add and press the Place button on the Primitives panel Or just double click the primitive s name in the primitives list When you press the Place button you will see the primitive appear in the middle of the Glyph Window Primitives have a blue outline and several control handles that you drag to customize their shape Drag the cross control handle in the center of the primitive to move it The behaviour of the other handles depends on the primitive s type For example in the Star primitive the handles determine the internal and external radius of the star s rays and the angle between vertices that form a ray Try placing some primitives into the Glyph Window and drag their control handles to see what they do Use the SHIFT key to constrain the movement of handles For example in the Rectangle primitive holding the SHIFT key down will produce a square instead of a rectangle Every primitive has a property panel where you can set the primitive s parameters precisely Press the Properties button on the control panel to open the Properties panel for the primitive Primitive x 397
99. source preview panel and resulting preview panel You must enter the text you want to use to preview in the source text field Use AsiaFont Studio notation to enter glyphs that are not directly accessible from the keyboard followed by the glyph name and a space or V followed by the Unicode index You can also drag drop glyphs from the Font window or from the Collection or Classes panels into the source text field The Source preview shows the glyphs before OpenType features are applied The Resulting preview panel shows the glyphs after the OpenType features do their work Interpretation of the features is based on the OpenType specification and is carefully tested for compatibility with OS and Adobe InDesign interpretation However please be aware that feature interpretation is an application centric system so it may vary in different applications Use the buttons on the top of the panel to get access to options kek Click on this button to convert the OpenType kern feature into the plain pair kerning table This operation is described in the following section If this button is pressed AsiaFont Studio will preview the glyph metrics so you can see how the positioning features work RTE If this button is pressed both source and resulting preview windows work in right to left mode This is good for working with Arabic or Hebrew fonts 667 668 Converting the Kerning If you have defined a kern feature you can
100. system is based on the font s appearance In the IBM system two numbers that designate the font category and sub category identify each font A font s design is compared to one of the standard and well known designs To set IBM Identification information select a Category that matches your font from the IBM Class list Then select a sub category in the IBM Subclass list A detailed description of the IBM Font Identification system may be found in the TrueType font format specification on the Microsoft Typography Web site at http www microsoft com typography tt tt htm PCL and Ventura Publisher Identification These identification systems are relatively old ones and are rarely used in modern DTP applications However to keep compatibility with all possible usage of your font we recommend setting these options They are used only with Type 1 fonts and are exported only in the INF file Both systems are based on font appearance so they are close to the IBM identification system And both systems are one level so you just have to select a well known font that is close in appearance to your font To simplify this when the Automatically link all ID values check box is active and you select one of the values AsiaFont Studio will select the a similar value in the other combo box For example if you select Helvetica in the PCL ID combo box Swiss will be selected in the VP ID combo box If you want you may enter PCL ID and VP ID in
101. systems to correctly value into handle non Latin fonts It is not required and not fsSelection field recommended but if you find that you need to use this hack to get your font to work in an old OS just switch on this option and re export the font Use the following Encoding information is stored in TrueType and OpenType codepage to build a fonts ina cmap table Every Windows TrueType font cmap 1 0 table contains at least two of these tables One is the Unicode table and it assigns Unicode information to Glyphs The other is a single byte table that is used by older versions of the Mac OS and by some non Unicode compatible Windows programs Use the control to select the codepage that will be used to build this table There are two special options Mac OS Roman which is the codepage used on the Mac and the default choice or Current codepage in the Font Window which means that AsiaFont Studio will use the encoding yellow zone currently selected in the Font window There are two possible methods of making TrueType Unicode mapping tables Unicode mode This works when Use Unicode indexes as the basis for TrueType encoding is on and Names mode In Unicode mode AsiaFont Studio uses the Unicode indexes that you assigned to the glyphs while moving glyphs in the Unicode mode of the Font window or by entering Unicode indexes in the Rename Glyph dialog box In the Names mode AsiaFont Studio will encode all glyphs in the encoding cu
102. than in the current font Replace metrics that are wider than in the current font What do you want to do with the kerning data Do nothing Do not import kerning data from the metrics file Completely replace kerning Remove all existing kerning pairs and replace them data in the current font with pairs imported from the metrics file Add imported Leave the existing kerning pairs unchanged but add kerning data to the current new kerning pairs from the metrics file font Add new kerning Import information about the glyphs that form each pairs but autokern them kerning pair in the metrics file and apply an autokerning algorithm to these pairs The What do you want to do with other data option controls the font header importing option AsiaFont Studio can import the Font Info data from the metrics file and replace the current font info data if the Replace this data in the current font option is selected Note that when you open a metrics file while editing the metrics of a Multiple Master font only the metrics and kerning of the currently selected master will be replaced Be careful 449 450 Saving Metrics Files When you export a font file in Type 1 font format the metrics files in AFM and PFM formats are automatically written The TrueType font format includes all metrics information so it is not necessary to export additional files However if you want to export a metrics fi le alone you can always do so by using the
103. that both components look exactly as they look in respective glyphs and the only thing you need to do is to hint their relative position Usually all you need to do to hint a composite glyph is to put a few middle delta instructions on the contours of accent components so they will get a correct and symmetric position in the composite glyph You can however completely override hinting of components and provide new hinting program for a composite glyph In this case you may take a composite glyph as a combination of all components as if it is decomposed Automatic TrueType Hinting There is no special command TrueType autohinting in AsiaFont Studio There is Type 1 autohinting and automatic conversion of Type 1 fonts to TrueType instructions This is a more flexible solution to the TrueType autohinting problem because it allows you to use all the correct Type 1 hints that you have or to build both hints at once To automatically generate visual TrueType hints for the whole font 1 Select the Transform Range command from the Tools menu 2 Ifyou have a Type 1 font outlines of 3 4 order curves with a Type 1 hints set select Convert Type 1 font to TrueType from the program selection combo box Transformation program Convert Type 1 font to TrueType Convert Type 1 font to TrueType pe Autohimting 3 Ifthe font has no hints at all select Generate TrueType hints from the program selection combo box 4 Choose an applica
104. the Codepages mode to assign new Unicode indexes Then select the Reencode glyphs command from the Glyph gt Glyph Names menu 117 118 Depending on the selected mode you will see one of the following dialog boxes Reencode Font Current codepage M5 Windows 1252 Latin 1 Select destination codepage MS Windows 1252 Latin 1 MS Windows 1250 E astern European MS Windows 1257 Cyrillic MS Windows 1253 Greek MS Windows 1254 Turkish MS Windows 1255 Hebrew MS Windows 1256 Arabic MS Windows 1257 Baltic bdi haf Jo Ad Le Glyph names will be automatically recalculated during this operation Move glyphs to the new codepage Copy glyphs Re generate all Unicode indexes Codepage version of the Reencode Font dialog box Reencode Font Current encoding Default Encoding Select destination encoding Adobe Standard Encoding Adobe Symbol Encoding Cochin 144 Default Encoding HelveticaLinotype Bold 145 Macintosh Roman Pe a cm Acre Unicode indexes will be automatically recalculated during this operation Automatically generate names for conflicting glyphs O Exchange names of the conflicting glyphs Re generate all glyph names Encoding version of the Reencode Font dialog box Select the codepage or encoding table to which you want to reencode the glyphs and set the options necessary to control the reencoding process Codepages mode Move glyphs to the new Removes currently
105. the Font Info dialog box on the Basic dimensions page To change editing modes you can also right click the editing area and select a mode for the Metrics window in the popup menu Metrics Window Toolbar This is a simple list of all buttons available on the toolbar Opens a metrics file PFM AFM or MMM format A Activates the support for the measurement line When it is active all metrics are measured along the line Alternates between compact and expanded mode of the editing area 409 410 Selecting a String for Previewing or Metrics Editing If you are in the Preview mode you may want to enter a string to preview The easiest way to do this is to enter the string in the editing field of the Metrics Window Or you can open a list box of predefined strings and select one of them for editing detghijk Imno HCHHCOUHCOOLO Hy xehgS ABLDEFGH WELMAIOPO abedefghiykim Mopqrstuyiwsys 123456 390 All strings that appear in the list box are read from the preview txt file located in AsiaFont Studio s installation directory This file is an ordinary text file and can be edited in any text editor to add your own strings There is a spin button to the right of the sample string use it to scroll the strings without opening the combo box Raye You can edit the contents of the strings list in the Preview Options dialog box To open the dialog box click on the button Preview Options Contents of th
106. the Tools menu or press the By button on the Tools box 2 You will see a control box surrounding your glyph The control box consists of 8 curves with control vectors and control points 3 Position the mouse cursor on any of the handles of the control box press the left mouse button and drag the handle to a new location You will immediately see the results of the transformation E d 4 Press the OK button on the operation control panel to accept the changes or the Cancel button to reject the changes 384 You can select one of the predefined envelopes Press the right mouse button in the free space of the Glyph Window and choose Select predefined command in the popup menu You will see a dialog box with several predefined envelopes Select an Envelope Choose the envelope in the Effect list that you want to apply and fill in a Force option A force of 100 will make the envelope look as it is in the selection list A value of 0 will make a plain rectangle Check on the Randomize option to apply the envelope with random force When you select one of the predefined envelopes you can still modify it using envelope handles 385 Curve Using this operation you can approximate a segment of the glyph s outline with a single Type 1 curve i e remove excess nodes in a curve 386 Set This operation lets you set the position of the nodes very precisely Of course you can use the nodes property pa
107. the active guideline The Delete command will remove the active guideline The Align command is available only for slanted guidelines and will align them to the vertical or horizontal axis i e remove their slant and make them vertical or horizontal guidelines Global guidelines have an additional set of commands located in the Guideline Is submenu By selecting the commands in this submenu you can set the font parameters Ascender Descender Caps Height x Height or Visual Ascender and Descender that are used to set 100 zoom in the Glyph Window The local guideline menu has one additional command Create Orthogonal which you can use to create a guideline that is orthogonal to the current one Bid 319 320 Guidelines Tracking There is a special feature that lets you modify an outline by moving guidelines You switch this feature on in the Glyph page of the Options dialog box choose the Options command in the Tools menu to open the dialog box Tracking Options Hints tracking Tracking offset of UPM MJG uidelines tacking _ Track global guidelines POPC Cee terre When guidelines tracking is active and you move a guideline a distance not greater than the Tracking offset parameter all outline nodes that were on the guideline will be moved with it Original outline Same outline after topmost guideline moved up If you move a global guideline and the Track global guidelines option is on then all glyphs
108. the instruction program appears in gray Grid Gridlines Gridlines mark the edges of pixels that will appear in the selected PPM size E Centers Centers of pixels When the outline is filled all pixels whose centers are on the outline or inside the outline are set black This layer is very useful for delta hinting Ww Pixels Resulting pixels AsiaFont Studio uses the real Windows TrueType rasterizer to preview a filled glyph at the selected PPM after interpretation of the instruction program Point indices Point numbers There are also two special points that mark the left and right sidebearings of the character You can apply any commands to any of these points 522 Options Panel The main control center of the TrueType hinting tool is the Options panel TrueType Options EJ Current PPM Link to stem Round distance Round position O OF OF O Center Double Round destination Delta PPM range Delta offset 0 ee ee ee SPEREEdGdEEL Lesdbe rs OEE Cy12 Chas OEL Oie Current PPM size 523 524 TrueType Preview Panel In the preview panel you will see a waterfall preview of the current character and a preview of a string at the current PPM size TrueType Preview Sample string edit field Preview window HEOxBo 3 z BBE BBBBBBBBBBBBBB B Waterfall preview 5 6 7 9 10 11f H i i4 15 16 iF 18 19 20 21 22 2 4 25 26 27 ze To open the Preview panel
109. the path to the destination directory or use the button to select it from the one of existing directories Destination directory 7 Click OK to complete the definition of the list After you start the transformation AsiaFont Studio will open fonts from the list apply the transformation program adjust the font and file names if specified and save the resulting fonts in the selected formats to the selected directory on your disk Hinting This chapter is about hinting Type 1 and TrueType fonts Hinting is a rather technical stage of the modern font design process It is the stage where art truly meets technology You need a lot of technical information to make well hinted fonts and this chapter will give it to you 485 486 Font Scaling PPM One of the most important features of outline fonts is that they can be used on many different output devices from computer monitors to image setters Because character outline shapes are defined as sequences of lines and curves it is easy to scale outlines to any size and resolution However almost all output devices have discrete elements arranged in a regular rectangular raster grid and the images that these devices produce are constructed using these discrete cells Each cell in an output image has integer coordinates and is called a pixel picture cell On a computer monitor these are individual fluorescent dots On a printer they are dots of toner or ink To measur
110. the same width for the horizontal stems The most widely used stem widths are stored in the font header in order to force the rasterizer to render these stems at the same width This information is used to control at what character size the rounded stem width goes from one to two pixels and from two to three pixels A step from one to two pixels means a 100 width increase and a step from 2 to 3 pixels a 50 increase This means that near this value rounding errors will be maximal and control over stem widths will be necessary If one stem has a width of 74 units and another a stem width of 76 units and the UPM is 1000 units then at a PPM of 20 pixels the first stem will be rounded to 1 pixel and the second stem to 2 pixels Scaled back to the original coordinates this difference will be 50 units That is clearly too much for an original difference of only 2 units Standard widths work with stem hints When the width of a hint is close to one of the standard widths the rounded width of the hint and the real stem outline will be forced equal to the width of the rounded standard stem 495 496 Editing Standard Stems Standard stem widths are controlled through the Standard Stems page of the Font Info dialog box Type 1 hinting standard stems mnie Set stems hon the master v sens 038 Hens E0 ForceBold used to make Type 1 font looking bold Stem width controls are in the bottom part of this page st
111. this width For total control over serifs behavior you can also set horizontal commands that will control the length of the serifs Serit lengtn single link 584 Hinting Diagonals Hinting diagonal stems is the most complicated job in hinting There are no special diagonal commands so you have to set both horizontal and vertical commands to control the width of a diagonal stem We know two ways to hint diagonal stems 1 Define special standard stem widths Set vertical and horizontal commands attached to these widths and control the rounding of stem widths using the stems dialog box 2 Set the positions of one side of the stem using the usual commands align and link and set the position of the other side by single links that are not rounded and not aligned Adjust the width of the stem using middle delta instructions If a diagonal stem is intersected by another vertical horizontal or diagonal stem then we recommend using the interpolation instruction to set the position of the intersection points In most cases good hinting of diagonal stems is not possible without final delta hinting 585 586 Hinting Symmetrical Characters There are two types of symmetrical characters round characters like O and pike characters like V Round characters are automatically symmetrical in both directions So it s enough to set the positions and width of the vertical and horizontal
112. to grab the curve somewhere between the nodes and move this imaginary inside point The curve s shape changes accordingly We call this method non node editing This means that you can move not only nodes but every point of a glyph s contour You can even switch off nodes and still be able to edit the contour as you wish To modify a curve or vector using the non node editing method 1 Move the mouse cursor onto the place on the curve vector that you want to move 2 Press the left mouse button You will see a small color point that will show you the temporary point that you are moving 3 Drag the mouse and observe how the shape of the curve changes After a few experiments which can be undone you will have enough experience to use this method of editing Several notes that you should remember 1 In non node editing guiding objects are not sticky So temporary points do not snap to the grid guidelines hints or anything else 2 Ifyou choose a temporary point near one of the ends of a curve you will move that end not just change the curve s shape This is a useful method to locate a curve s endpoints 3 When you press the mouse button to begin non node editing you will see that the endpoints of the curve as well as the control vectors appear simplifying the editing of this primitive 4 Ifyou want to highlight the line or curve but don t want to modify it hold down the CTRL key while click
113. to Master Action You can use a mask layer to construct a MM font from the existing styles of a typeface Let s take a typeface that has Normal and Bold styles and show how to make a MM font with the Weight axis 1 Open the Normal style of the typeface 2 Open the Bold style Now you have two fonts open 3 Activate the Font window that contains the Normal typeface and define a new axis Weight Define New Axis Hame the axis Full Name Assign the short name two letters Short Hame Select the axis type Axis Type Convert hints to links before addition of the new ais 617 618 4 Open the Assign Mask dialog box select the Tools gt Assign Mask command and assign a mask from the Bold style Assign Mask Choose font that you want to use as mask of the current font FreeFontPro eae sae Tou have selected font Utopia Semibold Cabc123 Create new glyphs if they do not exist in the font 5 Close the Bold style font Now you have a Multiple Master font that has one axis two masters that are still the same and a Bold style on the Mask layer Don t forget to switch on the Mask layer in the Options toolbox Open any character for editing and activate the Wt1 layer switch on preview mode and select an intermediate position of the design coordinates in the Axis panel Dino Aigi Weight amp Look in the top rig
114. to any place on your screen or you can dock it at the top or bottom area of the Glyph Window To hide the Zoom toolbar use this button in the top right area of the Glyph window oa Some editing tools which we discuss later may have their own toolbars that may also be docked to the sides of the Glyph Window or they can be left floating around eA NOU A z k There is a control marks panel in the right top area of the local toolbar Control Marks This panel duplicates some of the information that appears in the character cell of the Font Window so that you can instantly get important information about the current glyph 223 The Glyphs Bar To open the Glyphs Bar you click on the Glyphs Bar expand button I or press the B key when the Glyph Window is active greater question at If the Glyphs Bar is open you use the Tas key to switch between the editing area and the Glyphs Bar When the Glyphs Bar has focus it is slightly highlighted To customize the Glyphs Bar s appearance right click it and select one of the options in the popup menu Show caption To show or not show the cell s caption Name Unicode Choice of information to show in the caption Options are the Index Width same as the choices in the Font Window Decimal Hex Octal ANSI Show Marks To show or not show additional glyph information in every cell Same as Show additional information in the characters ce
115. to editing tools that you will use to work on glyph shapes Macro Opens the Macro Call panel which gives quick access to pre written macro programs that can automate various font editing tasks You may notice a few italic terms We will describe them later Specifically panels and Glyph window will be described in a few pages Editing layers in the Glyph Window chapter and macro programs in Macro Programming chapter OK we are almost ready to open a sample font but before we do lets talk about customization of the AsiaFont Studio user interface 25 26 Customizing AFS User Interface As you may infer from the title of this section most of the AsiaFont Studio user interface which means menus toolbars and keyboard shortcuts is customizable We believe our default interface is the easiest to use but if for some reason you don t like it you are free to make any changes you want If you don t want to change anything in the AsiaFont Studio user interface you can fast forward to the next section The general idea of customization is simple there is a long list of commands that you can use and three kind of controls menus toolbars and keyboard shortcuts Through customization you can assign any command to a menu item button on a toolbar or combination of keys pressed on a keyboard In addition you can organize commands in popup menus or toolbars Most of the customization commands are concentrated in the Custo
116. to insert the node Press and hold the right mouse button You will see a mark that shows you the current position of the mouse cursor This mark will stick to all objects in the editing field including nodes and glyph contours Position the mark on the point where you want to insert the node and click the left mouse button The new node will appear in that place Using the Knife tool to insert nodes 1 2 1 2 2 Activate the Knife tool 4 Click on the point on the contour where you want to insert a node Press the left mouse button anywhere on the empty area of the editing field and drag the mouse to form a knife line After you release the mouse button new nodes will be inserted at all points where this line crossed the outline Hold down the Suitrt key to constrain the direction of the knife line to 15 degree increments If the knife line will cross two lines you may find a part of the glyph to cut off Hold the ALT key to limit Knife tool to insert new nodes only Using the Add Corner Add Curve and Add Tangent tools 1 2 Activate one of the tools Click on any outline point The Corner tool will add a straight line the Curve tool will add a smooth connection and curve and the Tangent tool a sharp connection and curve Note You can insert nodes on the closing vector that automatically connects the first and last nodes of a contour If you insert nodes on the first half of a closing ve
117. use a small set of high level hinting instructions that are automatically compiled to TrueType instructions during font export Because these instructions can be set and edited visually we call them visual TrueType hints or just visual hints Visual hints are enough to define TrueType hints even in very complex situations and they are compiled in very compact and effective TrueType instruction code The visual hint set includes the following commands Align Aligns moves the position of the outline point to the designated position on the grid or to the edge of the alignment zone Single Link Sets the position of the point relative to the position of another point Distance can be linked with one of the stem widths Distances also may be rounded or not Double Link Sets the distance between two points to an integer value that may be linked with a stem width Middle Delta Slightly shifts a point at a specific PPM This command works before the final interpolation of untouched points Final Delta Slightly shifts a point at a specific PPM This command works after the final interpolation of untouched points This command is used for the final outline correction All commands are available in horizontal and vertical directions There are no diagonal visual instructions Sequence of commands Visual commands may be set in any sequence but they are interpreted in a very specific order AsiaFont Studio automatically detects the logic
118. we recommend that you fill in the Family Name field generate or manually fill in the Style Name field and press this button to create the Font and Full names If necessary you can edit the names later 170 How to Make a Font Family If you have several styles of one font family typeface you should follow these simple rules Enter the name of the font family in the Family Name record Enter the same name in the Menu Name record but control the length of the Menu Name by pressing on the Check button The Family Name and Menu name should be the same for all fonts of the family Select the correct styles for all fonts Choose Normal or Regular weight for the normal style check the Font italic option for the italic or oblique style and use the Font is bold option to define a style as bold It is recommended but not required that you select the proper weight and width names You can enter any name but we highly recommend using only the standard names from the list Fill in the Style Name field We recommend using the Build Style Name button Fill in the Font Name and Full Name fields The best way is to press the Build Names records button and let AsiaFont Studio fill in all the fields automatically Note 1 Fonts in both formats may include only 4 styles in a family These styles are normal bold italic and bold italic and their names are very standard and automatically generated by Adobe Type Manager If you have more than four sty
119. we recommend you always set it properly to simplify future font identification Style Name name 2 Contains complete style information about the font We recommend that you fill in the Weight Width and Italic data to automatically generate this field using the Build Style Name button and edit this field if necessary Build Style Press this button to automatically generate the Style Name field Name Style names are based on the Width Weight and Italic information Font Name name 6 PostScript name This name will be used by a PostScript print driver to reference the font Do not include spaces in this name Full Name name 4 More detailed font name It may include spaces as well as any other characters this is the name that is exposed to users when the font is installed in Windows Menu Name The name used to access the font in applications This name must not include style information bold italic or similar The length of this field is limited to 31 characters for TrueType or single master Type 1 fonts and to 7 characters for Multiple Master fonts To ensure that the current Menu name is made properly press the Check button FOND Name This name is used by the Mac OS to organize fonts into font families Windows does not use it We recommend you fill in this name if you plan to port your font to Mac Build Names Press this button to automatically generate the Font Name and Full Name fields If you are creating a new font
120. will refresh Selecting all glyphs that have no outline or components fl Unselect for g in fl font if len g 0 and len g components fl Select g index First thing we do is deselect the font It is faster to deselect all glyphs at once than to change the selection of all glyphs In our example we are selecting only those glyphs that comply with the condition Please refer to our website www fontlab com for more examples and information about macro programs You may also examine the source code of the sample programs that are supplied with AsiaFont Studio 715 Index 3 3D Extrusion 473 3D Rotate 474 A Actions Hints and Guidelines 338 Actions 304 Adjust Metrics 469 Adjusting Metrics 433 Adobe Acrobat 61 Adobe Illustrator 288 399 Adobe Standard Encoding 78 Adobe Systems 16 21 AFM 15 145 406 424 448 450 AFS user interface 16 26 Al 399 Aliases Table 352 Align 532 AlignBottom 530 Alignment zones 236 Alignment Zones 201 354 491 529 625 Family 202 494 AlignTop 530 Alternate Substitution 675 Anchors 236 342 377 394 Anchors Panel 348 Anisotropic Interpolation 600 610 ANSI 78 413 Append 103 Arabic 198 Ascender 191 193 Autohint 59 150 465 autokerning 15 Automatic Kerning Generation 430 Automatic Metrics Generation 422 Automatic TrueType Hinting 571 Autoreplace 466 Autoreplacing 508 Autosave 99 autospacing 15 Autospacing 469 axes 592
121. window One powerful option in this dialog box is support for a second preview string The second string appears below the main preview string and can be used to compare different characters The second string is not directly editable Metrics Window Toolbar The Buttons on the toolbar mean ABCD t Open metrics file With the metrics window you can import metrics and kerning information from AFM PFM or MMM in the case of a Multiple Master font Save metrics file You can save AFM PFM AMFM and MMM files to use them later with other fonts H Quick save Click this button to store current information about metrics to a special temporary file If you do it before any serious modification of the metrics you can easily undo changes ti Quick open Restores metrics data saved with the Quick save command lt Auto Automatically calculates metrics or kerning A Reset kerning In Kerning mode may partially or completely remove information about pair kerning a3 Kerning dialog In Kerning mode opens the dialog box where you can preview and manage kerning pairs Kerning Opens the Kerning Assistance dialog box Assistance ec Macro preview Allows selection of special macro programs that can be used to simulate complex environments to test metrics and kerning RIL Right to left Turns the Metrics window into right to left writing mode for work on Arabic or Hebrew scripts I Measurement line When this but
122. with the Interpolation operation or press the Cancel button to reject all changes Position the mouse cursor on the reference point that you want to set press the left mouse button and drag the point to a new location Release the button when you are done Note that the point will stick to all guiding layers as well as to other glyph nodes Hold the SHiFT key down to constrain the direction of movement to 15 degree increments You may want to set a so called base point a reference point that points to itself A base point will remain in place during interpolation When you set the new position of the first reference point you will see the results of outline interpolation as a gray outline Click on a reference point with the right mouse button to remove that reference point You can select several points using the usual point selection procedure If you add a reference point after selection all selected points will move to the position of the same reference point Use this technique to collapse parts of the outline Press the right mouse button in the free space of the Glyph Window and select the Remove all links command from the popup menu to remove all reference links Envelope This operation transforms your glyph as if it were on a rubber plate and you began to stretch it 383 To apply an envelope to a glyph 1 Activate an Envelope operation Select the Envelope command in the Operations submenu of
123. you will see a filled preview of the master that you are working on Extrapolation The Axis panel allows you to select not only design coordinates that are within the axis dynamic range but to go beyond that point thus extrapolating the master designs If one of the values is out of defined dynamic range the editing control background turns yellow Weight A Bi gt 609 610 Anisotropic Interpolation Click on the to open the anisotropic interpolation dialog box 4 Y Axis Interpolation Select the axis Select the axis in the list at the top and use the graph to define the relationship between X and Y interpolation The X axis on the graph represents the X interpolation position on the design axis The Y axis represents the relative Y interpolation Here are some examples of the possible X Y interpolation relationships Isotropic proportional interpolation This is the default setting m ba ia P in m J ou wh o Fixed Y width axis Width does not change when you move the slider The weight X axis changes linearly along the weight axis To edit the graph use same mouse commands as when you are editing a glyph s outline Right Left click inserts a point Right click when a point is being moved removes the point Click on the button to reset any changes and return the graph to the linear state 611 612 Previewing the Intermediate Design You can use the Preview panel to pre
124. 0 H hdmx 211 head 215 Highlight Differences 576 Highlighting 108 hint property panel 341 hinting 232 485 character level 332 font level 332 Hinting 200 Diagonals 585 Multiple Master Fonts 633 Serifs 584 Strategies 578 Symmetrical Characters 586 White Space 582 Hinting Sidebearings 569 hints Editing 334 Hints Type 1 489 Hints 332 Tracking 335 TrueType 514 Visual 517 IBM 188 IBM Identification 188 Identification IBM 188 Microsoft 189 PANOSE 186 PCL 189 Ventura Publisher 189 Illustrator 288 399 Importing Glyphs 399 Including files 648 Index 70 Index mode 76 INF 145 init 687 Instructions Removing 556 Integrating 703 Interpolate 378 interpolation 515 Interpolation 379 546 587 621 Intersection 304 ISO Latin 1 78 isol 687 Italic angle 191 J Join 271 362 K kern feature 668 kerning 668 Kerning Editing 425 Kerning 45 404 405 Automatic Generation 430 Manual Editing 426 Resetting 432 Kerning mode 46 Key Glyph 440 Keyboard 33 Knife 234 271 L Language 650 Languages 639 languagesystem 649 License 182 LID 176 Ligature Substitution 673 Ligatures 350 Line Gap 193 Links 333 535 Editing 336 Local Toolbar 222 lookup 654 lookupflag 652 Lookups 638 LowestRecPPem 215 M Mac 192 589 Mac Name 174 Macintosh 78 Macro 70 Macro Tool 704 Macro Toolbar 700 Magic Wand 234 285 361 Make M
125. 00 class pair singleton glyph class present pos T a 100 class pair glyph class present even if singleton pos T ao u 80 class pair Note that if at least one glyph class is present even if it is a singleton glyph class then the rule is interpreted as a class pair otherwise the rule is interpreted as a specific pair In the kern feature the specific glyph pairs will typically precede the glyph class pairs in the feature file mirroring the way that they will be stored in the font feature kern specific pairs for all scripts class pairs for all scripts kern Enumerating Pairs If some specific pairs are more conveniently represented as a class pair but the editor does not want the pairs to be in a class kerning subtable then the class pair must be preceded by the keyword enumerate which can be abbreviated as enum The implementation software will enumerate such pairs as specific pairs Thus these pairs can be thought of as class exceptions to class pairs For example Y_LC y yacute ydieresis SMALL_PUNC comma semicolon period enum pos Y_LC semicolon 80 specific pairs pos f quoteright 30 specific pair pos Y_LC SMALL_PUNC 100 class pair The enum rule above can be replaced by pos y semicolon 80 pos yacute semicolon 80 pos ydieresis semicolon 80 without changing the effect on the font 685 686 Subtable Breaks The implementation software will in
126. 06 507 508 508 513 514 516 517 518 520 522 523 524 526 529 529 530 531 532 535 Standard Stems Single Links Double Links Interpolation Delta Instructions Middle Delta Instructions Final Delta Instructions Removing Instructions Standard Stems Advanced Options Context Menu Hinting Sidebearings Hinting Composite Glyphs Automatic TrueType Hinting Working With Bitmaps Importing Bitmaps Editing Bitmaps Highlight Differences Exporting Bitmaps Hinting Strategies Middle Delta or Final Delta Single Link or Double Link Hinting White Space Hinting Serifs Hinting Diagonals Hinting Symmetrical Characters Interpolate or Not MULTIPLE MASTER FONTS Multiple Master Fonts Theory Design Axes and Dynamic Range Standard Axes Design Coordinates and Weight Vectors Extrapolation Anisotropic Interpolation The Axis Graph Multiple Master Fonts in AFS Creation of MM Fonts in AsiaFont Studio Defining an Axis Selecting a Master Font Using an Axis Panel Previewing the Intermediate Design 536 537 542 546 548 549 554 556 557 562 563 569 570 571 572 573 574 576 577 578 578 580 582 584 585 586 587 589 590 592 594 597 599 600 601 602 603 604 606 608 612 11 Designing Master Fonts Multiple Master Metrics Editing Axis Settings Removing an Axis Multiple Master and Font Info Multiple Master Font Metrics Editing the Axis Graph Generating a Single Maste
127. 1 font and the option Generate Unicode indexes for all characters is on AsiaFont Studio takes the name of every imported character and looks for it in the names database If it locates the name there it takes the associated Unicode index and adds it to the character s list of indexes Note 1 The Names database has more than 4000 records and includes almost all known names for all European Cyrillic Arabic and Hebrew languages and for most symbol and dingbats fonts Note 2 The names database is a text file that can be edited You can add new records to this file at any time Be very careful when you edit this file because incorrect records may make exported fonts unusable in some environments Note 3 It is possible to link more than one Unicode index to a name and more than one name to a Unicode index If AsiaFont Studio finds several indexes linked to the name it will assign all the indexes to the character Refer to the Encoding Modes section for a description of the multi Unicode indexing method If more than one name is linked with the Unicode index then AsiaFont Studio will take the first one it finds as the name for the known index 57 58 TrueType Import Options The Import Options dialog box that appears if you click the Options button has the basic set of TrueType import options TrueType Import Convert TrueType outlines into Type 1 outlines Save TrueType hinting information Autohint imported font Decompo
128. 25 626 Codepages No changes TrueType TrueType fonts cannot be Multiple Master so no changes on this page WeightVector This page appears only if you are editing the Font Info of a MM font Use the sliders below the preview window to choose the default Weight Vector of the font Default Werght ector Multiple Master fonts only ABCabc123 Weight i gt o Get position from the Vector panel Primary Instances Press the Primary Instances button to define more default instances for the font Refer to the Editing Fonts chapter for more information about this page Multiple Master Font Metrics Metrics in a MM font have the MM structure there is a set of metrics and kerning pair values for each master font When you open the Metrics window in Metrics or Kerning mode for the MM font you will see additional control that allow you to select the master for editing E fwowd You can also use the Metrics panel to select masters or the Axis panel to select an intermediate master in the Preview mode Please note that you must set glyphs sidebearings and pair kerning for all masters separately When you are opening or saving metrics files for a MM font you have more choices MMM format Multiple master metrics File similar to PFM but containing metrics and kerning information for all master fonts AMFM format MM package of the AFM files for all masters in the font save only When you are openin
129. 259 260 262 263 264 265 266 267 269 270 271 272 274 276 284 285 286 286 289 293 Selection Properties Panel Transformation Panel Find and Replace Operation Building an Outline From Blocks Outline Actions Creating Contours Merging and Intersecting Contours Outline Optimization Metrics Editing Metrics Baseline Properties Panel Metrics Properties Panel Grid Layer Guidelines Layer Editing Guidelines Guidelines Popup Menu Guidelines Tracking Guidelines Properties Panel Mask Layer Editing Mask Mask Operations Assigning a Mask Specifying Mask Appearance Template Layer Background Layer Background Positioning Hints And Links Layer Links Editing Hints Hints Tracking Editing Links Hint and Link Popup Menu Hint Commands Autohinting Options Hint Properties Panel Link Properties Panel Anchors Layer Moving Anchors Removing Anchors Renaming Anchors Changing Anchor Color Anchor Properties Using Anchors to Build Composites Using the Anchors Panel Creating Composites and Ligatures Aliases Table 294 295 297 299 304 305 309 310 311 312 314 314 315 316 317 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 328 329 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 341 341 342 343 343 343 343 344 345 348 350 352 Vertical Metrics Alignment Zones Sketch Mode Moving Points Changing Point Type Removing Points Inserting Points Reversing Contours Selecting Points Moving t
130. 393 NeoGothic 10 28 01 20 08 25 Page 1 1 a b Index 66 Unicode 0061 Index 67 Unicode 0062 Nodes 18 Contours 2 Nodes 16 Contours 2 a BBox 46 13 403 485 BBox 81 12 488 670 LSB 46 RSB 47 Width 450 LSB 81 RSB 41 Width 529 Isb 337 rsb 53 width 60 Isb 90 rsb 48 width 391 c d Index 68 Unicode 0063 Index 69 Unicode 0064 Nodes 11 Contours 1 Nodes 15 Contours 2 BBox 49 13 427 485 BBox 61 15 470 666 LSB 49 RSB 40 Width 467 LSB 61 RSB 56 Width 526 Isb 56 rsb 345 width 66 Isb 67 rsb 65 width 394 As you can see this is the same information that is displayed in the Glyph properties panel Font Window Options To change Font window options select the Font Window page in the Tools gt Options dialog box View Options Each cell should have dimensions of 24 224 pixels Give each cell a caption Caption font Give empty cells a template glyph image Template font Use FontLab template font to preview template images Use template image as a bitmap layer when creating new glyphs Show additional information in the glyphs cells Show hinting information marks TrueType and Type Show Mask to Master compatibility information marks Tuning Options Show Unicode indexes in captions in Unicode mode Double click opens Glyph Window Create new window by dbl click Drag drop feature is turned on Smooth glyph s icons Show note icons Sor
131. 45 Default Edit in new window Remove Unicode m Edit metrics Add Note Properties Alt Enter eee ls Select encoding Macro Transform Ctrl T Transform Range Ctrl Sh T AsiaFont Studio will remove the Unicode indexes from all selected glyphs 123 124 The Font Map Panel When you work with really big Unicode encoded fonts you may need to have an overview of your whole font AsiaFont Studio has a special panel called the Font Map which can represent the entire Unicode code space as a 256 x 256 picture where every pixel represents a double byte code Every pixel row in this picture represents a Unicode page 256 Unicode indexes which begin with the same code For example codes A700 A7FF will form one row Every pixel in the row represents an individual code To open the Font Map panel use the Font Map panel command in the Window menu You will see a panel that consists of the code picture toolbar and status bar The buttons on the toolbar mean Turns on zoom mode Changes the Font Map to double byte codepage mode ig Updates the contents of the Font Map By clicking the 4 button on the toolbar you can zoom in on part of the Font Map In this mode it is much easier to manage individual codes To scroll a zoomed Font Map press the left mouse button and drag the cursor beyond the Map borders If you click the Font Map you will see the current Unicode index appear on the status bar belo
132. 5 368 Contour 365 Ellipse 365 373 Line 365 371 Pen 365 Polygon 365 372 Rectangle 365 373 Select 365 366 Text 365 374 VectorPaint Mode 232 Vendor Code 184 Ventura Publisher 189 Vertical Metrics 353 Vertical Preview 281 vfa 141 VFA 55 VFB 52 55 Visual Ascender 231 Visual Descender 231 Visual Hints 517 VOLT 59 154 693 695 696 W Waterfall 282 Weight 594 weight vector 598 WeightVector 626 wheel 229 Width 594 WinAscent 193 WinDescent 193 Windows 53 Windows List 130 Windows Symbol Encoding 153 Windows Fonts 53 Workspace 134 www fontlab com 61 715 X x height 191 XUID 184 Z zoom mode 228
133. 592 Design Axes and Dynamic Range It is possible to define a number of properties of an MM font using master fonts These properties are called design axes or simply axes for short You can define as many of these design axes as you want but four axes in a single MM font is the practical limit since there is no program as of this printing that can use more than that The number of masters that is necessary to define a given number of axes can be calculated as 2 where n is the number of axes So a single axis font requires 2 masters a two axis font 4 masters a three axis font 8 masters and finally a four axis font requires 16 masters You can see in this picture how design axes and master fonts are used to select an intermediate design of the MM font Weight Axis 50 Different intermediate positions on the axis 1450 In MM fonts it is important to know how much the property connected with the design axis can be changed If we take the Weight axis for instance then it might be changed from normal 120 to bold 700 a moderate change or from light 50 to black 1450 a much larger change m S 593 594 Standard Axes There are four standard axes defined by the Multiple Master standard They are supported by Adobe and thus are likely to be compatible with all current and future desktop publishing programs Of course you can define your own design axes but you must register new axis types with Adobe
134. 85 186 PANOSE Identification PANOSE font identification J 1 Select PANOSE Family Kind Record Vae EEL d PANOSE numbers j2 15 4 3 2 2 G 2 3 3 L In the PANOSE identification system 10 numbers describe a font Each number represents one identification category The most important category represented by the first number defines the kind of font is it a normal Roman font a hand written font a decorative or symbol font The meaning of all the other categories depends on this setting In all categories the first two values 0 and 1 mean Any and No Fit Any means that the value of this category is not important No Fit means that the category value for this font is not among the available values To set the PANOSE identification numbers first select the font family kind After that select the category in the Record combo box and the value in the Value combo box Here is a table of the categories and possible values for the Latin Text family Serif Style Cove Obtuse Cove Square Cove Obtuse Square Cove Square Thin Oval Exaggerated Triangle Normal Sans Obtuse Sans Perpendicular Sans Flared Rounded Weight Very Light Light Thin Book Medium Demi Bold Heavy Black Extra Black Proportion Old Style Modern Even Width Extended Condensed Very Extended Very Condensed Monospaced Contrast None Very Low Low Medium Low Medium Medium High High Very High Stroke
135. 99 700 702 703 704 705 706 707 709 710 712 714 717 13 Introduction Thank you for purchasing AsiaFont Studio 4 our font editor especially designed to handle fonts with an extremely large number of characters The key features of AsiaF ont Studio 4 are Outline editors with more than 20 tools and 200 level undo redo Import of CID fonts and CMap files Import and export of fonts in OpenType TrueType and PostScript Type 1 formats with up to 65 000 characters Import export and native mode editing of Multiple Master fonts e Import and export of individual glyphs in EPS format Multiple Master enabled metric and kerning editing module with customisable autospacing and autokerning features OpenType feature editing and testing Import of OpenType features from existing fonts Import and export of font metrics files in PFM and AFM format Professional level manual and automatic Type 1 and TrueType hinting Automatic transformation of glyphs with more than 25 filters Library of predefined customisable graphics primitives Automatic testing of glyph outlines with our unique FontAudit technology Integrated Macro language based on the industry standard Python language New Unique Sketch mode with easy drawing tools e VectorPaint tools Support of 4 encoding modes and an unlimited number of encoding tables Easy to use completely customisable drag drop based user interface Popup menus and property panels everywhere
136. AsiaFont Studio 4 for Windows User Manual Copyright 1992 2003 by FontLab Ltd All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic mechanical photocopying recording or otherwise without the prior written consent of the publisher Any software referred to herein is furnished under license and may only be used or copied in accordance with the terms of such license FontLab FontLab logo ScanFont TypeTool SigMaker AsiaFont Studio FontAudit and VectorPaint are either registered trademarks or trademarks of FontLab Ltd in the United States and or other countries Apple the Apple Logo Mac Mac OS Macintosh and TrueType are trademarks of Apple Computer Inc registered in the United States and other countries Adobe PostScript Type Manager and Illustrator are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated which may be registered in certain jurisdictions Windows Windows 95 Windows 98 Windows XP and Windows NT are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and or other countries IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation Macromedia Fontographer and Freehand are registered trademarks of Macromedia Inc Other brand or product names are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders THIS PUBLICATION AND THE INFORMATION
137. Autohint unhinted If this option is on AsiaFont Studio will try to glyphs automatically generate TrueType instructions for all unhinted glyphs How AsiaFont Studio Autohints TrueType Fonts on Export When autohinting is allowed and AsiaFont Studio finds a glyph that has no TrueType hints of any kind original hints imported from the TrueType font file or manually edited visual hints it begins to make TrueType hints automatically If this glyph has Type 1 hinting information then AsiaFont Studio converts this information to visual TrueType instructions and converts the instructions to the TrueType hinting code If Type 1 hints are not present then AsiaFont Studio automatically generates Type 1 hints as the first step then converts the Type 1 hints into TrueType visual instructions and converts the visual instructions into TrueType native instructions The next three options control glyph ordering export of embedded bitmaps and building an HDMX table Export embedded If this option is on AsiaFont Studio will export bitmaps embedded bitmaps if they are present If you don t want to save bitmaps in the font switch this option off Do not reorder glyphs If this option is off AsiaFont Studio will try to reorder glyphs to match the Mac cmap encoding table this is a requirement of the specification Activate this option to prevent glyphs from reordering Unicode Options Most TrueType fonts use Unicode indexes for the glyph encoding info
138. B Tile Horizontally PT FreeSetBlack Bold Cyrillic C PSFONTSSFARSS6 C F PT FreeSetBlack Cyrillic C MPSFONTS FRS95_ C PFB Tile Vertically PT Futuris Black Cyrillic C PSFONTSSFT 95 CPFB PT Futuris ExtraBold Cyrillic C S PSFONTSSFTH85 C PFE PT Futuris EstraBold Italic Cyrillic C SPSFONTSSFTH 66 1 mT mM Cascade wt Iau LLI Pm Peer sb O OCT de See Most of the dialog box is covered by the list of open windows Select one of the windows in the list and click the Activate button to activate that window and move it to the top To close one or more windows select them in the list and click the Close Window s button Select two or more windows in the list and click Cascade Tile Horizontally or Tile Vertically to perform one of the operations only with the selected windows All other windows will be automatically minimized Use the Minimize button to minimize selected windows 130 Fonts Panel The Windows dialog box is very powerful but it works only on windows without paying any attention to the contents of the windows fonts To organize your open fonts use the Fonts panel Use the Fonts panel command in the Window menu When you click on this command you will see the panel Fonts Eg FT atl e 7 ie da S BlackGroteskC PT BlackGrotesk Cyrillic BLG85_ C PFE PT Bl ckGrotesk Oblique Cyrillic BLG86 C PFB E FreeSetC a i PT FreeSet Cyrillic FRS45 C PFB 7 PT FreeSet B
139. Composite Glyphs section Convert Converts all selected segments to lines Bezier curves or off curve points Connection Changes the connection mode of the selected points If the mode is changed to smooth all connections are forced to be smooth Properties Opens the Selection properties panel 293 294 Selection Properties Panel To make the Selection Properties panel visible choose the Properties command in the selection context popup menu or use the OPTION RETURN keyboard shortcut The Selection Properties panel is very simple Selection Properties EJ It contains the following information about the selection the number of selected nodes the number of selected contours and the selection bounding box s bottom left and top right corner coordinates You can click on the Deselect button to discard the selection and get the Glyph Properties panel instead Transformation Panel The Transformation panel allows you to apply several simple transformations to the selected area or to the whole glyph To open the Transformation panel you can select a Transformation Panel command in the Window menu Transformation ra Rotate Hj i 2 Center Sh Center of selection w 2 Came To transform the glyph or the selected area Select the type of the transformation by clicking on one of the buttons in the left and the transformation options in the right area al Shift Shift x y a lo fo LI Enter
140. Designer URL and Vendor URL controls to open pages in a Web browser window This requires an Internet connection 181 License Information a er rrr NOTIFICATION OF LICENSE AGREEMENT License and License URL records are relatively new and have appeared only in OpenType specification version 1 3 License name 13 License description contains information about how the font can be used License URL name 14 URL where additional license information can be found Use the button to the right of the License URL control to open the page in a Web browser window This requires an Internet connection 182 Font Identification Version and Identification z kep indentification settings z Panose identification JBM and MS indentification Sometimes the operating system or a DTP application needs to know what the font looks like It may be necessary for example to properly substitute for a missing font with the closest look alike AsiaFont Studio supports all the font identification settings that are used in Type 1 or TrueType fonts Version Information Font version and revision information e Version Revision Complete Version record 002 098 TrueType Version record Version Version of the font Revision Revision of the font Version and revision numbers are combined and build a complete version record that appears in Type 1 font headers TrueType name 5 TrueType font version r
141. Drop The easiest way to open fonts in AsiaFont Studio is to drag drop font files from Windows Explorer Even if AsiaFont Studio is not running you can drag drop files onto its icon on the desktop or on the quick bar to run AsiaFont Studio with those fonts Font Formats AsiaFont Studio can import outline fonts in any of following formats Format Extension Description Type 1 Binary PFB PostScript fonts in Windows compatible binary form Type 1 ASCII PFA PostScript fonts printer downloadable form this format is also used in most Unix based operating systems PC CID CID PostScript CID keyed fonts used on PC Multiple Master PFBorPFA Special version of PostScript fonts in binary or ASCII form pena PEE 7 ee ee ea ere eee a ae S ae E on that are standard in Windows and Mac operating systems TrueType TTC TrueType based fonts collection collection FontLab 2 5 VFA Fonts in FontLab 2 5 internal format FontLab 3 0 VFB Native format of AsiaFont Studio 3 0 4 0 FontLab 3 0 4 0 and 4 6 Note that AsiaFont Studio 4 cannot open font files that were created in FontLab 2 0 The default extension of those files is VFA same as FontLab 2 5 fonts but they are not compatible with AsiaFont Studio 4 If you want to move fonts from the FontLab 2 0 format to AsiaFont Studio 4 use Type 1 Binary as an intermediate format If you have fonts in a different font editor s own font format and you want to open these fonts in AsiaFont Studi
142. F fonts repetitive parts of outlines and allow to reuse with references from outline definition code 155 156 Recommended Export Options We recommend selecting different export options in different situations In addition to the export options we also suggest particular import options that will produce the best results in specific situations Source Destination Import options Export options TrueType TrueType Keep instructions donot All hinting options on convert outlines do not Unicode export do not decompose do not autohint reencode TrueType Type1 Keep instructions convert Write PFM AFM and INF outlines do autohint do not files Select encoding decompose automatically Before export switch the Font window to the Names mode and select the desired encoding vector Type 1 Type 1 Do not decompose Write PFM AFM and INF Generate Unicode files Select encoding automatically Type 1 TrueType Do not decompose All hinting options on Generate Unicode Names encoding export mode do not reencode first 256 glyphs Of course you can choose other options but when you just want to convert a font from one format to another these recommended combinations of import and export options will usually give you fonts that will work fine in most environments Printing Fonts To print the font table select the Print command in the File menu You will see a dialog box that asks you to select one of the printing modes Atten
143. FT key the stem settings in the Options panel will not work In the Glyph Window the Double link command appears as a line with two arrows and a mark in the middle The mark is blue if the link is connected to the stem and gray if it is not connected If the link is connected the stem width will appear near the mark First linked pont Secondlinked pont x In the Program panel a double link command appears as DoubleLinkV 12 lt gt 36 0 where 12 and 36 are points that are linked and 0 is the number of the stem to which this link is connected or ns if it is not connected to the stem Stem name How the Double Link Command Works 1 The original not grid fitted positions of two linked points are retrieved and the distance between them measured 2 Ifthe link is connected with the stem the distance is replaced by the prepared stem width for the PPM If the scaled distance is equal to or exceeds 3 pixels it is rounded to the closest integer If the link is not connected to a stem the distance is rounded to the closest integer starting from 1 The grid fitted positions of the two linked points are stored Both points are aligned to the closest grid line Rounding errors for both points are calculated by comparing original and rounded positions D u e w The point whose rounding error is less remains in place and the second point is set at the distance calculated in step 1 If the rounding errors are equal then t
144. Glyph Window context menu or the keyboard shortcut ALT SH1FT Right click The shortcut will first add the anchor named bottom and then top The next step is to add matching anchors in the accent glyph Open one of the accent glyphs TOT Add an anchor named _ bottom at the point in the accent glyph where it will connect with the bottom anchor in the base glyph Add the anchor top where it connects to the top base anchor I l E ta Ta You may use the Add anchor command to add these anchors or the keyboard shortcut CTRL ALT SHIFT Right click will first add the bottom anchor and then the _top anchor 347 348 Using the Anchors Panel Use the Anchor panel to preview virtual composites 1 Open the Preview panel Window menu Ta Preview Panel Select the Anchors page of the preview panel OpenType Features Preview Anchors Open the base glyph in the Glyph Window The Anchor panel will immediately list all of the anchors and all matching accent glyphs that have link anchors Preview x OpenType Features Preview Anchors The left list includes all accent glyphs that can be linked with the base glyph using one of the defined anchors The first 10 resulting virtual composites are previewed in the sample string Use the check boxes to the left of the accent list to choose which composites to pre
145. HEREIN IS FURNISHED AS IS IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE AND SHOULD NOT BE CONSTRUED AS A COMMITMENT BY FONTLAB LTD FONTLAB LTD ASSUMES NO RESPONSIBILITY OR LIABILITY FOR ANY ERRORS OR INACCURACIES MAKES NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND EXPRESS IMPLIED OR STATUTORY WITH RESPECT TO THIS PUBLICATION AND EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY FITNESS FOR PARTICULAR PURPOSES AND NONINFRINGEMENT OF THIRD PARTY RIGHTS User manual release 4 0 9 2003 Contents CONTENTS INTRODUCTION About this Manual System Requirements ASIAFONT STUDIO INTERFACE Basic Terms Getting Started Customizing AFS User Interface Customizing Toolbars Customizing Menus Customizing Individual Items Converting a Menu to a Toolbar Customization of the Keyboard Links to External Programs Faster Method to Customize Commands AsiaFont Studio Windows Font Window Glyph Window Metrics Window Panels EDITING FONTS Opening Fonts Font Formats Import Options Importing CID fonts Importing Font Collection Creating a New Font The Font Window Encoding Modes Characters Codes and Glyphs 15 16 18 Names Mode The Unicode Standard Unicode Ranges Codepages Using the Font Window Navigating Selecting Context Menu Moving Glyphs Saving the Font Autosave Copying and Pasting Glyphs The Paste Special Command Copying Glyphs to Another Font Appending Glyphs to the Font Copying Composite Glyphs Duplicating Unicode I
146. Key Reset All Description O Generates TrueType Type 1 or Open ype font In the left area of the page you can select the command which you want to customize Choose the commands category in the top list and the command itself in the list below On the right part of the page you will see the list of keyboard shortcuts currently defined for that command Curent Keps The Remove command at the right of the list allows removal of one of the existing shortcuts 33 34 To define a new keyboard shortcut select a command and position the cursor on the editing field below the Press New Shortcut Key label Press New Shortcut Rey When the caret is in position just press the combination of keys that you want to assign A description of that combination will appear in the editing field and you can click the Assign button to assign that combination to the currently selected command Press the Reset All button to reset all changes back to AsiaFont Studio defaults There is a Keyboard shortcuts command in the Help menu Use it after you finish customizing the user interface to see or print a list of all the shortcuts E Help Keyboard Category MEA Show A C a ae AOMMarnG 5o REPO yard EditCop Ctrl C Ctr Copies selected data into Clipbr es it into Clipboard a EditCut Deletes selected data and plac F EditDelete Delete selected data EditDes elect Deselects all data ne E EditDuplicat
147. M Use the Delete command to remove a middle delta instruction so it will be removed for all PPMs for which it is defined Use the Remove for current PPM command to remove a middle delta instruction only for the currently selected PPM For example if the delta instruction is defined for the PPM range 12 18 and the current PPM is 14 after you use Remove for current PPM you will get two delta instructions 12 13 and 15 18 The Delta value submenu lets you choose the delta instruction shift distance Another way to customize delta instructions is to use the options area in the Program panel Paint a 5 Cr secre Offset 7654321 1234567 Range gees ae You can change the point number shift distance and the PPM range 553 554 Final Delta Instructions Final delta instructions are applied after the final interpolation of all untouched points They are used as a last resort to shift points to remove or add pixels at PPM sizes where it is still necessary after application of zones stems and all other hints Delta 1 Delta 2 h i Hinted character at 12 PPM Same character with two delta without delta instructions instructions The sequence of interpretation is the only difference between middle and final delta instructions They work exactly the same way To set final delta instructions select the final delta tool and follow the same instructions as above for middle de
148. OpenType font or OpenType CFF otf to save a CFF flavoured font AsiaFont Studio and VOLT Microsoft VOLT Visual OpenType Layout Tool is an OpenType feature editor program developed and supported by the Microsoft Typography group The big benefit of this program is that it can support all the features of OpenType including those that AsiaFont Studio cannot handle VOLT is based on a completely different user interface and provides visual tools to define substitution and positioning lookups You can get more information about VOLT at this location http www microsoft com typography developers volt default htm VOLT stores OpenType features and lookups information in a text based format which during work on a font is saved in special tables in a TrueType font When work on the font is done these tables are compiled to GPOS GDEF and GSUB tables and intermediate tables are stripped from the font file If this option in the Tools gt Options gt TrueType is switched on you can open the saved font in VOLT and it will contain the special tables that VOLT uses to store intermediate data and on export these tables will be restored unchanged This means that even if you start work on a font in VOLT but then realise that some glyphs must be modified you can save the font in VOLT open it in AsiaFont Studio modify the glyphs and return to VOLT to continue your work on OpenType features 695 696 Another AsiaFont Studio feature
149. OpenType names Copyright etc but these names are in English If you need to have non English names or names that are not covered by the AsiaFont Studio FontInfo pages you may use this Non English or special font names page Please refer to the OpenType specification to get full information about TrueType and OpenType names http www microsoft com typography otspec name htm 175 Most of the page is covered by the names list PRS a Ve be LLB Text 1 1 o fo FreeFontPro 0 Regular FontLab Ltd lnc FreeFontPro 2003 FreeFontPra Version 1 002 2003 UU 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 The Columns of the list are NID Name ID code of the name this is what we put in the name x comment on x place Text Content of the name table record May include Unicode characters after the ye Click on the caption of the column to sort name records by one of the values Below the list is a set of controls that let you define records Above the list there is a toolbar that you can use to modify the names table add or remove name records or import custom name records from the English data i Import names from the basic set of names defined in other pages of the Names section Remove all custom name records 176 To add a new name record click on the button on a toolbar select name record options using the controls below the list and type in the name record content To enter non ANSI characters use
150. Style Name Preferred Style Name name 17 Used to complement Preferred Family Name and defines a font style in a big font family This is the name that appears in the submenu of the fonts list Adobe Garamond Regular Italic Semibold Semibold Italic Bold Bold Italic You need to include the Preferred Family Name and Preferred Style Name on this page only if they are different from the Family and Style names you defined on the Basic Names page Mac Name Macintosh compatible full name name 16 If you want the name of the font to appear differently than the Full Name defined on the Basic Names page you can insert the Compatible Full Name Note You don t need to fill in the Preferred Family name and Preferred Style Name fields if they are the same as the Family Name and Style Name on the main naming page of Font Info Enter names there only if the names are different Non English and Special Names Non English or special font names name table eo T X ID Text Feel eee al FreeFontFro A Regular 2 0 D FontLab Ltd lne FreeFontPro 2003 3 0 oO FreeFontPro 4 1 D 0 Version 1 002 2003 a 1 0 D iii lt Ww 1 Font Family name coding Language Platform Er Romar v 0 English wt o FreeFontPro The TrueType and OpenType specifications let you put many names into the font Most of them can be defined on specialised pages of the Font Info dialog box Basic Names
151. When you know that there are no errors in the features and the features work as expected you need to check the OpenType export options in the Tools gt Options gt OpenType dialog box OpenT ype Export Export OpenType Tables Export VOLT data Generate kerm feature iit t not defined Append OpenType name records to the names exported by default we Export GDEF table Use subroutines to compress outlines in OTF fonts Export OpenType Tables OpenType features will be exported only when this option is active Export VOLT data If this option is switched on AsiaFont Studio will try to export feature definition data in a format supported by Microsoft VOLT Visual OpenType Layout Tool Not all features can be exported Refer to the next section for more information 693 694 Generate kern feature if it is not defined If the font contains a pair kerning table but no kern feature and this option is switched on AsiaFont Studio will automatically generate the kern feature so programs that need this feature to make kerning will work correctly Export GDEF table Turn on this feature to save information about the glyph types and caret positions to the font file Note that this is a requirement if you have used the lookupflag operator in feature definitions After all options are set correctly use the File gt Generate Font command to save the OpenType font file Select TrueType ttf to save a TrueType flavoured
152. a and drag the cursor to surround the points you want to select with the rectangle Hold the SHiFt key down to invert the selection state of the points To select the whole contour double click it Note that you must not double click one of the points this operation will change its type Alternatively hold down the CTRL key and click anywhere near the contour You can use commands from the Edit menu to select or deselect parts of the outline Select All to select the whole outline Deselect to remove all selections Invert Selection to invert the selection state of all nodes Left click anywhere in the empty area anytime to remove all selections 360 Using the Magic Wand Tool With this tool you can easily select multiple contours It is especially useful when your sketch contains multiple overlapping outlines 1 Activate the Magic Wand tool A 2 Click anywhere near the contour you want to select The closest contour to the point where you clicked will be selected 3 Hold down the SH FT key to reverse the selection state of the contour Moving the Selection When multiple points are selected you can move the entire selection with the Edit tool just click on any selected point or selected part of the outline and drag the mouse Hold down the SH FT key to constrain movement to the vertical or horizontal direction only Transforming the Selection You may rotate scale and slant a selection with the Rotate
153. a preview panel that can show how features work without actually exporting and installing the font file 3 Feature compilation and export At this stage an Adobe library is used to convert feature definitions into binary form and build the OpenType font files 655 656 Importing OpenType Fonts There is nothing special about importing OpenType fonts use the File gt Open command to open files with ttf extension which mean TrueType flavoured OpenType font or otf extension CFF flavoured version of the format To read OpenType features make sure that this option is active in the Tools gt Options gt OpenType panel OpenType Import M Import OpenType tables The following option I Import kerning from the kern feature Will import kerning defined in the kern positioning feature into a font pair kerning table We recommend you have this feature active when you import the OpenType font AsiaFont Studio will try to decompile OpenType features defined in the GPOS and GSUB tables It can read almost all substitution features and single and pair positioning features AsiaFont Studio does not support Mark attachment features If a GDEF table is defined in the font AsiaFont Studio will read information about anchors glyph types and caret positions from it OpenType Panels AsiaFont Studio provides two panels that deal with OpenType features the OpenType panel and the OpenType Features page of the Preview panel
154. aFont Studio requires one of the following hardware and software configurations A PC computer capable of running one of the following versions of Windows Windows 98 Windows ME Windows NT 4 0 Windows 2000 or Windows XP with one of these operating systems installed At least 10Mb of free space on the HDD and at least 64 Mb RAM AsiaFont Studio will start on 32Mb RAM but you will need more RAM to open bigger fonts AsiaFont Studio Interface Before we start talking about fonts and the AsiaFont Studio font editing features let s spend some time learning the AsiaFont Studio user interface For the most part it is a standard Windows interface so if you know how to navigate in Windows or in Microsoft Office you will feel comfortable with AsiaFont Studio In other parts it is unique and that is where we will focus Most of the interface elements in AsiaFont Studio 4 are completely customizable and from this chapter you will learn how to change the AsiaFont Studio interface so it will best fit your needs Please note that further in the book we will refer to menu commands toolbar buttons and keyboard shortcuts as they appear in the default AsiaFont Studio environment prior to any modifications you may make 19 20 Basic Terms We cannot go any further without defining a few terms that are critical to understanding AsiaFont Studio and fonts in general Character The minimal unit of the written language a part of the alphabe
155. amie Blgesa Alignment Tj6112207 1 Type 1 Standard Stems Type 1 hinting standard stems Set stems for the master Single master Standard stem widths are also controlled through the Alignment page of the Font Info dialog box To edit standard stems open the Font Info dialog box and select the Alignment page There are controls for both vertical and horizontal standard stem widths All available horizontal stems appear in the horizontal lists You can select any stem just as you would in normal vertical list controls To add a stem to the list of the standard stems press at the right side of the stems list To edit a standard stem width select it using the left mouse button and edit its value in the edit field to the right of the list To remove a stem from the list select it and press the button Note that AsiaFont Studio will sort stem widths starting from the second in ascending order when you close the Font Info dialog box ForceBold when this option is switched on Type 1 rendering algorithm makes the font looking bold The quick brown fox ForceBold is OFF The quick brown fox ForceBold is OM 203 204 StdHW StdVW StemSnapH and StemSnapV Parameters From the Type 1 font specification you may know that in Type 1 fonts two types of standard stem widths are used Standard Width and Stem Snap Width There is one standard width for each direction and up to 10 stem snap values In AsiaFont Studio these
156. ams that convert outline glyphs into bitmap images on paper do not like outlines where sharp connections are present in places where the outline should be smooth 247 248 Outline Appearance You can view an outline in contoured or filled mode These modes are equivalent for all editing operations but the filled mode is a little bit slower However in the filled mode you always see how the glyph will look in the resulting font Switch between modes with the A button on the Options bar E Outline mode Preview mode Smoothed Contour By default contour is rendered with black color and sometimes it may result in jaggies m Optionally you can smooth the contour appearance on screen which will result in a much smoother outline appearance P To smooth contours use the Glyph page of the Options dialog box Tools gt Options Glyph Window Small nodes Smooth outline Black white node icons C Leave echo while editing C Do not show crosshair You can use the Apply button in the bottom right of the Options dialog box to check the result of the changes you make in Glyph Window options Note If your computer is slow and a contour is complex smoothing the outlines may degrade the performance of the editing tools Turn it off in this case High quality Preview No matter which mode is active you can quickly view a high quality preview of the outline by pressing the key on the keyboard Until you releas
157. and printer control language developed by Hewlett Packard and is used in their printers This table is recommended for TrueType fonts but only if you understand all the options and parameters The first page includes only one option Export the PCLT table which controls table export Note that you can define table parameters but not export the table all values will be saved to your AsiaFont Studio font file VFB Extra information Extra information on many of PCLT fields can be found in the HP PCL 5 Printer Language Technical Reference Manual available from Hewlett Packard Boise Printer Division Our description of various PCLT fields is partially copied from the PCLT table specification available online at http www microsoft com typography otspec pclt htm PCLT Identification _ PCLT identification e Native format Converted format Vendor code Unique code 180002 Copy T1 UID Typeface family code TypeF aril vendor code Monotype Typography Lie Native Converted Only original font vendors can select Native format If you are format modifying an imported font select Converted format Vendor code Single character code of the font vendor assigned by Hewlett Packard Boise Printer Division to major font vendors Below is a list of registered font vendors A Adobe Systems B Bitstream Inc C Agfa Corporation H Bigelow amp Holmes L Linotype Company M Monotype Typography Ltd Uniqu
158. andard stems the linking distance is always rounded to the grid If the link is not so connected then it may be rounded or not depending on the currently selected Round distance option W Round distance Rounding distances is the default option for this command because it usually gives better control of the position of the destination point There is a special kind of single link called the aligned single link It can be described as a combination of a single link and the Align command on the linked point You can t set a normal Align command at the end of the link but you can use an aligned link in this case To make a link aligned switch on the Round destination option on the Options panel Round destination Aligned single links use the current Align mode 537 938 To set a single link 1 Select the single link tool 2 Position the cursor on the base point Don t forget that the position of the base point must be set by an instruction 3 Press the left mouse button and drag the mouse to the point that you want to link A circle will highlight it Release the button Hold the SHiFt key down if you do not want to connect the single link to a standard stem width If you hold the SHiFt key the stem settings in the Options panel will not work If the base point of the link is not aligned by some other command AsiaFont Studio will automatically set an Align command on it Hold down the CTRL key if you want to preve
159. ange metrics or kerning by some given value or percentage of the original value In the options area select the metrics that you want to change Lett sidebearing C Right sidebearing Width Kerning Enter the amount by which you want to adjust the values and select the units which can be font units or a percentage of the source value Enter a positive number to increase metrics distances or kerning or a negative value to decrease them Normally metrics are measured from the bounding box You can change this however if you want to measure from a measurement line by using the check box A measurement line is horizontal line defined in the Glyph Window that defines a slice which is used to measure the distance from outline to sidebearings Please refer to page 313 in the Editing Glyph chapter 469 Effects Increase your font library with this set of professionally designed effects From outline to 3D shadow to gradient fill these transformation filters always produce good results Bold Outline Increases the glyph s weight or creates an outline version of the glyph ae EEEE EEEE eos ee te as ee ear ESERIES E E E eee eee eee ee ani Baleiale F oe aero ner EUS EERE RE RON SESE e RENE RESET ener enn ene eee a E S E E E E EEEE EENE ERT E A A AEREE EENE EEN PE EE a Sika ee thee ta eeu eee PERENE Bold Outline Hor weight 20 iM Keep glyph s dimensions Vert weight 20 Make round c
160. ant to break a big font into characters per font to smaller pieces which are easier to edit and manage At any time using AsiaFont Studio tools you can combine these small fonts back into a big font Enter the maximum number of characters you want per font in the edit box to the right of the options list Import selected Use this option to open each subset font as a separate subset fonts font without any changes CID and CMap files In contrast to other font formats like TrueType or OpenType CID keyed fonts do not contain any mapping information They are pure collections of glyphs In CID font system mapping data is supplied in a separate file called the CMap The CID font and CMap file are linked by the ordering system Ordering is a standard sequence of glyphs in a CID font file which is usually registered by Adobe When two CID fonts have the same ordering they can share the same CMap file without any problem On the other hand several CMap files each covering a different encoding system may be applied to the CID font file if it has one of the standard orderings AsiaFont Studio installation includes a big set of CMap files for all Adobe registered orderings When you open a CID font AsiaFont Studio tries to automatically select CMap file that will create a Unicode based encoding table for the imported CID font M Automatically assign Unicode indexes using CM ap file Unik S U CS 2 H cmp Browse If the automatically select
161. ar widths Figures with corresponding glyphs set on glyph specific proportional widths feature pnum sub figures by figures_prop pnum Inum Lining Figures This feature changes selected figures from oldstyle to the default lining form hist Historical Forms Replaces glyphs with their historical forms like long form of s or Fraktur form of k feature hist sub s by longs hist ordn Ordinals Replaces default alphabetic glyphs with the corresponding ordinal forms for use after figures smcp Small Capitals This feature replaces lowercase characters with small capitals sinf Scientific Replaces lining or oldstyle figures with inferior figures Inferiors smaller glyphs which sit lower than the standard baseline primarily for chemical or mathematical notation ornm Ornaments This feature lets the user access ornament glyphs in the font 688 liga Standard Replaces a sequence of glyphs with a single glyph which Ligatures is preferred for typographic purposes This feature covers the ligatures that the designer manufacturer judges should be used in normal conditions feature liga sub f f i by ffi sub f i by fi sub T h by T_h sub f f j by f_f_j sub f f l by ffl sub f f by ff sub f j by f_j sub f by fl 3 liga case Case Sensitive Shifts various punctuation marks up to a position that Forms works better with all capital sequences or sets of lining figures also changes oldstyle figures to lining figure
162. ard Menu Categories Commands Edit A iak Glyph Tools ee Close All elp New Menu lal save Macro Programs Editing Tools Libis T l mm ke Close In the list select a group of commands and use the list of commands in the right list as a source of menu items and toolbar buttons just drag the commands from there Customizing Menus If you want to create a new popup menu just select the New Menu group in the left menu and drag it onto the main menu bar or any of the toolbars A new menu appears and you can start adding commands to it using the drag drop technique described above With the Customize dialog not only can you customize the main menu but also most of the context menus which appear when you right click AsiaFont Studio windows Open the Menu page in the Customize dialog box and choose a context menu in the right combo box Select contest menu Brush Size Brush Strokes Component Tool Edit T ool Font Windom Glyph Window ering Editor Meter Tool Metrics Editor Preview Window Ruler Toolbars A menu appears on screen and you can customize it by dragging commands from the toolbar other menus or the list of the commands on the Commands page To reset changes you ve made in menus use the Reset buttons on the Menu page of the Customize dialog box Use the left Reset command to reset changes in the main menu and the right Reset button to reset changes in the context menus 29 30 Customizin
163. arget sequences that contain glyph classes the implementation software will enumerate all specific glyph sequences if glyph classes are detected in lt glyph sequence gt Thus the above example produces the same effect in the font as if the font editor manually enumerated all the sequences substitute one slash two by onehalf substitute oneoldstyle slash two by onehalf substitute one fraction two by onehalf substitute oneoldstyle fraction two by onehalf substitute one slash twooldstyle by onehalf substitute oneoldstyle slash twooldstyle by onehalf substitute one fraction twooldstyle by onehalf substitute oneoldstyle fraction twooldstyle by onehalf Almost all fonts contain at least two ligatures fl and fi which can be easily encoded as substitute f l by fl substitute f i by fi Some fonts add longer ligatures substitute f f i by ffi 673 A contiguous set of ligature rules does not need to be ordered in any particular way by the font editor the implementation software does the appropriate sorting So sub f f by ff sub f i by fi sub f f i by ffi sub o f f i by offi will do the same thing as sub o f f i by offi sub f f i by ffi sub f f by ff sub f i by fi 674 Alternate Substitution Alternate substitution replaces a glyph with one of the glyphs in a pre defined list of alternatives The application that uses the font is expected to decide which glyph to choose A good example
164. aster 462 Mapping Encoding 77 Marking 108 Mask 236 322 Assigning 325 616 Mask to Master 617 master font 589 Master Font Designing 613 Selecting 606 Masters 49 measure 376 medi 687 menu 29 Menu 22 menu item 30 Merge 304 Merging Fonts 133 Meter Mode 375 metrics property panel 314 Metrics 311 Automatic Generation 422 Manual Editing 417 Opening Files 448 Saving Files 450 Metrics Files 406 Metrics mode 46 Metrics window 44 Metrics Window 222 407 Metrics mode 416 modes 408 Microsoft Identification 189 Middle Delta 549 578 middledot 153 Mirror 304 457 458 MM 592 mode 721 Preview 408 move 291 Move characters 95 Moving Nodes 256 Multiple Master 15 55 139 333 589 Pinting 158 Multiple Master Metrics 622 MyFonts com 172 name record 177 Names Non English 175 Special 175 Names mode 76 Names Mode 78 NID 176 node 244 nodes selection 284 Nodes Deleting 263 Inserting 266 Moving 256 Non nodes editing 260 Note 94 127 Notice 179 O Old Style Numerals 636 OpenType 15 49 52 55 139 154 174 175 635 OpenType Glyph Properties 691 OpenType Panel 657 Operation Bitmap Positioning 331 Component Positioning 392 Curve 386 Envelope 383 Interpolation 379 Rearrange Contours 389 Set 387 Transform 289 Optical Size 595 Optimize 304 310 457 463 OTF 55 640 Outline 470 Outline Actions 304 Output
165. at C specifies that any of the glyphs in the target glyph class must be replaced by its corresponding glyph in the order of glyphs in the glyph classes in the replacement glyph class If the replacement is a singleton glyph class then the rule will be treated identically to a format B rule If the replacement class has more than one glyph then the number of elements in the target and replacement glyph classes must be the same For example sub a by Asmall format A sub one fitted oneoldstyle one taboldstyle by one format B sub a z by Asmall Zsmall format C sub Capitals by CapSwashes format C The third line in the above example produces the same effect in the font as sub a by Asmall sub b by Bsmall sub c by Csmall sub z by Zsmall 671 672 Sample applications of this rule Replace different types of figures sub ordfigures by propfigures Replace lowercase glyphs by small caps sub lowercase by smallcaps Small SMALL Ligature Substitution The ligature substitution rule replaces several glyphs in sequence with a single glyph A Ligature substitution rule is specified as substitute lt glyph sequence gt by lt glyph gt lt glyph sequence gt must contain two or more lt glyph glyphclass gt es For example substitute one oneoldstyle slash fraction two twooldstyle by onehalf Since the OpenType specification does not allow ligature substitutions to be specified on t
166. at are less than Check all masters of the MM font Completely reset kerning in the current font This dialog box includes options that control kerning removal Available options are Reset kerning for the This is the default if a pair is selected Removes kerning current pair for that pair only You can get the same result by clicking the right mouse button while editing kerning in the current pair Reset kerning for all pairs Default if no pairs are selected Removes kerning in all in the string pairs that exist in the current string Reset kerning for all Removes kerning in all pairs that include glyphs in the glyphs in the string current string Limit number of Kerns only the given number of pairs with the largest kerning pairs to absolute kerning value Delete all pairs that are Removes all pairs that have a kerning value less than the less than given value The absolute value of kerning is compared Completely reset kerning Removes all the kerning pairs available in the font in the current font Because this is not an undoable operation the warning dialog asks you to save the current metrics and kerning data in the temporary file Adjusting Metrics and Kerning If you want to change metrics or kerning by some fixed value and the manual process will take too much time you can use the Transform dialog box 1 Switch to the Font window 2 Select the glyphs that you want to process 3 Open the Transf
167. atible contours leave the Do not interpolate compatible outlines option switched on Click OK and wait while AsiaFont Studio blends the fonts After the process is finished you will find the new glyphs in the new font or in the destination font The outlines of the two source glyphs will be stored in the Mask layer of each glyph and the blending result in the outline layer Those glyphs that had compatible outlines and do not get additional nodes during the blend operation will be marked with green color in the font window In some cases it is not possible to blend two outlines This happens when two source glyphs have different numbers of contours like O and 8 If some glyphs were not blended AsiaFont Studio will show a warning message and those glyphs will have an empty outline layer Exporting and Printing You know how to open fonts how to rearrange characters and change encodings and how to save fonts in AsiaFont Studio FontLaab format to keep your changes Now it s time to learn how to generate fonts in formats that other programs can understand Font Formats AsiaFont Studio can work with four font formats and their variations Type 1 and Sometimes fonts in this format are called PostScript fonts Usually Multiple they consist of two or three files a file with the pfb extension and one Master or two additional files needed by the OS to get information about the font header and font metrics You need Adobe Type Manager to
168. ay refer there for the detailed description Switch on the Use default export options parameter to use default export options that are not font specific TrueType Export Options Keep existing TrueType instructions V Autohint unhinted glyphs Do not reorder glyphs to composite glyph 34 for TrueType encoding 256 glyphs se ov 1 of the selected codepage soelection held 1 cmap 1 0 table 3 Autohinting Options Use this page to customize font export options for the current font This L Use default export options Export hinted TrueType font Export visual TrueType hints v Export embedded bitmaps L Copy HOM data from base Use Unicode indexes as a b Use following codepage for first Do not reencade first 256 char Export only first 256 glypt L Put MS Char Set value into Use following codepage to builc Mac 05 Roman default page copies Options TrueType export settings so you may refer there for the detailed description Switch on the Use default export options parameter to use default export options that are not font specific 209 210 TrueType Mapping Settings _ Mapping settings cmap table om Automatically add null CR and space characters If the Automatically Add option is on then AsiaFont Studio will analyse the font and add characters that are necessary for complete font compatibilit
169. below the list The sample picture is downloaded from MyFonts com so it may take some time depending on the speed of your Internet connection You can modify the contents of the sample string in the editing field below the sample window By default it has the standard Quick brown fox sentence but you can enter anything there fi The Button will open a browser window with the currently selected font presented in full detail ioixi 3 MyFonts com Helvetica Inserat Testdrive Microsoft Internet Explorer There is also a Buy Me button click it if you want to buy the font 173 174 OpenType Specific Names E sal Open ype specific font names aJ Family Name Eke Nace Mac Name gt Build OpenType Hames The OpenType format adds several new name records that are needed to use OpenType fonts on PC and Mac Family Name Preferred Family Name name 16 This name is used to create a family containing more than 4 styles You need to use the same Preferred Family Name in all fonts that you want to put into a big family and make the Preferred Style Name different for each of these fonts The Preferred Family name appears in the font menu as the font name Please note that this information is used only by new applications that can handle OpenType fonts Adobe InDesign or other new Adobe programs are good examples
170. can also select which masters will appear in the Glyph window Use the masters check boxes in the Masters panel to show or hide masters Press the Hide All button in the Masters panel to hide all masters except the active master or press the Show All button to show all the masters 607 608 Using an Axis Panel When the Preview mode of the Glyph window is active you can display an intermediate instance of the MM font that is selected for editing Open the Axis Panel by using the Window gt Axis Panel command You will see the Axis panel appear Dino Aigi Weight 4 iil This panel has a slider and an edit box for each axis in the MM font Use these controls to select the design coordinates of the intermediate instance that you want to preview The filled preview of the selected intermediate design will appear in the Glyph Window in gray Four masters outlines and an intermediate preview in gray If an active master is the same as the selected instance as when master Wt0 Wd0 is active and both sliders are in the leftmost positions the filled preview will appear in black because it precisely corresponds to the active master To preview the active master in black press the Align button in the Axis panel Switch on the Auto Align check box to make alignment of the intermediate preview to the active master automatic so that when you select another master as active the preview will automatically follow it and
171. cent control vector will be collinear Do not forget that you can press the key at any time to get an instant high quality preview of the glyph outline as it will print DR Bo Bo Normal outline High quality preview Outline Echo If you want to see how the outline looked before you moved a node switch on the Echo mode Open the Glyph page of the Options dialog box and switch on this option T Lat ee r el E E e A E l e r T Leave echo while editing This is how editing field will look when echo mode is on Using the Keyboard You can use the keyboard to move nodes and to select a node for editing Arrow keys Every click moves current node by one font unit crea neat AEAEE a EA naa pan cannes eat oe i ae font unit errr lee saan a TT EEEE EEEE keys a PEE EEEE EEEN a EEEE ATIE ETET e EEEE EENE a ee poe EEEE AAAA aa Cea et aaah ahaa a ee Stace cee ep eters er ees ore a EAA AA a ne NEEE Nac SETA Note You can make a line or a curve a current object and arrow operations will move it as a whole Just left click on a curve or a line with the Edit tool and it will be highlighted by a pair of short lines 259 260 Non node editing Sometimes you may want to modify a contour in a more flexible way than by moving nodes For example to adjust the shape of a curve in node editing you would usually make the control points of a curve visible and move them to modify the curve A more intuitive way would be
172. center of rotation just drag the center handle by the mouse to its new position 291 292 To slant a selection 1 Move the mouse cursor onto the slant handle 2 Press the left mouse button and drag the mouse The transformation rectangle will be slanted Hold down the SH FT key to constrain the rotation angle to 15 degree increments 3 Toslant in vertical direction hold the CTRL key and drag the rotate handle 4 Release the button to accept the slanting Double click in the editing field or press ENTER to accept the completed transformation or press the Esc key to reject it You can use the arrow keys while the Transform tool is active to move the selection by one font unit in the direction of the key you clicked SHIFT arrow keys move the selection by 10 font units at each key click Selection Commands When a part of the glyph is selected right click it to get access to the popup menu Cancel uk Copy Delete Delete x WP 3 iad oto Transform Ctrl 9 Retract BCPS Align Points Reverse contours Convert Connection j Properties Macro Some commands are just copies of the Edit menu commands but others are much more interesting Cut Copies the selection to the Clipboard and removes it A eee no T a a a alee Convert to Tries to convert the selection into a link to a component glyph This component extremely powerful command is described in full detail in the Editing
173. ch a set of glyphs or glyph classes is identified i e marked We will call this marked set of glyphs a sub run A sub run is marked by inserting a single quote after each of its member elements This sub run represents the target sequences of the lookups called by this rule The lookup type of the lookup called by this rule is auto detected from their target and replacement sequences in the same way as in their corresponding stand alone i e non contextual statements Example 1 This calls a lookup The rule below means in sequences a d or e d or n d substitute d by d alt substitute a e n d by d alt Example 2 This also calls a single substitution lookup The rule below means if a capital letter is followed by a small capital then replace the small capital by its corresponding lowercase letter substitute A Z Asmall Zsmall by a z Example 3 This calls a ligature substitution lookup The rule below means in sequences e t c or e begin t c substitute the first two glyphs by the ampersand substitute e e begin t c by ampersand 677 678 Specifying Exceptions to the Context Rule Exceptions to a chaining contextual substitution rule are expressed by inserting a statement of the following form anywhere before the chaining contextual rule and in the same lookup as it ignore substitute lt marked glyph sequence gt lt marked glyph sequence gt The keywords ignore substit
174. coding sy he T m A oo The left button E opens the Font Info dialog box for the current font This is the same as choosing the Font Info command in the File menu The first four buttons on the right allow you to select one of the encoding modes HANE Switch to the Names mode Switch to the Codepages mode Encoding Modes Support for almost all known character indexing methods is one of the key AsiaFont Studio features H ere s how it works A font is just a big collection of glyphs that are used to represent many characters more about that in the following section On an average screen the Font Window can show just a few hundred character cells so we need to have some method to browse the font through the Font Window In AsiaFont Studio you can choose one of four so called Encoding modes that allow you to select a subset of the glyph collection and show it in the top part of the Font Window for easier access In the following sections you will find more information about encoding modes Unicode and name based identification and the character glyph model 73 74 Characters Codes and Glyphs A font is a collection of glyphs that usually have a common design Each font has a header that stores top level information such as the font name and style in an organised way Character Mapping Text in digital form is a collection of codes integer numbers When text is entered into a computer we with the
175. contour segments and use the Add Corner tool to connect them 2s io eed let an You ll notice it takes more time to read the instructions than to actually perform the procedure 303 Outline Actions You can find the actions described below in the Tools gt Outline menu CE H Mirror Makes a mirror transformation in the horizontal direction This operation is applicable to a selection or to a whole outline if nothing is selected lt i V Mirror Makes a mirror transformation in the vertical direction This operation is applicable to a selection or to a whole outline if nothing is selected gt Check Analyses an outline and detects the types of connections Connections between outline primitives lines and curves Reverse All Reverses the direction of all contours of the glyph This Contours action can be useful if you want to completely convert a Type 1 glyph to a TrueType glyph In TrueType and Type 1 format the default direction of the contours are opposite Nodes at Automatically inserts nodes at the extreme points of extremes curves We highly recommend that all curves have nodes at their extreme points Snap to Guides Move all nodes on to guidelines hints or grid if they are sufficiently close to them This action will snap nodes only to the guiding layers that are currently visible a Optimize Optimizes the outline see the section below 304 Creating Contours AsiaFont Studio has t
176. convert it into the plain pair kerning table at any time Just click on the button on the OpenType Features preview panel You will see a dialog box Convert OpenType Kerning Do you really want to convert OpenType keming to the plain pair kerning data If answer ie res then select conversion option below Completely replace plain pair kering data ka Total number of 19640 1528 pairs will be added Do not expand class based kerning pairs Convert Cancel There are two options that you can select in the list Completely replace plain pair kerning data Use this option to remove existing kerning information and replace it with the result of the kern feature interpretation Append converted kerning to the existing kerning table Only new pairs that do not already exist will be added to the existing pair kerning table Notes 1 This operation is equivalent to the OpenType import option i Import kerning from the kern feature The difference is that you can do it at any time not just during import of the OpenType font file 2 Class based kerning defined in the kern feature will be converted into class based kerning as AsiaFont Studio understands it Real kerning pairs will be added only for the key glyphs Please refer to the Editing Metrics chapter and page 435 for more information about class based kerning Feature Development Process When you want to create a feature we recommend you fo
177. ct it you may select many glyphs at once position the mouse cursor on the selection press the left mouse button press the CTRL key and drag the selection to the place where you want it to be duplicated It is important to have the CTRL key pressed when you release the mouse button You can later correct Unicode indexes assigned to the glyph by using the Rename Glyph dialog or the Glyph Properties panel described later 105 106 Deleting Glyphs To remove glyphs from the font 1 Select the glyphs that you want to remove 2 Select the Delete command from the Edit menu or from the popup menu Or press the DELETE key on the keyboard 3 A dialog box appears asking you if you are sure that you want to delete Note 1 Deleting glyphs from the font is not undoable so save your work before deleting glyphs Note 2 If you are in Unicode mode and deleting glyphs with the blue mark in the top left corner they will be removed without any questions because they are just one of the indexes of a multi Unicode glyph Creating New Glyphs If you want to create a new glyph in an empty place in the font a gray cell in the Font window double click the cell If you want to create a group of new glyphs with a single command select the empty cells right click the Font window and use the More gt Create Glyphs command in the context menu FFEB FF66 FF6T FFG FF65 FFEA FFEC lle ollie tains cite Width
178. ctor closer to the ending node of a contour then the new node will be added to the contour If you insert the node on the last half of the closing vector then it will be inserted before the starting point Using the Drawing Tool The easiest way to create a new contour is to use the Drawing tool You can create a new contour or you can continue any existing contour If you want to add new nodes to the existing contour just activate its first or next node The last node of the open contour is activated 267 268 1 To add a point just click the left mouse button 2 Ifyou want to create a line point just release the button If you want to define a curve drag the mouse to set the position of the curve control vector 3 To adjust the position of the curve control vector without moving the control vector of the previous curve hold ALT and left drag You can press and release the ALT key while you drag the mouse when ALT is released you are defining the positions of the control vector that belongs to the previous curve and the control vector of the next curve When ALT is pressed you are not moving the previous curve s control vector 4 When you are adding a new node you can hold the CTRL key to not move the curve control vector but move the node itself 5 Finally you can use the SHIFT key at any time to constrain the direction of the line if you are holding the CTRL key or a curve control vec
179. d range are in the yellow encoded area The definitions of the Unicode ranges and subranges may be changed They are placed in a text file that you can edit in any text editor You can add your own ranges or subranges that for example may include only one character whose placement is very important to you 83 84 How to Edit the Unicode Ranges Definition File The Unicode ranges definition file is located in the Data directory and has the name URANGES DAT To change this file open it in a text editor You will see the following text SS FONTLAB UNICODE RANGES O0x0000 0x007F CO Controls and Basic Latin 0x0000 0x001F CO controls 0x0020 0x007F ASCII 0x0080 0x00FF C1 Controls and Latin 1 Supplement 0x0040 OxOOFF ISO 8859 1 aka Latinl 0x0100 0x017F Latin Extended A 0x0100 0x017F European Latin 0x0180 0x024F Latin Extended B The first line of this file is an identification line It should not be changed or AsiaFont Studio will not accept this file as a valid Unicode range definition file All other strings have the same structure lt first index of the range gt lt last index gt lt range s name gt Note that there is no space before a name range s name but there are four spaces before a subrange s name Using this simple method you can indent ranges names as you wish Codepages Codepages are tables that map character codes one byte long to the Unicode indexes Depending on the size of the page
180. d Unicode Ranges Hinting Settings Alignment Zones Type 1 Standard Stems Global Hinting Parameters Format Specific Options 136 139 139 143 145 149 154 156 157 159 160 161 163 164 166 167 168 169 172 174 175 179 180 181 182 183 183 184 188 190 190 191 192 195 196 197 199 200 201 205 207 Type 1 Export Options TrueType Export Options TrueType Mapping Settings Device Dependent Metrics Font Smoothing Control head Table Settings Basic PCLT options PCLT Identification PCLT Metrics and Font Description PCLT Codepages THE GLYPH WINDOW Glyph Window Contents The Glyphs Bar Selecting a Glyph for Editing Changing the View in the Glyph Window Quick Zoom Selection Tools and Operations Edit Mode Editing Layers Easier Way to Control Editing Layers Outline Layer Contours Outline Appearance FontAudit Moving Nodes Using the Keyboard Non node editing Changing Connection Type Deleting Nodes Deleting Lines and Curves Eraser Tool Inserting Nodes Using the Drawing Tool Adding Points to a Contour Converting Primitives Breaking and Joining Outlines Node Commands Node Properties Previewing Glyphs Selections Using the Magic Wand Tool Moving the Selection Copying the Selection Transforming the Selection Selection Commands 208 209 210 211 213 215 216 217 218 219 221 222 225 227 228 230 232 234 236 239 240 242 248 253 256
181. d as the current node It will be highlighted and its position will appear on screen e pai a o miei T O To deselect the node click anywhere in the empty space of the editing field or click the Esc key 251 252 Black white node Nodes may be colored or black white Ts Highlight the first When this option is on start and end nodes of the open node of the open contour are highlighted with a small diagonal cross contour i ie a aa Do not fill open When this option is on the open contour appears unfilled in contours preview mode i i Bezier control When this option is on and Show Layers gt Control Vectors is points are visible in off the control points become visible when the curve is selection selected FontAudit FontAudit is a set of algorithms that analyses a glyph s outline to find errors that may decrease glyph rasterization quality To switch on FontAudit press the button on the Options toolbar If FontAudit finds what it thinks is an error it shows an error mark in the editing field of the Glyph Window FontAudit error mark To see a description of the error activate the Edit tool F position the mouse cursor on the mark and click the left mouse button 253 254 You will see a FontAudit error message FontAudit Unnecessary inflection Unnecessary inflection pom Wie recommend you reconfigure the curve or insert a node at this point This messag
182. dd anchor An anchor point is added at the destination endpoint of the meter line 377 378 Outline Operations Operations are temporary tools that let you modify your glyph Operations are activated by pressing on their button in the Tools toolbox or by selecting a command from the Operations submenu of the Tools menu or of the Glyph Window s popup menu When an operation is activated one or more handles appear depending on the operation After you make changes double click to accept them you can also press the RETURN or ENTER key on the keyboard or press the Esc key to reject the changes When the operation is completed the tool that was selected will be activated again As with all permanent tools you can use the zoom selection tool quick zoom keys and all the other viewing options of the Glyph Window while you are working with the operations tool Here is a list of all available operations i 4 Transform Selection Scales rotates or skews the selected portion of the outline Li Interpolate Modifies the outline by moving a few base points Interpolation With this operation you can move a few points and all other points of the glyph outline between the moved points will be interpolated Original glyph Glyph after interpolation As you can see this operation can save a lot of time when you want to proportionally modify your glyph but want to save some important values like stem widths Interpolation is extrem
183. defines the topmost line of all important characters in the font Important characters are all non exceptional characters For example if most of the characters have the topmost position at 900 font units and one not often used character has it at 1300 font units it s a good idea to set WinAscent at 900 units Note that in most cases portions of the characters that are above the WinAscent value will not appear on the screen or print on some printers Please note that WinAscent is NOT a typography ascender usually measured as the topmost line of lowercase characters It is mostly a technical parameter used by the rasterizer to allocate vertical space to render characters 193 Baseline to baseline distance calculation Windows Windows Metric OpenType Metric ascent WinAscent external leading MAX 0 LineGap WinAscent WinDescent Ascender Descender BTBD ascent descent external leading It should be clear that the external leading can never be less than zero Pixels above the ascent or below the descent will be clipped from the character this is true for all output devices Macintosh Macintosh Metric OpenType Metric ascender Ascender descender Descender leading LineGap BTBD ascender descender leading 194 Superscript and Subscript Superscript and subscnpt positions 4 gt pos Y pos Maize Y size TrueType and OpenType font format allows you to specify position and s
184. dexes manually using the edit fields at the left of the combo boxes Please refer to the technical specifications for detailed descriptions of these identification systems Microsoft Identification This is the simplest identification system Just select one of the common font categories Roman Swiss Modern Script and Decorative and you are done This is the only identification system that is implemented in the PFM files that are used by Windows to work with Type 1 fonts so we strongly recommend selecting the proper value in this list box Note If you are building a Type 1 font for Windows take this field very seriously Do not leave Decorative in this option if the font is not decorative this will affect the font spacing 189 190 Metrics and Dimensions Metrics and Dimensions z kep dimensions z True yoe specitic metrics Subscript and Superscript This page is used to set font dimensions that are used mostly to properly align text lines Font UPM Value Font s UPF ts Scale all glyphs according to UPM change The most important field on this page is the Font UPM Let s explain what UPM is and why it is so important The UPM Units Per eM is the basis of all font dimensions The UPM is the number of font units that defines the font height and the coordinate grid on which the glyphs are drawn The bigger the UPM is the more coordinate space you have so you can set more precise positions of p
185. different options for them To merge two ranges select a range and press the Merge button The selected range will be merged with the range that is above it To reset the font smoothing settings press the Auto button and they will be calculated as advised by the TrueType specification You can see the results of these settings in the TrueType hinting Preview window when the TrueType hinting tool is active Refer to the Hinting chapter for more information head Table Settings head table settings JE LowestRecPPeM ia fontDirectonH int These entries are specific for TrueType rendering We do not recommend you modify them if you are not sure of what you are doing LowestRecPPem This parameter controls the lowest PPM at which the TrueType rasterizer is allowed to apply instructions FontDirectionHint This head table parameter defines font direction which may have the following values 0 Fully mixed directional glyphs 1 Only strongly left to right 2 Like 1 but also contains neutrals 1 Only strongly right to left 2 Like 1 but also contains neutrals A neutral character has no inherent directionality Spaces and punctuation are examples of neutral characters 215 216 Basic PCLT options Basic PCLT options Cy C Esport the PCLT table The PCLT table is used when a TrueType font is printing on a PCL printer PCL Printer Control Language is a page definition
186. dinates will be applied to the node when you press the ENTER key on the keyboard or move the focus from one edit control to another or when you close the property panel by clicking on a free space in the edit field To change the connection mode for a node select the new mode in the combo box in the lower part of the panel To change the selection state of a node modify the state in the Selected check box To edit the position of the curve s control vectors switch on the Control vectors check box it will be gray if you are editing a node between two vectors and modify the relative position of the previous or next control point that belongs to that node Use the buttons with arrows e gt to edit the previous or next node gt Tip when you are editing node positions in the Properties panel press the ENTER key to accept changes and move the focus to the editing field of the Glyph Window There you can use the keyboard to move the selected node and the PAGE Down PacE UP keys to select another node for modification You will see the node properties change in the Properties panel as you move the node by keyboard or mouse Click ALT ENTER to put the focus on the Properties panel to set the node position more precisely 275 276 Previewing Glyphs Sometimes you need to get a high quality preview of the glyphs you re editing You may preview any single glyph with the key but it doesn t give you a feeling of how
187. double link command only in situations where only the width of the stem is important not the position Double links Here is a good example of the situation where double links should be replaced by a chain of single links Another possible application of the double link is hinting a character s middle horizontal stem If the position of the middle stem in different characters is different you cannot be sure that the hinted position will be the same at all PPMs even if the difference is very small There is always a chance that at some PPM the rounding of linked points will be different and the link will be shifted top or bottom Be ready to set a number of middle delta instructions or better yet set a special middle line alignment zone and use a combination of align and single link instructions 581 582 Hinting White Space Sometimes it s necessary to set the width of the white space inside a character especially with a narrow character that has more than one vertical stem Take the character H as an example With normal fonts we usually use two double links to set th
188. e Show Underline check box located in the property area Be sure that the properties area is in compact mode so the properties line is visible Show underline aan 55d I 55 I 55d L 574 E 55d I ds AVATA You will see the underline appear in the editing area and the underline controls in the property area of the Metrics Window The left control is used to edit an underline s position and the right control the underline s thickness If you change values in the control boxes you will see the underline s position and or thickness modified 415 416 Editing Metrics By metrics we refer to information about a glyph s width and sidebearings In AsiaFont Studio you can modify this information either manually or automatically To modify a glyph s metrics you must switch the Metrics Window to the Metrics mode To do this push the button in the mode selection area pi or select the Metrics command in the popup menu that appears if you press the right mouse button in the editing area of the Metrics Window By default the Property area is empty To make the metrics editing controls visible click on the left mouse button on a glyph in the editing field The metrics editing controls will appear and the sidebearings lines with editing handles will appear at the sides of the glyph I 550 I I 55d 55d 574 I AVAT The numbers at the bottom of the glyph are the left and
189. e languages of the modern world In addition it supports classical and historical texts of many written languages In the Unicode standard a character is identified by a double byte index The standard potentially can cover 65 535 characters in a basic plane and much more using plane switching In the current version of the standard 4 0 several hundred thousand indexes are defined That covers almost all currently used languages some historical languages and many pictorial characters AsiaFont Studio can work with Unicode indexes from the SMP which potentially can cover 100 000 Unicode indexes The Unicode standard is used in TrueType fonts as the main character identification method In principle TrueType fonts may be encoded with other standards but in Windows Unicode is always used We recommend visiting the Unicode Consortium official Web site at http www unicode org to get more information about this standard 81 82 Unicode Ranges In Unicode the standard character space indexes 0 65 535 is divided into ranges Each range typically covers characters that belong to one alphabet or have common properties like the Cyrillic range or the Hebrew or the Extended Latin Ranges may be of various lengths from a few characters to several thousand characters in the case of Kanji characters In AsiaFont Studio you can select any Unicode range and view your font as organized by the range All characters with
190. e Duplicates selected part of outli the contents of the Clip EditInsert Replaces current selection with EditthvertS election Reverses selection pboard contents EditP aste Replaces selected data with Cli EditProperties Opens a Properties panel action EditReda Redoes the previously undone Edit5elect ll Selects all data EditUrndo Undoes last action FileClose Closes current font Filet xit Quits the application FileFontInfa Edits font header fields FilelenerateF ont Eoo FileNew Creates a new font FileUpen Opens existing font FilePrint Prints sample of current window rmat z Files ave Saves curent file in FontLab fo Links to External Programs Use the Tools page of the Customize dialog box to assign Windows programs to menu items in AsiaFont Studio s Tools menu Customize Commands Toolbars Toole Keyboard Menu Options Menu contents al There is a list of the assigned programs in the middle of the page and it is empty by default Click this button 4 to add a link Enter the name of the program as it will appear in the menu Then use the button at the right of the Command editing field to locate the program to run Editing fields at the bottom of the Command field allow you to define arguments for the program you want to run from AsiaFont Studio s menu 35 36 Use the button at the top of the Tools list to remove the reference to the program and the and
191. e are some technical differences Version TT flavored CFF flavored Outlines 2nd order like in TrueType 3 d order like in Type 1 fonts fonts Gans st Se ae a ne oe Sees nnn a ee extension Comments Basically any TrueType font Outline data is stored in CFF may be called a TT flavoured Compact Font Format format OpenType font but usually that is expected to work better we call them OpenType fonts with PostScript devices only when they have special features 640 What Format to Prefer It is not easy to say which version is better Both formats will work on both platforms For Windows centered office use we would recommend TT flavoured OpenType fonts as they will provide better compatibility with the old versions of the OS For cross platform and DTP oriented applications the CFF flavoured version seems to have some advantage because it will provide better basic rendering quality Please note that the differences are minor and the most important thing to choose is the source format in which you have your fonts If you have TrueType fonts that you want to convert to OpenType format by adding features then the TT flavoured format is your choice If you have Type 1 fonts it will be easier to convert them to CFF flavoured OpenType format 641 OpenType Tables OpenType fonts consist of multiple tables Every table is identified by a tag which is a combination of up to 4 characters 3 tables are responsible
192. e code Font s unique code 24 bit integer Using the Copy T1 UID button you can copy the Type 1 Unique ID value into this field Typeface family This is a family code assigned by HP Boise Division Refer to code HP manuals for more information TypeFamily This is another vendor code assigned by the HP Boise Division vendor code Choose one of values in the list 217 PCLT Metrics and Font Description PCLT metrics and font description JLH width Mormal Posture Upright Structure Solid normal black Strokeweight 0 Book test regular etc SerifStyle Sans Serif Square Sans Serif Monolineg Serif Contrasting i 4 4 4 4 WidthT yoe 0 Normal Height 1052 CarHeihe 1455 g i Width The appearance width Select one of the options in the list Posture The slant of the glyphs Could be upright italic oblique or reversed italic 218 PCLT Codepages PCLT Pane art BeOS Typeface M Arial File name AALA OQ Character Set Undefined w Character Complement QU00000000000000 Typeface This 16 byte ASCII string appears in the font print of PCL printers Care should be taken to insure that the base string for all typefaces of a family are consistent and that the designators for bold italic etc are standardized Times New Times New Bd Times New It Times New BdIt File name This 6 byte field is composed of 3 parts The f
193. e database that links Unicode indexes and glyph names is nothing more than a text file STANDARD NAM located in the Data directory that has the following structure 6SFONTLAB NAMETABLE Ox0000 notdef Ox0002 nonmarkingreturn 0x0020 visiblespace 0x0020 space The first line of this file is a signature that is used to show that this file is a properly defined database file The lines that follow the signature have a very simple structure lt Unicode index gt lt name gt The Unicode index may be in decimal or hex started with Ox form The name should not have any spaces Names are case sensitive One Unicode index may be linked with more than one name and several Unicode indexes may be linked with one name yr If the name is preceded with the it means that Unicode may be generated from the name but none of the marked names may be generated when the Unicode index is known This is necessary when none of the glyph s names is included in the list of standard names supported by Adobe Adobe Glyph List This feature makes it possible to generate correct Unicode indexes for incorrectly named glyphs but will never assign incorrect names You can extend this file in any text editor but we strongly recommend not changing it Importing CMap Files To automatically generate Unicode indexes for imported CID font switch to the Codepages mode and select the Open CMap File command from the Glyph gt Glyph Names menu You will be as
194. e editing layers features is the special Editing Layers panel which you can put on the screen with the Window gt Editing Layers panel command or with this button on the Panels toolbar Editing Layers Outline DA hoN Y Guides Hints In this panel you can select a layer for editing just click on the layer name and control layers appearance using the check boxes to the layer names S amp za J m m All layers Outline wow Guideline wo o Hints wow Mask arid woe ow Vertical metrics W Template w Glyph metrics Components Mat Mensa eles ae F f ebt zones The left column of checkboxes controls the layers appearance in the Glyph Window The middle column controls the snap to feature and is equivalent to the View gt Snap to layers menu The right column lets you lock layers and is equivalent to the View gt Lock layers menu 237 238 Please note that you must open the Glyph Window to make it possible to open the Editing Layers panel With the panel you can easily control all the layers at once using the check boxes in the bottom row m m m All layers If you frequently need to switch some layers on and off you can drag the View gt Show Layers menu and convert it to a toolbar View Show Layers HE Grid Chrl Sh 6 Sapto Layers Drag make this menu Float ashe Toolbars Pdi Hints Ctrl 5h H w Rulers ia
195. e example described above With the glyphs member you may perform several operations like adding a new glyph g Glyph fl font glyphs append g This example will append a new glyph to the font To remove all the glyphs in the font use this method fl font glyphs clean Other members of the Font class represent Font Header data and you can get a list of them using the following operation print Font __doc__ Two methods of the Font class relate to AsiaFont Studio internal format Open filename opens font from VFB format Save filename saves font in VFB format These operations are not connected to the AsiaFont Studio UI so you may use them with fonts created inside a Python program and not connected to the AsiaFont Studio system 713 714 Glyph The Glyph class represents the glyph as a data structure in AsiaFont Studio The most important members are listed in the following table parent Glyph s parent object the Font index Index of the glyph in the font it is 1 if the glyph is not connected to the font nodes List of nodes Each element of the list is an object of the Node type customdata A string type data that may be attached to the glyph This data is stored to the AFS FontLab font file VFB so you can use it to define glyph properties that are not supported by AsiaFont Studio note Note defined for this glyph string type mark Color code for the glyph mark or zero if glyph is not marked anchor
196. e feature To change the lookupflag attribute explicitly use the lookupflag statement which takes two formats lookupflag format A lookupflag lt named lookupflag value gt lt named lookupflag value gt Here the individual lookup flag values to be set are expressed in a comma separated list of one or more lt named lookupflag value gt s in no particular order A lt named lookupflag value gt is one of the following RightToLeft IgnoreBaseGlyphs IgnoreLigatures IgnoreMarks At most one of each of the above 5 kinds of lt named lookupflag value gt may be present in a lookupflag statement For example to skip over base glyphs and ligature glyphs lookupflag IgnoreBaseGlyphs IgnoreLigatures lookupflag format B lookupflag lt number gt Here the entire lookup flag value is specified simply as a lt number gt The format A example above could equivalently be expressed as lookupflag 6 Format A is clearly a superior choice for human readability when the lookupflag value is not 0 However a lookupflag value of 0 can be set only with format B not with format A lookupflag 0 The base glyphs ligatures and marks are defined in the Glyph Properties dialog This information is stored in the OpenType font file in the GDEF table Please be sure to allow export of this table in the Options gt OpenType if you are using the lookupflag feature in the feature definition file M Export GDEF table 653 654
197. e first two sections let you specify the fonts to blend To select the first or second font choose the font name in the list The Preview panel will show a sample of the font You cannot select the same font in both sections AsiaFont Studio will take care of that The bottom section lets you specify blend options f Blendfonts Build the Multiple Master font You have two main choices to make a single master font that will contain the result of the source fonts blend or to make a Multiple Master font that will have the two source fonts as the masters Here we will describe only single master mode Please refer to the Multiple Master chapter for information about using the Blend feature to make Multiple Master fonts 137 138 In the Destination font combo box you can select the font in which to store the blended glyphs Choose New font to put the generated glyphs into a new font Further down there are two options All existing source glyphs Selected destination glyphs Select the second option if you want to blend only glyphs that are selected in the destination font To the right there are controls to specify the blend amount Blend amount 50 a 50 W Uniform Enter the blend percentage in the editing field If you want to blend fonts nonproportionally along the X and Y axes uncheck the Uniform check box and enter the blend amount for the two directions To not let AsiaFont Studio add nodes to comp
198. e folders combo box and Dropsin the macro list 4 Click on the button to run the program This is what you should see as a result of the transformation 701 702 Assign to Keyboard Using the Macro toolbar you can assign up to 10 macro programs to the keyboard combinations SHIFT ALT 0 SHIFT ALT 1 and up to SHIFT ALT 9 To do so 1 Select the macro program using the two combo boxes on the toolbar 2 Click on the button and select a combination in the popup menu Cancel empty Sh Alt 0 empty Sh Alt 1 empty Sh Alt 2 empty Sh Alt 3 empty Sh Alt 4 empty Sh Alt 5 empty Sh Alt 6 empty Sh Alt 7 empky Sh Alt 5 empty Sh AIE 9 The next time you press the key combination AsiaFont Studio will run the assigned macro program Integrating into Menus You can integrate macro programs supplied with AsiaFont Studio written by you or downloaded from the Internet into many context menus in AsiaFont Studio If a menu has macro programs assigned they appear in the Macro submenu at the bottom O ov crete Opentype Invert selection Mark problems Print Font Select alphanumeric Select composites Integration of macro programs into menus is done automatically when macro programs are stored in one of the folders in the AFS4 Macro System folder Note that Python macro programs must have a py extension to be accepted by AsiaFont Studio
199. e from our web site and from other sources The easiest way to run a macro program is to use the Macro toolbar To open the toolbar click View gt Toolbars gt Macro If this command is disabled it means that the Python system is not installed Exit AsiaFont Studio follow the instructions above to install Python 2 2 1 and then run AsiaFont Studio again to activate the Macro features When the Macro toolbar appears it looks like this Let s describe the contents of the toolbar from left to right K Cavetoo Python tool selector A Python tool is an editing tool like Edit Meter or Sketch which has all its functions defined in Python I e a AsiaFont Studio tool written in Python fat Top level Family generator s Macro program selectors The Left combo box allows you to select one of the categories of programs and the right combo box selects the program within the category m Run the program selected in the list described above WE Stop the program that is running Open the currently selected program in the Edit Macro Panel for editing Restart the Python system Use this command to reload all standard libraries and free all memory allocated by the Python system A Assign the currently selected program to a key combination 700 Let s try to run one of the sample programs supplied with AsiaF ont Studio 1 Open the B glyph in a Glyph Window Open the Macro toolbar 2 3 Select Effects in th
200. e has two buttons Fix and Fix All which you can use to try to automatically fix an error Fix button or all errors in the glyph Fix All Sometimes correcting one error causes others and when you press the Fix or Fix All button you will see even more errors so use this feature carefully You can customize the FontAudit algorithms using the FontAudit page of the Options dialog box FontAudit Empty lines and curves Vectors on amp closepaths Flat curves Collnear amp vectors Inflections on cumes weak estremum ports Mormal extremum pointa Here is a short description of each test and the error that it detects Empty lines and Lines or curves that have no length I e two nodes on top curves of each other Flat curves Curves that can be replaced with a straight vector without loss of quality I e a curve that is really a straight line Vectors on Unnecessary vectors that should be removed In Type 1 closepaths fonts this error can cause problems with rasterization 255 256 Moving Nodes The most important editing operation is the modification of the contours that build each glyph You can modify contours in three ways moving nodes editing graphical primitives using non node editing and selecting several nodes and moving them together To move individual nodes 1 If nodes are hidden make the node that you want to edit visible switch nodes on with the View gt Show Layers gt Nodes men
201. e is set for this font to avoid conflict with any installed fonts This font is saved in the Windows TEMP directory with a name beginning with FL and with a TMP extension The new font is installed in the system All previews are made with this font Previews in the Preview panel can use grayscale output if it is available from the system and is allowed by the font When the font is no longer needed it is uninstalled and the font file is removed Like the Type 1 hinting preview panel the TrueType hinting preview panel can be opened and its options can be customized Please refer to the description of the Type 1 hinting preview panel on page 508 for more information 525 526 Program Panel In the Program panel you can see the text of the instruction program as it is interpreted TrueType Program lnetructions DioubleLinkH 5 lt gt 35 1 DoubleLinkH 43 lt gt 27 7 MDeltsH 43 2 gt 9 10 lnterpolateH 43 18 lt 27 0 InterpolateH 5 gt 22 lt 27 na SingleLinkH 18 51 1 na MDeltaH 51 lt 2 gt 9 10 SingleLinkH 35 57 na SingleLinkH 27 601 na AlignT op 12 2 To open the Program panel use the command from the TrueType hinting options menu The Program panel consists of the program listing and four buttons Del Removes the selected command Reset Removes all commands Close Closes the panel More gt gt Expands the panel to include the command options controls Here are the mnemo
202. e it with a series of curves and lines How to create a new contour If you begin a contour in a free area where the cursor has its ordinary shape you will define a new contour If you want to begin a new contour but its starting point is on an existing contour press the CTRL key to force AsiaFont Studio to create a new contour How to modify an existing contour When you move the cursor of the Contour tool onto an existing contour or node it changes If you begin drawing without holding down the CTRL key the new contour will be inserted into the existing one If the finishing point of your drawing is on an existing contour also and the starting and finishing points are on the same contour then the new drawing will replace the part of the existing contour that lies between the starting and finishing points How to draw a single curve Hold the SHIFT key down when you release the mouse button after drawing a new line Your drawing will be approximated by a single curve This is a good way to draw a new contour step by step 367 368 Brush Tool The brush tool works like the usual bitmap brush that you find in any bitmap editing program You begin a brush stroke by pressing the left mouse button Draw the stroke by dragging the mouse and finish drawing it by releasing the mouse button To change the color of the brush use the color selection buttons on the Vector Paint toolbar for the white color Other brush
203. e layers one with the original real glyph outline and one with the sketch outline In contrast to the outline representation used in the Edit mode the Sketch outline is not WYSIWYG Before exporting to a font file all sketch outlines must be converted into standard outlines I e you edit the sketch but nothing changes in the real glyph outline until you do the conversion The Sketch outline is entirely point based all points that define the outline are positioned on the outline There are no Bezier control points or TrueType off curve points There are 3 types of points corner curve and tangent AOO 355 When points of known types are set AsiaFont Studio automatically draws the outline to match their positions If you want to change the shape of the outline just move the points or add more points to increase the precision When you enter the Sketch mode you will see the Edit toolbar IAA HNO and an additional Sketch toolbar Sketch The buttons on the Edit toolbar have the same meaning as in Edit mode Here is a short description of the commands available on the Sketch toolbar h Show outline Displays the real glyph outline in the background of the sketch outline lt Show marks Shows point and direction marks i New sketch Use to create a new empty sketch I e delete the current sketch A Import sketch Convert the glyph outline to a sketch ia Add to outline Add the sketch ou
204. e metrics you want to copy from the key glyph of the class to the rest of the glyphs It could be L for the left sidebearing R for the right sidebearing and W for the advance width 4 Ifyou want you can use the Adjust field at the right of the control area to change the metrics when they are copied from the key glyph of the class Enter a positive or negative value and select the units font units or percent of the original value Optionally you can measure sidebearings along the measurement line which may be very useful if you are working with a serif font Use the preview panel to see the effect of your actions To apply the new metrics click the Apply and Save button Click on the Save button to store the metrics assistance information without actually changing the glyph metrics The editing field below the preview panel lets you change the class definition Click on the button to accept changes To create a new class press the 4 button Use the toolbar buttons to perform additional operations in the Metrics Assistance dialog box nu Open data file Opens the data file with the metrics assistance information AsiaFont Studio can open data files saved by itself and metrics assistance files saved from Fontographer In the latter case AsiaFont Studio will automatically generate classes and import all information that is compatible with the AsiaFont Studio metrics assistance feature Ma Save data file Saves current metrics ass
205. e modification It can be the old position for relative offset the top of the glyph or the bottom of the glyph 2 Change the position of the baseline relative to the base level 3 Press the Enter key or click anywhere in the editing field to apply the changes Metrics Properties Panel To open the metrics property panel position the mouse cursor on the left or right glyph margin click the right mouse button and select the Properties command or Ctri click the left mouse button on one of the margins Metrics Properties x Glyph metrics Maln Elene El me In this panel you can modify a glyph s sidebearings and or width Grid Layer This layer is very simple if the Grid is on you will see a grid of vertical and horizontal lines in the edit Window If snap to grid is on which it is by default any node that you move will snap to the gridlines ie AN You can adjust the grid frequency on the Glyph page of the Options dialog box Tools menu Grid step fioo fioo 315 316 Guidelines Layer Guidelines are straight lines that are used to guide the drawing of specific elements of a glyph Guidelines can be vertical horizontal or slanted Guidelines can be slanted at any angle from 45 to 45 from the vertical or horizontal direction Slanted guidelines can help to mark italic characters or specific slanted elements in normal characters like the inner bar in the letter N
206. e of the masters on the mask using the mask s snap feature or some other techniques that will be discussed later The mask layer can be filled in two ways by copying the selected part of the outline to the mask layer or by using the Assign Mask command To copy the selected part of the outline to the Mask layer use the Copy to Mask command in the Tools gt Template menu If nothing is selected in the outline layer the entire glyph outline will be copied Editing Mask To edit the mask layer with the usual editing tools you need to activate it with the Editing Layers panel Editing Layers Outline Metrics Guides Alternatively you can use the Edit mask command in the View gt Show layers menu When the Mask layer is selected for editing the outline layer will be shown as a mask and may be filled if Preview mode is active so you can use it as a reference Use any tool of the Edit mode to create edit or remove the nodes and contours of the Mask layer outline Re Activate the Outline layer when you are finished working on the mask 323 324 Mask Operations All operations related to the Mask layer appear in the Tools gt Template menu Paste Mask Adds the contents of the mask layer to the outline The added part will be selected so you can start to work with it immediately Clear Mask Clears the mask layer removing all its contents Mask to Master Applies the Mask to Master action to the current
207. e preview text combo bos AVATAY LMNOPQRSTUVWeyZ _ abedefghijkim WKLMNOPGRS TUAW defghyk inna ABCabc ABCabel 23 hamburngevons HAMBUAGEYONS Second preview string You will find an editing field containing all the strings that appear in the list box Edit the text or use the Open button to fill it from an external text file If you are working with a non Latin font you may want to select the font that is used in the sample string control and list Use the editing field below the contents field to enter the desired font name or click on the Select button to select the font with the standard font selection dialog box 411 The bottom position in the dialog box is occupied by the Second preview string control Text that you enter here will appear as the second line in the Metrics window AVATaY HOHO 412 Entering Special Characters Some glyphs are not represented by the ANSI characters that are standard in Windows However by using special rules you can enter non ANSI names in the sample string To enter a glyph s name begin with the slash character and finish with a space character or another slash A small T small To enter a slash type it twice The decimal code of a glyph can follow the slash instead of using its name 44 The Unicode index of the glyph can be entered if you use the prefix 0445 0448 To enter a backslash type it twice W The easiest way to
208. e scaled outlines in a resolution independent way it is convenient to define a quantity called Pixels Per eM PPM This is the number of pixels that can fit into the font s height From the Editing Glyphs chapter you know that font height is a basic font measurement unit equal to the Units Per eM UPM In TrueType fonts UPM is usually equal to 2048 and in Type 1 fonts to 1000 Outline character Rasterized character So to scale a font to render at a specific point size on a device with a specific resolution we take the resolution and point size to calculate the PPM value Then we scale all the outline characters by multiplying by the PPM UPM coefficient Coordinate Rounding Gridfitting Output devices take the vector outline of a glyph and rasterize it That is they calculate from the outline data where they need to place each pixel to get an accurate output representation of the glyph Since the final output is on a discrete raster i e a grid of numbered pixels the scaled pixel coordinates need to be rounded somehow to integer values For example if you have an outline point with coordinates 120 100 and scale it down 7 times you will get the coordinates 17 1429 14 2857 After rounding to the closest integer values the resulting coordinates will be 17 14 and so the rounding error will be 0 1429 0 84 pixels for the horizontal coordinate and 0 2857 2 for the vertical coordinate If we instead scale this point d
209. e temporary file Editing Kerning To edit kerning data switch the Metrics Window to Kerning mode by pushing the x button in the mode selection area Bg or select the Kerning command in the popup menu that appears if you press the right mouse button in the editing area of the Metrics Window When you switch to the kerning mode you will see the total number of defined kerning pairs for the current font appear in the property area of the Metrics Window Fairs H e54 To make the Kerning Editing controls visible you must select the pair that you want to edit Position the mouse cursor on the right glyph of the pair and click the left mouse button You will see the Kerning Editing controls appear in the property area and the kerning line and handle appear in the editing area Fairs keming 174 174 174 D ste CJ 174 g There is now a blue area in the metrics bar at the top part of the editing area This means that kerning exists for that pair in the current preview string 425 426 Manual Kerning Editing To edit kerning manually you must drag the kerning line or right glyph of the kerning pair using the left mouse button If you click the right mouse button while dragging the glyph kerning for that pair will be removed You will see that the total number of kerning pairs decreases Using the Keyboard When a glyph is selected in the sample string you can use the left and right arrow keys to change the k
210. e the Meter tool to measure the width of the serif Set Min width to a value that is greater than the serif width to prevent AsiaFont Studio from autohinting the serifs the real width of the serif in the picture is 18 units Min width 20 Min width 10 2 Decrease the Min length value to generate more hints Increase the value to generate only the most important hints 3 Increase the Max width value if you are working on a black or heavy font that has very thick stems 340 Hint Properties Panel To open the hint property panel Ctri click one of the hint lines or right click and choose the Properties command in the popup menu Hint Properties Horizontal hint Position width In the hint property panel you can modify the position of a hint in the upper edit box and modify the width of the hint in the lower box Press the ENTER key or click the mouse outside of the properties panel to apply the changes Link Properties Panel In the Link properties panel you can modify a link s properties enter the index numbers of the two nodes which you want to connect by the link in the editing fields or check the Ghost Link checkbox to make a link into a ghost link 341 342 Anchors Layer Sometimes when you work with a glyph it s helpful to mark particular positions and refer to them later In AsiaFont Studio you can use a special editing layer called Anchors to do this Anchors are simpl
211. e the key you will see a high quality preview of the outline Note that you can use the lt and gt keys to browse characters without releasing the key 249 Outline Preview Options You can choose various options for previewing the contour layer f Nodes To show nodes or not Connection mode To show connection mode marks 4 Positions To show the coordinates of each node You will see the positions of nodes only when the nodes are visible All other contour presentation modes may be combined in any way A few more notes about outline appearance Selected parts of an outline appear red in color Selected nodes are marked as red rectangles and they are visible even if non selected nodes are hidden Many options related to outline appearance can be customized on the Glyph page of the Options dialog box Tools gt Options Glyph Window Small nodes Smooth outline Black white node icons C Leave echo while editing C Do not show crosshair 250 Here is a list of the available options and a description of the features they control Small nodes Smooth outline Show contours direction Show node s position Nodes may be small or large Allows one to select between standard and smoothed rendering of the outline i a An outline consists of several contours and each contour is directional The direction of the contour is marked with a small arrow oe One node may be selecte
212. e the text stroke will not interact with the existing contour and you will be able to adjust its position using the Edit tool or Transform operation Select the Automatic Activation of Transform Operation option in the VectorPaint Options dialog box With this option on the Transform operation will be activated immediately after entering the text string allowing you to modify its size or position To enter a string of text 1 2 Select the text tool in the Vector Paint toolbar Position the mouse cursor with the crosshair and the suggested rectangle of the future string on the place in the editing field where you want to add the string Click the left mouse button In the dialog box enter the character string Use the Font button to select the font that will be used Below the sample string you will see the name of the current font and the size of the text string The size is presented in font units You can change the string size in the Font dialog box The size of the placed text will be 10 times the selected point size For instance if you select a 24 pt font you will get a string that will be 240 units in height Press OK to enter the string or Cancel to abort this operation Meter Mode With this tool you can measure any distance and angle in your glyph It is very useful if you want to create very precise extremely high quality symbols To measure distances between two points 1 Select the Meter tool
213. e to a vector or vice versa TO convert a curve to a vector delete right mouse button one of the control points of the curve or delete the curve while you are in the non node editing mode To convert a vector normal or closing to a curve drag an inside point of the vector while holding down the ALT key To convert a curve to a 1 4 part of an ellipse the curve s control vectors will be treated as an ellipse axis press the ALT key and click on the curve You can also convert curves and vectors with the popup menu Right click the end node of the segment and select the Convert command in the popup menu With this command a line segment is converted to a Bezier curve a Bezier curve to a TrueType curve and a TrueType curve to one or more Bezier curves The last way to convert primitives is to use the selection menu 1 SuHiFtT click any point on the curve or line segment 2 Right click the highlighted red segment A popup menu appears 3 Choose one of the commands in the Convert submenu To curves to convert to a Bezier curve or To lines to convert to straight line segments Breaking and J oining Outlines To break the contour with the edit tool hold down CTRL and ALT and left click the node where you want to break the contour To break the contour with the Knife tool just click on the node When a contour is broken its first and last nodes are highlighted by diagonal crosses J You can use the Kni
214. e widths of vertical stems Because at all PPM sizes we will have enough space between stems we don t really care about white space But look what happens if we try to use the same technique with a narrow font At many PPMs the vertical stems are snapped together and the character becomes completely unreadable We can however use only one double link then link the two stems together with a single link with a rounded distance and set the width of the right stem with a single link connected to the stem The rounded distance of the single links cannot be less than one pixel so we will always have some white space between the stems To complete the hinting of this character we have to add a rounded single link to the right sidebearing point to make sure that the white space between our character and the next character does not disappear 983 Hinting Serifs We recommend hinting serifs in the vertical direction by a single link command Serif single link If the serifs are thin then it s not necessary to attach their width to the standard stem width A single link with rounded distance will be enough Rounded single links cannot appear less than one pixel in length so the serif will never disappear Of course if you want to have more control over the serif s width you can define a special stem width and attach the serif s single links to
215. eck the Output panel for the reference Note the two underscore characters before and after the doc 709 FontLab The highest class in the FontLab hierarchy is a class named FontLab You cannot create it explicitly but the object of this class is always available and is named fl This class contains seven most important members ifont Index of the active font ee ee a eee ne Gig a ee sgh iene ete end eee a a a a nnn count_selected Number of selected glyphs in the Font Window You can also access the fl object as a list of Font type objects print fl 0 font_name 710 There are several important methods Close fontindex Closes the current or fontindex font Open filename Opens the font from the file using the current Open filename addtolist opening options If addtolist is True the font is added to AsiaFont Studio s font list Save filename Saves the current or selected font using the Save fontindex filename standard AsiaFont Studio Save routine Add font Adds font to the list of open fonts and opens the Font Window for it UpdateFont Updates the current font or fontindex slow UpdateFont fontindex operation UpdateGlyph Updates the current or glyphindex glyph of the UpdateGlyph glyphindex current font EditGlyph Opens a Glyph window for the glyphindex glyph in EditGlyph glyphindex the current font Selected Returns True if the current glyph or glyphindex Selected gly
216. ecords have a different format Version Record You may enter the TrueType version record here or just press the Recalc button at the right of the field to fill this record automatically You must have the Names and Copyright pages filled in to use the automatic features on this page Press the Apply button at the bottom of the dialog box to enter the new Font Info values into the font s header 183 184 Basic Font Identification Font identification values TrueType Unique ID record FontLab Ltddnec FreeFontPro 2003 Type 1 Unique ID number O Type 1 XUID numbers o TrueType vendor code Use it as default Pyrus Font creation date 4 74 2005 Ww 19 04 27 F Now l a z HIII TE IUU T a e a TrueType This field is necessary to identify TrueType fonts Usually it Unique ID includes the creator s name font family name and creation year Record The format of this field is freeform but we recommend that you use the button to fill this field automatically Type 1 Unique An integer number identifying the font Unique ID numbers must ID Record be registered with Adobe Systems However you may leave 0 in this field or enter a value from the users Unique ID zone 4000000 to 4999999 If you enter this value and plan to export Type 1 fonts be sure not to have more than one font with the same Unique ID value because that may cause a problem with PostScript printers or Adobe Type Manager software
217. ected glyphs To select a filter use the Select an action list Select an action Expand one of the categories to see all the filters ee Shift 0 0 i Mirror H Seale 80 00 100 00 HZ Rotate 15 00 Cw 2 Select an action and you will see an action customization panel appear below the list Current action Rotate glyph Rotation angle 15 f Clockwise C Counterclockwise M Rotate around Origin point 0 0 is The contents of the customization panel depend on the action selected Note the red MM mark in the right top corner of some customization panels This mark means that the currently selected action may be applied to a single master of a Multiple Master font All actions that do not have this mark are not compatible with MM fonts You can use them but all the masters will stick together and you will lose the multiple masterness of your font After you select a transformation action and set its options press the OK button to begin transformation If you are transforming more than one glyph a warning message will appear telling you how many glyphs you will modify and asking you to confirm the transformation Transformation of many glyphs is not undoable so it s a good idea to save your font before taking this action You can repeat the last transformation by choosing the Tools gt Repeat Transformation command Below you will find a detailed description of each available transformation ac
218. ed CMap file is not correct click on the Browse button and select another CMap file in the CMaps folder We strongly recommend that you assign a CMap file when you are opening a CID font Without the encoding information it will be very difficult to export the font into one of the common font formats like TrueType or OpenType If you don t want AsiaFont Studio to assign any encoding switch off the Automatically assign Unicode indexes using CMap file option 65 66 An Easy Way to Convert CID Fonts to TrueType We are jumping ahead but we think that it is important to tell you how to quickly convert a CID font to TrueType font format We assume that the CID font has one of the standard orderings 1 2 Open the font with the File Open command In the CID Font Import dialog box select Combine all subset fonts into one font Make sure all subset fonts are selected for importing Leave the Automatically assign Unicode indexes option in the ON state Check that AsiaFont Studio selected a CMap file Click OK and wait while the CID font is being imported Export the font using the File Generate font command Choose the command in the menu and select TrueType as the destination format Click OK and wait while AsiaFont Studio converts the CID font into TrueType font format Importing Font Collection When you select a TTC TrueType Collection font for open you are presented with a special TTC Font Col
219. ed in the vertical direction so that at some resolutions they can extend above or below the scaled Win Mac Ascender or Win Mac Descender values and unwanted dropouts do not appear We strongly recommend you always have this option switched on Using CachelT to Build Device Metrics Tables There are two ways to make a device metrics tables You can use AsiaFont Studio to calculate these values or you can use the CacheTT program made by Microsoft AsiaFont Studio s own algorithm is very fast but is not as precise as CacheTT We recommend you use AsiaFont Studio s calculation while you are working on the font and use CacheTT when you prepare your font for release 211 212 To calculate the device metrics tables using the CacheTT 1 Download and install the CacheTT program You can download it from this location http www microsoft com typography tools cachett zip Open the Options dialog box Tools gt Options command Select the General page if Use CacheTT program to generate device metrics tables in TT fonts Location of the CacheT T exe file C Distributives cachettcachett exe Enter the full path to the CacheTT exe file in the Location of the Cache TT exe file field or click on the button to find the CacheTT exe file using the file open dialog box Check the Use CacheTT program to generate device metrics tables in TT fonts checkbox if you want AsiaFont Studio to use CacheTT to generate device met
220. eft and you will get access to font specific customisation Names and Copyright Type 1 export options HJH Version and Identification Metrics and Dimensions iUse default export options Encoding and Unicode Hinting Settings Type 1 specific settings Make PFM file Make AFM and INF files Use Windscent and WinDescent as font vertical size GEER ER ER TrueType speciic settings Encoding options Font note El Automatically sort glyphs Open Type 1 Export Terminal Reset to default The set of controls in these panels is the same as in the Tools gt Options dialog box The only difference is that global options are applied to all fonts that have the Use default export options setting activated and custom options are selected only for the font for which they are specified Type 1 Export Options To get access to the full set of Type 1 export options open the Tools gt Options dialog and select the Type 1 page Type 1 Export Make PFM file Make SFM and INF tiles Use Windscent and WinDescent as font vertical size Encoding options Export Unicode codepage if codepage mode tt active Ww Automatically sort glyphs Open Type 1 Export Terminal Type 1 exporting options in the Export Options dialog box are a subset of the options accessible in the Tools gt Options gt Type ldialog box Usually the subset is enough but sometimes you may need to customize the full set Make PFM
221. elected part of any glyph to the templat the template layer paste the template layer to the o template layer a Mask you If the snap to template function View gt Snap to la template layer is visible View gt Show layers all nc snap to the template Commands related to the template layer are conce Template menu Copy to Template Copies the selected area of t whole outline if nothing is sdiewssu layer Mihe Template Copy mask to template Copies the mask layer of the current glyph to the template layer In other words converts a local template into a global font wide template Background Layer When other methods are not adequate you can use a background bitmap template A bitmap template is a black white bitmap image that appears on the screen underneath all the other layers You can use it as a template for a glyph outline it is especially useful when working with the VectorPaint tools Create a background layer using any of the three following methods 1 Open a bitmap image file in BMP or TIFF format 2 Paste an image from the Clipboard 3 Rasterize the current outline to make an image in the bitmap background layer You can also copy the contents of the background to the clipboard to paste it into any Windows image editing program save it to the image file and set its size and position on the screen To open a bitmap image select the Open Background command from the Tools gt Templates m
222. ely useful when you are making Multiple Master fonts Refer to the Multiple Master Fonts chapter for more information When Interpolate operation is activated a small panel appears consisting only of two buttons OK and Cancel Press the OK button to accept any changes that you made with the interpolation operation you can also press the RETURN or ENTER key on the keyboard or press the Cancel button to reject the changes the Esc key is the equivalent of this button 379 380 H ow interpolation works 1 You set the new position of several glyph points We call these points reference points 2 All points on contours that are between two reference points are interpolated All contours are processed independently 4 Points 2 and 5 are reference points Points 3 and 4 are between these points and will be interpolated Note that points 1 and 6 are also between reference points because the contour is closed 3 All non reference points are interpolated between two reference points according to the following rules a Ifthe contour has only one reference point it is shifted with that point 381 382 To interpolate a glyph 1 Activate an Interpolation operation Select the Interpolation command in the Operations submenu of the Tools menu or press the Si button on the Tools box You will see a standard tool panel with the usual OK and Cancel buttons You can press the OK button any time to finish your work
223. em widths and some other important data that helps control the hinting process Character level hints are used to declare the position and width of the most important character elements The most common use for hints is to declare the position and width of character stems These hints are scaled with the outline in the rendering stage but due to their independence from the outline they help to maintain the same stem widths for all stems of a certain width independent of how it happens to fall on the discrete raster Unhinged charace r Hinted character 489 Font Level Type 1 Hints Font level hints are used to keep important character elements similar at all PPM sizes There are three types of font level hints Alignment Zones Positions and width of important heights Control Data Controls the hinting process All font level hinting is set in the Alignment page of the FontInfo dialog in AsiaFont Studio 490 Alignment Zones Alignment zones are typically used to perform a process known as overshoot suppression Rounded characters and characters with sharp ends usually are created a little bit larger than flat characters Notice that the top and bottom of the O extend just a little beyond the top and bottom of the H This is called overshoot It is necessary to compensate for a visual effect that makes rounded characters look s
224. ems H stems M40 There are controls for vertical and horizontal standard stem widths All available stems appear in the horizontal lists You can select any stem just as you would in normal vertical list controls To add a stem to the list of the standard stems press F at the right side of the stems list To edit a standard stem width select it using the left mouse button and edit its value in the edit field to the right of the list To remove a stem from the list select it and press the button Note that AsiaFont Studio will sort stem widths in ascending order when you close the Fontlinfo dialog box StdHW StdVW StemSnapH and StemSnapV Parameters From the Type 1 font specification you may know that in Type 1 fonts two types of standard stem widths are used Standard Width and Stem Snap Width There is one standard width for each direction and up to 10 stem snap values In AsiaFont Studio these values are united in the stem list StdHW and StdVW are taken from the first records in the stem lists StemSnapH and StemSnapV records are the remaining records in the stems list Standard stem widths are also used in TrueType hinting AsiaFont Studio also has a faster way to append stems to the list of standard stem widths Any vertical or horizontal hint may be used as a source of stem width information Just point the Edit tool at the hint press the right mouse button and select the Define a Stem command in the popup menu
225. en scalable fonts appeared this typography feature wasn t compatible with the technology so it all but disappeared We had scalable fonts that could be shrunk or enlarged to any point size but the price for this was a little decrease in the quality of typeset text With Multiple Master fonts it is possible to define two optical size master fonts one for small point sizes and another for large point sizes and use MM interpolation to create the proper font design for the final selected point size oo D DN JD 72 pt master font 6 pt master font 595 596 In the following example you can see two lines of text typed with the same font but different optical size selection ABCabc The text font For better comparison both lines were typed at the same point size 28 pt but with the different optical sizes Note the different contrast and inter character spacing Style This design axis can cover many different design properties Here s one example of what you can do with it APU Ad IPU EH EH EE HHHHHH HHHHHH There is no standard definition or real property of this axis And there is no standard for its dynamic range Design Coordinates and Weight Vectors You know that all axes have ranges These ranges can vary from 0 to 9999 but a more practical range of 0 to 1000 is usually used Somehow we have to define a way to designate the position of an intermediate MM design in the design axis space A v
226. ender line Usually this is the height of the lowercase b character Descender Position of the font s descender line Usually this is the position of the bottom line of the p character Caps height Height of the font s uppercase characters Usually the height of the F character x height Height of the lowercase characters Usually the height of the x character Italic angle Actual italic or oblique angle for the font The italic angle is measured in the counterclockwise direction so the default value is 12 Slant angle Type 1 fonts can be artificially slanted to get an oblique appearance while keeping the actual outlines upright Enter a slant angle value in degrees here and check the result in the Preview panel 191 192 Advanced Vertical Metrics Additional font metrics True T ppe specific cole Calculate values automatically recommended Set custom values 05 2 TypoAscender 752 hhea Ascender TypoDescender 280 Descender TypoLineG ap Linel ap 2 Windecent WinDescent fF Strikeout position Strikeout thickness 50 gt Recalculate Average width jo Leave zero in this field to calculate value automatically i In TrueType font files vertical metrics can be stored in the OS 2 and hhea tables Different programs and operating systems use vertical metrics from these tables Windows usually uses data stored in the OS 2 table while the Mac OS uses only data
227. enu Templates d Ctrl B Copy Background Ctrl Alt Y Remove Background Ctre Alt F You will see the standard Windows Open File dialog box where you can select the bitmap file that you want to put into the background layer Use the format selection combo box to choose the format of the bitmap file AsiaFont Studio supports two formats BMP standard Windows bitmap format and TIFF standard image interchange format Bitmap files that you import into AsiaFont Studio must be black and white line art images Neither color nor grayscale images can be imported into AsiaFont Studio Your image editing application can usually make this change if need be 329 330 To copy a bitmap image from another Windows program into AsiaF ont Studio select the image in the program using its selection tools copy the image onto the Clipboard the image may be color black white or grayscale switch to the AsiaFont Studio window and select the Paste command from the Edit menu To rasterize a glyph s outline and make a background layer from it select the Create Background command from the Tools gt Template menu Below is a table containing all the commands from the Templates menu related to background bitmap layer Create Background Rasterizes the outline and makes a background layer Open Background Opens a bitmap file BMP or TIFF from the disk and places the contents of the file into the background layer You will see a standard
228. er used to support Type 1 fonts in Windows how to interpret the encoding vector This is the Microsoft Character set Some of the values for Microsoft Character set ANSI The Font has all the characters necessary to represent the standard Windows Latin 1 character set No reencoding is necessary Symbol The font is symbolic with a custom encoding vector It should appear as Symbol in Windows applications and the font s own encoding vector should be used to access characters OEM The font has MS DOS characters This setting is rarely used in Type 1 fonts Bitstream This is a normal text font but it has its own encoding that should be used to access characters This setting is highly recommended for all text fonts with a non standard encoding vector Arabic The font has Arabic encoding Other values cover more codepages that may be supported by the font Choose the codepage that is the default for your font Supported Unicode Ranges Supported Unicode E EDID Basic Latin Latin 1 Supplement Latin Extended 4 Latin Extended B IPA Extensions Spacing Modifier Letters Combining Diactitical Marks TrueType and OpenType fonts must declare Unicode ranges that the font can Support so that the operating system can decide which characters the font can be used to represent In TrueType format this information is stored as the ulCodePageRange and ulUnicodeRange f
229. er Set Table AsiaFont Studio stores the list of pre defined character set codes with descriptions in a special text file named pclset dat located in the AFS4 Data folder This file has a simple structure Undefined 19M Adobe Symbol OV Arabic McKay s Every line contains a Character set code followed after a single space by a description of the character set You can open this file in any text editor like Windows Notepad and make any changes you want Glyph Window The Glyph Window The Glyph Window is a standard tool in all FontLab based applications It is a universal and very powerful contour editing module that also allows you to perform many font specific operations 221 Glyph Window Contents Open the Glyph Window by double clicking any character sample in the Font Window or Metrics Window ef Glyph 66 B from FreeFontPro at ea nine colon ihe The Glyph Window The Glyph Window has the following parts e Toolbar area e Control marks area e Editing Field e Top and left rulers e Left Top box e Scroll Bars e Glyphs Bar e Glyphs Bar expand button e Note icon e Lock button e Meter panel button e Glyph mark area 222 The Local Toolbar is the command center of the Glyph Window There is a combo box with zoom selection and two groups of buttons i 100 w a a The first group of buttons includes two buttons that are used to select the zoom mode You can drag the local toolbar
230. er ing To enter Unicode characters type the Unicode index in hexadecimal form exactly 4 characters after the backslash SOOEE O0E FXOOFO 00F1 00Fa To choose one of the predefined sample strings open the list with the button to the right of the sample string hamburgevons LMNOPQRSTUV wet 2 4 abcdef KLMNOPGRS TUW PORSTU ABCDEFGH IELMHOFG abcdefghijklm Mopqrstuyviw sys 123456 7590 277 278 With this button you can activate metrics preview mode In this mode you can see a preview of every glyph and its width The height of the sample string is determined automatically and depends on the vertical size of the preview panel If you are working with Arabic or Hebrew script you may need to preview a sample string in right to left mode Use this button to activate it Preview Options To edit the contents of the sample strings list click on this button You will see a dialog box that contains all the strings that appear in the list plus a few other options Preview Options Contents of the preview text combo bos hamburgevons LMNOPGRSTUYV wet M4 _ abedefghijkim ELM ANOPGQRS TUM PORSTU AST UW ST detghijk Imno HAMBURGEVONS SHE VERSE ASHORE be List of point sizes to preview in Waterfall mode By clicking the Open button you can select the text file that will be used to preview sample strings 279 This option ares Fontiowse mthe oreve go
231. erBlues includes up to 5 bottom alignment zones To add a new alignment zone press the Add button below the list To edit the position of the zone select the zone you want to edit in the list and edit it in the edit fields below the list 201 202 To remove an alignment zone select the zone you want to remove from the list and press the Del button below that list You can see a preview of the zones by switching on the Alignment Zones layer in the Glyph Window and pressing the Apply button in the FontInfo dialog box You will see the alignment zones in the Glyph Window in light blue Press the Auto zones button to automatically calculate alignment zones in the Primary zones list box How AsiaFont Studio Calculates Alignment Zones To calculate alignment zones in the BlueValues list AsiaFont Studio finds characters with overshoots and characters that are flat in the position of the overshoot Then it measures the top and bottom vertical positions of these characters and detects a zone Examples of such characters are o and x O and H p and g and so on AsiaFont Studio tries to find many different characters from different languages so it is usually able to locate some examples Alignment zones are also used in TrueType manual and automatic hinting Family Alignment Zones To support the common appearance of fonts that belong to the same font family the Type 1 hinting system alg 89s ticause H
232. erning by one font unit at each key click Hold the SHIFT key to change the kerning by 10 font units Use the INSERT and DELETE keys to change the glyph in the string and PAGE Up and Pace Down keys to move to the previous and next glyph in the string Using the Table When the properties area is expanded and kerning editing mode is activated you can see all the glyph metrics and pair kerning information in the editing field Kerning is displayed on the fifth row in the table and each value is positioned between the glyphs that form the kerning pair Background color for the kerning value is white when there is no kerning light blue if kerning is negative glyphs are shifted toward each other and yellow if kerning is positive To change the kerning value click on the kerning row in the table and enter the new value Click ENTER key on the keyboard to accept the changes or Esc to cancel Use the TaB and SHIFT TAB keys to select a pair in the sample string 427 428 Using the Kerning Dialog You may add or delete kerning pairs linked to a selected glyph and enter precise kerning values using the Kerning Information dialog box To open this dialog box press the T button on the Kerning window toolbar or select the Edit Kerning command in the popup menu You will see the following dialog box Kerning Information Right glyph Keming Left glyph fe eee Y 264 A Ww 164 A 188 A quoteright 227 A space 113 A y
233. ery natural way to define the position of the intermediate font is to use its position on each design axis These coordinates are called design coordinates Width axis M 2 uRrxs 200 p We PS Design Intermediate design ee ee ee ee There is also another type of coordinate called blend coordinates Blend coordinates are normalized to the given dynamic range of the axis If an axis has a 50 400 dynamic range then the design coordinate 50 equals the blend coordinate 0 0 The design coordinate 400 equals the 1 0 blend coordinate Intermediate design coordinates are converted to the blend coordinates using linear calculation by default or a non linear axis graph described in the next section When we know the design coordinates we can calculate what proportion of each master font we need to build the intermediate font This process is called blending 597 598 Simple formulas are used to make these calculations and as a result we get an array of values that define the weight of each master in the final interpolation that produces an intermediate font 0 13 0 77 for a one axis font two masters are blended 0 02 0 24 0 11 0 63 for a two axis font four masters are blended Note that the sum of all weights is always equal to 1 This array of masters weights is called the weight vector and is used internally by the font interpreter to build the intermediate font Note that while blend coordi
234. es and are used by the font interpreter to get information about the dynamic range of the axis So an axis graph is always present for each axis but in most cases it is just a single straight line We again recommend you read the Designing Multiple Master Typefaces book to get more information about the axis map 601 Multiple Master Fonts in AFS As we said before in AsiaFont Studio you can make Multiple Master fonts that will be completely compatible with the Multiple Master specification You can edit every aspect of the MM fonts from master outlines to metrics to kerning and font header data You can make up to four axes which means that the font will need 16 master fonts And at any time you can view an intermediate font made from the designed MM font in its current state In the following sections we will discuss MM specific AsiaFont Studio features We presume that you have read the previous chapters of this book and know all the single master features of AsiaFont Studio 602 Creation of MM Fonts in AsiaFont Studio In AsiaFont Studio you can do the following MM specific things 1 Open any existing MM font for editing 2 Convert a single master font to a MM font 3 Define additional axis in a MM font 4 Remove any of the axes of a MM font 5 Convert a MM font to a single master font You can also use AsiaFont Studio s special feature called Mask to Master to simplify the combination of several single master
235. es three things 1 Removes unnecessary curve and line segments 2 Aligns vertical and horizontal lines that are not precisely directed 3 Corrects the connection types of lines and curves You can control the optimize features with the Font Audit section of the Options dialog box Optimizer Outline simplification level Process normally w Auto alignment level Process normally w Outline Controls curve removal feature from do not simplify outline Simplification to extreme The bigger value you choose the more curves level AsiaFont Studio will try to remove Auto alignment Controls auto alignment feature in a range from do not align level to extreme 310 Metrics The Metric data of a glyph includes information about the horizontal and vertical width Glyphs have an origin point a baseline sidebearings and left and right margins 311 312 Editing Metrics AsiaFont Studio has a special window for editing glyph metrics of course but you can make small adjustments right in the Glyph Window using the main edit tool To change glyph metrics first activate the Metrics layer in the Editing layers panel MIDS Hints Mask Then use the mouse and drag the left or right sidebearing or the baseline In AsiaFont Studio you can define a vertical advanced vector for the glyph this information is used in fonts which may type vertically from top to bottom To define a ve
236. f a toolbar on the top a stem list a row of controls to adjust stem parameters and the Advanced button that gives access to some font level hinting options that we will discuss later 558 Buttons on the toolbar mean HiK Include vertical stems in the list stems measured along the X axis Import Type 1 stems into the list 559 560 Click on the button to append Type 1 stems to the list AsiaFont Studio will append only those stems that are not already in the list With the button you can append stems from another font Click it and select the source font from the list Select the font Select the font in the list below FreeFontPro Utopia A egular When you remove stems that are used by the hinting program in some glyphs AsiaFont Studio will replace any stem linked link with a simple rounded link Stems Rounding Control over stem widths rounding Is necessary for two reasons 1 To control a font s contrast If your font is low contrast like Courier or Arial you may want to set the jump PPMs for vertical and horizontal stems equal This way the font will never get high contrast as when vertical stems are 2 pixels wide and horizontal stems are only 1 pixel wide 2 To synchronise the scaling of stems with close widths like the stems that control straight and round vertical stems in uppercase characters At large PPM sizes they should be different but they have to make the 1 2 and 2 3 width ju
237. fe tool to cut out part of the outline r Qe Bega a 1 Activate the Knife tool 2 Press the mouse button and drag the cursor to define the cutting line 3 Release the button Note that you can only cut part of a single contour like in the sample picture above To join two contours you need to move the starting or ending node of one contour to the starting or ending node of another contour Hold down the ALT key to prevent the contours from joining 271 Node Commands If you right click a node you will see a popup menu with many useful commands Cancel Make node first Convert 2 Delete node H Duplicate node Retract BCPs Reverse contour se Break contour Make corner Connection Contour Make contour First r i Delete contour Properties i Subtract contour Macro Select contour Make parallel path 272 Below is a description of all the commands in this menu Make node first Starts the current contour from the selected node i e makes it the startpoint This command is useful when you need to join contours since you can only connect starting and finishing nodes Convert Cycles the node type from line to Bezier curve to TrueType curve Delete node Removes the node Duplicate node Adds a zero length vector to the node I e puts a new node on top of an old one This command is useful when you are editing Multiple Master fonts Make corner Makes a 90 degree corne
238. feature is present in the font it is applied To implement this system features must be standardized and registered so everybody will know what is done by a feature with a particular name The Microsoft Typography group performs feature registration http www microsoft com typography The full list of registered features may be found in this document OpenType Layout tag registry http www microsoft com typography otspec ttoreg htm This document contains descriptions of all name tags that can be used in an OpenType font for script language and feature names We will provide brief definitions of the most commonly used features init medi fina and isol Features These features are most commonly used in Arabic scripts and allow one to define four forms of Arabic characters initial final medial and isolated J g ae ot Isolated Final Medial Initial Note that Arabic text is written right to left Please note that it is the application or the operating system that detects word boundaries and applies one of the features You are not expected to pay attention to that in the feature definition Usually these features are simple substitutions feature init sub isolated_forms by initial_forms yinit 687 Latin Features cpsp Capital Spacing Globally adjusts inter glyph spacing for all capital text feature cpsp pos uppercase lt 7 0 14 0 gt 3 CPSP pnum Proportional Replaces figure glyphs set on uniform tabul
239. fonts 59 OpenType Import Options Special options for importing OpenType fonts can be customized on the OpenType page of the Tools gt Options dialog box OpenType Import JpenT ppe tables Import kerning from the kerr feature Import L non English name records ka Read only t mort table interpre Import OpenType tables If you want AsiaFont Studio to read OpenType tables GSUB GPOS and GDEF keep this option on Import kerning from the In OpenType fonts kerning data is stored as feature kern feature named kern This option lets you import kerning data from that feature and to convert it to plain pair kerning format You can perform this operation later using AsiaFont Studio s OpenType editing tools but we recommend doing it during font import Name reading options To support multiple languages OpenType and TrueType fonts often have several versions of the font names Use the choices of this control to select one of the options to read those names Interpret mort table Allow to read mort table that may store information about font substitution in Japanese fonts AsiaFont Studio will try to convert this data to OpenType feature Importing CID fonts To help you understand how AsiaFont Studio handles CID fonts we will give you some information about their internal structure More information about CID font formats may be found in Adobe s documents CID Keyed Font Tech
240. fonts into one MM font Multiple Master Outlines in AsiaFont Studio In AsiaFont Studio all outlines are multiple master compatible from the very beginning Every node of the outline has a layered structure Node type and other options Node position on layer 1 Node position on layer 2 Node position on layer 3 Node position on layer 4 Thus a Multiple Master font in AsiaFont Studio is not a combination of several separate master fonts but a single multilayered font This means that in AsiaFont Studio it s impossible to make master fonts incompatible because they are just the different layers of the same font 603 604 Defining an Axis If you want to convert a single master font to a Multiple Master font you must define a new design axis Select the Tools gt Multiple Master gt Define New Axis command You will see a dialog box Define New Axis Hame the axis Full Name Assign the short name two letters Short Hame Select the axis type Axis Type Convert hints to links before addition of the new ais To define an axis you must enter an axis name a short name and select an axis type Select the name of the axis in the Full Name list You can enter your own custom name but we strongly recommend you use only names that are in the list in order to make the font compatible with font interpreters When you are adding a new axis to a Multiple Master font the names of the axes that are already pre
241. ft mouse button Note that if you delete a hint you will remove it completely not just the reference to it as in the case of the Remove command described in the previous section 507 508 Autoreplacing The easiest way to build a hint substitution program is to click the button on the command panel We recommend that you begin from the automatically generated hint substitution program and make adjustments as necessary Preview Panel The Type 1 Hinting Tool has a preview panel that shows how Type 1 hints will affect the character s appearance The preview panel uses the Adobe Type Manager rasterizer to preview the font so you may be assured that in the final font you will get exactly the same look Of course you need to have some version of Adobe Type Manager ATM installed in order to use the Preview panel To show the preview panel press the La button in the command panel The preview panel consists of two fields a standard edit field where you can enter a sample string and a preview window where two types of preview appear Type 1 Preview Hi OxG2q Sample string text HBOxBo Sample string preview 1u i BB BBBB BBBBBBBBBBBBB 31 A Waterfall preview Foe 3 40a Pagid 15 16 i7 if 19 20 21 22 2G 24 25 Ze In the waterfall preview you can see the current character in various PPM sizes Note that if grayscale rendering is enabled you will see grayscale previews at some PPMs In the top part of the preview
242. g Individual Items You can customize the appearance of any menu item or toolbar button The following appearances are available for most items Image i Text Mew Font Image and Text New Font To change the appearance of the menu item or toolbar button position the mouse cursor on the button and click the right mouse button Select the new appearance method in the context menu Reset to Default Copy Button Image Delete Button Appearance w mage Text Image and Text Shark Group Most commands in AsiaFont Studio have pre designed images but you can easily create your own images for any toolbar button or menu command To do so select the Button Appearance command in the button s context menu Button Appearance You will see a dialog box where you can choose the appearance method and if it includes an image choose the picture that appears on the button or at the left of the menu item Button Appearance Image only O Use Default Image Text only Select User defined Image O Image and text Description Choose a User defined image click New to create a new image or Edit to edit one of the User images If you decide to change the picture use the included image editor to change it Edit Button Image Picture Colors Preview E Use one of the Tools to edit the enlarged image and choose a color in the Colors area Click the OK button when you are ready 31 32
243. g box appears select Multiple Master format in the Save As type combo box Multiple Master pth All Font Files TrueType tf Upent ype LFF f att T ptb SE bl Type 1 ASCH Unix pla Multiple Master ASC Urie pta b Press the OK button to save the font in Multiple Master format Note 1 If you choose this format when exporting a single master font a generic Type 1 font will be built Note 2 PFB and MMM files will be saved if you make a MM Type 1 font These files are necessary to install MM fonts in Adobe Type Manager Select Multiple Master ASCII Unix format to make a MM font in downloadable format Fonts in this format can be instantly downloaded to a PostScript printer OpenType Fonts In this chapter we will discuss working with the OpenType fonts The OpenType font format jointly developed by Microsoft and Adobe allows us to combine the best features of the TrueType and Type 1 font formats For the end user there is little difference between OpenType and TrueType fonts both are stored in a single font file both are Unicode encoded and Windows and Mac OS directly support both The real difference is the support of font features that is provided by the OpenType font format Font features which can be script and language dependent can define behaviours of the font which allow better typographic layout and precise support of complex scripts For detailed OpenType specification and other doc
244. g or saving single master metrics files they will be applied to or generated from the currently active master 627 628 Editing the Axis Graph You can edit an axis graph for every axis defined in a MM font As we said before the axis graph is used to set the dynamic range of the axis so it is always necessary to adjust it To edit an axis graph select the Tools gt Multiple Master gt Edit Axis Graph command The Axis Graph dialog box appears Axis Graph Choose the axis to modify OpticalSize wt 200 300 i001 200 300 400 cgi B00 Foo o Curent position 7 We To edita graph 1 Select an axis whose graph you want to edit in the axis list located at the top area of the dialog box Position the mouse cursor on the leftmost point of the line in the graph and click the left mouse button In the Current position editing fields enter the lowest design coordinate for this axis or position the cursor on the leftmost point and drag it Do the same with the rightmost point to define the dynamic range If you want to define a more complex graph you can add points To add a point position the mouse cursor on the line segment where you want to add the point press the right mouse button and click the left button To move a point position the mouse cursor on the point press the left button and drag the point to a new position To enter the position of the point click on the point and enter the position of the
245. glyph name or to close it select it and click on the close button on the Fonts panel toolbar Merging Fonts With the Fonts panel you can also merge fonts append all the glyphs from one font to another During this process Asias desitiatione fon s Asiasname s 133 134 Saving and Opening a Workspace A Workspace is a set of fonts opened in AsiaFont Studio and information about the position and size of their font windows To save a workspace use the id button in the Fonts panel toolbar AsiaFont Studio will open a standard File Save dialog box where you can select a name and path for the workspace file AsiaFont Studio workspace files have the extension flw To open a workspace file use the button in the Fonts panel toolbar or simply drag drop the flw file onto the AsiaFont Studio window AsiaFont Studio workspace files are automatically generated macro programs in the Python scripting language They are text files that you can edit with any text editor if you wish Recommended only for the knowledgeable and brave Applying Actions You can find many actions in the Glyph and Tools menus that can be applied to the open glyph in the Glyph window see next chapter but most of them are applicable to the glyph s selected in the Font window To apply an action select the glyphs in the Font window and choose the appropriate command in the Tools or Glyph menu For example to convert glyphs from TrueType outli
246. glyph outlines to another font AsiaFont Studio will try to not decompose replace references to glyph with actual glyph copies them Instead it will try to find matching components in the glyph set that was copied or if some components are not present there in the destination font If AsiaFont Studio can completely restore composites in the destination font it will even keep TrueType hinting programs for these glyphs Drag Drop of the Composite Glyphs If you prefer to use the drag drop method to copy composite glyphs you have one additional option when you drop a composite glyph and AsiaFont Studio finds that one or more of its components were not selected to copy and do not present in the destination font it shows a message asking you if you want to copy all the missing components If your answer is Yes then AsiaFont Studio will automatically append all the necessary components to the destination font so that all the composites stay unchanged Duplicating Unicode Indexes In AsiaFont Studio you may assign more than one up to 63 actually Unicode indexes to a glyph Visually this means that a glyph that has several Unicode indexes will appear several times when one of the Unicode modes Ranges or Codepages modes is selected in the Font window To distinguish the original copy of the glyph from the duplicates the latter are marked by a small blue mark in the left top corner of the glyph cells To make a duplicate of a glyph sele
247. h contour after multiple parallel paths created and then closed with the Add corner tool As you can see with the Make parallel path feature you can create complex ornaments in minutes Merging and Intersecting Contours With the Merge contours Get intersection and Delete intersection commands which are available in the Tools gt Outline menu you can perform very interesting operations on contours All three operations are applied to contours that have at least one node selected or to the whole glyph outline if nothing is selected The Merge contours command combines contours removing all outline overlapping and keeping the filled result unchanged Gz Qm The Merge contours command is the outline equivalent of the Boolean OR operation The Get intersection command will keep only the area of intersection removing all other parts u This command is the outline equivalent of the Boolean AND operation The last command the Delete intersection works in the opposite manner of the Get intersection command keeping only those areas of contours that don t overlap Gu This is the outline equivalent of the Boolean XOR operation 309 Outline Optimization With the Optimize command AsiaFont Studio tries to automatically adjust the outline to remove unnecessary elements and correct others To perform optimisation use the Optimize command in the Tools gt Options menu Optimisation do
248. h name Di E Senna R E ree ee er ee aaa encoding or codepage ANSI glyph Searches for the glyph that is mapped to one of the ANSI glyphs in the selected codepage or encoding Unicode index Searches for glyphs with Unicode index attributes given 113 114 5 The names of all the glyphs that match the criterion will appear in the list A DA Al l Aacute 00c Aacubesmall FET breve 0102 Abreve small FED Acircumflex 00C og ri i es ee Create unexisting glyph Select the glyph name that you want its preview appears in the preview panel and press OK or enter more information to narrow your search Use the buttons at the bottom of the dialog box for additional features to select all glyphs in the list 4 to mark all glyphs in the list in red These features are very useful for managing big fonts For example open the Choose Glyph dialog box change it to Names mode and enter A as the search pattern In a standard Latin font it will list all glyphs that begin with the uppercase A A Aacute Acircumflex Adieresis AE Agrave Aring Atilde If you mark or select them you can easily create a glyph group that you can use in advanced features like class based kerning or OpenType features Renaming Glyphs Usually it is not necessary to manually rename glyphs because their names and Unicode indexes are assigned automatically when you move glyphs in the Font window
249. hat are currently visible A B C m s en me E e 47 48 Panels Some AsiaFont Studio operations are accessible through Panels small windows that are located in front of the main Font Glyph and Metrics windows Editing Layers Collection Classes So a m m m All layers PUNCT_DE Ala AIH ojo ais PUNCT_UC2 gt N R I PIP ww LIEIS ai Li lleer ar jv acy Pj kk Ik RJR z rr eG it S ies l 7 AAT a 11 Steet Seer gt oO an meric le i fale me Tl Bleue Componerits Froese ls i LN Ei i 1A Rae v Anchors and carets LELLEnS ES lt ii gt Alignment zones ACCENTS y ACCENTS LC LETTERS_UC ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZAE j ACCENTS SC Aacute Abreve Acitcumflex Adieresis AE acute grave Amacron Aogonek FIG TAB LI ring Atilde Cacute Cearon Ceedilla Ceircumflex Cdotaccent Dearon Dcroat see Eacute Ebreve Ecaron Ecircumflex Edieresis Edotaccent Egrave Emacron Dea oe v Eng Eogonek Eth Gbreve Gcircumfles Gcommaaccent Gdotaccent Hbar v 125 glyphs in this class Use the Window menu or Panels toolbar to open panels indor New Edit Window l bll New Metrics Window Editing Layers Panel Transformation Panel Edit Macro panel ie e i OpenType panel Output Panel Preview Panel bel il Collection Classes Panel Fonts Panel Font Map panel 4xis Panel UERS Masters Panel Primitives Panel Below is
250. he Selection Transforming the Selection Selection Operations Breaking and Joining the Sketch Outline Converting to Outline VectorPaint Mode Freehand Select Tool Pen Contour Tool Brush Tool VectorPaint Options Line Tool Polygon Tool Ellipse and Rectangle Tools Text Tool Meter Mode Setting Guidelines Anchors and Sidebearings Outline Operations Interpolation Envelope Curve Set Reversing a Contour s Direction Rearranging Contours Working with Composite Glyphs Adding a Component Decomposing Component Positioning Component Properties Using the Primitives Panel Importing and Exporting Glyphs Printing a Glyph 353 354 355 358 358 359 359 360 361 362 362 363 364 366 367 368 371 372 373 374 375 377 378 379 383 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 395 396 399 401 EDITING FONT METRICS What are Font Metrics Kerning Metrics Files Metrics Window Selecting a String for Previewing or Metrics Editing Editing an Underline Editing Metrics Manual Metrics Editing Using the Keyboard Using the Metrics Table The Measurement Line Automatic Metrics Generation Quick Save and Quick Open Editing Kerning Manual Kerning Editing Using the Keyboard Using the Table Using the Kerning Dialog Automatic Kerning Generation Resetting Kerning Adjusting Metrics and Kerning Class Based Kerning Classes Panel Class Definition Defining the Class Key Glyph Editing Class Based Kerning Ke
251. he point with the lower coordinate value is set 7 The distance of the linked point is set equal to the grid fitted position of the base point shifted by the distance 543 544 Customizing the Command Right click the middle icon on the double link to open the context menu Cancel Delete command Distance alignment De not link bo stern Convert to single link Select stem automatically v v42 The Delete command and Distance alignment options are the same as in the Single link menu An additional command is Convert to single link Use it to replace the double link command with the combination of the align and single link commands Program panel options for the double link command are simple From To There are controls to select the indexes of the linked points and the list of stem names to which the distance must be aligned Double Link Examples Some examples of double link command usage Horizontal hinting of the Times H character There are two double links and two single links in this example The double links set the width and position of the two vertical stems and the single links align other points that are on the same stem Horizontal hinting of the Times o character Double links are usually used to hint characters in the horizontal directions in cases where stem position is not important As you saw in the Single Links section we used single links to set horizonta
252. help of a text processor program replace characters with codes When text is printed or previewed on the screen the printing program performs the reverse process replacing codes with character shapes glyphs that it gets from the font The quick brown Font ABCDEFGHIJKL _ Character and Glyph Identification To simplify access to the characters in the font each character has an identifier an integer number or a text name All font formats allow you to quickly locate a character whose identifier is known A printing or previewing program that wants to output text converts character codes to character identifiers in the font This process is usually performed using a special index table called the encoding table which defines the relationship between character codes and identifiers 75 76 Character Identification in AsiaFont Studio In AsiaFont Studio there are four modes of character and glyph identification 1 Names mode This mode historically is used in Type 1 fonts An interesting point is that Names mode may have two different applications it may be used to reference glyphs or characters In the latter case all referenced characters must have a one to one relationship between character and glyph so there is no difference between referencing the character and the glyph Tables that are used to reference glyphs or characters in Names mode are called Encoding Tables There are two kinds of these table
253. hm analyses the shape of the glyphs in the given pairs and automatically kerns them You can control the pairs list that the autokerning algorithm processes as well as other parameters To define kerning automatically press the button on the toolbar or select the Auto Kerning command in the popup menu The Automatic Kerning Generation dialog box appears Automatic Kerning Generation fou want to generate kerning for All pairs in the current string wt Pairs list How much white space do vou want to leave between glyphs When do you want to keep existing keming IF new value will differ not more than A Allow for positive kerning Maximum number of pairs to generate 1024 Maximum absolute value for generated kerning This dialog box consists of two areas the Area of application and Parameters In the first area you select the pairs for which the algorithm will compute kerning values You can choose between Current pair only available if one of the pairs is selected in the editing area All Pairs in the current string or All Pairs in the following list The second area allows you to generate kerning for all the pairs located in a special list file The list files are stored in a Kerning subdirectory of AsiaFont Studio s installation directory You can create your own kerning pair files or use files placed there at the time of AsiaFont Studio s installation The Parameters option lets you customize the
254. ht area of the Glyph window There is a special mark rightmost that may be gray red or green A red mark shows that the mask layer is not compatible with the master Incompatible means that mask and outline layers have different numbers of contours so AsiaFont Studio cannot match the points and curves A green mark means that the mask and outline layers seem to be compatible and you may apply the Mask to Master action This action replaces the contents of the active master with the contents of the Mask layer If the Mask layer is completely compatible with the outline you will instantly get a properly made master for the active layer AsiaFont Studio uses the Blend algorithm to match points in the Mask and outline layers Sometimes it can produce incorrect results so we recommend you check your outlines after you complete the Mask to Master operation 619 620 You can apply the Mask to Master action to several characters at once 1 Activate the Font window Note the mask compatibility marks in the top right corner of the characters cells 2 Select the characters to which you want to apply the Mask to Master action 3 Click on the Tools gt Templates gt Mask to Master command 4 A dialog box appears Mask to Master Select a master which you want to replace by the mask layer Wit ABCabc123 If you switch on Do not insert points option then AsiaFont Studio will cop
255. ich zone alignment will not be operative and all points controlled by the AlignTop and AlignBottom commands will be rounded to closest pixel edge Do not execute instructions above this PPM Defines the PPM above which instructions will not be operative anymore Enter 0 to never stop instructions Shift key constrains setting of the delta instruction s direction Inverts the function of the SHIFT key when you define delta instructions By default you can freely move the destination point of the delta offset and you have to press SHIFT key to limit direction to the current hinting direction When this option is deactivated delta offset direction will be fixed and you have to press SHIFT key to free it You may click Apply button to immediately see results of the new options in the Preview panel Context Menu If you press the right mouse button in the free space of the Glyph Window edit field you will see a popup menu Cancel Reset program Remove horizontal commands Remove vertical commands Remove Final deltas Remove all deltas Convert hinks to instructions Autohinting options Macro The commands available in this menu are Cancel Closes the menu Remove Horizontal Removes all horizontal commands including delta Commands instructions Remove Vertical Removes all vertical commands including delta instructions Commands Convert Hints to Tries to convert Type 1 hints and links to visual hints Y
256. ields in the OS 2 table The Supported Unicode ranges dialog is relatively simple you can see a list of all Unicode ranges with a check box to the left of each name If the check box is checked it means that range is supported Buttons to the right of the list mean Uncheck all ranges lt gt Automatically check ranges using information about Unicode indexes assigned to fonts characters 199 Hinting Settings El Hinting Settings ie Standard stems T1 hinting n Additional hinting parameters Information in this section is related to hinting which is described in full detail in the Hinting chapter The information below is copied there also so if you re not interested in hinting right now you can skip this section 200 Alignment Zones Type 1 and TrueType hinting alignment zones Set alignment for the master Single master Set local alignment zones Set family alignment zones Primary zones Secondary zones kat kalt There are two list boxes where alignment zones can be set the Primary zones list and the Secondary zones list Primary zones Secondary zones 442 457 bob 646 bb2 prg mwaane In Type 1 terminology primary zones are called Blue Values and secondary zones OtherBlues BlueValues include one bottom alignment zone the so called baseline zone and up to 6 top alignment zones The baseline zone is used to control bottom overshoots that have to be aligned to the baseline Oth
257. iew Glyph Tools Window Help Font PT FreeSet Bold Cyrillic C PSFONTS FRS65__C PFB f lolx E Font PT FreeSetBlack Cyrillic C PSFONTS FRS95__C PFB Sele i Font PT FreeSetBlack Bold Cyrillic C PSFONTS FRS96__C PFB SE a rs BES BE ieo a E ET jE pie Be cieie ejein ilai ilmim o gt Ra cae a ae el A H A HOOAUGNNNNANNA Use left mouse button to select one or more glyphs Which is not the best way to work Add to this picture a few open Glyph and Metrics windows and you will see why workspace management is necessary 129 Windows List The easiest way to manage open windows is to use the Window menu It contains some very useful commands Cascade Organizes open windows in a cascade like in the picture above Tile horizontally Organizes windows like tiles on a rectangular floor Tile vertically Windows Opens the windows management dialog box Choose the Windows command and you will see a dialog box FreeFontPro C freefontpro vib a ITC Officina Sans Bold Cyrillic C PSFONTSSOSN65 Cl Ok ITC Officina Sans Bold Italic Cyrillic C7 PSFONTS O5N6 ITC Officina Sans Book Cyrillic ONPSFONTSSOSN45 0 ITC Officina Sans Book Italic Cyrillic L AFSFONTSS0SN4 Berea ES PT BlackGrotesk Cyrillic C PSFONTS lt BLG85_ C PFB PT BlackGrotesk Oblique Cyrillic C SPSFONTSS BLG66 PT FreeSet Bold Cyrillic C PSFONTS FARS65 C PFB PT FreeSet Cyrillic C SPSFONTSSFAS45 C PF
258. if it s not already open press the button on the toolbar If you enter any characters in the edit field you will see these characters appear in the top of the preview window Use the usual AsiaFont Studio rules to enter special characters enter the character name after a slash character or two slashes to enter a slash You may also drag selected characters from the Font Window and drop them in the Preview window With the waterfall preview you can quickly select the current PPM Just move the cursor to the sample PPM you want to select and double click the left mouse button How AsiaFont Studio Previews TrueType Fonts AsiaFont Studio uses the real Windows TrueType rasterizer to give an exact preview of the TrueType hinting for the Preview panel the Pixels layer in the Glyph Window and the preview window in the Options panel To get a preview AsiaFont Studio implements the following steps 1 re AsiaFont Studio creates a very small TrueType font that includes the empty notdef character current character and all characters from the sample string of the Preview panel All characters in this font are mapped to codes starting from the 20h 32 code of the space character The empty character is mapped to 0 as usual This font is exported in TrueType format using all the TrueType export settings including grayscale settings maintaining the existing instructions setting and autohinting A special font nam
259. ignment zones Primary zones Secondary zones 381 417 207 4G 259 295 2b D 454 322 boa r16 There are two list boxes where alignment zones may be set the Primary zones list and the Secondary zones list Primary zones Secondary zones 381 417 A 24b 26 0 200 299 464 D22 653 716 In Type 1 terminology primary zones are called BlueValues and secondary zones OtherBlues BlueValues include one bottom alignment zone the so called baseline zone and up to 6 top alignment zones The baseline zone is used to control bottom overshoots that have to be aligned to the baseline 493 494 OtherBlues includes up to 5 bottom alignment zones To add a new alignment zone press the button below the list To edit the position of the zone select the zone you want to edit in the list and edit it in the edit fields below the list To remove an alignment zone select the zone you want to remove from the list and press the button below that list You can see a preview of the zones by switching on the Alignment Zones layer with the View gt Show Layer gt Alignment zones command When zones are visible on screen you can preview changes you make to the zones by pressing the Apply button in the FontInfo dialog box You can edit zones in the Glyph window using the edit tool Make sure they are not locked by the View gt Lock layers gt Alignment zones command Pre
260. ile holding the left mouse button down click the right button II 1 Position the cursor on the hint and click the right mouse button 11 2 Select the Delete command from the menu Hints Tracking If the Hints tracking option of the Glyph page of the Options dialog box is on Tracking Options M4 Hints tacking Tracking offset Z of UPM and you move hints a distance less than the Tracking distance setting all nodes that are on the hint will be moved with it Use this feature to keep an outline on the hint when you want for example to modify the hint s width Note that this feature also works when you change a hint through the property panel described below 335 336 Editing Links Links connect two nodes The only way to edit links is to connect them to different nodes of the outline To add a new link 1 Click on the Add new Horizontal or Vertical link command in the Tools gt Hints amp Guides menu 2 Click the first node of the link 3 Drag the mouse cursor to the second node and release the button To edita link 1 Position the mouse cursor on one of the link s lines 2 Press the left mouse button and drag the mouse You will see that when you move the cursor onto the outline s nodes they become highlighted 3 Position the mouse cursor on the node where you want to connect the link it will become highlighted and release the mouse button 4 Release the mouse button while the link i
261. in the Type 1 format specification This special Windows encoding is called the Default Encoding in AsiaFont Studio So if you create a StandardEncoding font and want to see how it will work in Windows select the Default Encoding in AsiaFont Studio Here is an explanation of the possible encoding export options Always write Always saves the custom encoding with the font Never custom encoding writes StandardEncoding The encoding currently selected in the Font window will be exported Always write Always exports the font with the StandardEncoding StandardEncoding Select encoding Exports the font with the StandardEncoding when the Font automatically window shows StandardEncoding Default Encoding or Windows ANSI Exports a custom encoding if any of the other encodings is selected or if the Font window is in Codepages mode 147 148 Type 1 Export Terminal If the Open Type 1 Export Terminal option is switched on and you save a font in Type 1 Multiple Master or not format the following dialog box appears Type 1 Export Terminal In this dialog box you can change test dictionaries data exported in the Type 1 font Please refer to the Type 7 Font Format specification for the detailed description of the data fields you can enter here T Wrong data entered here will make font unusable Flease be extremely carefull Select a data section Open Dictionaries ha IPS AdobeF ont 1 0 FreeForntPro 007 002 Creat
262. in the context menu 3 Select a TrueType font with embedded bitmaps in the standard File Open dialog box 573 574 Editing Bitmaps To get access to embedded bitmaps activate Bitmap mode by clicking on this button on the TrueType hinting toolbar You ll see the Glyph window and preview panel change In Bitmap mode the Glyph window previews the bitmap with pixels represented as black squares If there is no bitmap defined for the current PPM it looks different If you want to add a bitmap for the current PPM right click anywhere in the Glyph window and select the Generate bitmap command in the context menu Cancel Generate bitmap Remove bitmap Import bitmaps Highlight differences You can edit the bitmap with the mouse just click and drag the left mouse button To remove the bitmap for the current PPM use the Remove bitmap command in the menu When there are bitmaps defined for the glyph they are highlighted in the Preview panel s EBBEBBEBEEBEB 10 11 i2 15 id 15 16 17 FR 19 575 576 Highlight Differences You may highlight the differences between the result of the rendered and hinted outline and a bitmap Enter the Bitmap mode and select the Highlight differences command in the context menu Generate bitmap Import bitmaps Highlight differences When you leave the bitmap mode click on the amp button or select any other TrueType hinting tool you will see that
263. ing on the line or curve If you drag a point on a curve its control vectors may change direction To fix the direction of the control vectors hold down the ALT key and double click the node You will see the connection mark turn yellow A t double click it again to remove the fixed state Alternatively you can right click the node and use the Connection gt Fixed option to control this feature You can also fix the direction of all control vectors when you edit a curve using non nodes editing Open the Options dialog box Tools gt Options menu select the Glyph page and use the following option Lid rme m sm m om g e E All BCP are firad 261 262 Changing Connection Type The type of connection between graphical primitives is very important in maintaining the smoothness of contours Connections can be of two types smooth and sharp If a connection is smooth the direction of the adjacent curve control vectors or of the curve control vector and line is collinear and the contour is smooth at the connection To change the type of connection 1 Make the node visible 2 1 Double click the node with the left button Deleting Nodes To delete nodes using the Edit tool 1 Begin moving the node by dragging it 2 While holding down the left mouse button click the right button The node will be removed 1 Move the mouse cursor onto the node and press the right mouse button 2 Inthe popup menu cho
264. int hold the CTRL key and drag it from the vertical or horizontal ruler line in the left and top parts of the Glyph Window and position it where you want the hint to be To add a new link select the Add new vertical horizontal link command from the Tools gt Actions gt Hints and guides menu or from the popup menu that appears if you press the right mouse button on an empty area of the Glyph Window Click the mouse cursor on the first node of the pair you want to link and drag it to the second node and then release it To edita hint or link position the mouse cursor on the hint s or link s line press the left mouse button and move it to the new position Refer to the description of the Edit tool on page 334 for more information about hint editing To remove a hint or link position the mouse cursor on one of the hint s or link s lines and press the right mouse button Select the Delete command in the popup menu Select the Reverse command from the same menu to reverse the hint s direction Correct direction of hints is left to right and bottom to top Incorrectly directed Type 1 hints may cause the problems with some older font rasterizers so AsiaFont Studio will correct the hint direction automatically during the Type 1 font generation Select the Properties command to open the hint or link properties panel There is a faster way to open the properties panel hold the CTRL key and click on one of the hint lines with the le
265. inting chapter For now we ll just mention that in the Glyph Window you can see font level alignment zones and Type 1 character level hints and links There are two hinting methods applied to Type 1 fonts hints for True Type fonts are always generated automatically font level hinting and character level hinting Font level hinting is generated automatically in AsiaFont Studio so you don t have to edit it manually Character level hinting is applied to the characters stems Links Stem hints are not connected to the outline they exist in a different layer This allows you to use hints as pairs of guidelines while you work on an outline But if you change the outline after hints are set you have to set all the hints again to reflect the outline changes Another kind of stem hint called a link may help in this case Links connect two outline nodes using the position of the nodes and the distance between them to define a stem hint If you move one of the nodes connected by a link the link will automatically reflect the changes Links can also be either vertical or horizontal Vertical links Horizontal link Links are extremely useful when you are working with Multiple Master fonts In these fonts each point has several layers called masters which represent different styles of the font If you try to set hints in Multiple Master fonts you will have to manually define the hints positions in each master But with
266. ints If you import a TrueType font to rearrange glyphs or to add some new glyphs we highly recommend saving the original TrueType hinting data Autohint imported font To prepare an imported TrueType font for Type 1 editing and export you may ask AsiaFont Studio to automatically make Type 1 hints for all the glyphs AsiaFont Studio will use the current Type 1 hinting settings and will make hints for TrueType or Type 1 outlines depending on the conversion setting Convert TrueType outlines to Type 1 outlines Decompose all composite glyphs This option works exactly the same as for Type 1 fonts Import embedded bitmaps If this option is on AsiaFont Studio will read all embedded bitmaps defined for the source TrueType font You can edit them using the TrueType hinting tool and optionally export to TrueType format Embedded bitmaps may help to improve font readability at low point sizes and in some cases can be used instead of TrueType hinting Store custom TrueType tables Some TrueType fonts have additional tables that are not a part of the TrueType or OpenType specification If you want to import these tables and have them exported unchanged when the font is saved switch on this option This feature is very useful if you are working with additional tools like Microsoft VOLT or VTT programs If the Store custom TrueType tables option is active AsiaFont Studio will not change or destroy tables that these tools include in TrueType
267. ion to avoid scaling hints along with the glyph s outline Scaling hints width is not always precise so if you scale hints with the outline you sometimes find that some hints now miss the nodes that they were supposed to hint We recommend converting hints to links before this transformation to keep the proper width and position of hints Here is an example of this transformation the letters of the word Sample were scaled 80 horizontally and the letters of word text were proportionally scaled to 120 of original size Sample text 459 460 Rotate Rotation angle 15 f Clockwise C Counterclockwise HM Rotate around Exact position Rotation center E 10 This transformation action simply rotates glyphs You can set the rotation angle the position of the center of rotation and the direction of rotation You can rotate glyphs around the zero point around the center of the glyph s bounding box or you can specify a point that will be used as the center of rotation Here is an example of the same rotation transformation around different center points A AN aw X J eee al Decompose This action is the equivalent of the Decompose command from the Glyph menu It adds the scaled and shifted outlines of component glyphs to the composite glyph where they are used Applied to a whole font it makes it free of composites Convert to Type 1 This action converts al
268. ion to convert Type 1 hints to links AsiaFont Studio will analyse the outline of the glyph and try to make links that will replace the hints Refer to the Glyph Window chapter for information about hints and links Convert to hints This action is the reverse of the previous one It converts all links to hints Because this operation is always possible conversion of hints to links is not you can be sure that it will replace all links by hints Drop TT Hints This action removes all TrueType hints including visual manually created and imported from the source TrueType font Metrics Transformation These transformations let you automatically set metrics calculate metrics in glyphs increase or decrease a glyph s sidebearings and width and center glyphs in their width vector Available metrics transformations are Set Width Sets a fixed width and aligns the glyph within the width vector Autospacing Automatically calculates the glyph s metrics using the same algorithms that are used in the Metrics window Adjust metrics Changes sidebearings and kerning by the given value in font units or in percentage Set Width Set width to e00 Center character HM Shift the Mask layer This action lets you set a fixed width for all glyphs that are selected in the Font window It is the fastest way to make a monospaced font select all glyphs open the Transform dialog set the desired width and press the OK button
269. ionD ate Mon Aug 18 12 04 59 2003 za Musage 120000 150000 17 dict begin Fonthnfo 14 dict dup begin Aversion 001 002 readonly det Notice Copyright c Fontlab Ltd Ine 003 All rights reserved readonly det fFullN ame FreeFontPro readonly det dup 35 fhumbersign put gt pa pa gt wt anges Discard Cr As you can see this dialog box previews and allows you to edit text data contained in the open and private sections of the exporting Type 1 font file Use the Select a data section control to choose the part of the Type 1 font file that you want to edit and modify the text in the edit field below Note that there is no external control of changes you make in the export terminal Use it only if you really know what you are doing or you may create a font which will not only be unusable but can even crash your operating system Refer to the Type 1 font format specification http partners adobe com asn developer pdfs tn T1_SPEC PDF for information about the contents of the Type 1 font file TrueType Export Options TrueType export options are concentrated in the TrueType page of the Options dialog box TrueType Export Export hinted TrueType forts Keep existing TrueType instructions Export visual TrueType hints Autohint unhinted glyphs Export embedded bitmaps Do not reorder glyphs Copy HOM data from base to comp
270. ired by the Type 1 specification Use this transformation as the final step to prepare glyph outlines for hinting Several examples of this transformation Optimize Outline simplification level P Process normally Auto alignment level Process normally E With the Optimize action AsiaFont Studio tries to automatically adjust the outline to remove unnecessary elements and correct others With the action options you can control the optimization process Outline Controls the curve removal feature from do not simplify Simplification outline to extreme The bigger value you choose the more level curves AsiaFont Studio will try to remove smooth Auto alignment Controls the auto alignment feature in a range from do not level align to extreme Auto alignment automatically corrects relative position of lines and curves for example if two adjacent curves are almost smoothly connected but not precisely auto alignment will correct that 463 464 Blend Blend amount 50 This transformation blends the mask and outline layers A single option lets you choose the position of the intermediate design between the mask and outline layers Outline and mask jayers On the example above outline layer is black weight and mask layer is regular Below are samples of the Blend transformation with different values of the parameter 10 5 0 Hints and Guidelines Transformation Hints transf
271. irst 3 bytes are an industry standard typeface family string The fourth byte is a treatment character such as R B I The last two characters are either zeroes for an unbound font or a two character mnemonic for a symbol set if a symbol set is found Examples TNRROO Times New text weight upright TNRIOO Times New Italic Character Set Symbol set values are assigned by HP Boise Division Unbound fonts or typefaces should have a symbol set value of 0 See the PCL 5 Printer Language Technical Reference Manual or the PCL 5 Comparison Guide for the most recent published list of codes In most cases all you need to do is to select one of pre defined values in the list to the right of the manual field See below for more information Character This 8 byte field identifies the symbol collections provided by Complement the font each bit identifies a symbol collection and is independently interpreted Symbol set bound fonts should have this field set to all F s except bit 0 219 220 File Name Treatment Flags Text normal book etc Italic oblique slanted etc Bold Bold Italic Bold Oblique Demibold Demibold Italic Demibold Oblique Black Black Italic Black Oblique Light Light Italic Light Oblique Condensed Condensed Italic Condensed Oblique Bold Condensed Bold Condensed Italic Bold Condensed Oblique Semibold lighter than demibold Semibold Italic Semibold Oblique AWNTMNSNVOIOAAMOCWOD Charact
272. is its ability to save simple lookups and some glyph information in VOLT format so you can start working on a font in AsiaFont Studio then continue in VOLT You can save font features defined in AsiaFont Studio in two ways 1 Use the button in the OpenType panel to open a menu and then select the Save Features command to open a File Save dialog box Select VOLT project files vtp as the destination format and AsiaFont Studio will try to save the features in VOLT format 2 Turn on the Export VOLT data option in the Tools gt Options gt OpenType menu and save the font as a TrueType flavoured OpenType AsiaFont Studio will write both binary OpenType tables and tables that VOLT can read so you can open this font in VOLT and continue editing features Option 2 is the only way to open the OpenType font containing the features for editing in VOLT By itself it cannot decompile binary OpenType tables Macro Programming One of the unique features of AsiaFont Studio 4 is an integrated macro programming language With this feature you can program repeated tasks define custom font transformations create your own editing tools integrate AsiaFont Studio into a font development system which may include other tools and use AsiaFont Studio in many other powerful ways Macro programs in AsiaFont Studio are written in the well known and well documented Python programming language AsiaFont Studio uses the standard version of the language s
273. istance information to the data file so you can apply it to different fonts Select all Checks all classes in the list C Deselect Unchecks all classes in the list Class Based Kerning and OpenType Fonts By default AsiaFont Studio will keep a class based kerning structure when you open an OpenType font that has it For each kerning class AsiaFont Studio will automatically generate a class name and mark the first glyph in the class as the key glyph This feature allows you to work with the huge kerning tables of some OpenType fonts in a comfortable environment that excludes most repetitive pairs When you finish edit kerning pair values in the Metrics window you need to create a kern feature that will build kerning into the final OpenType font You can use the special macro program available in the Macros submenu of the Metrics window context menu or you can simply remove the kern feature and AsiaFont Studio will automatically generate a new one on export of the OpenType font 447 Opening Metrics Files AsiaFont Studio allows you to import metrics and or kerning information into the current font Using this feature you can create metric and kerning information once and use it in several similar fonts To importa metrics file into AsiaF ont Studio click the button on the toolbar You will see the standard Windows Open File dialog box Select the metrics file that you want to import in PFM or AFM format and press the OK butto
274. it is switched off in the Font Window s options in the Options dialog box You can force AsiaFont Studio to always open a glyph for editing in a new Glyph Window Use the Create new window by double click option in the Font Window page to activate this feature Click the right mouse button in the Font Window and select the Edit command Select the Open in New Glyph Window command to open the glyph in a separate Glyph Window Click on this button in the bottom left area of the Glyph window to unlock the keyboard and click on the keyboard to open the character for editing You can also type the glyph name if you know it Click the left mouse button on the glyph selected in the Font Window and drag it into any Glyph Window Press the amp or amp buttons in the Tools bar to move to the previous or next glyph The Keys and are equivalents for these buttons Select the Choose Symbol command in the Glyph menu and find the glyph that you want to open If you have a wheel on your mouse hold down the CTR key and scroll the wheel to move to the previous or next glyph 227 Changing the View in the Glyph Window Use the zoom mode and scroll bars to change the view in the editing field of the Glyph Window By using the scroll bars you can scroll the viewing field of a symbol With the zoom mode you can define how the symbol coordinates are converted to screen coordinates and vice versa If you choose a bigger zoom mode y
275. ively Hinting Alignment Zones By default the position of the alignment zones is scaled linearly Sometimes this may not be satisfactory and you may need to exactly specify the position of the alignment zones at some PPMs With AsiaFont Studio you can adjust the position of the zones around the linearly scaled position Every alignment zone has a yellow icon at the left To BO You can drag this icon up or down to adjust the position of the zone at the current PPM If you move the icon you will see all glyphs that have align commands applied to that zone changed their shape You may find this feature useful when you have to add glyphs to an already hinted TrueType font New glyphs often have a different height at some PPMs and you can correct that with the zone alignment command and zone hinting 531 532 Align Instruction Use the Align command when it s not necessary or possible you can t align points to horizontal alignment zones to align a point to an alignment zone but you want to align the point s position to the grid The Align command is available in both directions The Align command allows you to directly control how point coordinates are rounded To select a rounding method use the alignment control radio buttons in the Options panel Round position C Center Double Round destination Here is a graphical description of the various rounding methods Rounding Appearance Code Description
276. ize of the superscript and subscript characters Subscript Position and size of the subscript characters in font units Superscript Position and size of the superscript characters in font units 195 196 Encoding and Unicode El Encoding and Unicode n Unicode ranges As we mentioned earlier fonts may have very many characters and support a lot of different languages To tell the operating system what codepages the current font can support you set the codepages information TrueType and Type 1 fonts use different methods to identify what codepages a font supports In TrueType fonts you can identify all the supported codepages by setting bits in a special field of the font header In Type 1 fonts you select only one codepage actually encoding vector and it must be compatible with the actual font encoding Supported Codepages Supported codepages and default character set e Available codepages Supported codepages 1255 Hebrew 1252 Latin 1 1256 Arabic 1250 Latin 2 Eastern Europe Thai 1251 Cyrillic JIS Alaparn 1253 Greek Simplified Chinese 1254 Turkish Korean Wansung 1257 Windows Baltic 950 Traditional Chinese 1256 Windows Vietnamese 1361 Korean Johab Macintosh Character Set U OEM Character Set 669 JBM Greek Symbol Character Set oo IBM Turkish B66 MS DOS Russian B e 555 IBM Cyrillic primarily Rugsiar Character Set Information Microsoft Character Set Western Latin 1 CP1252 7 ANSI ka
277. ked to choose the file in the standard File Open dialog AsiaFont Studio will open CMap file and use information in it to assign Unicode indexes to characters Characters must have names of the following structure cidX where X is a CID index 121 122 Generating Names This operation is the opposite of the one described in the previous section If you select the Generate Names command in the Glyph gt Glyph Names menu AsiaFont Studio will use the name Unicode database to automatically find names for glyphs whose Unicode indexes are in the database Note that if more than one name is linked to the Unicode index AsiaFont Studio will use the one that is first in the database If some of the glyphs don t have any Unicode indexes AsiaFont Studio will try to keep their names unchanged Use the following option in the dialog box to control this feature Try to keep existing glyph names Removing Unicode Information If you want to reset the Unicode information in your font select the Clear Unicode command from the Glyph gt Glyph Names menu All Unicode information will be removed from all glyphs in the font You may selectively remove Unicode indexes from glyphs selected in the Font window 1 Select the glyphs 2 Right click the selection and choose the Remove Unicode command from the More submenu of the context menu Width Copy Chrlec B Faste Cr Delete Delete Mark I Sort glyphs j a Select
278. l interpolation AS AGREES R Anisotropic interpolation As with the extrapolation this feature is not a part of the MM specification and anisotropic interpolation or extrapolation will work only inside AsiaFont Studio You can use it to generate single master fonts from MM families The Axis Graph Usually design coordinates are translated to the weight vector using simple linear calculations It is possible however to define a map for non linear calculations 6 Design coordinates 72 This map sets a series of points that map the design and blend coordinates Between these points linear interpolation is used this is called a piece wise linear function Usually this kind of axis graph or axis map in some literature is used for the Optical Size axis The Optical Size axis usually has a dynamic range of 6 72 The design coordinate 6 means the version of the typeface adjusted for 6 pt type The design coordinate 72 represents the typeface design for 72 pt type Between these values the blend coordinates are mapped using the axis graph as in the picture above This mapping gives better control of the variation of the design for the different design coordinates In this case it causes a more rapid change in the appearance of the typeface at smaller optical sizes than at larger The value of the leftmost and rightmost design coordinates of the axis graph 6 and 72 in our example are always mapped to 0 and 1 blend coordinat
279. l TrueType 2 4 order curves used in the selected glyphs into Type 1 3 4 order curves Use this command if you want to manually prepare a TrueType font for conversion into Type 1 format Do not forget to check the direction of the contours to make the glyphs compatible with Type 1 format requirements Convert to TrueType This action is the reverse of the previous one It converts Type 1 curves into TrueType curves Usually it is used to prepare a Type 1 font for manual TrueType hinting Reverse all 9 Reverse all contours 0 Set clockwise TrueType direction C Set counterclockwise Type 1 direction This action reverses the direction of all the contours of the glyph s outline It can also automatically detect the direction of contours and correct them if necessary Just select the option that you want Connections Use this action to reset and recalculate the types of connections between outline primitives It is useful after major modification of an outline when you want to review how outline primitives are connected 461 462 Extremes This command is the equivalent of the Nodes at extremes outline action that was described in the Glyph Window chapter Use it to automatically insert nodes at curves extreme points as is required by the Type 1 specification Remove Overlap This action removes overlapping parts of the glyph s outline It also sets the direction of all the contours to counterclockwise as it requ
280. l do and then edit it following the same structure that you find in the original file 3 Change the name of the encoding and the encoding index in the first line of the file The first line should have the following structure FONTLAB ENCODING 7 Adobe Symbol Encoding FONTLAB ENCODING is the prefix of the file used to detect properly made encoding files and must not be changed Note the space between and the encoding index T is the index of the encoding vector You must not change the encoding vector indexes of any of the encoding vectors or they will become unusable If you make your own encodings the indexes of your files should not be used in any of the other files The actual value of the index is not important so you can assign indexes like 1001 or 10001 The last part of the first line Adobe Symbol Encoding is the name of the encoding vector It starts at the first non space character after 4 Save this encoding file with a different file name but be sure to use the enc file extension Put this file into the directory where all the other enc files are located The new encoding will appear in the Encoding selection combo box the next time AsiaFont Studio is used When you change the encoding you will see that the characters in the Font Window are rearranged Some characters will move below the yellow zone Remember that only characters that are in yellow cells are covered by the curre
281. l instructions in the m character because we wanted to keep the distances between vertical stems the same 545 Interpolation Most of the time the align and linking commands are enough to hint most characters but in some cases a very different kind of command is necessary Look at the enlarged middle right region of the character B in the vertical direction 546 In the Program panel the interpolate command appears as InterpolateV 34 gt 11 lt 38 where 11 is the interpolated point and 34 and 38 are the base points Customizing the Command To customize the command right click the command icon small green circle In the context menu you can use the Delete command to remove the command and the Align destination menu to align the destination point to the grid In the Programs panel the Interpolation command options look like this From To Point Align The Options panel allows you to choose the source and destination points for the command and to customize the alignment of the destination point 547 Delta Instructions Now you know all about the visual hinting commands that can be applied to an outline at all PPMs In addition to these commands the TrueType hinting language lets you set special commands that will work only at specific PPM sizes These commands are called delta instructions There are two delta instructions for each hinting direction middle delta instructions and final delta instr
282. lection Import dialog box TIC Font Collection Import TTC font collection that you are opening contains Following forts MS Gothic Select All MS PGothic O MS Ul Gothic Select fonts that you want to open or click Select All button to open all fonts The list of fonts in a collection has checkboxes to let you select which fonts should be imported You can check those of them that you want to be opened Click on the Select All button to switch on every checkbox To switch them all off click on the Unselect button When you are ready click the OK button to start importing TTC font 67 68 Creating a New Font If you want to create a new font from scratch you select the New command from the File menu AsiaFont Studio will create an empty font that will not have any characters and will open an empty Font Window You may then add new glyphs To make your font usable you must also fill in the important Font info fields See The Font Header chapter The Font Window The Font Window is used to display an entire font It opens automatically when you open an existing font for editing or choose to create a new font In AsiaFont Studio you can open many fonts at once and every font will have its own Font Window The Font Window is a representation of the font so when you close this window the font will also close You can do a lot of things using the Font Window from browsing a font for a desired character
283. lection state of the contour s nodes To select all the contours in a glyph use the Edit gt Select all command To deselect all nodes click the left mouse button somewhere in the free space of the editing field or use the Edit gt Deselect command To reverse the selection state of all nodes in the glyph use the Edit gt Invert selection command Using the Magic Wand Tool With the Magic Wand tool you can easily and precisely select contours It is especially useful when you are working with glyphs that have many contours such as Far Eastern ideographs To select the contour with the Magic Wand tool just activate the tool and click anywhere near the contour You don t need to be precise AsiaFont Studio will automatically locate the closest contour To reverse the selection state of the contour hold down the SHIFT key and click anywhere near it O ty You can also select a contour and all contours that are inside it Just hold the ALT key when you using the Magic Wand tool 285 Moving the Selection You can move the selected part of the contour by mouse drag any selected part of the contour or use the arrow keys If you press the arrow key then the selection will move in that direction by one font unit Hold down SHIFT while pressing the arrow keys to accelerate the movement of the selection Copying the Selection Sometimes you need to copy glyphs or parts of glyphs to another place in the font or
284. les in your typeface you must create several families You may put all condensed styles into a Condensed or Narrow sub family like Arial Narrow Arial Narrow Bold Arial Narrow Italic all black styles into a Black sub family Arial Black Arial Black Italic and all normal styles in the Normal sub family Arial Arial Italic Arial Bold and Arial Bold Italic 171 172 Accessing MyFonts com Database The last button on the Basic names page is Check at MyFonts com Click on this button to browse the huge database of fonts that is located on the MyFonts com servers to see if your font name has already been used MyFonts com Mame a011 Times Ten Roman a011 Times Ten Roman a010 Times Ten Italic a010 Times Ten Italic a0g Times Ten Bold BU08 Times Ten Bald a005 Times Ten Bold Italic a005 Times Ten Bold Italic 11382 Times Ten Roman Oldstyle Figures Time Script D Light tee quick brown f The The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog brown fos jumped over the lazy dog na AA In the topmost editing field you may enter the font name that you want to check for similarities Click the Check button to send a request to the myfonts com database If you have an Internet connection MyFonts com replies with a list of font names if any that include the name you entered Select one of the fonts and click on the Preview button or just double click the font name to see a sample of the font in the sample box
285. lightly smaller Usually the overshoot height is set to 3 4 of character height However at small PPM size this value may be rounded to one pixel When the PPM is small one pixel may be 15 of the character height or even more Here s how it happens Assume that the topmost position of the H character is 700 units and the top position of the O is 715 At 12 PPM 1000 font units scaled to 12 pixels the rounded height of the H will be 8 pixels The height of the O will be 9 pixels One pixel difference at this height means 8 Much more than the original 2 To avoid such an excessive difference between the rasterized heights of the two types of characters overshoots are suppressed and the size of O is forced equal to the height of H at small PPM 491 492 This is done by declaring alignment zones that define the bottom and top positions of the zone in our example the height of H and O and the alignment direction bottom or top Top alignmentzone Bottom alignment zone At small PPMs all points that have vertical positions inside the zone will be aligned to the primary line i e moved in the direction of the alignment zone Editing Alignment Zones To set or edit alignment zones open the Font Info dialog box and select the Hinting settings item in the list at the left Type 1 and TrueType hinting alignment zones om Set alignment forthe master Single master Set local alignment zones Set family al
286. like when you want to replace the f and T sequence with the fl ligature In other cases you may need to apply a substitution only when a source sequence of glyphs is surrounded by some other glyphs For instance you may want to replace an uppercase character with a lowercase when it is followed by another lowercase character The OpenType specification declares the following types of basic substitutions Single Replaces a single glyph with another single glyph a gt A Alternate Replaces a single glyph with one of the glyphs in a list A gt A version1 or A version2 All these substitutions may be context independent or context dependent AsiaFont Studio supports all of the substitutions except the multiple substitutions 670 Single Substitution This is the simplest substitution it replaces a single glyph with another glyph or a class of glyphs with another class The Class form of the substitution requires that the number of glyphs in the source and destination classes be the same A single substitution rule is specified in one of the following formats substitute lt glyph gt by lt glyph gt format A substitute lt glyphclass gt by lt glyph gt format B substitute lt glyphclass gt by lt glyphclass gt format C You can use the codeword sub instead of the longer substitute Format B specifies that all glyphs in the target glyph class will be replaced by the same replacement glyph Form
287. llow this sequence of operations 1 Create a feature in the OpenType panel click on the button in the lower left corner 2 Name the feature Enter the name at the beginning of the feature block and at the end by replacing the default xxxx 3 Fill the feature body with lookups Descriptions of all the types of lookups that AsiaFont Studio can handle follows this section 4 Click the 2 button to compile the feature definition text 5 Check the Output panel for warnings and errors If there is an error it will be highlighted in the feature definition text Fix any errors 6 When there are no errors check the feature in the OpenType Features Preview panel Open the panel select the script and language and enter the test text At this point you know everything you need to create new features except the actual lookups that define a feature In the following sections we will discuss the different types of substitution and positioning lookups Please note that you may combine substitution and positioning lookups in the same feature 669 Substitution Lookups Substitution lookups deal with the replacement of the source glyph s with some other glyph s The simplest example of a substitution lookup is the replacement of lowercase characters by small caps versions Lookups may be context dependent or context independent Context independent lookups are applied every time the source sequence of glyphs is present
288. lls Font Window Option Add Node To add a note to a glyph s cell To select a glyph for editing double click the glyph cell Or if the Glyphs Bar is active choose the cell with the left and right arrow keys and click the ENTER key 225 226 If you hold down the SH FT key while using the left and right arrow keys glyphs are opened instantly The Fastest way to open a glyph is to use the keyboard 1 2 3 Set the focus to the Glyphs Bar with the Tas key Press the key of the character that you want to open on the keyboard If the glyph is not directly accessible from the keyboard enter its name You have one second to enter each character of the name Click the TaB key again to return focus to the editing area so you can edit the outline You may close the Glyphs Bar at any time by clicking the Glyphs Bar collapse button Bj When the editing area is active you can just press the B key Selecting a Glyph for Editing In addition to using the Glyphs Bar you can open a glyph in the Glyph Window using any of the following methods Double click the glyph s cell in the Font Window to open it If you already have an open Glyph Window with a glyph from the same font the new glyph will be opened in the same Glyph Window replacing the previous glyph Hold the CTRL key down when you double click on the glyph cell to open it in a separate Glyph Window Note that if this method doesn t work it usually means that
289. lly a paint tool because it deals with contours but it is a very natural and flexible tool used to adjust the result of the application of Vector Paint tools 365 366 Freehand Select Tool This tool works like a precision knife You can cut part of a contour and it will be automatically selected so you can transform it delete it or copy it To select part of a glyph with the freehand select tool 1 Select the freehand select tool 5 in the Vector Paint toolbar 2 Position the cursor on the point where you want to start the selection and press the left mouse button 3 Drag the mouse to extend the selection polygon in freehand mode or click the left mouse button to extend the selection polygon by straight vectors 4 Click the right mouse button to finish the selection When you finish the selection you will see that the selection polygon was applied like a knife and you have a new contour or several contours that is separated from the glyph The new contours are selected so you can use the Edit tool to move them or begin a Transform operation and transform the selection Of course you can use any Edit menu command with this selection Pen Contour Tool With the Contour tool you can create new contours or modify existing contours in a more artistic manner than with the Edit tool When you use the Contour tool you can draw new contours just as you do on paper AsiaFont Studio will trace your drawing and replac
290. logical sequence Some programs for example Adobe InDesign have a glyph insert feature that shows the collection of glyphs sorted exactly as it is in the font file Please note that sorting of the glyphs has no effect on glyph encoding or names To sort the glyphs right click the Font window and choose one of the options in the Sort submenu of the context menu Sort glyphs By name By Unicode By encoding This is the list of sorting options By name Glyphs are sorted by their names in ascending order By Unicode Glyphs are sorted by the assigned Unicode indexes in ascending order Glyphs that don t have Unicode indexes are stored at the end of the glyph collection Working with Multiple Fonts In AsiaFont Studio you can open many fonts at once Since every font has its own Font window sometimes the AsiaFont Studio workspace becomes so crowded with windows that finding a particular font is not easy This section will explain how to use AsiaFont Studio tools that are specially designed to help you manage many open fonts simultaneously To open many fonts you can use the standard File gt Open command then select many font files using CTRL and SHiFT click in the File Open dialog box You can also select font files in Windows Explorer and drag them to the AsiaFont Studio window all of them will be opened When you open 15 fonts the AsiaFont Studio window might look like this w AsiaFont Studio 4 File Edit V
291. lookup The font editor can label a set of rules and refer to it explicitly later on in order to have different parts of the font tables refer to the same lookup This decreases the size of the font in addition to freeing the editor from maintaining duplicate sets of rules To define and label a lookup use a named lookup block lookup lt label gt rules to be grouped lt label gt To refer to the lookup later on use a lookup reference statement lookup lt label gt For example lookup SHARED lookup definition oa SHARED F lookup SHARED lookup reference Since the labelled block literally defines a single lookup in the font the rules within the lookup block must be of the same lookup type and have the same lookupflag attribute The lookup block must be specified within a feature block and may not contain any other kind of block OpenType and AsiaFont Studio Implementation of OpenType features in AsiaFont Studio is based on the technologies provided by Adobe one of the two inventors and key supporters of the format OpenType support may be separated into three stages 1 Importing OpenType fonts and reading the features In this stage AsiaFont Studio tries to convert binary representation of the features into feature definition file format 2 Editing the features and previewing the results AsiaFont Studio provides a feature editor that is integrated into the AsiaFont Studio user interface and
292. lta instructions The simplest method is to select the Middle Delta tool position the mouse cursor over the point you want to move and drag the point in the needed direction Hold down the SHIFT key to move the point only in the current hinting direction horizontal or vertical While you are dragging the mouse to set the instruction you will see its value both near the end of the line and on the Meter panel 47 wha You can also right click any point on the 2 outline and select the delta command in eae F 5 the context menu Align point j s i 5 4 3 2 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 551 552 Active and Inactive Delta Instructions Delta instructions may be active or inactive When the current PPM is within the PPM range of the delta instruction the instruction is active Otherwise it is inactive Active delta instruction shift up Inactive delta instruction Note if you set a new middle delta instruction at a point where a delta instruction is already set and is active the old instruction will be replaced by the new one If you set delta instructions for the same point and with the same shift distance but for different PPM ranges AsiaFont Studio will try to combine PPM ranges and unite delta instructions where it is possible Customizing the Delta Instruction Right click the delta instruction mark to get access to the context menu _ancel Delete command Delta value P Remove For current PP
293. ltas Some recommendations 1 Delta hinting is a very time consuming operation because you have to check the rendering results at many PPMs So always try first to get the best possible results from normal linear hinting 2 Use the waterfall preview in the Preview panel to see where delta hinting is necessary 3 Switch off font grayscaling in the Display Properties panel to see a real rendering preview Display Properties are accessible through Control Panel 4 Try to set as few delta instructions as possible They increase font size and complexity 5 It s better to set one delta instruction with a larger range than two less comprehensive delta instructions 955 556 Removing Instructions You can remove any instruction using two methods 1 2 Select the instruction in the Program panel and press the Del button Position the cursor on the hotpoint of the instruction hold the CTRL key and click the right mouse button AlignTop AlignBottom Align MiddleDelta and FinalDelta instructions have hotpoints on the point to which they are applied SingleLink and DoubleLink instructions have hotpoints on the mark in the middle of the line that connects the two points The Interpolate instruction has a hotpoint near the point that is interpolated Standard Stems There are two sets of standard stems in AsiaFont Studio Type 1 standard stems and TrueType stems Type 1 stems are used by the Type 1 font rasteri
294. ly selected master Refer to the Multiple Master Fonts chapter for more information about this action Exchange with Mask Exchanges the outline layer and the Mask layer Note the difference between this command and Edit Mask in the View gt Show layers When you use Exchange with Mask command you actually exchange Mask and outline The Edit mask command does this only temporarily and visually for editing purposes only Assigning a Mask With this command you can take glyphs from one font and put them into the mask layer of another font The glyphs of the fonts are linked using their names so the glyph with the name zero in the assigned font will be placed into the mask layer of the glyph with the name zero in the font where the mask is being made When you select the Assign Mask command from the Tools menu you will see the dialog box Choose font that you want to ute as mask of the current font w abc123 zif they do not exist in the fort There is a list of all open fonts in the top of the dialog box Select the font whose glyphs you want to put into the mask layer of the current font it may be the same font If you select a Multiple Master font scroll bars and edit controls will appear allowing you to select an intermediate design of the font If you switch on Create new glyphs if they do not exist in the font options then AsiaFont Studio will create definitions for glyphs that are
295. lysing an outline for correctness Here is a typical situation where you could use the Find gt Replace command Original glyph Modification It is relatively easy to make the change above in a single glyph but what if you want to do the same thing in all glyphs of the same font that have serifs 1 Select the element that you want to find 2 Copy the selection to the Clipboard with the Edit gt Copy command 3 Modify the original shape as needed and select the new version of the serif 297 298 4 Using the Find gt Replace command open the Find Replace dialog box Find And Replace Find what Replace with Replace amp Find Close i D0 eal tenner anhi The left panel shows the outline that AsiaFont Studio will look for and the right pane shows the outline it will use as the replacement The two buttons to the right of each pane mean RA Place the Clipboard contents into the pane pP Place the current selection into the pane In our sample you need to place the Clipboard contents original outline into the left pane click on the Fal button and the selection into the right pane A button Click the Find Next button to find the next appearance of the source outline in one of the glyphs The first such glyph located will appear in the Glyph Window and the outline that is found will be selected Click Replace to replace
296. m Only printing and The font may be embedded but editing of the previewing document it contains is not allowed is allowed Editing of the document The font may be embedded and the document that is allowed contains the font may be viewed printed and edited Copyright Note We decided to allow modification of the embedding setting only because we are sure that the users of AsiaFont Studio are professionals who respect others rights to intellectual property We assume that you will change the embedding setting only in your own fonts You are not allowed to change this setting in fonts that were created by somebody else Even if according to the font license you can modify the font for your own use you must not increase the embedding rights for a font So if embedding is not allowed leave it as it is 180 Designer Information Information about font designer 4 gt Designer Somebody at FontLab Designer UAL http Awm fontlab com Vendor UAL http Awe fontlab com This page stores information about the font s designer Do not modify this data if you open an existing font to modify for personal use Designer name 9 Name of font designer Designer URL name 12 A new entry implemented only in TrueType format It is the WWW link to the designer of the font Vendor URL name 11 This TrueType only entry shows the WWW link to the site of the font vendor Use the buttons to the right of the
297. m EPS command from the Glyph menu 2 Choose the file that you want to add in the standard File Open dialog box 3 Press the OK button in the File Open dialog box and the EPS AI file will be imported added to the current glyph and selected to simplify its modifications 399 400 When you paste an outline from another application into AsiaFont Studio it scales it to fit the font s UPM To prevent an outline from scaling use the Do not rescale EPS files option located in the bottom of the Options gt General dialog box Donotrescale EPS files on import and export You can also export several glyphs at once Switch to the Font Window by selecting the Open Font Window command from the Glyph Window s popup menu select the glyphs that you want to export and select the Copy to EPS command from the Glyph menu You will see a Save File dialog box where you enter a prefix file name for the exported glyphs Each glyph will be exported to its own file with the file name consisting of the prefix plus the sequential number of the exported glyph Printing a Glyph To print a sample of the current glyph select the Print command in the File menu while the Glyph Window is active You will see a standard printing dialog where you can choose a printer and select the printer s options To begin printing click the OK button When printing is complete you will have a sample of the current glyph as seen in the Glyph Window If you see
298. m panels Here is a detailed description of the Toolbar buttons Y Set vertical direction Sets visual instruction tools to work in the vertical direction I e create vertical links alignment interpolation and deltas Instructions in different directions are independent of each other X Set horizontal direction ttt Select Align command HI Select Double Link command 520 If you click on the button you will see the Options menu Hinked outline r T Grid lines t Pixel centers Resulting image Point numbers Sh Alt F Program panel Preview panel E S TE All the commands except the two at the bottom control the appearance of the layers that represent information about the hinting process The layers are described in the following section The two remaining commands let you open the Programs panel that previews the source code of the hinting program and the Preview panel that shows the result of the hinting 521 Layers With the TrueType tool you can see various information layers in the Glyph Window Gridlines Pointindexes Resulting ou tine Pixel centers Resulting pixels Original ou tine These layers are different from the usual editing layers so we will explain them here gt Outline The original untouched outline of the glyph always appears in the Glyph Window in black The Resulting outline which is the result of the interpretation of
299. m to properly assign names to your characters 77 78 Names Mode To switch the Font window to the Names mode click the AME button on the Font window toolbar To select the current encoding for the font use the Encoding combo box When you open it you will see the following available encodings Imported The encoding that was loaded with an imported font Adobe Adobe Cyrillic Macintosh Cyrillic The default encoding for all the applications in the FontLab family This provides the best support for Windows or Mac OS depending on the version of AsiaFont Studio Adobe Standard Encoding This is useful if you want to create a PostScript font Standard encoding for supporting Cyrillic characters on PostScript printers and in Windows Standard encoding for supporting Cyrillic characters on Macintosh computers Standard encoding for supporting fonts that include mathematical and other characters Additional Encodings All encodings are stored in text files that can be edited in any text processor This is not recommended but may help if you find that our standard encodings do not work for you If you want to define a non standard encoding save the file in AFS4 directory How to Create a Custom Encoding File To create a custom encoding file 1 Copy the enc file located in the Encodings directory to use as the basis for your new encoding file 2 Open the copied file in any text editor Windows Notepad wil
300. mber of masters will be increased twofold Therefore a single axis font will have two masters a two axis font will have four masters etc The contents of all existing masters will be duplicated as seen in the picture WeightO Weight 1 aa So WeightO Weight1 Weight 0 Weight1 Width O Width O Width 1 Width 1 605 606 Selecting a Master Font When you define an axis or open a Multiple Master font you will have more than one master font Open a Glyph window with any character and you will see several masters appear in the editing field and the master selection combo box enabled Different masters of the multiple master font appear as outlines of different colors One master appears in black and it is the only editable master called the active master All editing tools actions and operations are applied to this master All masters are identified by their names The master name is the position of the master on the design axis WIDTH Wd gt WtO Wd0 Wto Wd1 B L Z Wt1 Wdo Wt1 Wd1 You can select the active master using the following methods 1 Double click the master outline that you want to activate 2 Select a master in the master selection combo box wid vl 3 Select the Window gt Masters Panel command The Masters panel appears 7 Ail Lo Cite maa AIL dua gt e L ami Click on a master s radio button in the Masters panel Using the Masters panel you
301. ment X advance and Y advance in that order For example lt 80 0 160 0 gt X placement adj 80 X advance adj 160 Single Positioning A Single Pos rule is specified as position lt glyph glyphclass gt lt valuerecord gt Here the lt glyph glyphclass gt is adjusted by the lt valuerecord gt 2 e iv For example to reduce the left and right sidebearings of a glyph each by 80 design units position one lt 80 0 160 0 gt To shift the glyph up by 100 units position A lt 0 100 0 100 gt Note that we changed the placement by 100 units but compensated for that with a 100 change applied to advance This is needed to shift only the current glyph and not the following glyphs in the string 683 684 Pair Positioning Rules for this lookup type are usually used for kerning and must follow this format position lt glyph glyphclass gt lt glyph glyphclass gt lt valuerecord format A gt This format is provided since it closely parallels the way kerning is expressed in a plain pair kerning table Here the lt valuerecord gt must be of value record format A only and corresponds to the first lt glyph glyphclass gt Kerning can most easily be expressed with this format This will result in adjusting the first glyph s X advance except when in the vrkn feature in which case it will adjust the first glyph s Y advance Some examples pos T a 100 specific pair no glyph class present pos T a 1
302. metrics How much must the shape of glyphs inflate to generate metrics This dialog box includes two areas Area of application and Parameters In the first area you select the glyph s to which the automatic algorithm will be applied The possible choices are Current character This option is available and is the default if any glyph is only selected in the editing area All glyphs in the This option generates metrics for all glyphs in the current current string string in the editing area Whole font This forces AsiaFont Studio to generate metrics for all glyphs in the font and is not generally recommended This operation is not undoable AsiaFont Studio prompts you and asks that you save the current metrics information in a special file from which it may be easily restored if you are not satisfied with the results that the autometrics algorithm produced You can choose the parameters for the algorithm in the Parameters area of the Autometrics dialog box All the parameters are displayed We recommend that you experiment with various parameters using the autometrics application 423 424 Quick Save and Quick Open You can use these commands to temporarily save the current state of the in the AsiaFont Studio directory press the button on the toolbar To open a previously saved file press the button The Warning dialog box appears prompting you to save the current modified state of metrics into the sam
303. mize panel that you can open with the Customize command from the Tools menu or the same command located in the context menu which appears if you right click on a menu toolbar or toolbar dock area customize The customization dialog box consist of several pages Commands List of all the available commands grouped into several categories Toolbars Customization of toolbars There is an option to create new toolbars Customizing Toolbars To move a button within a toolbar just press the left mouse button on it drag it to the new location and drop it If you drag the button slightly further to the right a separator bar will be added between it and the previous button Standard To move a button to another toolbar just drag drop it there To copy a button hold the CTRL key while you drag the button To remove a button from a toolbar drag it out of the toolbar Standard In AsiaFont Studio there is very little difference between a menu and a toolbar so you can rearrange copy or remove menu items just like you did with toolbar buttons VIEW Show Layers d Lock Lawers d Snap to Layers Toolbars d ae Rulers Teg Foor a zoom In zoom Cue You can also drag a menu item onto a toolbar to add a toolbar button Hold the CTRL key to copy the item 27 28 To get access to all the AsiaFont Studio commands open the Commands page in the Customize dialog box Commands Toolbars Keybo
304. mmand Single Link Examples Here are some examples of single link hinting Horizontal hinting of the Times m character Vertical hinting of the Times F character 541 542 Double Links Double links let you set the distance between two untouched points Both points will be moved by this command and both points will be touched afterward The distance between points can be connected to one of the standard stem widths using the usual procedure described above If the distance is connected to the stem width it will scale with the stem 4 Original stem N o Resulting stem lt Double link instruction You can t predict where points will move that are connected by a double link so we recommend that you use this command only for stems for which the position is not very important or for stems that will be used as the basis for hinting The double link command does not have base points but it sets the position of points To set a double link 1 Select the double link tool 4 2 Position the cursor over one of the points you want to link Press the left mouse button 3 Drag the cursor to the point you want to link to the first point A circle will highlight any point over which you move the cursor Release the mouse button when the desired point is highlighted Hold the SHiFt key down if you do not want to connect the double link to a standard stem width If you hold down the SHt
305. mposite Edit Component Opens a new Glyph Window with the currently active component Properties Opens the Component Properties panel described later 394 Component Properties You can set the precise size and position of the component Right click the component with the Edit tool You will see a popup menu Properties Select the Properties command in this menu and you will see the Component Properties dialog box Component Properties X Component Positior Scale vi v 100 02 Apply In this dialog box you can select a different glyph to be used as a component and set the component s position and scale The component position is the distance between the composite zero point and the component s zero point gt Tip You may just double click on the component to get the component Properties dialog box 395 Using the Primitives Panel In AsiaFont Studio you can add predefined customisable graphical primitives to glyphs There are five primitives included with AsiaFont Studio and it is possible to add more You can select a primitive from the Primitives panel To open the Primitives panel select the Primitives Panel command in the Windows menu iw Primitives Panel The panel consists of a primitives list and a Place button that you click to add a primitive to the outline Here is a brief description of each primitive Grid Simple grid a customizable
306. mps together Bigger jump values are necessary when you are working on a black or extra black font where 5 pixel width stems appear at low PPMs To change stem rounding 1 In the list select the stem that you want to edit 2 Inthe edit fields change the PPM sizes at which this stem makes its various jumps from one pixel up to 6 pixels Press the button to automatically optimize the stem rounding while trying to keep optimal contrast Use the button to reset all stem PPMs to linear values 561 562 Advanced Options Click on the button in the Options panel and click on the Advanced button in the Stems dialog box You will see a dialog box expand which includes the advanced options area Stem nap Precisior 16 of the pixel Stop zones alignment above this PPM 46 Do not esecute instructions above this PPM y Shil e conetrains setting of the delta instructions direction a a Stem snap precision Measured in 1 16 of a pixel this value defines the difference between the actual stem width scaled but not rounded and the stem width in pixels specified by the stems dialog box If the difference is more than the defined value the stem is rounded linearly A value of 16 16 will mean that stem rounding will be controllable only when the difference is less than one pixel A value of 32 16 defines a possible difference of 2 pixels Stop zones alignment above this PPM Enter the font size in PPM after wh
307. n The Import Metrics dialog box appears Import Metrics File Import results Import of metrics file C PSFONTSSPFM mr pim wasz successful It contains metrics for 224 glyphs 214 of which esist in the current font Overall metrics compatibility is 69 19 Average width difference is 55 Metrics file includes 855 kerning pairs 228 of which are nEw What do vou want to do with metrics data Replace only metrics that are close to current ka Allowed difference between metrics E What do vou want to do with kerning data Do nothing ka What do you want to do with other data The topmost control contains a legend describing the metrics file that you are importing and its compatibility with the current font 448 The options in the Parameters area let you select various metrics importing options What do you want to do with the metrics data Do nothing Do not import metrics data from this file Replace all metrics Import all metrics data glyphs widths and in the current font sidebearings and replace the metrics data in the current font We recommend that you use this option only if your font is very similar to the metrics file that you are importing Replace all metrics that are Replace only those metrics records that are similar close to current to the imported metrics The Possible difference between metrics option controls the allowed difference Replace metrics that are These options are obvious thinner
308. n AsiaFont Studio menu we will use the following notation top menu item sub item For example Edit gt Copy means click the word Edit on the menu bar and select the Copy command from the menu Edit Undo Alt 6ksp Redo Sh 4lk Bksp Cu Sh Delete Copy Chrl C Paste Ctrl V Delete Duplicate Chri D Select All Ckrl A Deselect Ctrl U Invert Selection Ctrl I Properties Alt Enter Directories When we have to refer to one of the directories created during AsiaFont Studio installation we will use the following syntax AFS4 directory name Where AFS4 is the name of the folder where you have installed AsiaFont Studio 4 usually Program Files FontLab AFS4 and directory name is the name of the directory as in the example below AFS4 data Mouse Click the mouse on some Position the mouse cursor on the object and click the object left mouse button Right click some object Position the cursor on the object and click the right mouse button Ctri click something Position the cursor over something hold down the CTRL key on the keyboard and click the left mouse button Drag some object Position the cursor on the object press the left mouse button and move the mouse to move the object Release the mouse button when you re done Context Menu Most windows and panels in AsiaFont Studiohave attached context menus To open the context menu right click an empty area in the window or panel 23 24
309. n Glyph Metrics zoom d sm Vertical Metrics zoom In ae L Nodes Chrl Sh h zoom Our g Control Vectors Ctr 5h 7 Connections Ctrl Sh C Preview Mode The same operation is possible with the View gt Lock layers menu Lock Layers a Ta Wd fa a fa a A a Sa In the following sections we will describe all the editing layers and their modification and control Easier Way to Control Editing Layers The Editing Layers panel may be opened in the simple mode Editing Layers Outline DA hoN Guides Hints which is described in the previous section In simple mode you have a list of five layers and you can control their lock and show status To activate the layer just select it in the list When you do it this layer becomes unlocked and all other layers are locked If activated layer was hidden it will appear until it is deactivated Use check boxes to the left of the layer names to control layer appearance For example to edit the glyph metrics just select the Metrics in the list Glyph and font metrics layers will appear in the glyph window and will be available to edit while all other layers outline hints guides and mask will be locked To edit the Mask layer just select Mask in the list The outline layer will be shown as a mask and will be locked hints will disappear and the mask layer will be set to front and open for editing 239 240 Outline Layer The Ou
310. n edit glyphs and glyphs metrics manually using the Glyph and Metrics windows described in previous chapters Or you can use AsiaFont Studio s transformation filters to edit glyphs or metrics automatically Transformations may be applied to one glyph to a range of glyphs selected in the Font window to a special set of glyphs only to letters or only to digits for example or to a whole font All the filters are carefully designed and always produce high quality results that usually do not require manual control or correction In this chapter we will show you how to use the transformation filters and give a detailed description of each available filter 453 454 The Transform Dialog Box The easiest way to apply transformations is to use the Transform dialog box It is accessible from the Tools menu while the Font or Glyph window is active Select the Transform command from the Tools menu and you will see a dialog box Transformation Select an action ori H Hints and Guidelines E Metrics H Effects ment action Cu Apply to whole fort OF By default the box is empty and the dummy transformation action Do not transform a glyph is selected in the actions list If you open this dialog while the Glyph window is active the transformation filter will be applied only to the glyph currently open and is undoable If you open it while the Font window is active then the transformation will be applied to all sel
311. n language and located in the bottom field of the OpenType panel and AsiaFont Studio glyph classes that are represented in the Classes panel for more information about the Classes panel please refer to page 436 It is natural to provide a link between these classes Use the following option in the Tools gt Options gt OpenType dialog box o pen ype Editor Add all glyph classes to OpenType feature definition code to automatically include all AsitaFont Studio classes into the compiled feature definition code Please note that AsiaFont Studio will import all OpenType classes when an OpenType font is imported and will place them in the OpenType panel and AsiaFont Studio Classes panel so when you use this option for an imported font you need to manually delete the OpenType classes to avoid duplication The Output Panel The Output panel opens automatically when there is something to show and looks very simple Basically it is just a text output window with a scroll bar You can right click the panel to open the context menu Lo l y gt Delete Clear ia Select All Close panel Use the commands in the menu to close the panel or clear or copy the selected text You can manually open the output panel with the Window gt Output panel command in the main AsiaFont Studio menu The output panel is also used by the AsiaFont Studio Macro system to show the results of macro program interpretation 665
312. n the list will be the list transformed Thus if the list includes all the digits and you select this option all glyphs except the digits would be transformed All opened fonts Transformation program will be applied to all glyphs in all opened fonts Fonts in the Fonts List Transformation program will be applied to all glyphs in all fonts that are added to the fonts list see below 477 478 Glyph List You may select which glyphs will be transformed by entering a list of glyphs This is handy for repetitive or recurrent transformations To create a glyph list select the All glyphs in the glyph list or All glyphs that are not in the list options in the ranges selection list and press the List button which will be enabled You will see a dialog box Glyph List abedetghykimnopg cance Enter all the glyphs that you want to transform into the Glyph list editing field You can use special character commands to enter characters that are not included in the standard Latin 1 character set used in Windows by default Use a prefix to enter a glyph s name or use a decimal code and a prefix to enter a glyph s Unicode index Use the Open button to open any text file and use it as a glyph list and the Save button to save the current glyph list in a text file Note that if you open the Transform Range dialog box while the Metrics window is active the glyph list will be copied from the Metrics window s
313. nates are used internally externally design coordinates are used A special weight vector called the default weight vector should be set in the font header to define a standard intermediate design of the MM font A MM font is seen as a typical Type 1 font by a PostScript device or program and this Type 1 font is an intermediate instance of the MM font with the default weight vector Extrapolation The Multiple Master font specification allows only interpolation of the master designs to define an intermediate font In addition to that basic feature however the multiple master font structure allows linear extrapolation of the designs also This feature allows us to artificially extend the design range of the MM font which sometimes produces interesting results Standard dynamic range for the Width axis AS AGREES RUNAS AS AGREES Extrapolated range for the Width axis AS AGREES I Extrapolated Weight In real life this feature lets you extend font families with very little effort for instance build an MM font using the normal and bold styles and then add light and extra bold using the extrapolation feature 599 600 Anisotropic Interpolation Standard MM fonts have the same interpolation values for both the X and Y directions In AsiaFont Studio it is possible to define a different interpolation weight for directions With this you can make interesting form variations AS AGREES R Standard proportiona
314. nbo box rial Sele allows you to choose the system font that is used to show text in the sample string You may need to change this font if you are working with non Latin fonts Mprmep pyc Kono 280 Vertical Preview If the width of the preview panel is less than half of its height which happens if you dock the preview panel to the right or left side of the AsiaFont Studio window it automatically turns itself into vertical preview mode Preview A font s vertical metrics or glyph s vertical metrics if OpenType Fes 4 defined are used to vertically align glyphs Right to left preview mode still works when the Preview panel is vertically oriented so you can align glyphs to the left or to the right to check the balance of their sidebearings 281 282 Waterfall Preview When you are working on a glyph you may need to see it in many sizes at once Open the glyph in the Glyph Window and switch the Preview panel to the waterfall mode with this button You will see multiple sizes of the glyph previewed ome wth sa6EBBBBBBBBBB BBBBBBBB B B B B Per TiCidizi i415 16 17 if 1 20 21 22 22 24 25 fe fF ZS Ze 40 42 45 Size 1s measured as PPM which means Pixel Per eM This is a resolution independent way of defining the pixel height of the glyphs For standard PC screens the point size which you enter to define text size in text editors or page layout program
315. nce ABCabc123 Weight im gt pe OpticalSize mi E Use the controls to select the intermediate or extrapolated design The Edit controls have a white background when the selection is within the dynamic range and a yellow background when extrapolation is used The white background under the scroll bars visually represents the font s dynamic range Using the keyboard you can enter values into the editing fields that are even beyond the scroll bar range Click OK and AsiaFont Studio will generate a single master font and open it in a new Font Window 631 632 Expanding the Master Use Tools gt Multiple Master gt Expand Master to copy the contents of one of the masters to all other masters If this command is selected when the Glyph window is active it is applied to the currently active master If it is used when the Font window is active you will see a dialog box that lets you select the master for copying Expand Master Select a master that you want to copy to all other masters wit ABCabcl123 Cancel This operation may be useful if applied when the Mask layer is in editing mode you may need to copy one of the Mask masters to all the other masters to simulate the single master Mask layer Hinting Multiple Master Fonts As you know in AsiaFont Studio you can use hints and links to do character level hinting You can also do character level hinting of MM fonts using
316. nces between outline points uses font level constants and resets the position of some outline points These points are called touched points All untouched points usually interpolate by the last glyph program command between the new positions of touched points 515 516 Font Parameters Because within each font it s very important that all characters have a consistent appearance some font level information is necessary for hinting There are two kinds of such information alignment zones and stem widths Alignment zones set the positions of the most important vertical positions such as the sizes of uppercase characters the position of middle lines and the top and bottom overshoot positions To minimize rounding error and to make better baseline alignment you have to suppress overshoots and maintain the same size of overshoot and regular characters at small PPMs This is very easy to do if you position and size the bottoms and tops of these characters and stick the bottom and top points to these values Stem widths define the most important stems in the font and control the rounding of these stems Here you must control the PPM at which the stem width changes from one to two pixels and from two to three pixels Refer to page 490 for more information about alignment zones and standard stem widths Visual TrueType Hints In AsiaFont Studio we
317. nd must not start with a digit or period The only exception is the special character notdef twocents al and _ are valid glyph names 2cents and twocents are not An initial backslash serves to differentiate a glyph name from an identical keyword in the feature file language For example a glyph named table must be specified in the feature file as table 645 646 Glyph classes A feature file glyph class lt glyphclass gt represents a single glyph position in a sequence and is denoted by a list of glyphs enclosed in square brackets For example endash emdash figuredash An example of a sequence that contains a glyph class is space endash emdash figuredash space moon This would match any of the 3 sequences space endash space space emdash space or space figuredash space during OpenType layout A feature file glyph class that contains only one single glyph is known as a singleton glyph class A feature file glyph class is also used to represent the set of alternate glyphs in an alternate substitution lookup type rule Ranges A range of glyphs is denoted by a hyphen lt firstGlyph gt lt lastGlyph gt Spaces around the hyphen are not required since hyphens are not permitted in feature file glyph names For example A Z Named glyph classes A glyph class can be named by assigning it to a glyph class name which begins with the character and then referred to later on
318. nd of the feature To change the language attribute use the language statement language lt language tag gt excludeDFLT includeDFLT required The script and lookupflag attributes stay the same as before If no script assignment statement has been seen thus far in the feature block then the script attribute is set to latn but it is recommended that an explicit script statement be used in such cases for clarity Here is an example statement language DEU As a result of this statement a the language attribute is changed to DEU and b the DFLT lookups of the current script are automatically included into the language system specified by the current script and language attributes If b is not desired as may occasionally be the case then the keyword excludeDFLT must follow the language tag For example language DEU excludeDFLT The keyword includeDFLT may be used to explicitly indicate the default DFLT lookup inheriting behavior For example language DEU includeDFLT Sameas language DEU 651 652 lookupflag The chapter Common Table Formats in the OpenType Font File Specification describes the LookupFlag field in the Lookup table The lookupflag attribute defaults to 0 at the start of a feature block The lookupflag attribute stays the same until explicitly changed until a lookup reference statement is encountered that changes it until the script is changed or until the end of th
319. ndexes Deleting Glyphs Creating New Glyphs Highlighting Glyphs Marking Glyphs Glyph Collection Searching for Glyphs Renaming Glyphs Reencoding the Font Unicode Related Operations Generating Unicode Indexes Importing CMap Files Generating Names Removing Unicode Information The Font Map Panel Managing Double Byte Codepages Notes Sorting Glyphs Working with Multiple Fonts Windows List Fonts Panel Merging Fonts Saving and Opening a Workspace Applying Actions 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 108 110 113 115 117 120 120 121 122 123 124 126 127 128 129 130 131 133 134 135 Blending Fonts Exporting and Printing Font Formats Export Options Type 1 Export Options TrueType Export Options OpenType Export Options Recommended Export Options Printing Fonts Font Window Options View Options Tuning Options THE FONT HEADER Font Info Dialog Box Command Bar Copying Font Info Font Names Basic Identification and Names Accessing MyFonts com Database OpenType Specific Names Non English and Special Names Copyright Information Font Embedding Designer Information License Information Font Identification Version Information Basic Font Identification PANOSE Identification Other Identification Systems Metrics and Dimensions Font UPM Value Basic Font Dimensions Advanced Vertical Metrics Superscript and Subscript Encoding and Unicode Supported Codepages Supporte
320. ne To enter a class name defined in the Classes panel drag the class name from the list of classes If you drop the class name it will be inserted into the feature definition text preceded by the class532 To insert the actual contents of the class hold the CTRL key when you release the mouse button perthousand perthousand percent threeeighths threequarters threeeighths fiveeighths fiveeighths seveneighths seveneighths 661 662 Renaming Glyphs and Classes When a glyph name is entered into feature definition text the link with this glyph in the font is lost so if you rename the glyph using the AsiaFont Studio glyph rename command the feature definition will not be updated To rename a glyph in the feature definitions position the cursor on the glyph name in the feature editing field and click the 6 button on the toolbar You will see a dialog box Replace Name In the top field you can enter the name of the glyph you want to rename and in the bottom field you enter new name for the glyph Check the Replace name in the Classes panel checkbox to rename the glyph in the AsiaFont Studio Classes panel After you click OK in the dialog box AsiaFont Studio will scan all the feature definitions and replace the old glyph name with the new one Note that you can enter a glyph class definition as a replacement string for instance to replace one by Lone two three Compiling the Feature Definitions
321. nel but this operation may simplify the job 1 387 388 Reversing a Contour s Direction Sometimes you need to reverse the direction of a contour In AsiaFont Studio you can do this in one of two ways click on each contour that you want to reverse with the right mouse button and select the Reverse Contour command in the popup menu or activate the Reverse Contour operation To activate the operation select the Reverse Contours command in the Tools menu By double clicking you can finish the operation and accept all the changes that you just made By pressing Esc you finish the operation and reject all the changes Tip If you press Cancel but change your mind and want to accept the changes of the last operation you can use the Redo command in the Edit menu When you activate the Reverse Contours operation you will see that all the contours now have arrows that show their direction You can reverse any contour by clicking on it with the left mouse button Tip We recommend that you switch to the Preview mode when you use this operation The direction of a contour changes the contour s colors and in the Preview filled mode you will see the changes immediately Rearranging Contours Sometimes you need to change a contour s sequence to simplify the programming of hint substitution You can do this by selecting the Make contour command in the node popup menu which sets contours above each other but an easier wa
322. nent also change The contour of composite components appears in dashed lines in the glyph window Composites have the advantage of allowing the user to create only one instance of a component that is frequently found in a font and reusing it without having to redraw it each time Further if the design of the component changes it need only be altered once in the original component And finally a composite takes up less room in the font than an outline allowing for smaller font files There are three operations related to composite glyphs adding a component to glyphs decomposing a component and positioning a component Adding a Component To add a component to a glyph currently open in the Glyph Window select the Add Component command from the Glyph menu You will see a dialog box that looks just like a Get Glyph dialog box Select a Component Glyph Ed c 0063 al cH _ Wf cacute 0107 caron O2C ccarn 0100 ccedilla OOEY a Eo a ee ee a U ee The only difference is that only those glyphs that can be used as component glyphs will appear Of course a glyph cannot be a component for itself A composite glyph can be used as a component glyph It is automatically converted to source components Another difference is that you can set the position by entering its x horizontal and y vertical coordinates The component position is the distance between the composite zero point and the component s zero point
323. nes to Type 1 outlines select the glyphs that you want to convert and choose the Tools gt Outline gt To Type 1 Curves command If more than 64 glyphs were selected for transformation you will see the warning message Attention Click Yes and AsiaFont Studio will apply the action to all selected glyphs You can find descriptions of all actions in the chapter Editing Glyphs 135 136 Blending Fonts With AsiaFont Studio you can automatically blend two fonts and generate an intermediate version of them First font ABCabci23 Second Font ABCabcl23 Resulting font 50 blend The font blending process is completely automatic it analyses the shapes of glyphs and tries to find the best way to morph one to another Best example of blend feature is to make a font that has weight intermediate to two existing weights You must have at least two fonts open to use the Blend fonts operation To activate the Blend feature select the Blend fonts command from the Tools menu A dialog box appears Blend Fonts Select the first font OfficinaS ansC B ook ABCabc123 __ Select the second font meses OOOO Oy ABCabc123 Blend fonte D Build the Multiple Master forit Destination tont FreeF ontPro All existing source glyphs Blend amount 50 E O Selected destination glyphs Do not interpolate compatible outlines Oo aoe The dialog box is divided into three sections Th
324. next time the editing layers will be switched automatically to your preferred environment Line Tool The Line tool allows you to apply brushes to straight line segments To draw a line segment 1 Position the mouse cursor on the beginning point and press the left mouse button 2 Move the mouse to the end point and release the button Hold down the SHIFT key to constrain the direction of the line to 15 degree increments 371 372 Polygon Tool The Polygon tool can be used in two modes as a tool to draw a polygon consisting of lines and curves or as a tool to draw an outline of a polygon with a selected brush The second mode can be treated as a series of applications of the line tool The mode of the polygon tool can be selected in the Vector Paint Options dialog box To draw a polygon using the Polygon tool 1 DB 6 Select the polygon tool in the Vector Paint toolbar Be sure that the polygon tool is in the polygon mode Move the mouse cursor somewhere in the editing field and press the left mouse button Holding down the button move the mouse cursor to the first point of the polygon Release the button Move the mouse cursor to the position of the next polygon point To add a line segment click the left mouse button To add a curve segment press the left mouse button and drag the mouse to define the control vector of a curve Hold down the Suirt key to constrain the direction of vectors to 15 degree increment
325. ng editing e The property area includes live digital information about metrics or kerning for the current glyph or glyph pair e The editing area where the edited string with controls appears 407 408 The property area of the Metrics window can work in two modes compact and expanded In expanded mode information about glyph metrics is previewed in a table located at the top of the editing area Preview Metrics FreeFontPro To switch from compact to expanded mode use the Expand button Fe There are three possible modes of the Metrics Window Preview Metrics and Kerning The default is the Metrics mode Hold down the CTRL key while you open the Metrics window to open it in Kerning mode Use these two buttons ni to change the mode of the window Press the M button to switch to the metrics mode glyph metrics are editable but kerning is not K button to the kerning mode kerning is visible and editable and release both buttons to return the window to the Preview mode In the Preview mode you cannot edit the metrics or kerning data of the font You can only preview the sample string and look at the glyphs alignment In Preview if the properties area is in compact mode you can edit the position of the underline line that will appear if the font that you edit is used in the underline mode Of course you can also edit the Underline position and thickness in
326. nics that are used to represent commands A detailed description of each command and its parameters will follow AlignTop Align a point to the top alignment zone AlignBottom Align a point to the bottom alignment zone 527 528 The commands in the list have a two way connection with the Glyph window when you click on the visual representation of the command in the Glyph window the related command is selected in the Program panel s list When you select a command in the Program list the command is visually highlighted in the Glyph window Use the command link to check the logic of the hinting program and to customize command parameters in complex situations Alignment Instructions Alignment instructions are used to align points to the grid There are two types of alignment instructions those linked with alignment zones and those not linked with zones Alignment Zones Alignment zones define important vertical positions that are common to many font characters A good example of an alignment zone is a baseline and the bottom position of the O character Bottom alignment zone At low PPM sizes you must set the bottom point of the characters O C and similar characters to the baseline to suppress the bottom overshoot In this case we have a so called bottom alignment zone Another example of an alignment zone is the top line of the H character and the O character
327. nks to center of the glyph where possible AsiaFont Studio can try to hint starting from the left sidebearing and going to the right or starting from both sidebearings and going to the center of the glyph Use this option to customize the hinting direction Automatically interpolate the position of cusp points A Cusp is a point where the contour sharply changes direction a If this option is on AsiaFont Studio will generate an Interpolate command that will link the cusp point to one of the links Try to automatically generate delta instructions Our research shows that it is useful to include small middle delta commands at the end of links that connect round parts of the glyph Use this option to control this feature Add link to the right sidebearing point AsiaFont Studio can generate a single distance rounded link that will go from the rightmost hinted point to the right sidebearing point This feature guarantees at least one pixel distance between glyphs on all PPMs Interpolate positions of the double links In glyphs like B which have overlapping stems AsiaFont Studio may hint them independently or hint the first stem and then interpolate the position of the second stem using the interpolation command with the final point aligned to the grid Whether this is appropriate for your font has to be decided on a case by case basis 567 568 Single link attachment precision If an outline is not very
328. nly if the point is in the zone and change the alignment type Another way to customize the command is to use the Program panel in expanded mode Point li T Align Left bottom edge ba Links Links are the most important visual commands They are used to set relationships between outline points and to set distances between points to one of the standard stem values There are two types of links single links and double links Single links need to have a base point that is set by a previous command This can be any command except a final delta A double link does not need to have base points It sets the position of two points and they can be used as base points for a single link or interpolate command 535 536 Standard Stems All link commands can be connected with one of the standard stems When a link is connected to a stem it sets the distance between points to the scaled and rounded width of the stem Using this technique you can implement standard stem based hinting keeping important stem widths the same in every character in which they are used Please note that Type 1 standard stems and TrueType stems are different although they function similarly There is no limitation to the number of TrueType stems and they may be named We will discuss all the different options of TrueType stems later on page 557 You can use the Options panel to select standard stem options Link to stem Automatic None O
329. nology Overview Tech Note 5092 and Adobe CMap and CID Font Files Specification Tech Note 5014 We strongly recommend that you read the first document for a better understanding of this technology Both documents can be found on the Fontlab website www fontlab com in Adobe Acrobat format Acrobat Reader software can be found on the website also Structure of CID Fonts To print text from digital format we find in the font that we want to use for printing images of all the characters that are used in the source font Because the sequence of possible characters codes is not linear we need some kind of mapping table that allows us to find a correlation between the character codes and their position in the font file If we separate this mapping table from the font allowing the font to store only graphical and metrical information about characters but not encoding information we have a very flexible scheme of encoding For one font that contains a known collection of characters we may have several different mapping tables that will allow us to support more than one encoding scheme for that font That is exactly how CID fonts are built A complete PC CID font consists of two files a CMap file that includes mapping information and a CID font file that includes a specially organized collection of characters 61 62 The CID fonts are used when a very large number of characters need to be represented in one font The larges
330. nt this In the Glyph Window the single link command appears as a directed line with a mark in the middle The mark is yellow if the link is connected to a standard stem width and gray if it is not If the link is connected the stem name may appear near the mark Base point Stem name In the Program panel a single link command appears as SingleLinkV 12 gt 38 0 1 where 12 is the base point 38 is the linked point 0 is the number of the stem to which this link is connected or ns if it is not connected to the stem and 1 is the type of alignment for aligned links or na for links that are not aligned How the SingleLink Command Works 1 First the original not grid fitted positions of the base point and the linked point are retrieved and the distance between them is measured 2 Ifthe link is connected with a stem the distance is replaced by the prepared stem width for this PPM If the scaled distance is equal to or exceeds 3 pixels it is rounded to the closest integer If the link is not connected to the stem the distance is rounded or not depending on the rounding option of the command 3 The distance of the linked point is set equal to the grid fitted position of the base point shifted by the distance 4 If alink is aligned then the position of the linked point is rounded to the grid according to the align mode stored as the last command parameter 539 540 Customizing the Single Link Co
331. ntLab classes ot_classes String containing OpenType classes text that appears in the bottom control of the OpenType panel features List of OpenType features Each element of the list is an object of the Feature class customdata A string that may contain any data you want to attach to a font This data is saved in the AFS FontLab font file so you can use this member to store information that is not editable by AsiaFont Studio tools truetypetables List of custom TrueType tables Each element of the list is an object of the TrueTypeTable class ttinfo TrueType information mostly hinting related tables glyphs Array of glyphs Each element of the array is an object of the Glyph class So for example if you want to see the advanced width of the glyph with index 12 you would write print fl font glyphs 12 width Here fl is an object of the FontLab class that represents the AsiaFont Studio user interface font is the currently active font object of the Font class glyphs is a member of the Font class representing an array of glyphs 12 directs us to the 12t element of the glyphs array width is a member of the Glyph class representing the glyph s advance width A shorter way to access the glyphs of the font is to access the Font object as an array print len fl font print fl font 12 width 712 The first line will print the number of glyphs in the font The second line is a shorter version of th
332. ntPra OFFicinaSans Book OFFicinaSans lt Bold To the right you find four buttons Copy Allows you to copy font header information between fonts Apply Accepts changes but lets you continue so you can see the results of your changes in the Font Glyph or Metrics windows 166 Copying Font Info If you want to copy font info from one font to another you can do it with the Font Info dialog box 1 Open both fonts 2 Activate the font to which you want to copy information 3 Open the Font Info dialog box 4 Click on the Copy button 5 Inthe dialog box select the font from which you want to copy information E Copy Font Info Select the font to copy Font Info data from OfficinaS ansl Bold Oficinas ansC Book Copy only the current page Copy all Font Info data Using the options below the list you can copy only the information from the current page or the whole font info Make a selection and click OK to complete 167 168 Font Names E N a ri e a n d Co pyr i g h H OpenT ype specific names Additional OpenType names z Copyright information Embedding z Designer information License information The names section includes the most important font registration information All programs use the information on this page to refer to a font Be sure to enter all the values very carefully and use the automatic features where available Basic Identification and
333. ntly selected encoding vector 79 80 Definition Encoding Tables This kind of encoding table has no reference to the character encoding and is used primarily to organise a collection of glyphs in some useful way For example if your font contains several glyphs representing the A character like A smallcaps A heading A swash A lowered it could be a good idea to have them visually close in the Font Window ga x IE A Glyph Definition Encoding ps Acheading A swash Alowered woi alal You can do this by creating an ENC file that enumerates the characters that you want to arrange Note that it is not required to put any codes into a definition encoding table so the body of the ENC file might look something like this FONTLAB ENCODING 1001 A Glyph Definition Encoding A smallcaps A heading A swash A lowered You can use this form of the encoding table as a template for your font so that you will not miss an important glyph Please remember however that you cannot use this table for any kind of encoding You must switch to one of the mapping encoding tables or to Unicode based Ranges or Codepages mode to check the encoding of your font The Unicode Standard The Unicode Worldwide Character Standard that s the full name of the Unicode standard is a character coding system designed to support the interchange processing and display of the written texts of the divers
334. ntrols ther2 41 So check boxes 12 512 Some Examples Here we want to show you some typical hinting situations and recommended hinting sequences for them D E 513 514 TrueType Instructions In TrueType fonts the hinting process is very different from the one used in Type fonts As we said before in TrueType font format almost all characters have special programs that directly control the movement of outline points at different PPM sizes The native TrueType instruction language consists of several dozen commands All the commands deal with the data stack a temporary storage place and the constant definitions that come with a font There are 3 different kinds of instructions in each TrueType font file One global program called the Font Program is executed one time when the font is used for the first time Another global program called the PPM Program is executed one time when the font s PPM is changed Local programs Glyph Programs are executed for each glyph when it is scaled Programs can deal with points distances arithmetic values constants and graphics state parameters Graphics state parameters set rules that are used as settings for various commands Every character outline is scaled according to the selected PPM value Point coordinates are stored as fixed point numbers they are not integers but have a fixed precision Then the glyph program is interpreted The glyph program measures the dista
335. nts we will be using the term glyph 89 Navigating One of the glyphs in the Font window is the current glyph It is specially highlighted To view different parts of the font in the Font window you can either use the vertical scroll bar or the auto scroll mode if you place the mouse anywhere in the chart press the mouse button and move the mouse cursor above the top or bottom of the chart it will scroll up or down accordingly You can also use the spacebar to scroll the Font window Press the spacebar and drag the mouse to scroll the window vertically Alternatively you can use the keyboard keys to navigate in the font chart Arrow keys Moves the current glyph highlight one cell right left up ee a a 6 ee Ctril Right arrow Moves 2 cells right Ctri Left arrow Moves 2 cells left Home Moves the glyph highlight to the leftmost glyph on the ee OY eee End Moves the glyph highlight to the rightmost glyph on the ee ee T TO oe Ctri Home Moves the glyph highlight to the first glyph on the chart Ctri End Moves the glyph highlight to the last glyph on the chart If you have a wheel on your mouse you can use it to scroll the Font window vertically or with the SHIFT key horizontally Selecting In addition to the current glyph you can select sets of glyphs in the font chart These selections behave similarly to selected text in a text editor you can copy selected glyphs to another place in the font or to a differen
336. o 4 export the fonts in the Type 1 Binary format using the other font editor and then open the Type 1 fonts in AsiaFont Studio 59 56 Import Options Before opening font files you may want to set some options that can help you get started more quickly In the following sections we will discuss all the font opening settings We will use some technical terms that will be discussed in more detail later but if you want to check the definitions now you can find them in the Index All the opening options are accessible through the Import Options dialog box To open this dialog box use the Options button in the bottom right area of the File Open dialog box Import Options Type 1 Import Options Decompose all composite glyphs Generate Unicode indexes for all glyphs TrueType Import C Convert TrueType outlines into Type 1 outlines V Save TrueType hinting information Autohint imported font Decompose all composite glyphs The same options are available in both Type Land TrueType pages of the Options dialog box accessible through the Options command of the Tools menu Type 1 Import Options There are two options in opening Type 1 fonts Decompose all composite glyphs and Generate Unicode indexes for all glyphs Type 1 Import Options Decompose all composite glyphs Generate Unicode indexes for all glyphs If the first option is on then AsiaFont Studio will decompose all composite glyphs in the imported
337. o almost all macros written in Python will work in AsiaFont Studio In addition to support of Python AsiaFont Studio provides a detailed set of classes and variables that open all the AsiaFont Studio data structures to the programming interface Please note that this chapter covers only the very basic features of AsiaFont Studio macro programming We will be providing more information specifications and sample programs on our web site www fontlab com 697 The Python Programming Language Python is a very high level object oriented programming language It combines a very clear and easy to understand syntax with great power flexibility and extensibility Python works on all known platforms and is intensively maintained and updated by many professionals around the world It is not surprising that during the last few years Python has become a de facto standard for macro programming related to fonts AsiaFont Studio continues this trend and extends it to a new level providing full integration of macro programming tools with its user interface More information about Python programming manuals and samples is available on the official site http www python org which we recommend highly if you are not already familiar with the language We will provide minimal instruction in Python programming in this chapter as that is better obtained elsewhere We will assume that if you plan to write AsiaFont Studio macro programs that you ha
338. occupied by existing glyphs a warning dialog box appears Warning You have dropped glyphs at the places used by the glyphs with names listed below semicolon less equal greater question Keep replaced symbols under new names If you select the Cut command instead of the Copy command the glyphs will be copied to the Clipboard but will be deleted from the source positions The Paste Special Command When the common Paste command is used all the glyphs layers are pasted from the Clipboard including guidelines bitmap background mask etc To get more control over the pasting procedure use the Paste Special command in the Edit menu The Paste Special dialog appears Paste special Select one or more glyph layers you want to paste a Outline Lett sidebearing Right sidebearing O Ady width Left Kerming Right Kerning Mask Guidelines Drawing Bitmap background TrueType bitmaps MI Boehercaecics bea limb 4 to let you choose what glyph information you are pasting Check the checkboxes and click OK to finish pasting glyphs When pasting with this special command the destination selection does not have to be continuous i e you can select cells to be replaced in any order and combination 101 102 Copying Glyphs to Another Font You can use two methods to copy glyphs from one font to another 1 Use the Copy and Paste commands from the Edit menu as described
339. of the font that have nodes on this guideline will be modified Be careful with this feature because the results of global guideline tracking are not undoable Guidelines Properties Panel To open the guideline properties panel CrRL Click the guideline or right click it and choose the Properties command from the popup menu Guide Properties Horizontal guideline if aio S In this properties panel you can change the position and slant angle of a guideline To apply the changes press the ENTER key or just click anywhere outside the property panel 321 322 Mask Layer When you need something more than guidelines or a grid to help with glyph editing you can use the mask layer The mask layer is an outline that is created with the same primitives as the glyph s outline It appears in the Glyph Window as a dashed outline and the glyph s nodes stick to the mask You can think of the mask as a freeform guideline The mask layer is very useful when you want to use one font as a template for another font For example you can put the sans serif version of the typeface into the mask layer while you are working on the serif version in the outline layer Another application of the mask layer is the creation of Multiple Master fonts In this case you put one style of the typeface in the mask layer another style on the outline layer and after defining the design axis you can put on
340. of the sides of the editing field of the Glyph Window 2 Press the left mouse button The mouse cursor will change to a pair of curved arrows amp that shows you the guideline slant direction 3 Moving the mouse slant the guideline to the angle that you want Hold down the SuiFT key to constrain the slanting angle to 3 degree increments To remove the guideline 1 1 Start moving or slanting the guideline 1 2 While holding down the left mouse button click the right mouse button II 1 Position the cursor on the guideline and click the right mouse button II 2 In the menu select the Delete command 317 You can use this option located on the Glyph page of the Options dialog box to remove any guideline or hint by simply dragging it from the editing field of the Glyph Window To remove all guidelines use the Remove guidelines command in the Tools gt Hints amp Guides menu Options of this command include Both to remove all guidelines Horizontal to remove only horizontal guidelines The same command is available in the rulers popup menu that appears if you right click the vertical or horizontal ruler 318 Guidelines Popup Menu More commands are available in the guideline s popup menu There are two different guideline popup menus one for local and one for global guidelines Both menus include Align Delete and Properties commands The Properties command as usual will open the Property panel for
341. of this lookup is to provide several versions of some glyph like the ampersand Another application is the selection of several different forms of ornaments An alternate substitution rule is specified as substitute lt glyph gt from lt glyphclass gt For example substitute ampersand from ampersand 1 ampersand 2 KEF or ornament variations substitute asterisk from orn 1 orn 2 orn 3 orn 4 675 676 Context Dependent Substitutions A context dependent rule can be any of the rules described above with one important difference it defines a context that must include a target sequence of glyphs or glyph classes In the simple form of say ligature substitution we simply write sub abc byD In context dependent substitution we can declare that abc which is a target sequence of glyphs for a ligature substitution rule must be a part of a larger context sub period a b c period by D Only when abc is surrounded by two period glyphs will substitution take place Note that we have marked the target glyphs with the single quote character positioned immediately after the glyph name The rule is specified as follows substitute lt marked glyph sequence gt Target sequence with marked glyphs by lt glyph sequence gt Sub run replacement sequence A lt glyph sequence gt comprises one or more glyphs or glyph classes lt marked glyph sequence gt is a lt glyph sequence gt in whi
342. ograms In the Windows OS Multiple Master Type 1 fonts store metrics information in another format There is a binary Multiple Master Metrics file which usually has the file extension MMM and a text Multiple Master metrics file MMM files include information about the font s axes and masters multiple master data for glyphs metrics and kerning and other font header data The text metrics files have a composite structure there is a linking file that describes the font header axes and masters information and separate AFM files with metrics and kerning data for each master font AsiaFont Studio can import and export metrics and kerning information in any of these formats Metrics Window AsiaFont Studio has a special window where you can edit the metrics and kerning information It is called the Metrics Window To open the Metrics Window select the Metrics command in the Window menu The Metrics Window will appear Preview Metrics FreeFontPro ABCD ABCD 7 aj Ho E ae ho macro n k oT AVATAY Pairs Kerming 55d I 550 The Metrics Window consists of several parts e A toolbar with controls for importing and exporting metrics files automating metrics or kerning generation and other commands By default the toolbar is docked to the top of the window but you can drag it to the bottom or leave it floating around e An area that is used to select a mode for the Metrics Window and a string for metrics or kerni
343. oints For technical reasons in AsiaFont Studio the UPM is limited to 10000 units but we strongly recommend you work with one of the standard UPMs In Type 1 fonts the standard UPM is 1000 units and in TrueType fonts the UPM may be set to any value but the recommended value is 2048 units If you change the UPM value in the Dimensions page of the Font Info dialog box this doesn t necessarily mean that the size of the characters will change For example if you change the UPM from 1000 to 2000 all the glyphs will now be half as big as they were before because they are still dimensioned at 1000 UPM You have to scale all the characters to fit them in the new UPM setting manually or you can switch on the Scale all characters according to UPM change check box and all the font data will be scaled automatically Basic Font Dimensions Most important font dimensions fC Set dimensions for the master Single master Ascender Descender Caps height x height Copy values to TrueType metrics Italic angle o Slant angle o Synchronize Slant and Italic angles Underline 100 Thickness Font is monospaced This option is synchronized with the Panose identification settings Font BBox 239 319 1162 1025 The page has several editing fields with numbers and a sample window where an appropriate character is displayed to help set correct values Other fields on this page mean Ascender Position of the font s asc
344. old Cyrillic FAS65_ C PFB La FreeSetBlckC os PT FreeSetBlack Cyrillic FRS95_ C PFB oo PT FreeSetBlack Bold Cyrillic FRSS6_ C PFB E FuturisLightl dee PT Fidhuris Lint Curillie FIXAS C PFR a Poche The Fonts panel contains a small toolbar in the top area and a list of open fonts All open fonts are automatically arranged in font families using the Family Name entry in the font header see the Font Header chapter You can expand and collapse families to better organize space in the list Double click a font name in the list to activate the Font window containing that font All other operations are accessible from the toolbar Opens the Font Info editor for the font selected in the list T Closes the selected font or glyph window If you have unsaved changes AsiaFont Studio will issue a warning message Reh Merge fonts adds glyphs from the font selected in the list to the currently active font contained in the active Font window F Opens a menu with macro programs that can be applied to the font selected in the list Tg Saves the workspace file 131 132 When you open some glyphs for editing you will see names of those glyphs appear in the Fonts panel E BlackGroteskC E FT BlackGrotesk Cyrilli Each glyph name is a reference to the glyph window opened with that glyph You can use these references to bring glyph window with some glyph to the front just double click on the
345. ols can work in 4 different color modes Transparent Newly created vector objects that are generated by the application of Vector Paint tools do not interact with the existing glyph s contour and appear selected for easy editing PE Automatic The color of the brush depends on the point where you begin drawing If you begin in a white area a white brush will be selected if in black a black brush will be selected Use this color mode to easily extend white or black areas of the glyph Mi Black Generated contours are added to existing contours expanding the black area of the glyph It looks like a black brush applied to a black picture White New contours are subtracted from existing contours simulating a white brush 364 Here is an example of a brush stroke applied with Transparent Black and White colors qe gt Note VectorPaint tools have an option to automatically activate the Transform Operation when any of the painting operations is completed This option allows you to instantly move scale rotate or slant the newly created contour Here is a list of all available Vector Paint tools with a short description of each g Select Used to select non rectangular areas of a glyph It selects not the nodes like the Edit tool but actually cuts lines and curves and selects black areas that can be moved or otherwise transformed rs Pen Used to create new contours or modify existing ones It is not Contour rea
346. om mode will be centered around the cursor position These keys are active even when you drag something with one of the editing tools If you have a wheel on your mouse you can press the ALT key and use it to change the zoom mode Vertical Alignment Options When you select 100 as the zoom value AsiaFont Studio needs to choose a scaling factor to fit the font unit space in the Glyph Window Two vertical levels in the font space define this scaling Visual Ascender and Visual Descender Visual Ascencer Visual Descender 231 Tools and Operations AsiaFont Studio s Glyph Window may work in several modes The four most important modes are k Edit mode The main mode used to move everything in the glyph from guidelines to nodes to glyph margins 4 VectorPaint A set of tools used to create new glyphs or modify existing mode glyphs ee Meter mode Used to measure contours 232 Use the buttons on the Tools toolbar to switch modes or keyboard shortcuts The four most important modes are Alt 1 Edit mode Alt 4 Meter mode 233 Edit Mode The Edit mode is the most important in AsiaFont Studio In this mode you can modify the contents of all the editing layers All operations performed with the edit tool can be undone with the Undo command of the Edit menu or just by clicking the Undo button on the toolbar at the top of the Glyph Window You can undo up to 200 operations All undone operations can be redone
347. omatically chooses the hints that should be included in the hint set that belongs to the contour segment beginning from the new hint replacement mark To modify this hint set you can add or remove hints from it To add a hint to the hint set 1 Position the mouse cursor on the hint that you want to add The cursor should be between two hint lines 2 Press the right mouse button The selected hint will be highlighted and you will see the popup menu with three commands Cancel closes the menu Add this horizontal hint and Add this vertical hint Only one of the two latter commands is available depending on which hint you want to add If the popup menu does not appear it usually means that you tried to add a hint that will overlap one of the hints that is in the current hint set If the popup menu appears but includes a different set of commands it means that you missed and selected the wrong hint or no hint at all Wrong hints are hints that overlap any of the hints that are already active in the current segment To remove a hint from the hint set 1 Locate the mouse cursor somewhere between the lines of the hint that you want to remove Currently active hints are shown in green 2 Press the right mouse button and select the Remove this horizontal or vertical hint command from the popup menu 506 Editing Hints With the Type 1 hinting tool you can also add edit and delete Type 1 hints and links To add a new h
348. omers f Change weight of the glyph C Make outline version of glyph This is one of the most used actions in AsiaFont Studio With it you can precisely change the weight of the glyph s stems make an outline version of the glyph or change the contrast sample Original glyphs Sample Bold 20 units in both directions Keep glyph s dimensions is ON 470 Sample Bold 20 units in both directions Keep glyph s dimensions is OFF Note that the size of all the glyphs has changed sample Bold 20 units in the horizontal direction sample Outline 20 units in both directions Make round corners is OFF Enter the horizontal and vertical values that will be used to increase positive numbers or decrease negative numbers the weight of the outline Switch on the Keep glyph s dimensions check box to scale the glyph so the weight increasing effect will be compensated Switch on Make round corners to make rounded corners in the new outline Note that the weight changing values are in font units so the visual effects of this effect depend on the font s UPM value 471 College Distance to outline in Weight of outline fio The best way to explain this effect is to see a sample of it 472 Shadow Horizontal hift 50 Weight of outline 10 Vertical shift 50 This is a very nice effect that can save you a lot of time Those who have tried to make a shadow font manually know what a miracle this transforma
349. onent position the mouse cursor inside the control box press the left mouse button and drag the control box to a new location If you position the cursor on the cross in the middle of the control box you can set the position of the component more precisely because the cross will snap to the guiding elements while moving You can also use the keyboard to move the component Arrow keys move the component in one font unit increments and the SHIFT arrow keys increase movement to 10 units To scale a component position the mouse cursor on one of the handles press the left mouse button and drag the mouse to change the size of the component Hold the SHIFT key down to constrain the proportions of the component 393 Some other useful commands are available in the popup menu that appears if you right click the editing area while component tool is active Decompose Decomposes adds the outline to the composite glyph the current component Delete Removes the component Reset Shift Moves the component to the position 0 0 Set Scale 100 Sets the scale at 100 for the component Note that the Type 1 font format does not support scaled components The Scale 100 button in the control panel of this operation has the same effect as KEEN ENS ae NENN V Mirror 100 and adjusts shift accordingly AR EE P E Copy Metrics Copies metrics data from the component to the composite glyph Copy Anchors Copies all anchors from the component glyph to the co
350. ont Studio automatically or manually This chapter shows you how Transformations From scale to drop shadow from autohinting to autospacing more than 25 transformation filters can help you instantly expand your font collection This chapter gives detailed descriptions of all the transformations and their usage in AsiaFont Studio Hinting To make your Type 1 or TrueType fonts look great everywhere you have to set hints AsiaFont Studio includes hinting tools that were previously available only in high end font editing systems Hinting can be a complicated process so read this chapter carefully to get the best results Multiple Master Fonts Opening editing and exporting Multiple Master fonts adding and removing design axes editing the Design Map Graph everything you ever wanted to know about multiple master fonts is in this chapter OpenType Fonts This chapter covers AsiaFont Studio tools panels and features that deal with creation and editing of OpenType font features ligatures small caps fractions alternative glyphs etc Macro Programming This chapter includes a short description and demonstration of the Python programming language and its integration into the AsiaFont Studio user interface Python can be used to create custom tools and operations within AsiaFont Studio A brief description of the AsiaFont Studio classes exported to Python is provided 17 18 System Requirements The Windows version of Asi
351. ont may include a lot of characters too With the CID Font Import dialog box you can select the subset fonts you want to open and set the option that will break big subset fonts into smaller pieces f fn Fant inanar CID font information You are importing CID font MOE Fonts CIDFont MOE Sung Re Total size of data block ts 9816 Sung Reguilar fron file C Jalar CID It contains 14099 glyphs in 6 fonts B18 Select subset fonts to import MOE Sung Reguilar Alphabel MOE Sung Reguilar D ingbats MOE Sung Regular Genetic MOE Sung Regular HARomar MOE Sung Reguilar H anzi MOE Sung Regular Proportic Combine all subset fonts into or Automatically assign Unicode UnilhS UCS2 H cmp gt Select All Ill 4 inal e font ka Indexes using Chlap file Browse Cancel In the list box you can select one or more subset fonts Click the Select All button to select all subset fonts and the Unselect button to deselect any selected font 63 64 Below the list of subset fonts you will find a list of options Combine all subset fonts into one font Limit number of characters per font to Import selected subset fonts without any changes Combine all subset This is the recommended choice AsiaFont Studio will fonts into one font combine all subset fonts into one big font which you can later save in one of the export formats Limit number of This is a good choice if you w
352. options are accessible in the Vector Paint options menu Cale e Round brush i Flak brush 10 units 40 units sO units 120urits 2 Options 120 unit wide line You can also specify a brush stroke shape Press the button and select a shape in the popup menu J Smooth Right Smooth Left Point Right Point Left Simple Flat Sharaf Simple Curved Shaped Options This is an example of different brush strokes 369 370 VectorPaint Options You can also change the brush properties in the Vector Paint Options dialog box To open the Options dialog box choose the Options command in the options menu You will see following dialog box Paint Options Brush options width Angle Roundness Cc OF O COB 0S Join OE OE Polygon tool options Normal contour polygon Brush trace Other options Automatically activate Transform operation after any paint action Automatically switch editing layers when entering the YectorPaint mode In the Options dialog box you can enter the width of the brush and change the slant angle of a calligraphic brush Additionally you can select how the brush strokes are started and finished Choose the brush s starting and finishing shape by activating one of the radio buttons You can also select the style of the connection between two sequential segments of brush strokes It can be sharp smooth or flat Selec
353. orm dialog box using the Tools gt Transform command 4 In the dialog box select the Metrics gt Adjust metrics action Transformation Autospacing 5 2 Adjust metrics 0 by 0 units Fffarcts g K Current action Adjust metrics and kering Units w M Mask layer measurement line 433 434 In the options area select the metrics that you want to change Lett sidebearing C Right sidebearing e idth Enter the amount by which you want to adjust the values and select the units which can be font units or a percentage of the source value Enter a positive number to increase metrics distances or kerning or a negative value to decrease Normally metrics are measured from the bounding box You can change this however if you want to measurement from a measurement line by using the check box The measurement line is a horizontal line defined in the Glyph Window that defines a slice which is used to measure the distance from outline to sidebearings Please refer to the page 313 in the Editing Glyph chapter for more detail Class Based Kerning Some glyphs in a font may have a similar shape and may be kerned equally For example A and Acaron will have the same kerning value if kerned with T or Tcaron With the standard kerning system this will require 4 kerning pairs If the number of similar glyphs in the group increases the number of necessary pairs
354. ormation actions let you automate some hinting actions Remove hints guides Lets you remove hints and links or guidelines Convert to instructions Converts Type 1 hints to editable visual TrueType instructions ne a ee pec ae arctan ana Seer rae ee pnnnaaqoazasaaccres E See a S a Remove hints guides W Remove horizontal hints Remove horizontal guidelines W Remove vertical hints Remove vertical guidelines l Also remove links Use this action to remove hints and links or guidelines in selected glyphs This command is the equivalent of the Remove Hints and Remove Guides actions that were described in the Glyph Window chapter Autohint Analyses a glyph s outline and generates hints for the glyph This action uses autohinting options that can be set in the Type 1 page of the Options dialog box Please refer to the page 339 for a description of the autohinting options Convert to instructions Use this action to convert Type 1 hints to the editable TrueType visual instructions Do not forget to prepare the outlines of the glyphs for TrueType hinting using the Convert to TrueType transformation action You can find a detailed description of this process in the Hinting chapter 465 466 Autoreplace This action automatically builds a hint replacement program for the overlapping Type 1 hints Refer to the chapter Hinting for more information about hinting and hint replacement Convert to links Use this act
355. ormation program Convert Type 1 font to TrueType ka Available actions Program E Contour Scale 80 00 100 00 HM o Rotate 15 00 Cw Z Current action 1s Aotate glyph Rotation angle Clockwise Counterclockwise Rotate around Origin point 0 0 ka Rotation center o Open Preview Panel Run the program Cance 810a This dialog box has several areas that control different options of the transformation Transformation Range In the top part of the dialog box a Transformation Range area is situated Transformation range Current character only w Transformation program will affect 1 glyph Controls in this area let you select which glyphs you want to transform Open the combo box and you will see the available options Current character only w Current character only Selected characters All characters in the fart All characters in the characters list All characters which are not in the list All opened fonts Fonts in the Fonts List Current glyph only Transformations will be applied only to one current glyph the blue glyph in the Font window or the current glyphs in the Metrics or Glyph windows Selected glyphs Transformations will be applied to all the glyphs that are selected in the Font window All glyphs in the glyphs Only glyphs that are enumerated in the glyphs list will list be transformed see below All glyphs that are not in Only those glyphs that are not i
356. ose the Delete node command gt Note If you click the right mouse button while editing the curve using the non node editing method or while you are moving the control points of a curve the curve will not be removed Instead it will change to a straight line 263 264 Deleting Lines and Curves You can delete a whole line or curve with the Knife tool Activate the Knife tool with the button on toolbar or click 3 on the keyboard Press the ALT key and click on the line you want to delete Note that with this method you will break the outline Eraser Tool The eraser tool can be used to quickly remove nodes Sometimes this is necessary for example with contours from an auto tracing program The eraser tool can work in two modes like a standard eraser or as a rectangle eraser In the first mode all nodes that are inside the rectangle of the eraser mouse cursor are deleted In the second mode you define a rectangle by clicking and dragging as when you select nodes with the Edit tool or change the zoom of a Glyph Window and all the nodes inside the rectangle are removed eeccecececccecececececesececcccecscecesececesesesecesesescscccesssesesesg The first eraser like mode is the default for the Erase tool To switch to the rectangle mode hold down the CTRL key 265 266 Inserting Nodes To insert a new node on a vector or curve with the Edit tool 1 Position the mouse cursor on the primitive where you want
357. osite glyph Use Unicode indexes as a base for TrueType encoding Use following codepage for first 256 glyphs Do not reencode first 256 characters yt Export only first 256 glyphs of the selected codepage Put MS Char Set value into feSelection field Use following codepage to build crap 1 0 table Mac OS Roman default v The TrueType format is more complex and more flexible than Type 1 so you have many more options to customize There are two groups of TrueType export options glyph export including control over instructions and Unicode export 149 150 Glyph Options Glyph export options control how AsiaFont Studio exports glyphs and the first four options are related to the export of TrueType instructions Export hinted AsiaFont Studio will export TrueType instructions of any TrueType fonts type original manually edited or automatically generated only if this option is on To create a completely unhinted TrueType font switch off this option Keep existing If this option is on and the original TrueType instructions TrueType instructions were saved when the font was imported then AsiaFont Studio will try to restore the original instructions where possible If you want to drop all the original TrueType instructions switch this option off Export visual TrueType AsiaFont Studio will convert manually set visual hints TrueType instructions only if this option is on
358. ot suppression is applied If it is equal to or exceeds BlueScale overshoot suppression works only if the distance from the aligned point to the base line of the alignment zone is less than the BlueShift value and the scaled distance is less than half of a pixel 498 The BlueScale value is stored in Type 1 fonts in a very strange format but in the Alignment page you can set it using one of three different ways directly in the form that the Type 1 specification describes i e it looks like a floating point number as a PPM size or as a point size on a device with 300 DPI resolution Use the BlueScale combo box to select the BlueScale editing method and edit it in the is equal to edit field BlueScale Formulas The actual value of the BlueScale value is calculated as PPM 1 63333 800 0 The BlueFuzz value allows you to expand the action range of the alignment zones in both directions Thus if you have defined a zone like 700 715 and BlueFuzz is equal to 2 then the actual zone used will be 698 717 This is usually used when you are not sure that you correctly set all the alignment zones or when the characters are not all precisely aligned The normal value of this parameter is 0 but by default it is set to 1 It is not recommended to use the BlueFuzz value other than 0 BlueScale TrueType hinting algorithms do not use BlueScale BlueFuzz and BlueShift values 499 500 Stem Hint Programming Now that you know
359. ou Instructions can use this command as a kind of TrueType autohinting If a glyph doesn t have any Type 1 hints use the Tools gt Hints gt Autohint command to generate them Follow with the Convert Hints command to generate a TrueType hinting program for the glyph Autohinting options Opens the Autohinting options dialog box that lets you customize the process of converting Type 1 hints to TrueType instructions This dialog box is described below 563 564 Autohinting Process When you select the Convert Hints to Instructions command in the popup menu or apply the same action in the Transform or Transform All dialog box AsiaFont Studio 1 2 2 1 2 2 2 3 Converts all hints to links to find what points are linked by the hint For every horizontal link If one of the linked points is in the top or bottom alignment zone adds an AlignTop or AlignBottom command and connects another point to it by the SingleLink command Automatically links the SingleLink command with one of the standard stems If none of points is in the alignment zone links them by a DoubleLink command or by a single link command if one point is linked to another outline point Checks all outline points and if one of them is on the same horizontal line as one of the linked points links it by the SingleLink command It doesn t do this if the point is adjacent to an already connected point For every vertical link Connects two point
360. ou can control the amount of white space at the right side of the character Usually the position of the right sidebearing point is controlled by a rounded single link command or by a final delta instruction Because the length of the single link with rounded distance cannot be less than one pixel you can set this command and be sure that left or right whitespace will never disappear Both sidebearing points may be used as sources of any command just like any other point of a character s outline How AsiaFont Studio Implements Commands that Move Sidebearing Points The TrueType font format has a special table that can contain the widths of characters that are rendered at specific PPM sizes This helps the rasterizer to preview lines of text on screen very quickly AsiaFont Studio builds this table when it exports a font in TrueType format To do this it interprets instructions that are applied to the sidebearing points at every PMM size from 9 to 24 569 570 Hinting Composite Glyphs AsiaFont Studio 4 allows you to set TrueType hints for the composite glyphs There is not much visible difference between hinting plain and composite glyphs Glyph window and tools look as if you are hinting decomposed glyph The principle difference is that components of a composite glyph appear already hinted It means that if you have hinted glyph E and hinted glyph caron and if you want to check hinting in glyph Ecaron you will see
361. ou will see a more detailed symbol and you can do the editing operations more precisely However in the larger zoom modes not all of the symbol will lie inside the editing field so you will have to use the scroll bars to see the different parts of the symbol There are fixed zoom modes and custom zoom modes You can select one of the fixed zoom modes in the Zoom combo box located in the upper part of the Glyph Window g 100 E J Wi Fm 84 0 64l and youAsiaFont so yorett 228 Alternative keyboard shortcuts are Command Space Zoom in Command Option Space Zoom out then click Space and drag Scroll hand cursor appears After you select the zoom tool move the mouse pointer to one of the corners of the rectangular area that you want to zoom on and click the left mouse button Then holding the button down define the zoom in area by dragging the cursor to form a rectangle Release the button and the new zoom mode will be selected If your mouse has a wheel use it to scroll the Glyph Window vertically or press the SHtFT key and scroll it horizontally 229 230 Quick Zoom Selection You can quickly change the zoom mode of the Glyph Window by selecting the Zoom In or Zoom Out command from the View menu Alternatively you can click the Z key for zooming in or the X key for zooming out This command increases or decreases the zoom mode by a factor of two If the mouse cursor is in the editing area of the Glyph Window the new zo
362. own 13 times then the scaling errors will be 2 5 for the vertical coordinate and 3 8 for the horizontal coordinate You can see that the rounding error increases as the size of the final outline is reduced gt lt 4 _ Rounding error To minimize rounding errors font rasterizers use special algorithms that slightly change the scaled outlines to get better results on devices with low and medium resolution This process is called gridfitting Algorithms that gridfit outlines use additional information stored with an outline s definition These instructions are referred to as hints Hints usually define the most important proportions of characters the positions of critical elements of characters and a set of rules for outline modification For perfect looking fonts it s not enough to define the characters outlines you must also provide hints The process of specifying the hints is quaintly called hinting 487 488 TrueType And Type 1 Hints The two most commonly used font formats are Type 1 and TrueType However they use very different hinting instructions and it is not always possible to automatically convert Type 1 hints to TrueType hints Type 1 Hints As you know from the Glyph Window chapter there are two kinds of Type 1 Hints font level hints and character level hints Font level hints define important vertical positions in the font the most commonly used st
363. ows you to expand the action range of the alignment zones in both directions Thus if you have defined a zone like 700 715 and BlueFuzz is equal to 2 then the actual zone used will be 698 717 This is usually used when you are not sure that you correctly set all the alignment zones or when the characters are not all precisely aligned The normal value of this parameter is 0 but by default it is set to 1 BlueScale TrueType hinting algorithms do not use BlueScale BlueFuzz and BlueShift values Format Specific Options Type 1 specific settings El TrueType specitic settings z Mapping Device metrics z Font moothing 3 Font flags head table PCLT table Font identification Fort metrics i Codepages This section covers options that are specific to Type 1 and TrueType OpenType fonts For both destination formats you may choose font specific export options that will be used instead of globally set AsiaFont Studio options In addition for TrueType fonts you can customize some settings that are necessary for high quality rendering 207 208 Type 1 Export Options Type 1 export options Make PFM file Make AFM and IMF files Use Windscent and WinDescent as font vertical size Encoding options Automatically sort glyphs C_ Open Type 1 Export Terminal Reset to default Use this page to customize font export options for the current font This page copies Options Type 1 export settings so you m
364. ph in the font lt a eres Fe re gr ery reece ar Ne EN a eo nn ane aera E DE can ee Seer a eae fee eee Any character Selects the character you have clicked as the current character for or digit editing You can also enter the glyph name if you want to access glyphs that are not assigned to any key combination 418 Using the Metrics Table You will see the metrics table appear in the top area of the editing field The properties line will disappear 4 E C a b E 635 6e es 523 538 4 ooa sa d e a a ee 5 oSm sa e a aa I r I I In Metrics mode the properties area table consists of four lines aa Glyph name 4 Wid PIO Left sidebearing i a ss ee Righ tsidebearing Click on any number in the table to enter an exact value Just use the keyboard to adjust the number and press the ENTER key when you are done The Esc key or a left click outside the cell you are editing will cancel the changes Use the up and pown arrow keys on the keyboard to move up and down in the table Use Tas key to move right and SHIFT TaB to move left 419 420 Referencing Metrics In the table you can use a reference instead of the real numeric value For example if you want to set the left sidebearing of the glyph B to be equal to the left sidebearing of the glyph D click on the cell located at the intersection of the B column and the third row and instead of the numeric value for the metric enter
365. phindex glyph is selected relatively slow operation Select glyphid Changes the glyph s selection state glyphid may be Select glyphid value string glyph name Uni Unicode index or integer glyph index Unselect Deselects all glyphs in the current font fast operation Message message question Shows the alert message dialog box all the OKstring Cancelstring parameters but the first can be omitted BeginProgress title counts Opens the Progress dialog box with counts number of ticks EndProgress Closes the Progress dialog box TickProgress tick Updates the Progress bar returns False if Cancel button was pressed This is a relatively slow operation Random hivalue Returns a random value very fast operation Random lovalue hivalue ForSelected function_name calls function_name for each selected glyph in the current font Function has the following format function Font font Glyph glyph glyphindex We will provide some examples using the functions described above when we discuss Font and Glyph classes 711 Font The Font class contains all the data that is related to the font in AsiaFont Studio internal data structures The Font class by itself has no interaction with the user interface elements You need to use other classes such as the fl object of the FontLab class to interact with the font The most important members of the Font class are classes Python list with the strings containing Fo
366. phs in the font that we just created but the Font window nevertheless shows some pictures in the glyph cells These are template images that show which character should be placed in the cell AsiaFont Studio has templates for thousands of characters so you will usually know where to place new characters We ll discuss navigation in the Font window later in the Editing Fonts chapter so let s talk about the Font window command bar which is located at the top of the window Se st Sy qu 3 tT lt yl UKJ i T gu m a m m Wy lt El nf Actually the command bar is not fixed to any location in the Font window you can drag it to the bottom area or just leave it floating around On the command bar you can easily find a button Ea on the left which is a duplicate of the File gt Font Info command which is described later in this manual Right of the buttons there is a combo box which allows you to change the information that appears in the character cell s captions Next is a combo box that allows you to change the encoding table of the current font Imported We will talk about encodings later but you could choose a couple different ones from the combo box and see how the Font window changes At the right of the encoding list there are four buttons that allow a choice of encoding modes Again a detailed description of this follows Just a few words here any glyph in the fon
367. point to prevent the contours from joining 362 Converting to Outline Click the 4 Replace outline button to convert the Sketch into a normal outline AsiaFont Studio will try to optimise the result using the minimum number of curves while maintaining high precision With the A Add to outline command you can add the contents of the Sketch outline to the normal glyph outline To see the converted result simply change to edit mode If you think that the Sketch converter produced too many curves use the Optimize command in the Tools gt Outline menu to fix it 363 VectorPaint Mode VectorPaint is AsiaFont Studio s unique set of tools that allow you to paint vector contours with tools that look and feel like bitmap tools You can choose brushes pens freeform selections and even enter text The idea of Vector Paint is that all the tools produce contours that combine with the existing glyph contours using our unique contour processing technology When you click the VectorPaint button in the toolbar a VectorPaint toolbar will appear where you can select one of the VectorPaint sub tools E The type of interaction between existing and new contours depends on the selected color mode This process is very fast and is completely transparent to you so if you switch on the preview mode where the glyph appears filled the illusion of bitmap like editing of a contour based glyph image is very realistic All the to
368. precise you can enter a value in this field so AsiaFont Studio will have a threshold to decide when several points are located along a line For precise fonts set this value to 1 or 0 Generally speaking autohinting is a trial and error process You can get very good autohinting results if you select the correct options for your font and define correct stem and alignment zone behaviour at the critical PPMs Processing Multiple Glyphs You can convert Type 1 hints to TrueType instructions for many glyphs at once if you use the Transform dialog box Open the Transform dialog box with the Tools gt Transform command and select the Convert to Instructions command in the Hints and Guidelines section Hinting Sidebearings With AsiaFont Studio s TrueType hinting tool you can set instructions that will control the horizontal position of a character s sidebearings This gives you precise control over a character s metrics at small PPM sizes In the editing field of the Glyph window you can see yellow marks that designate sidebearing points There are left and right sidebearing points The left mark controls the position of the left sidebearing and the right mark controls the right sidebearing Sidebearing points are always aligned in the horizontal direction You may apply any command to the right sidebearing point but the left point can be used only as a source of links or interpolate commands By moving the right sidebearing point y
369. present then the implementation will behave exactly as though the following statement were present at the beginning of the feature file languagesystem latn DFLT 649 650 Script and Language Occasionally you may need to specify a feature whose lookups vary across the language systems of the feature or whose language systems vary from the set of language systems of the rest of the features in the file specified by the languagesystem statements In these cases the script and language statements should be used within the feature block itself A script and or language statement must be present before the first rule in the feature in order to indicate to the feature file parser that this feature is not to be registered under the language systems specified by the languagesystem statements The feature s lookups will be registered under the script and language attributes current at the definition of the lookup The attributes may be changed as follows script statement script lt script tag gt For example script kana When a script statement is seen the language attribute is implicitly set to DFLT and the lookupflag attribute is implicitly set to 0 The script attribute stays the same until explicitly changed by another script statement or until the end of the feature language statement The language attribute stays the same until explicitly changed until the script is changed or until the e
370. r Caps height lx x Height To change a metric just drag its line with the Edit tool 353 354 Alignment Zones Most fonts have square and round glyphs Round glyphs like O and Q usually have 3 4 overshoot on the bottom and top Overshoot is the amount that a glyph extends above or below its nominal top or bottom It is used to optically correct the appearance of round glyphs which tend to appear too small at their nominal height When a font is rendered on a device with limited resolution it is often necessary to suppress the overshoots to make a line of text look smooth Top alignmentzone Bottom alignmentzone This whole process is described in full detail in the Hinting chapter Here we will only discuss the basic modification of the layer with the Edit tool To let a font rendering program perform overshoot suppression you need to declare overshoots using alignment zones You can modify alignment zones with the Edit tool just drag the bottom or top line of the zone to change its width or position You may later use the FontInfo dialog File gt Font Info to check the exact parameters of the zones Sketch Mode Sketch mode is a new easy way to create outlines When you enter sketch mode for the first time the glyph outline is automatically converted into a special format that is optimised for freestyle editing Thus the sketch mode has two outlin
371. r this operation is not always available Connection Popup menu with connection settings You can use it instead of double click or Alt double click Contour Set of commands related to the contour to which the selected node belongs described below Properties Opens the Node properties panel Contour commands Make contour Begins the glyph from the selected contour Renumbering first contours is important for hint substitution programming Select contour Reverses the selection state of the contour 273 274 Node Properties CTRL Click the node or Right click and choose the Properties command in the menu You will see the Node properties panel Node Properties Bezier curve 8724 1 a Bal C BCF EE In this property panel you can control the position of the node the alignment type the selection status of the node and the position of the control points of the curves The figures in the first line are the index of the primitive the node index and the contour s number To change the position of a node 1 Select the origin point you want to use and set the coordinates of the node By default the origin is the glyph s origin point With the radio buttons you can select the previous or next node as the origin point 2 Modify the coordinates of the node in the edit boxes You can use the spin buttons to increase or decrease the coordinates The new coor
372. r AsiaFont Studio performs the following operations 1 AsiaFont Studio creates a very small Type 1 font that includes the empty notdef character the current character and all characters from the sample string 2 All characters in this font are mapped to codes starting at 20h 32 the code of the space character The empty character is not mapped 3 This font is exported in Type 1 font format and a PFM file is created for it The font name is set for this font in such a way as to avoid conflict with names of any of the installed fonts 4 Fontand metric files are saved in the Windows TEMP directory with a name beginning with FL The font file has a PFB extension and the metrics file has a PFM extension The font is installed in ATM using ATM commands All previews are made with this font Previews in the Preview panel can use grayscale output if it is available in the system To see preview without grayscale switch it off in the system Display Properties panel 7 When the font is no longer needed it is uninstalled and the font and metric files are removed 509 510 Expanding the Preview Panel The Preview panel may work in closed or expanded mode To open the panel click on the Lv You will see the preview panel expand Type 1 Preview 1n HBB 38BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB E 7 F 10 11 H is 14 15 16 i7 it 1 20 fi 22 25 24 E 2h 27 25 25 FO Fl Hh E HEOxBo io HBOxBao
373. r Font Expanding the Master Hinting Multiple Master Fonts Generating a Multiple Master Type 1 Font OPENTYPE FONTS Font Features Features and Lookups Scripts and Languages OpenType Font Formats OpenType Tables Feature Definition Language Language Syntax OpenType and AsiaFont Studio Importing OpenType Fonts OpenType Panels OpenType Panel Adding and Removing Features Reordering Features Entering the Glyph and Class Names Renaming Glyphs and Classes Compiling the Feature Definitions The Output Panel OpenType Features Preview Panel Converting the Kerning Feature Development Process Substitution Lookups Single Substitution Ligature Substitution Alternate Substitution Context Dependent Substitutions Positioning Lookups Glyph Geometry Value Record Single Positioning Pair Positioning Known Features 613 622 623 624 625 627 628 631 632 633 634 635 636 638 639 640 642 643 644 655 656 657 657 659 660 661 662 663 665 666 668 669 670 671 673 675 676 680 681 682 683 684 687 OpenType Glyph Properties Caret Positioning Exporting OpenType Fonts AsiaFont Studio and VOLT MACRO PROGRAMMING The Python Programming Language Installing Python Macro Toolbar Assign to Keyboard Integrating into Menus Macro Tool Edit Macro Panel Naming the Programs First Steps AsiaFont Studio Python Classes FontLab Font Glyph INDEX 691 692 693 695 697 698 6
374. r other format use the File gt Save command or click on the Save lad button on the Standard toolbar To save all opened fonts click the File gt Save all command or this button on the Standard toolbar il Font s will be saved in AsiaFont Studio FontLab format VFB extension to the directory where the original font was opened If this option in the General page of the Options dialog box is active IW Create backup files AsiaFont Studio will create a backup copy of the existing font file before overwriting it with the new one If you are working with a new font or you want to select the destination directory or change the name of the file use the File gt Save As command Please note that you cannot save fonts with more than 65 000 glyphs If you try to save a bigger font you will see a warning message that will recommend splitting a font into smaller parts 97 98 After you select File gt Save As in the menu you will see the standard File Save dialog box Save in CQ WINDOWS JO F ema cse java nview LastGood CO PCHEALTH LastGood Tmp Photo Fonts Media C Prefetch 3 Microsoft MET C Profiles 3 Minidurnp C RegisteredPackage C msagent Registration 3 msapps repair O msdownld tmp Resources mui security Be Save as type FontLab vtb Font name There is nothing special here except that it will show the font name for the font files that you are selecting in the file li
375. rection mark off with the option in the Tools gt Options gt Glyph f moye n ayena EEEE You can customize the appearance of the closepath with the Colors dialog box accessible with the Colors button on the same page Contour direction C r F Show closepath arrows Contour direction lets you specify the color of the contour direction mark so you can make it almost invisible but still know the direction of the contours and Show closepath arrows controls rendering of the closepath if this option is active closepath appears as an arrow o Curves and Lines Graphical primitives are of three types straight lines Type 1 curves or TrueType curves Straight lines we ll call them vectors are just straight lines that connect two sequential nodes Type 1 curves are Bezier curves 314 order cubic b splines To modify the form of the curves two additional sub nodes are used N r End Point Bezier Contol Point 7 7 X Ds Contol Vecbr a lt 4 End Point These sub nodes are called control points and the vectors that connect the control points with the curve s ends are called control vectors In the Glyph Window vectors straight lines end in Square in black white mode or red in color mode dots and curves end with round or green dots 245 TrueType curves are 2 4 order curves quadratic b splines that have one control point called the off curve point Control off curve point a a End on
376. review panel will show the list of glyphs that are named in the class and can be found in the current font Defining the Class Click on the button to define a new class You will see a default class name appear in the list of classes and in the class definition panel class1 You can manually enter glyph names that you want to add to the class after a colon glyph class1 A Acaron or you can drag drop glyphs from the Font Window to append their names to the class After you add a few glyphs the class panel will look something like this Collection Classes width a Ala 0041 554 F380 7 EIB 0042 480 5945 ic c 0043 590 33 00 C B Olp 0044 673 E7 4 EJE 0045 4523 63 38 ws FIF MMAF APR F 7 class1 ABCDEFGHI It s time to rename the class Use the class definition panel and change class1 to _kernA Click the Accept button or the ENTER key to accept the changes Note that the class name is changed in the list of classes Repeat the procedure to define a class for T like glyphs 439 Key Glyph Kerning classes must include a declaration of the key glyph that is used as a kerning master for other glyphs in the class To define a master glyph add a single quote after its name in the class definition text 004A 613 HOB A Agrave coco 613 aH OB A Aacute 00C1 613 HOB AY Acircurmtlex 00C 613 eu 2d Atilde 00C3 613 aH OBS Al Adieresis oocd 613 aR OB
377. rics tables in exported TrueType fonts Font Smoothing Control Font smoothing control gasp table ell PPM Ranges Apply instructions to the range Apply smoothing to the range From lo To To improve the appearance of TrueType fonts on the screen the latest versions of the Windows operating system use a special technique called font smoothing With this technique edges of the characters are rendered using shades of gray Visually this decreases the dither of the characters edges so that text is easier to read This technique may be combined with gridfitting methods that optimize the character s appearance by adjusting its outline The font smoothing options let you control when to use one or both of these techniques In the list box you see PPM Pixels Per eM font size measured in screen pixels ranges with one or two letters describing the applied technique S means that smoothing will be applied G means that gridfitting will be applied SG means that both techniques will be combined to achieve the best results 213 214 To set options for a range select the range and change its settings using the controls in the dialog box Use the check boxes to select the rendering technique and the edit controls below the list to change the PPM range To define a new range select one of the existing ranges and press the Split button The range will be split into two ranges and you will be able to set
378. right sidebearing values and the glyph s width Manual Metrics Editing To modify a glyph s metrics you can use three methods 1 Move the sidebearings lines using the left mouse button 2 Edit the values in the property area of the Metrics Window 3 Drag the glyph within the editing area To move the sidebearings lines just position the mouse cursor on the line press the left mouse button and drag the mouse Release the mouse button when you are done To drag a glyph within the editing area position the mouse cursor on the glyphs image press the left mouse button and drag the mouse to position the glyph inside its width Press the right mouse button while dragging the mouse to modify the glyph s width You can easily modify the vertical position of the glyph relative to its baseline Just press and hold the SHiFt key on the keyboard while dragging the glyph and this will modify its vertical position 417 Using the Keyboard When the glyph is active you can use the keyboard to adjust the metrics Left and right Moves the glyph by one font unit inside the sidebearings without arrow keys changing the advance width Hold the SHIFT key to move the glyph by 10 font units Ctri left and Moves the glyph together with the right sidebearing This changes right arrow keys the left sidebearing and the advance width Hold the SHIFT key to move by 10 font units at each key click Insert Changes the current glyph to the next gly
379. rmation Therefore if you want to make a TT font that will always work your Unicode glyph mapping tables must be perfectly correct Here is a description of the Unicode export options in the Windows version Use Unicode indexes If this option is on then AsiaFont Studio will use the as a base for Unicode indexes that are set for the font s glyphs as the TrueType encoding source of Unicode encoding information See below Use the following AsiaFont Studio can optionally reencode the first 256 glyphs codepage for the of the font letting you create a single codepage font for first 256 glyphs some codepages This is very similar to using the Glyph gt Glyph Names gt Reencode glyphs command before export The list located below this label contains several choices MS Windows 1252 Latin 1 MS Windows 1250 Eastern European MS Windows 1251 Cyrillic MS Windows 932 Japanese MS Windows 936 Chinese PRC MS Windows 949 Korean The first option Do not reencode the first 256 characters means that reencoding is off All other options in the list let you select a remapping table to perform reencoding 151 152 Export only the first This option is enabled only if you choose one of the 256 glyphs of the remapping codepages in the list above selected codepage pag When this option is on AsiaFont Studio will export only glyphs whose codes are in the 0 255 range Put MS Char Set This is a hack used in older operating
380. rning Assistance Metrics Assistance Class Based Kerning and OpenType Fonts Opening Metrics Files Saving Metrics Files Printing a Sample String TRANSFORMATIONS The Transform Dialog Box Transformation Actions Outline Transformation Hints and Guidelines Transformation Metrics Transformation Effects 403 404 405 406 407 410 415 416 417 418 419 421 422 424 425 426 426 427 428 430 432 433 435 436 439 440 441 442 445 447 448 450 451 453 454 456 457 465 467 470 10 Transform Range Dialog Box Transformation Range Transformation Program Using the Preview Window Saving and Opening a Transformation Program Transforming Fonts HINTING Font Scaling PPM Coordinate Rounding Gridfitting TrueType And Type 1 Hints Type 1 Hints Font Level Type 1 Hints Alignment Zones Standard Stem Widths Additional Control Data Stem Hint Programming Type 1 Hinting Tool Inserting And Removing Replacement Points Adding and Removing Hints Editing Hints Autoreplacing Preview Panel Some Examples TrueType Instructions Font Parameters Visual TrueType Hints TrueType Hinting Tool Toolbar Layers Options Panel TrueType Preview Panel Program Panel Alignment Instructions Alignment Zones AlignTop and AlignBottom Instructions Hinting Alignment Zones Align Instruction Links 476 477 479 480 481 482 485 486 487 488 489 490 491 495 498 500 503 505 5
381. rning has been developed Kerning defines the modification of inter character space in specific pairs A good example is the AV pair In the following picture you can see two examples of inter character spacing with and without kerning Av Av With kerning Without kerning You can see that only the kerned image is optically correct because it can compensate for the problem caused by the special form of the V and A characters printed in sequence leaving too much space between the letters 405 406 Metrics Files Information about a glyph s width is usually located in font files Kerning information may also be included in the file In TrueType and AsiaFont Studio font formats both metrics and kerning data are located in a single font file In Type 1 PostScript fonts the metrics and kerning data are located in separate files There are two possible formats for the metrics files that are used with Type 1 fonts AFM and PFM AFM files Adobe Font Metrics are text files containing all the metrics and kerning information for a given font These files are legible as text and can be edited in any text editor PFM files Printer Font Metrics are metrics and kerning files used by the Windows operating system They are binary files and cannot be read without special utilities AFM files are a standard format for the exchange of metrics information for PostScript fonts This information can be read directly by several operating systems and pr
382. rrently selected in the Font window yellow glyphs and put them in the first 256 range of the TrueType Unicode table AsiaFont Studio will put all other glyphs into the unencoded zone of the Unicode table starting from the code E000h The Unicode TrueType exporting mode is usually used to export fonts that were imported from TrueType font files and already have Unicode information The Names mode is useful when you convert a Type 1 font to the TrueType format and do not want to worry about assigning Unicode indexes The general rule is simple if you work with the Font window in Names mode use the Names TrueType exporting mode If you work in Unicode mode use the Unicode exporting mode Actually AsiaFont Studio will show a warning message if you try to export a font in Unicode mode while you are in the Names mode of the Font window and vice versa What is the First 256 Glyphs Range When we talk about the first 256 glyphs we do not mean those with Unicode indexes in the 0000h OOFFh range We mean those that Windows will see as having codes 00h FFh when the default Windows codepage is selected In most cases the default codepage is the 1252 Latin 1 codepage So even if you export a TrueType font in the Names mode the Unicode indexes for the encoded glyph will be selected from the Windows 1252 codepage We recommend opening a Windows TrueType font switching to the Codepages mode of the Font window and selecting codepage
383. rtical advanced vector hold the SHIFT key while moving the base line Using the Measurement Line By default the sidebearing values are measured from the rightmost and leftmost points of the glyph Left sidebearing Right sidebearing be gt _ a semeeed OTTEET Sometimes you need to measure sidebearing values from some other point on the glyph outline In AsiaFont Studio you can do that by using the measurement line a horizontal red line that defines the height of the sidebearing measurement You can see measured values appear above the line when you move the right or left sidebearing The same values appear in the glyph properties panel Standard Sidebearings ee oh 1 a O 4 44 tee a04 yo e131 fee 134 Gee 639 ki 41 9 mm P60 449 Measured Sidebearings You can drag the measurement line to any position and the information in the Glyph properties will be updated accordingly 313 314 Baseline Properties Panel With this property panel you can adjust the position of the glyph s baseline To open it click the right mouse button on the baseline and select the Properties command in the popup menu or left click the baseline while holding down the CTRL key on the keyboard Baseline Properties x Baseline position Position units From baseline position To change the position of the baseline 1 Select the base level of th
384. s If the polygon in its present state is finished by a curve the next segment that the polygon tool will try to add will be a curve To switch between adding a vector or a curve use the TaB key on the keyboard Using the 8 9 and 0 keys on the keyboard you may choose the type of the next segment to add Click 8 to append a line 9 to append a smooth curve and 0 to append a sharp curve Repeat steps 3 and 4 for all points of the polygon Click the right mouse button to finish creating the polygon The Brush Trace mode of the polygon tool works just like the normal contour mode Ellipse and Rectangle Tools The Ellipse and Rectangle tools are very similar The only difference is in the result To draw an ellipse or rectangle 1 2 Select the tool that you want to use Position the mouse cursor on the spot where you want to place one of the rectangle corners or on one of the corners of the rectangle that surrounds the ellipse Press the left mouse button and drag the mouse to define the rectangle or ellipse Hold down the SHIFT key to constrain the direction of the rectangle s diagonal to 15 degree increments Release the button to finish creating the rectangle ellipse 373 374 Text Tool With the Text Tool you can add text to a glyph Carefully select the color mode when planning to use the text tool It is usually best to use the Empty color because in that mod
385. s dlig Discretionary Replaces a sequence of glyphs with a single glyph which Ligatures is preferred for typographic purposes This feature covers those ligatures that may be used for special effect at the user s preference feature dlig sub c t by c_t sub s t by uniFB06 sub longs h by longs_h sub longs i by longs_i sub longs l by longs_l sub longs t by uniF B05 sub longs longs by longs_longs dlig ct st ct st 689 c2sc Small Capitals This feature replaces capital characters with small From Capitals capitals a Caps 123 caps 123 onum Oldstyle Figures This feature changes selected figures from the default lining style to oldstyle form 690 OpenType Glyph Properties The OpenType format allows you to define a glyph s type This can be one of the following values Unassigned Glyph type is not defined Simple Single character Ligature Multiple characters Mark Non spacing glyph used as a mark Component Part of a character Glyph type is used in a lookup when you need to limit it to the glyphs of a particular type using the lookupflag command page 652 You define the glyph type using the glyph properties panel Select one or more glyphs in the Font window and open the panel with the Edit gt Properties command Glyph Properties EJ Font FreeFontPro Select the glyph class in the list to the right of the icon If multiple glyphs were selected the new type will be assigned to all of
386. s options Press OK 3 See the results in the Font window 119 120 Unicode Related Operations Several commands in the Glyph gt Glyph Names menu work with the font s Unicode information Generating Unicode Indexes To automatically generate Unicode indexes for all the glyphs in the font select the Generate Unicode command from the Glyph gt Glyph Names menu You will see the dialog box Generate Unicode With this command you will automatically generate Unicode indexes for all glyphs in the font using the gliphs names as the source of information Please select one of the mapping files in the list below Standard Table ka Use this table as default Try to keep existing Unicode indexes Cancel This is basically a warning message with an additional feature it lets you choose the mapping file The structure of a mapping file is described below but its purpose is simple to map Unicode indexes to a set of predefined names You select the appropriate file and click OK Then AsiaFont Studio will 1 Remove all Unicode data 2 Search the name Unicode database for each glyph s name 3 Ifthe name is in the database it adds the Unicode index linked with this name to the glyph s list of Unicode indexes 4 Because the database may link more than one Unicode index with a name steps 2 and 3 are processed whenever a glyph s name is found in the database Structure of the Name Unicode Database Th
387. s a mapping encoding table references characters in Type 1 fonts and is based on one of the Adobe standards while a definition encoding table references glyphs and has no relation to characters This is sometimes useful in managing a font at the design stage Codepages mode This is a character identification method a special table of Unicode indexes is used to map a subset of characters to the top part of the Font Window table This table called a codepage may use one or two bytes to represent a character mapping record Two byte codepages are used to reference characters in Far East fonts Chinese Japanese Korean or Traditional Vietnamese Unicode Ranges mode Unicode is a two byte standard so it potentially can cover 65 536 characters not taking into account the extension methods implemented in the Unicode 3 1 standard This is a huge code space and to manage it most efficiently it is divided into several ranges Usually a range is designed to cover a single script like Cyrillic Armenian or Thai The Unicode Ranges mode references characters Index mode This is the simplest glyph identification mode all glyphs are sorted in their sequential numerical order in the collection of glyphs Mapping Encoding Tables The Encoding Table defines links between character codes and names assuming that all characters in the font have name based identifiers The table is loaded and stays stored in memory while the font is used Character
388. s is equal to _ of the PPM With the Options dialog box you can choose which PPMs you want to preview List of point sizes to preview in waterfall mode You can choose what sizes you need to see in the waterfall preview mode Enter the sizes separated by or use to define size ranges Click the Reset button to select the default PPM ranges Waterfall preview works in vertical mode with left to right or right to left writing mode You may print the Waterfall preview of the font if you click on the button on the preview panel toolbar 283 284 Selections Many operations can be applied not only to single nodes or graphical primitives but to several nodes together For example you may want to move many nodes or delete part of a contour First select the nodes that you want to process To select nodes with the selection rectangle 1 Make sure that the Edit tool is active 2 Press the left mouse button anywhere in the empty area and drag the mouse to surround the nodes with a rectangle Hold down the SHIFT key to reverse the selection state of the nodes To select or deselect individual nodes just shift click them To select the contour segment line or curve shift click on it To select the whole contour double click the contour not the node with the left mouse button or press the CTRL key and click anywhere on the empty area close to the contour Hold down the SuiFt key to reverse the se
389. s List of anchors Each element is of Anchor type hlinks vlinks List of horizontal or vertical links Each element is an object of the Link type width Advance width for the first master if glyph is Multiple Master ere nnn 7 eee eT aa peer ee Se nen eee ee een P ORA ae ae ae P ee aaa GRR Cerrerrrrrerenre nnn nnn nTE nT nnn nn nnn nnn a ee ee ere mney You can get a list of operations defined for the Glyph class if you run the following line print Glyph __ doc__ You can replace Glyph with the name of any class mentioned above to get a description of its members and operations Here are some examples Marking all glyphs with a different color depending on the number of components Non composite glyphs are not marked Glyphs that have exactly 2 components are marked green and glyphs that have some other number of components or have outline and components are marked red for g in fl font glyphs for every glyph in the current font c_len len g components store the number of components length of the components array n_len len g store the number of nodes length of the nodes array if c_len 0 if number of components is 0 g mark 0 unmark the glyph elseif c_len 2 and n_len 0 if number of components is 2 and number of nodes is 0 g mark 100 Mark the glyph with green else if all conditions above are false g mark 1 Mark the glyph with red fl UpdateFont finally update the font so the Font window
390. s by the DoubleLink command or by the single link command if one of the points is linked to another outline point Checks all outline points and if one of them is on the same horizontal line as one of the linked points links it by the SingleLink command It doesn t do this if the point is close to an already connected point AsiaFont Studio optionally detects cusp points and links them to one of the single and double link commands For single and double link commands that connect round points like on the left and right sides of the O AsiaFont Studio may optionally add middle delta commands that correct the rasterization of the curve Autohinting Options You can customize the conversion process with the Autohinting Options command Use this command to open the dialog box True Type Autohinting Autohinting options Generate triple hints Direct links to center of the glyph where possible Automatically interpolate positions of the cusp points Try to automatically generate delta instructions Add link to the right sidebearing point interpolate positions of the double links Single link attachement precision 7 i default value Generate triple hints If this option is active AsiaFont Studio will try to generate TrueType instructions that simulate Type 1 triple hints for characters like m where the distance between stems must be kept the same at all PPMs 565 566 Direct li
391. s not connected and a vertical link will disappear A horizontal link will become a ghost link in this case more on ghost links later 5 Click the right mouse button while dragging a links line to remove a link Hint and Link Popup Menu To open the hint or link popup menu right click one of the hint or link s lines The Hint popup menu includes the following commands Convert to Link Converts the active hint to a link Reverse Reverses the direction of the hint Delete Removes the hint Define Stem Defines a vertical or horizontal stem global hinting parameter as equal to the width of the current hint Properties Opens the hint property panel The Link popup menu includes the following commands Convert to Hint Converts the active link to a hint Reverse Reverses the direction of the link Delete Removes the link Properties Opens the link property panel 337 Hint Commands The Tools gt Hints amp Guides menu contains several commands related to hints Remove Hints Removes vertical or horizontal or all hints and links This command is duplicated in the rulers context menu Autohinting Automatically generates hints for the current glyph Autohinting options can be adjusted in the Type 1 page of the Options dialog box Autoreplacing Automatically generates a hint replacement program for the current glyph Refer to the Hinting chapter for more information about hint replacement Convert Links to Hints
392. s of the Font window Copy Copies the selected glyphs onto the Clipboard Same as the Copy command from the Edit menu Paste Places glyphs from the Clipboard into the font starting from the first selected cell Same as the Paste command from the Edit menu Append Appends glyphs from the Clipboard to the current font Delete Deletes the selected glyphs Same as the Delete command from the Edit menu Mark Marks the selected glyph s with one of the predefined colors More Submenu with more commands described below Sort glyphs Applies different sorting methods to the glyph collection Note that this has no effect on glyph encoding or names Only the indexes of glyphs are changed Edit in new Creates a new Glyph window and opens the current glyph in it window Properties Opens the glyph properties panel for the current glyph or selected glyphs 93 94 Contents of the More submenu Rename Opens a rename dialog box Select as default Selects the current glyph as the default glyph that is used in Type 1 fonts to represent glyphs that are not present in the font Select encoding Selects the current encoding the yellow area at the top of the font chart Transform Opens one of the transformation dialog boxes Refer to the Transform Transformations chapter for more detailed information about Range available transformations Moving Glyphs You can change the positions of glyphs in the font chart just by moving
393. s to modify ou are modifying axis Weight Axis parameters Short Name wt Avis Type Select the axis that you want to change in the list box located in the top area of the dialog box and use the editing fields to change the axis name type or short name Press the Recalc button after you change the axis name to let AsiaFont Studio automatically calculate the rest of the data 623 624 Removing an Axis At some point you may want to remove one of the design axes of a Multiple Master font When you remove an axis the number of masters will be decreased by half You can lose half of the information also so be careful with this operation The remaining masters will be blended according to their position on the removed axis which you can specify To remove an axis select the Tools gt Multiple Master gt Remove Axis command A dialog box appears Remove Axis Tou have selected axis Weight to be removed Select a position for the remaining masters on the removed axis sil Sfo 1000 1 masters will be removed if you remove this axis Remaining masters will be blended accordina to the selected position Select the axis you want to remove in the axis list at the top of the dialog and use the scroller to set the blending coordinate that will be used to blend the remaining masters You can use the Generate Instance feature described on the page 631 if you want to con
394. se all composite glyphs The full set is available on the TrueType page of the Tools gt Options dialog box TrueType Import Convert TrueType outlines into Type 1 outlines Scale the font to 1000 UPM Save TrueType hinting information Decompose composites Import embedded bitmaps Store custom TrueType tables Autohint imported font Convert TrueType outlines to Type 1 outlines In AsiaFont Studio you can work with Type 1 based on 3 4 order Bezier curves or TrueType based on 2 4 order splines outlines If you open a TrueType font and plan to export this font as TrueType it s better to keep the original outlines to avoid conversion errors But if you plan to export your font as a Type 1 font then we recommend converting the outlines on import You can convert the outlines in either direction at any time using AsiaFont Studio commands Scale the font to 1000 UPM Typically TrueType fonts have UPM Units Per eM the size of the grid on which all glyph coordinates are defined equal to 2048 Type 1 fonts have UPM equal to 1000 You can change the UPM value at any time using the AsiaFont Studio commands but if you turn this option on UPM will be converted during the font import Save TrueType hinting information Leave this option on if you want to keep the original TrueType instructions and outlines AsiaFont Studio will keep the imported TrueType data until you change the glyph s outline or h
395. se to remove multiple points CTRL click and drag to surround the points you want to remove with a rectangle 2 Using the Edit tool start dragging the point with the left button and click the right button without releasing the left button When you remove a point you ll notice that AsiaFont Studio tries to keep the outline smooth In normal outline mode you usually try to minimise the number of nodes and use Bezier control points and off curve points to make the outline look smooth The main feature and benefit of Sketch mode is that you can add as many curve points as you want to make the outline smooth and precise and the curves will be aligned and optimised automatically Inserting Points One way to insert points is to use the Knife tool f 1 Select the tool on the Edit toolbar 2 Click on the outline where you want to insert a point Alternatively you can add points with the Edit tool 1 Position the cursor on the outline 2 1 Press the ALT key and left click the outline or 2 2 Press the right mouse button Without releasing right button click left button Reversing Contours Ctri click the contour with the left button to reverse its direction 359 Selecting Points As in the standard Edit mode you can select many points and perform group operations like moving the selection or copying to and from the Clipboard To select points with the edit tool press the left mouse button in an empty are
396. select the glyph cell and just press the ENTER key on the keyboard If you have more than one glyph in your font which is normal when you open an existing font and have a glyph window already open when you double click another glyph in the Font window or use any other method of opening a glyph window except the New Edit window command or a button on the toolbar a new glyph will appear in the original glyph window If you need to open many glyph windows simultaneously just hold down the CTRL key when you double click the new glyph cell or otherwise open a new Glyph window You may have as many open glyph windows as you want just close those you don t need so as not have all your workspace covered with glyph windows Glyph Window Contents All windows in AsiaFont Studio have a similar layout control panel on the top and main area covering most of the window The glyph window is no exception the top docked control area which of course can be docked to the bottom location also contains zoom selection tools a combo box and a few toolbar buttons ahoz M a a Actually there are two toolbars here the left one is used only to select the zoom mode of the Glyph window and to choose the Zoom in and Zoom out commands The second toolbar is there to select the properties of the editing tool Ls To get more screen space for the editing field you may hide the zoom toolbar if you click on this button in the top right area of the glyph
397. sent in the font will not appear in the list The short name of the axis is used when a font interpreter needs to make a name for an intermediate font Usually the name looks something like MinionMM_245 wt 580 wd where MinionMM is the name of the MM font 245 and 580 are design coordinates of the intermediate font and wt and wd are short names of two axes Weight and Width respectively The axis type is necessary to identify a new axis As we said in previous sections there are four registered axis types Weight Variation of the font s weight Optical Size Variation of the font s design to make it more legible at different font sizes Serif Modification of the font s style Usually this is used for modification of the font s serifs For example from serif to sans serif font or variation of the serifs width Usually it is not necessary to fill in all three edit fields Just select or enter the axis name and AsiaFont Studio will automatically fill in all the other fields Check the Convert hints to links before adding new axis option to automatically apply the Convert Hints to Links action to all characters of the font We recommend converting hints to links because in a MM font it is much easier to edit links than hints Links are Multiple Master compatible by default because they connect multilayered nodes while hints connect points that have different coordinates on different masters When you define an axis the nu
398. sert a subtable break within a run of class pair rules if a single subtable cannot be created due to class overlap A warning will be given For example pos Ygrave colon semicolon 55 line 99 In first subtable pos Y Yacute period 50 line 100 In first subtable pos Y Yacute Ygrave period 60 line 101 In second subtable will produce a warning that a new subtable has been started at line 101 and that some kern pairs within this subtable may never be accessed The pair Ygrave period will have a value of 0 if the above example comprised the entire lookup since Ygrave is in the coverage i e union of the first glyphs of the first subtable Sometimes the class kerning subtable may get too large The editor can force subtable breaks at appropriate points by inserting the statement subtable between two class kerning rules The new subtable created will still be in the same lookup so the editor must ensure that the coverages of the subtables thus created do not overlap For example pos Y Yacute period 50 In first subtable subtable Force a subtable break here pos A Aacute Agrave quoteright 30 In second subtable If the subtable statement were not present both rules would be represented within the same subtable Known Features OpenType feature processing is an application centric system The application knows which features it needs to apply and then searches the font for these features If a
399. sh selecting options click OK to expand the selected contours Make Parallel Path With this operation you can create a path that is parallel to any existing path The method of selecting contours for processing is simple all contours that have at least one node selected will be taken into account If no nodes are selected the whole glyph outline is processed Select the contours that you want to process and choose the Tools gt Outline gt Make parallel path command from the menu You will see a dialog box for specifying the options of the command Parallel Contour Relative position Left Right Both Remove the original Generate closed contour Contour offset Unifarm The relative position section lets you specify the side of the original path at which the new path will be created 307 308 Left and right side option original path is not selected Select the Both option to generate parallel contours on each side of the source contour Contour offset defines the distance at which the new path will be created Use the Uniform option to have the same distance set for X and Y directions Check the Remove the original check box to remove the source contours and keep only the generated parallel paths Check the Generate closed contour check box to create contours automatically closed Below is a sample of what you can do with the parallel path feature and contour editing tools Glyp
400. sn t know anything about characters All the features that OpenType can have are defined for glyphs This is the process of OpenType text processing 0 As a source we have a sequence of characters 1 Character codes are mapped to default glyphs using the Unicode mapping table In AsiaFont Studio this is what you see in the Font window when you select one of the codepages Here we have a sequence of characters replaced by a sequence of glyphs No character information is available beyond this point 2 The source sequence of glyphs is passed to the OpenType processing module which then applies the font features in a pre defined sequence The list of the features to apply is determined by the application for example in Adobe InDesign you can explicitly select features to apply or operating system e g the rendering of Arabic text with an OpenType font 3 The resulting sequence of glyphs is passed to the second stage of feature processing which can shift the positions of glyphs Kerning is applied at this stage 4 The sequence of glyphs accompanied by the positioning information is passed to the rasterizer which does the imaging of the features on the destination device screen or printer 637 638 Features and Lookups Every feature consists of one or more lookups A Lookup is an elementary procedure performed on a glyph sequence or positioning data For instance replace the sequence of f and T with the fl ligat
401. ss kerning Left drag to scroll the preview panel and see more sample pairs When you select a class in the left or in the right list you may see some classes highlighted with the yellow background in the other list This means that key glyphs of these classes are actually kerned with the key glyph of the class you have selected Sometimes you may need to convert class based kerning into a plain kerning table To do so check the boxes of the class names that you want to decompose and click the Expand Kerning button You will see the alert dialog box that tells how many new kerning pairs will be created Click Yes to proceed or No to not convert 443 444 When you press the Save button the information you changed will be stored in the font If you press the Apply and Save button AsiaFont Studio will generate the kern feature and class based kerning will be applied if you build the font in OpenType or TrueType format Please note that this Kerning assistance will not change any kerning in any of the pairs it works exclusively with the class based OpenType style kerning If you want to convert class based kerning to an old style plain kerning table use the method described in the OpenType chapter Buttons on the toolbar for working with the kerning data Open data file Opens the data file with the kerning assistance information AsiaFont Studio can open data files saved by itself and kerning assistance files saved
402. ss the button to automatically calculate alignment zones in the Primary zones list box How AsiaFont Studio Calculates Alignment Zones To calculate alignment zones in the BlueValues list AsiaFont Studio finds characters with overshoots and characters that are flat in the position of the overshoot Then it measures the top and bottom vertical positions of these characters and detects a zone Examples of such characters are o and x O and H p and g and so on AsiaFont Studio tries to find many different characters from different languages so it is usually able to locate some examples Alignment zones are also used in TrueType manual and automatic hinting Family Alignment Zones To support the common appearance of fonts that belong to the same font family the Type 1 hinting system allows so called FamilyBlues alignment zones that are used in the whole font family Typically the alignment zones of the regular weight are used as Family Blues in all members of the family To set family alignment zones switch on the Set family alignment zones check box Then edit the alignment zones as usual To return to t zo F1 list and presse t zones as usual theF2 28 1F1 ly alresset zones Standard Stem Widths Typically many characters in a font use the same few standard stem widths As examples let s take the H B and F characters shown below All of them have the same width for the straight vertical stems and
403. st Choose the destination directory enter the file name and click OK to save your font Autosave If you want to protect yourself from system or program crashes you can use the Autosave function that will periodically save the current font To activate and customize this feature open the Tools gt Options dialog box and select the General page In the bottom part of the page you will see the Autosave controls Autosave fonts every fio minutes Use the check box to activate Autosave and enter the time interval in minutes at which you want to save the font Font will be saved into the Autosave folder subfolder in the AFS directory and will be named using the following structure Fontfilename save vfb where fontfilename is the name of the font file to which you manually saved the font the last time If Autosave was active and you have a system or program crash you can open your last saved font from the Autosave directory 99 100 Copying and Pasting Glyphs To copy selected glyphs select the Copy command from the Edit menu Note that this copies not only the glyph outline but also the glyph information such as its name The selected glyphs will be placed in the Windows Clipboard and can be pasted into the same font or into another font by the Paste command from the same menu Glyphs from the Clipboard will be placed starting from the first selected glyph in the destination font If the destination position is
404. stems and the center points will be interpolated and automatically set in the central position For pike characters this is not good enough because the position of the pike point is important At most PPMs you must set the width of the pike to one pixel Automatic interpolation of the outline may set the pike point to a position where the pike will disappear So in the case of pike characters we have to begin by positioning the pike point with the align to pixel center command and then set the positions of all other points by linking to this point Interpolate or Not As you already know all points that were not positioned by commands untouched points are interpolated automatically by the final interpolation command Final interpolation sets the position of any untouched point proportionally to the closest untouched points But sometimes you may want to control the interpolation process and directly set the base points of the interpolation Usually this happens when a point is geometrically between two touched points that belong to different contours The only way to keep point 10 between points 31 and 34 is to set an interpolation command in the vertical direction It s a good idea to interpolate the same point in the horizontal direction too 587 Multiple Master Fonts With AsiaFont Studio you can make a special type of font called a Multiple Master font Multiple Master fonts contain several font styles called
405. stom TrueType tables Generate kern The typical way to store kerning data in a plain TrueType feature if itis not font is to create a kern table that enumerates all the defined kerning pairs in the font OpenType fonts define kerning differently using the feature named kern Switch the option on to have AsiaFont Studio automatically generate the kern feature from the kerning pairs table that you created in the Metrics window 154 Name table export In AsiaFont Studio you can define a basic set of font names options that will be used if the font is previewed in an English environment In addition you can define language specific names that appear if the font is used in a system in which the environment is not English The list has the following options Append OpenType name records to the names exported by default Do not export OpenType name records Esport only OpenType name records ignore default names Choose one of these options to determine which names will be included in the font Export GDEF table The GDEF table defines glyph types and the position of the caret inside ligature glyphs AsiaFont Studio provides visual tools to edit this information so if you want it to appear in the exported font leave this option switched on Use subroutines to Allow to automatically generate outline subroutines if font is compress outlines generated as CFF flavored Outline subroutines store in OT
406. t a symbol Any picture that can be recognized as having the same meaning represents the same character AAGARA All the pictures above mean the character A Please note that sometimes pictures that look the same represent different characters A Latin A A Cyrillic A A Greek Alpha Characters have codes that are used to store text data on a computer Glyph The basic element of the font literally an image that is printed All glyphs are unique even if they represent the same character Glyphs are used to represent characters Please note that many different glyphs may be used to represent the same character even in the same font ttt Font An organized collection of glyphs and font header information Usually glyphs that are united in a font have some similarities in design and other properties In the past a font was defined as a single size of the characters of a particular typeface Now since fonts are scalable the term font covers all possible sizes of the same typeface design CID Font The CID Character Identifier font format was developed by Adobe Systems creators of the PostScript language and Type 1 font format It was designed to simplify the usage of fonts with very big character sets Such fonts are used in Far Eastern countries to print text on PostScript printing devices or to display it on screen using special software CID font files are only an enumerated
407. t font you can apply different effects to the selection etc Selected glyphs have inverted colors To select one or more cells press the left mouse button on the first or last cell of your selection and drag the cursor across the cells you want to select You will see the selection highlighted If you drag the cursor outside the visible part of the chart it will scroll accordingly To cancel your selection click on any glyph cell Alternative Using the navigating keys on the keyboard set the current cell highlight on the first or last cell of a selection then press the SHIFT key Move the current cell highlight as described earlier to select the cells Selection does not have to be continuous If you press the CTRL key you can select cells in any order and combination 91 92 Context Menu Most commands available in the Font window can be selected from the popup menu To open the popup menu press the right mouse button anywhere in the chart area Here is a sample of the Font window popup menu Width d Copy Cbrl iC EA Faste Ctrley Append Delete Delete Mark j More Rename Ctrl Sort glyphs j iia Select As Default Edit in new window Remove Unicode my Edit metrics BP Add Note Create lyons Properties Alt Enter Sea een Select encoding Macro j Transform Cbrl T Transform Range Ctrl Sh T Here is what the commands mean Width Allows you to easily select one of the predefined width
408. t click on the CTRL key on the keyboard Second click on the CTRL key will return the tool you were using before Snap to Distance In the following sections we will discuss how to use the Edit tools to modify the outline and other editing layers All other tools will be explicitly named When you need to select a node or any other object on any of the layers you need to click it with the mouse You don t need to click the object precisely but you must be within a certain distance which is called the snap to distance we Snap to zone around a node Snap to is used when you select an object for which the feature is allowed By default the snap to distance is set to 3 screen pixels but you can change it on the Glyph page of the Options dialog box Snap to distance 235 Editing Layers In AsiaFont Studio every glyph contains several editing layers Some of them are used when the font is exported others are AFS only and are used to help you work with the glyph Below is the list of all the layers that you can see in the Glyph Window Later we will describe them in full detail O Outline Main layer containing the glyph s outline i Ga ities Peet e a PAE EEE B guig eee TEE E ee ine eatees A E T LS ALL WENT AOD ae a fixed distan Mask Outline template Background Bitmap background E Alignment Special zones that define the overshoot positions in the font zones 236 An alternative way to control th
409. t may be identified by a name Unicode index or just its order in the glyph table Four buttons in the command bar allow you to choose one of four modes Names Unicode Ranges Codepages or Index A 0 HAHE Py Ea The last button controls the saving of custom encoding file That s all about the Font window for now so let s open the Glyph window 39 40 Glyph Window To open a Glyph window for editing individual glyphs you need to create one Remember we started with a new font that doesn t have any glyphs To create a glyph double click on any cell in the Font window You will see that the gray cell which means there is no glyph defined is replaced by a white one which represents a glyph that is defined but contains no image When you draw or paste something into it the white cell will show a small picture of the glyph After the glyph cell is created we are ready to open the Glyph window Select the glyph cell Gust click on it with the left button and double click it to open the Glyph window It will immediately appear on screen Glyph 65 A from FreeFontPro alw vi ae ooma Instead of double clicking you can also use several other methods to open the Glyph window 1 Right click the glyph cell and select the Edit command in the context menu 2 Select the glyph and choose New Edit window in the Window menu 3 Select the glyph and press i on the Panels toolbar 4 And finally
410. t number of characters in one font occurs in the Chinese Japanese and Korean languages CJK languages CJK fonts contain thousands of characters that may be divided into several groups of characters like the Roman group the Numerals group the Ideograph group and so on It is very logical to keep the characters that belong to one group in one data structure called the subset font So the structure of a composite font is CID composite font lt q Composite font Subset font 1 Subset font 2 Subset fontN lt Subset fonts Characters lt q Characters level From the point of view of a composite font user for example in a word processor application the composite font is a collection of characters From the point of view of the composite font s designer the font is a collection of subset fonts that make up a collection of characters In a composite font each character needs two forms of identification an index in the subset font and an index in the complete collection of characters The latter index is called the character identifier CID As you can see from the name of the CID font format it is a format for fonts that are collections of characters with assigned identifiers CID Font Import If you select a CID font to open in AsiaFont Studio you will see an additional dialog box that will let you set options for CID font import CID fonts usually include thousands of characters in several subset fonts Each subset f
411. t one in the Options dialog box Icons near the radio buttons give an explanation of the styles of connections Last field in the Brush options area lets you to select the shape of the brush stroke Other options relate to the Polygon tool described later and the option for automatic activation of the Transform operation To choose one of the Polygon tool modes use the options in the Polygon tool field If you choose Normal contour Polygon the polygon tool will create a simple contour that can include vectors and curves If you choose the Brush trace option the current brush will be applied to the created polygon s contour In the Brush trace mode you cannot draw curves while defining a new polygon If you mark the Automatically Activate Transform Operation check box and select the Transparent painting color the Transform operation will be activated and applied to the contour that you created after the completion of any paint action The last option Automatically switch editing layers allows you to automatically switch editing layers when you enter the VectorPaint mode To set this option first turn it on then enter VectorPaint mode for the first time and switch editing layers to create the most comfortable environment For example in Edit mode you may use an unfilled outline with all nodes switched on In VectorPaint mode you may switch on the preview mode and switch off all nodes Now when you enter Vector Paint mode the
412. th 162 Smoothing 213 Snap 235 304 Sorting 128 splines 58 Standard Stem Widths 495 Standard Stems 203 536 Rounding 557 Star 397 startpoint 244 Style 596 Style Name 174 Subscript 195 subset font 63 Subset Font 62 Subtable Breaks 686 supercurve 246 Superscript 195 Symbol 78 T Tech Note 5014 61 5092 16 61 template 160 Template 236 328 Terminal 148 Tool VectorPaint 364 toolbar 27 Tools Eraser 265 Meter 232 touched points 514 Tracking Guidelines 320 Tracking Hints 335 Transform 289 Transformation Panel 295 Program 479 Transformations 453 TrueType 15 52 53 55 139 141 183 184 406 450 723 TrueType Collection 67 TrueType curves 245 TrueType hinting 15 TrueType Hinting Tool 518 TrueType instructions 150 TrueType instructions 59 TrueType Instructions 514 TTC 52 55 67 TTF 52 55 Type 1 15 52 139 141 183 184 332 406 450 format 21 Type 1 curves 245 Type 1 Hinting Tool 503 Type 1 Hints 489 Type Manager 184 Typo Ascender 193 Typo Descender 193 Typo Line Gap 193 U Underline 415 Unicode 57 74 81 151 152 413 Codepages 85 Consortium 81 duplicating 105 generate 120 indexes 121 ranges 82 remove 123 Unicode 120 Unicode Ranges 82 199 Unicode Ranges mode 76 Unique ID 184 UPM 190 240 V Value Record 682 VDMX 211 VectorPaint Contour 367 VectorPaint 15 232 364 370 Brush 36
413. the list of all the panels available in AsiaFont Studio They are described in full detail in the sections that are related to their functions so this is only a short reference Editing Layers Control of all editing layers show snap lock operations Transformation Panel for digital outline transformations Edit Macro Editor for Python macro programs OpenType Editor for OpenType features Output Text output panel Other panels and macro programs may output text here Preview Preview OpenType Sample and Anchor preview panels Collection Classes Classes and Collections named or unnamed lists of characters 1 eee ee ne E EI Boge Ton Pe Se eee eee n eT ae LR OT ERY ee Multiple Master font e PE a oe ce ea eer eee All panels are described in full detail in the following chapters when we discuss the features that they serve Most of the panels except Editing Metrics Masters Axis and Primitives may be docked to either side of the AsiaFont Studio window 49 50 To dock a panel just drag it close to the window edge W FontLab 4 Glyph 66 B from FreeFontPro SEE FR File Edit view Glyph Tools Window Help 0x DEJA MD cee LD a 900 600 300 f 300 600 400 2 HOW Chisel how lo ogee Lo a F a Collection Classes x He hw x ala PUNC a A A elc PUNC fg D CURR ele elo CURR CURR C gt LETTE
414. the old outline with the new one or click Replace amp Find to replace and find the next location of the outline Check Local search only to limit the search area to the current glyph only If this option is unchecked AsiaFont Studio will look for the outline in all glyphs of the font Building an Outline From Blocks Now you know how to select parts of an outline and copy it so lets do a few experiments to show how to use this knowledge Suppose that we have an T character and we want to create an H character 1 Open the T in the Glyph Window double click the T cell in the Font Window use the Glyphs Bar in the Glyph Window toolbar or just browse the font with the arrow buttons 2 Cut the character in the middle Activate the Knife tool press the left mouse button at the left of the character hold the ALT key on the keyboard and drag the mouse cursor to the right to define a cutting line Release the mouse button SOUS CU w 3 Click on each inserted node to break the contour i 299 300 4 Select the bottom half of the T Temporarily activate the Edit tool click on the CTRL key on the keyboard and CTRL click near the bottom area of the glyph Copy it to the Clipboard with the Edit gt Copy command Go to the H character Use the Glyph gt Reset command to remove the contents of all editing layers Open the Options gt Glyph dialog box and set the Copy
415. them 691 692 Caret Positioning When several characters are replaced by a ligature glyph using the ligature substitution lookup a text layout application may keep the positioning cursor inside a ligature as if it still was a set of characters With AsiaFont Studio you can define caret positions inside the ligature Do the following 1 Open the ligature glyph in the Glyph window 2 Open the properties panel with the Edit gt Properties command 3 Inthe properties panel select the ligature glyph type 4 To the right of the glyph type selection list enter the number of components in the ligature 5 Make sure that View gt Show Layers gt Anchors and Carets option is on 6 You will see several vertical caret lines appeared in the Glyph window The number of the lines equals the number of components of the ligature minus one 2761 es Use the Edit tool to move the caret lines to the desired positions Exporting OpenType Fonts When you have a font that contains feature definitions and you want them to be exported to an OpenType font file the first thing you need to do is to compile and test your features using the tools in the OpenType panel If feature definitions contain errors they will not be exported and you will get a plain TrueType font file without any features If you are exporting a CFF flavoured OpenType font and the feature definitions contain an error the font will not be exported at all
416. them to a new place To move glyphs in the font chart 1 Select the glyphs that you want to move 2 Position the mouse cursor on the selected glyphs 3 Press the left mouse button 4 Drag the glyphs to the new position Release the button to finish moving or click the right mouse button to abort If you move glyphs over the cells of existing glyphs you will see a dialog box prompting you to choose whether to replace the existing glyphs or save them by moving them to the end of the encoding Warning A You have dropped glyphs at the places used by the glyph with names listed below z braceleft bar Keep replaced symbols under new names Leave Keep replaced symbols under new names checked to save the glyphs I e put the new glyphs in the cells and move the existing glyphs to cells at the end of the encoding or clear it to replace them I e delete the existing glyphs 95 96 Note that even if source selection is not continuous the destination selection will be continuous If you are working in the Index mode when you move glyphs they will not replace existing glyphs that they overlay Instead moved glyphs will be inserted in front of the existing glyphs in the glyph sequence of the font Saving the Font Most of the font modification operations are not undoable so we recommend you save your work regularly To save a font that you have opened from an existing font file in AsiaFont Studio FontLab o
417. this glyph will look in a line of text or in multiple sizes To get a better preview use the Preview panel Open it with the Preview panel command in the Window menu l Preview Panel A You will see a panel containing three pages OpenType Features Preview and Anchors The OpenType Features and Anchors pages will be described later so activate the Preview panel now OpenType Features Preview anchors hamburgevons hamburgevot The Preview panel can work in two modes string preview and waterfall preview You can choose the mode with this button Note that the waterfall preview is possible only when the Glyph Window is active You can scroll the sample string in the Preview panel just left drag to scroll the window or right click to reset to the initial position High quality rendering provided by the FreeType library is used to show glyphs in the preview panel so the visual resolution is higher than the pixel resolution of your screen and is close to what you can get on some printers In preview mode the preview panel shows the glyph string in the top area of the window hamburngeyons we You can type any text in this area or you can drag drop glyphs selected in the Font Window or in the Collection Classes panel To preview a glyph that cannot be easily encoded by a single keyboard character enter the slash character and then the name of the glyph exclamdown asterisk brev
418. tically assigns both Unicode indexes to this glyph to make the font compatible with both operating systems 153 OpenType Export Options As we said before in structure there is not much difference between TrueType and OpenType fonts The key difference is that OpenType fonts contain some additional tables that allow advanced typographic and lexical features The additional data is stored in 3 tables GDEF GSUB and GPOS We will discuss these tables in full detail in the OpenType chapter so all you need to know here is that if you want to have OpenType features in your font you have to let AsiaFont Studio export these tables OpenType export features are stored in the OpenType page of the Tools gt Options dialog box OpenType Export Export OpenType Tables Export WOLT data Generate kerm feature fit ts not defined Append OpenType name records to the names exported by default Export GDEF table Use subroutines to compress outlines in OTF fonts Export OpenType Keep this option on to export OpenType tables If it is off Tables you will get a plain TrueType font without any OT features Export VOLT data VOLT is a Microsoft tool to define OpenType features AsiaFont Studio can try to export some of the features in VOLT format so you can open the font in VOLT and continue working on OpenType Please note that you also need to have this option activated in the Import section of the TrueType page Store cu
419. tically fill in the Copyright field and is exported in TrueType fonts as the Creation year entry Copyright name 0 Copyright message Must include the sign or the word Copyright the name of the company or person that owns the copyright and the copyright year In Type 1 fonts this information is stored in the Notice entry and in TrueType fonts in the Copyright entry Build Copyright Press this button to create the standard Copyright record based and Trademark on the Created By and Creation Year fields Records Notice name 10 Additional information that you want to include in Description Font Info Exported in Type 1 fonts as the Copyright entry and in TrueType fonts as the Description entry 179 Font Embedding Font embedding settings 4 gt Embedding settings fsTypel Everthing iz allowed installable mode wt These settings control how the font may be embedded into documents Embedding is a feature of the Windows operating system and some applications that allow programs to include fonts into documents to guarantee that they will be reproduced correctly However this feature may cause problems with font piracy It is not very hard to extract embedded fonts from a document so the TrueType font format includes a special setting that can control font embedding There are four types of font embedding Everything is allowed After the document is opened the font works as if it was installed in the syste
420. ting glyphs that are out of encoding Unnamed unencoded first ka Hide all windows with glyphs from inactive fonts Controls on this page are separated into two groups View options and Tuning options 159 160 View Options Each cell should have dimensions of 24s 24 pixels Select the desired size of glyph cell in the combo box Possible sizes vary from 16x16 up to 64x64 pixels Smaller cells occupy less space but hide details If you select the smallest size 16x16 you will not be able to see the additional marks which are visible in cells at larger sizes A sample of the different cell sizes A 16x16 245 TmUb TJjF4 1 TfLb TD frasi 43 3224 TJ F4 1 T60473122 o TDG TmGb A Tuning Options Show Unicode indexes in captions in Unicode mode When this option is on AsiaFont Studio will automatically show Unicode indexes in cell captions when you switch the Font window to the Unicode mode It will restore the selected caption mode when you return to the Names mode Double click opens Glyph Window Switch this option off if you don t want AsiaFont Studio to open a glyph in the Glyph Window when you double click on the glyph cell Create new window by double click If this option is on AsiaFont Studio will create a new Glyph window when you double click a cell in the Font window characters chart When it is off double clicking a cell will create a new glyph window if there is none but if there already is a
421. tinuous 91 101 Contours 242 Control marks 222 convert curve to vector 270 Convert to hints 466 links 466 TrueType 461 Type 1 461 Convert to instructions 465 Converting the Kerning 668 Coordinate Rounding 487 copy 100 286 Copy characters 100 Copying characters 102 Copyright 179 cubic b splines 245 custom TrueType tables 59 Cyrillic 78 D decompose 57 Decompose 59 461 decomposing 390 Decomposing 392 Definition Encoding 80 Deleting Characters 106 Deleting Nodes 263 Delta Instructions 548 Descender 193 Description 179 design axes 592 design coordinates 597 Designer 181 Directories 23 dock 50 Double Link 542 580 Double Byte Codepages 126 Drag Drop 54 Drop TT Hints 466 Duplicate 286 dynamic range 593 Dynamic Range 630 Echo 258 Edit 234 Edit Macro Panel 705 Edit mode 232 Edit Mode 234 Edit Window change a view in 228 Editing Field 222 Editing hints 334 Editing Kerning 425 EID 176 embedded bitmaps 59 573 Embedding 180 ENC 80 Encoding 21 encoding files custom 79 Encoding Table 77 Envelope 378 383 475 EPS 15 399 Erase 234 Eraser 265 Exceptions 678 Exchange 324 Export Options 143 Export Terminal 148 Exporting Bitmaps 577 Exporting Glyphs 399 External Programs 35 Extrapolation 599 609 extremes 304 Extremes 462 F FB threshold 205 Feature Definition Language 643 Features 638 Features Preview Panel 666
422. tion fou can print a font table or a list of glyph properties Select Print the glyph table to print a font chart containing samples of all font glyphs or Print the properties list to print short descriptions of all glyphs currently selected in the Font Window After you make the choice you will see the standard Windows Print dialog box that will ask you to choose a printer and modify the printer settings Printer Name serros Phaser 3400 PCL 6 Statue Type seras Phaser 3400 PCL 6 Wher Phaser 3400 Comment _ Print to file Print range Copies All Mumber of copies 4 OPages pomi w plad ea Selection In this dialog you can choose the range of pages you want to print 157 158 When you press the OK button AsiaFont Studio will print a font table containing samples for all font glyphs their names and codes according to the current encoding and glyph cell caption settings If you print a Multiple Master font the glyphs will appear according to the current font s WeightVector Printout of the font chart FONTLAB FONT PRINTOUT 102801 10 44 88 NeoGothic Page 1 104 Note that some information is colored so printing on a color printer will have some benefits Printout of the glyph properties list FONTLAB FONT PRINTOUT e Index 70 Unicode 0065 Nodes 12 Contours 2 BBox 49 17 459 481 LSB 49 RSB 34 Width 493 Isb 56 rsb 44 width
423. tion A description of the more sophisticated Transform Range dialog box where you can build a transformation program that can include many actions finishes up this chapter 455 Transformation Actions There are four groups of actions Outline The outline of a glyph is transformed Hints and Actions that are concerned with hints and links Guidelines Metrics Metrics information is transformed includes automatic metrics generation Effects A set of effects that can be applied to glyphs 456 Outline Transformation Here is a list of all the outline transformation actions Shift Shifts the glyph s outline Mirror Mirrors the glyph vertically or horizontally 457 458 Shift Horizontal hift lo Vertical shitt E Shift the Mask layer This action shifts the outline of the glyph in the vertical and or horizontal direction Here is a sample of a font with some glyphs shifted in the vertical direction bai va Via oN eS ral Pa A Y ae AS w Ko Scale Horizontal scale E Proportional scale M Yerical scale fioo IW Scale hints M Scale metrics Scale center Origin pomt 0 0 ii This action lets you scale your glyphs proportionally or non proportionally Enter your desired vertical and horizontal scale factors in the edit fields Switch on the Proportional scale option to keep the vertical and horizontal scale factors the same Switch off the Scale hints opt
424. tion performs samole The parameters set the shift of the shadow positive values are to the right and up and width of the outline Weight of the outline mE Horizontal shift Vertical shift 3D Extrusion Horizontal hift 50 Weight of outlline 10 Vertical shift 50 This action is similar to the Shadow action but it simulates a 3D thickness of the glyphs samole The parameters of this action are the same as in the previous section 473 474 3D Rotate Y Rotation 30 cle Rotation 30 With this action you can rotate your glyphs in 3D space Sample The parameters of this action set angles of rotation for glyphs around imaginary axes Z Rotation means rotation around the vertical axis Y Rotation is around the horizontal axis The vertical axis goes through the middle of the glyph Gradient f Topto bottom Bottom to top Number of stripes 40 Begin from position 400 Proceed to position O00 Here s what you can do with this effect pont h l pia i pn pun iiil l r w a As parameters of this effect you can set the number of stripes that appear on your glyphs the starting and finishing line of the effect and the direction of the gradient The starting and finishing lines can be manually set to let you customize this effect and make it look the same in all glyphs Note that these values are set in font units so they are relative
425. tion range for the selected program Transformation range Current character only Curent character only Selected characters All characters in the characters list All characters which are not in the list All opened fonts Fonts in the Forts List 5 Press the OK button to start the process 571 572 Working With Bitmaps Setting complex instructions program and multiple delta instructions may take a lot of time An alternative is to create bitmap versions of the glyphs for most important sizes so TrueType rasterizer will use them instead of rendering outline glyphs and instructions program Bitmaps can be defined for any combinations of glyphs and PPMs A font may have only one bitmap for one glyph and one PPM or lots of bitmaps for different glyphs at different PPMs there are no limits AsiaFont Studio supports import export and editing of so called embedded bitmaps Importing Bitmaps Import happens automatically if this option is active in the Tools gt Options gt TrueType dialog box i Import embedded bitmaps When a font has embedded bitmaps PPMs for which bitmaps are present are colored red in the TrueType tool Preview panel BpBEBEBEBSE 310111212 14 You can import embedded bitmaps from a different TrueType font To do SO 1 Click on the button on the toolbar to enter the bitmap mode of the TrueType hinting tool 2 Right click anywhere in the Glyph window and select the Import bitmaps command
426. tline from automatically scaling use the Do not rescale EPS files option located at the bottom of the Options gt General dialog box Do not rescale EPS files on import and export Transforming the Selection Sometimes you need to scale rotate or slant a whole or part of a glyph outline In AsiaFont Studio you can do this using different methods 1 Using the Selection properties panel described below 2 Using the Transform tools 3 Using the Transform Selection operation Using Transform Tools In Edit mode you have access to three transform tools Rotate Rotates the contour 7 Slant Slants the contour vertically or horizontally To transform the outline 1 Select part of the outline you want to transform or undo all selections to transform the entire glyph outline 2 Activate one of the transform tools 3 Position the mouse cursor at the center of transformation press the left button and drag the mouse to make the transformation Remember that you can press the key at any time to get a high quality preview of the transformed outline 4 Use the SHIFT and CTRL keys to constrain the transformation 5 Release the mouse button to complete the transformation of the outline 289 290 Using the Transform Selection Operation To activate the Transform operation select the Transform Selection command from the Tools menu or select Transform Selection in the editing field common popup menu Or
427. tline layer is the most important of all the layers It stores information about the glyph shape while all the other AsiaFont Studio editing layers and most of the tools are designed to help you create good outlines Before we turn to the outline editing tools let s talk about outline structure Units of Measurement The coordinates of any object in the font are presented in a standard measurement system One unit of this system is called a font unit The scale of font units used in a particular font is the Units Per eM UPM font parameter The program that scales the font knows the UPM value of the font and can use it to properly scale it To get a text string of the same visible size a font that has a larger UPM value must be scaled with a smaller scale factor Usually Type 1 fonts have a UPM value of 1000 font units Therefore to get a text string with a height of 100 pixels assuming that we use a raster output device we would scale this font with a scale factor of 10 TrueType fonts usually have a UPM of 2048 units So to get a text string of 100 pixels we would scale this font with a scale factor of 4 9 Essentially the UPM is nothing more than a base value used for proper font scaling and as a base value for the font unit A more graphical font parameter is the font height The font height measured in font units is the measurement of the font that is used to align strings in text It is important not to confuse UPM and font
428. tline to the glyph outline The same commands are available in the popup menu that appears if you right click the empty space of the Glyph window 356 Visualization of the Sketch Outline Every point in Sketch mode can have 2 marks The Node icon which is similar to how nodes are shown in Edit mode The Direction mark which shows the curve direction the mark is on the convex side of the curve at the point Direction marks are different depending on the type of the node Short mark Curve point Mark with an arrow K Starting point of the contour Use the View gt Show Layers gt Nodes command to switch the node icons on or off and the Show Marks button to show or hide the direction marks With the Show Outline button you can turn the real Edit mode glyph outline in the background of the Sketch outline on or off The glyph outline may appear contoured or filled depending on the preview mode 357 358 Moving Points To move points simply drag them with the left mouse button Hold the SHIFT key down to constrain movement to the vertical or horizontal direction Changing Point Type To change point type from corner to curve to tangent simply double click the node with the left mouse button Removing Points There are two ways to remove unnecessary points 1 Use the Eraser tool Select the tool E position the cursor over the point you want to remove and press the left mouse button Drag the mou
429. to Make a Codepage Definition File Codepage definition files extension CPG are text files that have the following structure FONTLAB CODEPAGE OxFFFF MS Windows 1251 Cyrillic UN2 UN2 0x00 0x0000 0x01 0x0001 0x02 0x0002 0x03 0x0003 The first line of this file is an identification line that is used to set the codepage name and tell AsiaFont Studio that this file is a properly composed codepage definition file This line must be started by the text FONTLAB CODEPAGE OxFFFF The name of the codepage follows All other strings starting with are comments and are not interpreted by AsiaFont Studio The following strings are formed as pairs of two integer numbers in decimal or hex starting with Ox form The first number is the code of the character and should be in the 0 255 range The second number is the Unicode index of the character and should be in the 0 65535 0 FFFFh range The special Unicode index OxFFFF is used to define codes that are not mapped to any character Using the Font Window The glyph chart in the Font window is a visual representation of all the glyphs in the font To modify the font you have to learn how to use the glyph chart navigate select glyphs and select commands From here on we will reference all characters as glyphs We would like to clarify once more a font is a collection of glyphs Text is a collection of codes An alphabet is collection of characters Since we are talking of fo
430. to rearranging and remapping the font to editing the Font info fields The following sections of this chapter will tell you how to use this window 4 Font FreeFontPro C freefontpro vfb Sle AC ICE EE EE AOE T EEn E En EEES e AUNOOTONNNUNA The Font Window consists of the header which includes a few buttons and two combo boxes and a table of characters character chart where a single cell represents each character Each cell has a caption showing the name of the character or its code in various forms 69 70 The left combo box located on the Font Window header area lets you select one of the caption modes Name The Character name will appear in the cell caption Hex The Character code as hexadecimal number Octal The Character code as octal number ANSI The ANSI character that corresponds to the character code Macro The appearance of the caption depends on the special macro program By default this option shows the number of components in composite characters The characters cells may have a gray or white background and a white or yellow caption A gray cell means that there is no character defined for this place in the font I e the character does not exist in this font Instead of the character a sample template character from one of the system fonts or from the AsiaFont Studio template font is shown in the empty cell Oode You can select a font for the templates or switch off the templates
431. to the font s UPM value Random Horizontal offset z M Proportional offset M Vert cal offset This effect randomly shifts a glyph s nodes It is especially interesting when combined with other effects like Gradient en l nd jh m pani ul wil Mm Mint funn pn duane ut You can control how much the nodes are shifted You can set the same value for both directions if the Proportional offset option is on or you can customize the values separately Envelope Effect Force 100 Randomize This last effect lets you apply one of many predefined transformations to several glyphs at once Refer to the Glyph Window chapter for more information about the Envelope effect Here is an example of what you can do with this effect 475 476 Transform Range Dialog Box There is a more advanced method of applying transformation effects to glyphs With it you can apply many transformation filters at once transform a subset of a font s glyphs see an instant preview of the programmed transformation and even save transformation programs for future use To open the Transform Range dialog box select the Transform Range command in the Tools menu Note that this command is available while any of the windows is open You will see a big and complex dialog box Eg Transformation Transformation range Current character only wt Transformation program will affect 1 glyph Transf
432. ton is pressed all metrics are measured with respect to the measurement line cd Expand Controls the compact or expanded appearance of the editing field 45 Metrics Modes The metrics window works in three modes metrics kerning and preview By default the Metrics window appears in Metrics mode To open it in Kerning mode hold the CTRL key while you selecting a command in the menu or use the toolbar button to open the window In Metrics mode you can change the glyph sidebearings using either visual or digital controls qe H ld GES I 05 g B05 m i 605 E C3 T In Metrics mode the string of glyphs is previewed without kerning In Kerning mode you can change pair kerning Pairs 671 Kerming 42 I BoE BEE ABC B05 0 46 In preview mode M and K buttons are not pressed you cannot change glyph metrics or kerning but you can safely preview the font in high resolution mode In addition you can preview and modify the position and width of the underline line M Show underline 2 E BEE I B05 L BoE ABC The editing field of the Metrics window may be in compact or expanded mode By default it is contracted To expand the metrics window use the expand button a When the window is in expanded mode the bottom line of the control bar disappears and the metrics bar is expanded and contains information about the metrics of the glyphs t
433. tor To close the contour just click on its starting line and drag the mouse to set the direction of the control vectors Adding Points to a Contour In addition to the Drawing tool you can use three more tools to create a new contour or to add points to an existing contour These tools are Add Corner Add Curve and Add Tangent To create a new contour 1 Activate one of the tools 2 Click anywhere in the empty area of the glyph window to create the first point of a new contour Drag the mouse to put new the node into correct position 3 Click again in the empty area to add a corner line curve or smoothly connected curve with Add Corner Add Curve or Add Tangent tools respectively 4 Continue the procedure until your newly defined contour is complete 5 You can switch to the Drawing tool _ at any time and use it to add new points to a contour you are creating Note A new node is added to the contour if the last node of the contour is highlighted If it is not highlighted a new contour is started To highlight a node click it To deselect it press the Esc key on the keyboard You can move outline nodes with the Add tools Note that if you click on the contour not on the node a new node is inserted The type of node depends on the tool you are using To prevent adding a new node hold down the ALT key when you click on the contour 269 270 Converting Primitives Sometimes you may want to convert a curv
434. tuguese MS DOS 861 Icelandic MS Windows codepages come first MS DOS codepages follow All other codepages are sorted according to their names 3 Select the codepage that you want from the list and you will see the Font Window change All the characters that are in the codepage appear in the yellow area All other characters are in the white area below Select the MS Windows 1252 Latin 1 codepage and you will see how your font will look in the Windows standard Western codepage All codepages in AsiaFont Studio are defined in editable text files so you can change any codepage if you think it is wrong please let us know or you can define your own codepage We do not recommend changing any of the codepages supplied with AsiaFont Studio They are extensively tested and are based on the documents from the companies who supply them 87 88 Double byte If your font contains many characters from one of the Far East languages you may need to use double byte codepages If you select one of these codepages you will see an additional control to the right of the codepage selection list Ms Windows 950 Chinese Traditiona Ag co cb tt Pe eas p Pe e e This control allows you to select a page of the codepage Theoretically we may have 256 pages of 256 codes each which gives us 65 636 codes In practice none of the known codepages has that many codes and usually less than half of that number How
435. u or click near the node to make it visible If you missed and an incorrect node is highlighted use the PAGE Down and Pace UP keys to move to the correct node _ le Fa Drag the node to the new place It will stick to other layers if they are visible and snap to those layers that are activated View gt Snap to layers menu Hold down the SH FT key to constrain the direction of the node s movement in 15 degree increments and to snap the cursor to the original node s position Options If you are moving a node that is connecting two Bezier curves you have the following options 1 Ifthe connection of the curves is smooth press the SHIFT key before clicking the node to constrain movement to a line between the curves control points a PA 2 Ifthe connection is sharp press the ALT key at any time while dragging the node to move it without the adjacent control points y 3 Ifthe connection is smooth press the ALT key before moving the connecting node to keep the connection s curvature optimised Hold down the CTRL key to involve all 4 control points in the process 257 258 4 When you are editing control points of a Bezier curve press the SHIFT key before clicking the button to keep the direction of the control vector unchanged ZZ a 5 Ifyou are moving a control point of a curve with a sharp connection press the ALT key to temporarily change the connection type to smooth so that the adja
436. uctions Final delta instructions are necessary when you want to slightly change the instruction set usually to add or remove some pixels 548 Middle Delta Instructions A middle delta instruction can move outline points like any other instruction It can move any outline point in 1 8 pixel increments from one pixel left or bottom to one pixel right or top 549 550 The middle delta instruction has 4 arguments point to move PPMo PPM the PPM range in which this instruction works and the shift distance in eighths of pixels In the Program panel this instruction looks like MDeltaV 18 lt 6 gt 12 14 where 18 is the point index 6 is the distance to move in this case move up by _ of a pixel A minus sign in front of the number would indicate a move down 12 is PPMo and 14 is PPM This means that point 18 will be moved up _ of a pixel when PPM is 12 13 or 14 To set a middle delta instruction 1 2 Select the Middle Delta tool In the Options panel select the shift distance direction and PPM range Delta PPM range iz hz Delta PPM range Delta offset a ea co lt q Shift distance EYFEBEGd SEL LEtHeers By default the PPM range is equal to the current PPM Move the cursor to the point at which you want to set the delta instruction and click the left button Faster Methods to Set Delta Instruction There are two other methods to set de
437. ument the process of creating new tools here It is a relatively complex programming job If you are interested please visit our website for more technical documents related to AsiaFont Studio macro programming Edit Macro Panel If you feel ready to create your first macro program you can start by opening the Edit Macro panel Use Window gt Edit Macro panel to make it visible Edit Macro x ITE tl font index fl ifont modified font modified fl BeginProgress Processing lenffont This is basically a simple text editing control with a toolbar at the top The buttons on the toolbar mean ary Open the menu that contains New Open and Save operations Run the currently edited program Stop the program that is running ol Restart the Python system Use this command to reload all standard libraries and free all memory allocated by the Python system When you click the g button you will see a menu FE Mew program T Open program 7a Save program lls Save program as Close panel The commands in this menu let you perform standard file operations on your current macro program 705 706 Naming the Programs When you are saving a program and want it to be used in the Macro toolbar or to be integrated into one of the AsiaFont Studio menus you need to name it There are two ways to name a program you can store the name in the file name followed by the py extension or you can
438. uments please refer to this page http www microsoft com typography otspec default htm A good document covering OpenType glyph processing in Windows is http www microsoft com typography developers opentype default htm 635 636 Font Features The most important thing about OpenType technology is its ability to define font features rules that change the standard behaviour of the font Here are a few examples of such features source text is on top Effluent EFFLUENT Small caps Effluent Effluent Ligature 12345 12345 Old Style Numerals Probably the best thing about OT features is that they do not change the source string of characters To explain this we need to again talk about the character glyph model The source text that you type on the keyboard or get from another source is a sequence of characters that have strong links to the codes that the computer uses to store data The picture of the text that you see on the screen is a sequence of glyphs or character images It is important to understand that there is not necessarily a one to one relationship between character and glyph it is possible to have a single glyph used as the image for more than one character Latin A and Cyrillic A for instance are different characters but use the same glyph and sometimes you may have more than one glyph serving a single character Please remember this key OpenType principle OpenType layout engine doe
439. undary ignore substitute LETTER f i substitute f i by f_i begin The example above shows how a ligature may be substituted at a word boundary LETTER must be defined to include all glyphs considered to be part of a word The substitute statement will get applied only if the sequence doesn t match LETTER fi i e only at the beginning of a word Example 3 Matching a whole word boundary ignore substitute LETTER a n d a n d LETTER substitute a n d by a_n_d In this example the a_n_d ligature will apply only if the sequence a n d is neither preceded nor succeeded by a LETTER Example 4 This shows a specification for the contextual swashes feature feature cswh Glyph classes used in this feature BEGINNINGS A N P Z Th m BEGINNINGS_SWASH A swash N swash P swash Z swash T_h swash m begin ENDINGS a e z ENDINGS_SWASH a end e end z end Beginning of word swashes ignore substitute LETTER BEGINNINGS substitute BEGINNINGS by BEGINNINGS_SWASH End of word swashes ignore substitute ENDINGS LETTER substitute ENDINGS by ENDINGS_SWASH cswh If a feature targets only glyphs at the beginning or ending of a word such as the init and fina features then the application could be made responsible for detecting the word boundary the feature itself would be simply defined as the appropriate substitutions without regard for word boundary 679
440. ure glyph is a lookup A combination of similar lookups forms a feature The sequence of lookups is important They are applied in the order they are defined The sequence of features is also important but the application or operating system may make changes in the feature preference By default all features and lookups are defined for the default language of the Latin script Scripts and Languages The second great OpenType feature is support for multiple scripts and languages With an OpenType font you can define different behaviors of the font when it is used to type text in different languages For example some ligatures that are necessary in English are not applicable to Turkish Other features like support for initial medial and final forms of the characters are applicable only to Arabic script and so on OpenType allows us to define script and language dependence at the lookup level so the same feature may work differently when different languages are supported 639 OpenType Font Formats Another key feature of the OpenType format is the fact that from the user s point of view there is only one font format for Mac PC or any other platform From the inside there are two possible forms of OpenType fonts so called TrueType flavoured or TT flavoured and PostScript flavoured or CFF flavoured The general structure of the font file is the same and both versions of the format provide the same functionality Ther
441. use these fonts on Windows if you are not using Windows 2000 or Windows XP TrueType The standard format for Windows fonts since version 3 1 and for the Mac OS The font is stored in a single file that has a ttf extension TrueType based OpenType fonts have the same structure but some additional information From AFS s point of view there is minimal difference between plain TrueType fonts and TrueType based OpenType fonts 139 140 To save a font in Type 1 TrueType or OpenType format use the File gt Generate Font command You will see a standard File Save dialog box with a few additional options Generate Font Sete CE o m Q FRS95_C PFE G EFTxs6__c Pre ee a FFE reso6_ cere FTS _cPre Quti PF G FT 45_C PFE E OSN45_C PFE Di PFE eress_ copra osn4s cere utsb_ Pre erese_ copra osnes_c pre utsbi__ Pre rrs6s_ cere EFTS cere fosmes_c pre G amp wmb__ Pre 4 jiii Type 1 options make AFM auto encoding TrueType options hinted keep autohint visual export Unicode Install the font The top part of the dialog box is standard and there you choose a destination folder and enter a file name for the font file By default AsiaFont Studio will choose the folder where you saved fonts last time Below the standard part of the dialog box is a field that shows the font name for the font file you selected in the file list Below that is a format selection list Choose the destination format there
442. using the Font Window page in the Options dialog box Give empty cells a template glyph image Template fort Use FontLab template font to preview template images Use template image as a bitmap layer when creating new glyphs A yellow frame and caption in a character s cell means that this character is in the currently selected encoding codepage or Unicode range see next section Characters that are not in the current encoding have a gray caption and no yellow frame The small marks that appear in the corners of the character cell mean Left Top Blue mark Character has more than one Unicode index assigned Right Top Yellow red or Character has compatible mask layer yellow green mark Left bottom Green or red Character has hint replacement program or H mark overlapping Type 1 hints A Green mark means that the program is correct Right bottom Brownorblue Character has TrueType hints either original blue T mark mark or manually set visual brown mark The meaning of all the marks will be discussed in full detail later Some characters may be marked with a different color for the caption and background DKM o PaL Marking is very useful when you need to show visible differences among characters for easy identification More about that later 71 72 Font Window Header At the header of the Font Window you see one button on the left and five buttons in the right area Ea FEN Name vl E Default En
443. ute are followed by a comma separated list of lt marked glyph sequence gt s At most one sub run of glyphs or glyph classes may be marked in each lt marked glyph sequence gt by a single quote following each glyph or glyph class This marked sub run when present is taken to correspond to the input sequence of that rule This generally means that it should correspond to the place where substitution would have occurred had the sequence not been an exception see examples below This is necessary for the OpenType layout engine to correctly handle skipping this sequence When no glyphs are marked then only the first glyph or glyph class is taken to be marked The ignore substitute statement works by creating subtables in the GSUB that tell the OT layout engine simply to match the specified sequences and not to perform any substitutions on them As a result of the match remaining rules i e subtables in the lookup will be skipped Example 1 Ignoring specific sequences The ignore substitute rule below specifies that the substitution in the substitute rule should not occur for the sequences f a d f e d or ad d Note that the marked glyphs in the exception sequences indicate where a substitution would have occurred this is necessary for the OpenType layout engine to correctly handle skipping this sequence ignore substitute f a e d ad d substitute a e n d by d alt Example 2 Matching a beginning of word bo
444. values are united in the stem list StdHW and StdVW are taken from the first records in the stem lists StemSnapH and StemSnapV records are the remaining records in the stems list AsiaFont Studio also has a faster way to append stems to the list of standard stem widths Any vertical or horizontal hint may be used as a source of stem width information Just point the Edit tool at the hint press the right mouse button and select the Define a Stem command in the popup menu If this command is not accessible it means that this stem is already in the list To automatically calculate standard stem widths press the Auto stems button How AsiaFont Studio Calculates Standard Stems AsiaFont Studio can calculate standard stem widths only if some characters in the font have Type 1 hints 1 It builds a table of all hints that are used in the font sorts this table by frequency of usage and selects the most frequently used hints 2 Allselected hints are then compared with these most frequently occurring stem widths and hints with widths that are close together are combined into a single record 3 The list is then sorted again The most frequently used elements are then selected and used as standard stems Global Hinting Parameters Type 1 hinting global hinting parameters J Set values for the master Single master FE threshold 0 5 Blue Scale as itis is egual to 0 039625 BlueShift 7 BlueFuzz 1 Some additional data
445. ve read the Python tutorials and have some experience in Python programming 698 Installing Python When you run AsiaFont Studio 4 for the first time it will know nothing about macro programming and Python All Python related tools and interface components are hidden and disabled This means that if you don t want to use these tools you are not required to and AsiaFont Studio will work smoothly without any Python integration If you want to use macro programs or perhaps create some programs yourself however you have to install the Python interpreter AsiaFont Studio can work with the Python interpreter starting from version 2 2 1 Version 2 2 3 is recommended First download it from the FontLab site http www fontlab com html fontlab html or from the Python site http python org ftp python 2 2 3 Python 2 2 3 exe After you download this file run it and follow the instructions to install Python As an alternative you can use the ActivePython which is also based on Python 2 2 x but provides additional services specific for Windows http www activestate com Products ActivePython Please note that even if you have a newer version of Python installed it is a requirement to install version 2 2 1 to run Python from inside AsiaFont Studio 699 Macro Toolbar You can use macro programs without any programming AsiaFont Studio includes some sample programs in its basic installation and more programs are availabl
446. vement will be constrained to the normal direction of the contour starting point 3 When you re done release the button Setting Guidelines Anchors and Sidebearings With the Meter tool you can not only measure angles and distances but also mark glyph elements with guidelines and anchors and set right and left sidebearings Press the right mouse button instead of the left one and measure the distance When you release the button a popup menu appears Here is what you can do Add two guidelines Two guidelines vertical and horizontal will be added The point where they will be added depends on the option selected in the secondary menu 100 means that the guidelines will be added at the end point of the measured distance 50 means that the guidelines will be added in the middle of the measured line segment and 200 means that guidelines will be added at twice the measured distance Add horizontal The same as above but only a horizontal guideline will be guideline added This command with the 50 option can be very useful in finding the middle of a glyph element Add slanted guideline A slanted guideline will be added along the meter tool s arrow Note that the next guideline that you drag from the rulers will be parallel to this one Set left sidebearing Set the left sidebearing at the destination point Set sidebearing commands are very useful when you need to set sidebearings at given distance from some glyph element A
447. vert the MM font to single master font Sometimes it is easier to use than the Remove Axis feature Multiple Master and Font Info Here is a table of all the pages of the Font Info dialog box with information about their information in a Multiple Master font Names Have minor changes 1 Multiple Master fonts usually have the MM suffix at the end of their names 2 The length of the Menu name is limited to 7 characters Use the Check button to automatically control the length of the Menu name 3 MM fonts with a Weight axis have the All value in the Weight field MM fonts with a Width axis have the All value in the Width field Copyright No changes Version No changes Dimensions Each master has its own set of Dimension values Use the master selection combo box at the top of the page to choose the Master for which you want to set dimensions Set dimensions for the master wt ba Alignment Zones and Stems Each master has its own set of alignment zones standard stems and other font level hinting information Use the master selection list to choose the master whose alignment setting you want to change Note that when you add new alignment zones they will appear in all masters so always check all the masters to be sure that the alignment information is set properly Panose Identification Enter settings in the Panose fields Weight or Width if your font has Weight or Width axes respectively 6
448. view Iw acute Mdicresis we ring 4 hungarurilant Choose another anchor in the list to update the accent list with accents that can be connected to that anchor Anchor top 7 boltom 5 Double click one of the virtual composites to select one of the accented glyphs for preview Preview x OpenType Features Preview Anchors mi A As you can see now the anchor list includes all virtual composites that can be created using the selected accent glyph and the selected anchor Double click one of the virtual composites to select it for previewing 6 Ifyou move anchor point currently selected in the Anchors panel with the Edit tool you will see the sample string automatically updated to show the new shapes of the virtual composites The panel contains two buttons to the right of the anchors list ra Click this button to add a new anchor to the glyph which is open in the Glyph Window RTE When this button is pressed the anchors panel previews text in right to left mode which is needed if you are working with Arabic or Hebrew glyphs 349 Creating Composites and Ligatures To create real composite glyphs from the base and accent glyphs use the Generate glyphs command from the Glyph menu Generate Glyphs Glyph names separated by space or comma C caron 4 dieresis Ww s gt E Y Decompose ligatures C Mark new glyphs phs i Create glyphs even if they already exist
449. view an intermediate design of a MM font in high quality mode Use the Window gt Preview panel command to open the panel Preview Please refer to page 276 in the Glyph Window chapter for more information about the Preview panel Designing Master Fonts In AsiaFont Studio you can make a Multiple Master font by raising it from a single master font by adding an axis When you have a one axis MM font you can add another axis and so on BES There is an automatic way in AsiaFont Studio to take two fonts and make a MM font from them using one as the first master and another as the second master This approach has pros and cons On one hand this process is fast and convenient On the other hand you sometimes can get an improperly made MM font There is a chance that one of the font s characters has not been converted according to MM rules We have however included several special features in AsiaFont Studio that can help you make MM fonts from different fonts 613 614 Using the Blend Feature to Build MM Fonts If you have two single master fonts and want to build a Multiple Master font you can use the Tools gt Blend Fonts operation Open the fonts and select the Blend Fonts command You will see the Blend Fonts dialog box Blend Fonts Select the first font ABCabc123 Select the second font Ubopia S emibold ABCabc123 Blend fonts Build the Multiple Master font
450. w ith Find the glyph or class When the cursor in the feature editing panel is on the glyph name you can click on this button to quickly find the glyph in the Font or Glyph windows CTRL Right click on the glyph name does the same If the cursor is on the class name AsiaFont Studio will try to find the class in the bottom editing field or in the Class panel At Rename the glyph Position the cursor on the glyph name and click this button to open the glyph rename dialog box described in one of the following sections GE Add an anchor This button is enabled only when the Glyph window is open and active When you click on the med 7 button you will see a popup menu Reset features Open Features 3 pS _ 4 o F g Save features Close panel Commands in the menu mean Reset features Removes all feature definition information and allows you to start making a new set of features Open features Opens an existing feature definition file With this feature you can apply a previously created feature definition to different fonts During import AsiaFont Studio automatically separates features into individual records and places the class definitions in the bottom editing control Close panel Closes the OpenType panel Adding and Removing Features To add a new feature click on the button below the features list The new feature named xxxx will appear in the list and the generic feature definition text
451. w the Map picture The current code is highlighted with a cross hair Double click any code in the Map to jump to the glyph that is mapped to it Font Map automatically tracks changes you make to the font If you are not sure that it is correctly updated this may happen with some macro programs click on the button to manually update the Map 125 126 Managing Double Byte Codepages If you are working on a CJKV the acronym for Chinese Japanese Korean and Vietnamese font you may want to look at your font in a double byte codepage Open the Font Map panel and in the Font window of your font select one of the double byte codepages You will see this button 8 enabled in the Font Map toolbar Click it and you will see the Font Map rearrange to represent your font with the applied double byte codepage In this mode every row represents 256 glyphs that are assigned to the specific first byte In the following picture you can see a Traditional Chinese font in Unicode mode in the left picture and in Codepage 950 mode right eee eee eee eee eee eee eee eee eee eee eee eee ee eee eee eee eee eee eee Unicode mode Codepage 950 In the codepage mode green pixels represent codes in the codepage that are covered by one of the glyphs in the font Cyan pixels mean codes in the codepage that are not covered by any glyphs in the font Notes Sometimes you may need to add a description or some other information to a gl
452. will be posted to the feature editor feature xxxx sub by FXXX When you change the xxxx name to something real the name in the list will be updated automatically Do not forget to make the ending name the same as the beginning name or the feature definition will not compile To remove the feature select it in the list and click on the T button 659 660 Reordering Features The order of features is sometimes important For example if you have the ligature feature and the small caps feature they must be applied in a pre defined order the small caps feature should come first and only after that may ligatures be applied To reorder the features simply drag drop feature names in the list dpng frac hist Entering the Glyph and Class Names All features contain glyph names You can enter them on the keyboard but it s faster to use the drag drop method 1 Select the glyph in the Font window or in the Collection or in the Class panel whose name you want to enter 2 Press the left mouse button and drag the cursor to the feature definition field The position where the name will be inserted is highlighted with the editing caret 3 Select the destination position and release the mouse button to insert the glyph name If more than one glyph was selected for drag drop operation all the glyph names will be inserted separated by spaces and surrounded by brackets zero one two three four five six seven eight ni
453. will rise dramatically A better way to handle the kerning of similar glyphs is to define glyph groups or classes In our example the first class will contain the glyphs A and Acaron and the second T and Tcaron Then we will need to define only one pair and all glyphs in both classes will be covered Kerning classes may save a lot of time if you need to kern a font that contains a lot of similar glyphs The typical number of class kerning pairs which define kerning between classes is a few hundred Compare this to several thousand pairs that are necessary to define the same kerning data using traditional methods Classes are also actively used to define OpenType features that are applicable to a set of glyphs so we will return to this subject in the OpenType chapter 435 436 Classes Panel To define glyph classes in AsiaFont Studio you need to use the Collection gt Classes panel Open the panel using the Collection gt Classes panel command from the Window menu You will see a panel with two pages Collection and Classes Activate the Classes panel Collection Classes This panel contains a toolbar a list of classes a class preview panel a class definition panel and a status bar that tells you how many glyphs are defined for the current class On the toolbar there are several buttons oo p File operations g9 id a Reset classes Open
454. window a sample of any character can appear We recommend using this sample area to compare the rasterizing results of different characters in a font You can change the PPM at which the sample string is previewed very easily position the cursor on the PPM preview in the waterfall range and double click the left mouse button Click on button to open the popup menu which allows to selected the rasterization method ack White Grayscale If Grayscale is selected then AsiaFont Studio will render the sample using font anti aliasing provided by the operating system If you don t want to see any grays choose Black White To see a preview of special characters that are not accessible directly from the keyboard use the usual AsiaFont Studio rules for entering special characters i e enter the character name after a slash character use two slashes to enter a slash AsiaFont Studio updates the preview panel every time you change something in the hint replacement program This may be a slow process on some computers but you can hide the panel edit the hint replacement program and then switch the panel back on to see the results of your work How the Type 1 Preview Panel Works For Type 1 preview AsiaFont Studio uses Adobe Type Manager ATM When AsiaFont Studio starts it makes a connection with ATM and prepares it for work When the Type 1 preview panel is open and something is changed in the characte
455. with the Redo command of the Edit menu or with the Redo button on the toolbar In Edit mode you can use eleven different Edit Tools You can easily choose one of the tools using the Edit toolbar ALR TEAR Alternatively you may use the keys from 1 to 9 to quickly select edit tools k 1 Edit Main tool used to drag objects on the editing layers and perform other operations In the following chapters we will assume that this tool is active in the Edit mode a B a ee nodes a e P n a maa PT EE TTT near the contour and it is selected t 5 Add Corner Tools to create new contours or insert nodes tx 6 Add Curve ty 7 Add Tangent tA 8 Bezier Drawing Tool to draw the contour with the Bezier curves Rotate Tools to quickly transform outlines ET Scale i Slant 234 The Edit toolbar appears automatically every time you activate the Edit tool If you don t want it to appear use this option on the Glyph page of the Options dialog box L _ se a Pe l RYU ed ee oe ee el Reed ee ete E Oo not open Edit and VectorPaint toolbars ee m om I When this option is active the toolbar will not appear so you will have to use keyboard shortcuts to access different tools of the Edit mode You can also create your own toolbar using the user interface customization process described on the page 27 Temporary Activating the Edit Tool You can temporary activate the Edit tool from any other tool Jus
456. wo commands that can help you automatically create contours These commands are Expand strokes and Make parallel path Both commands will take one or more existing contours and create new ones using some options Expand Strokes This command will use contours as a trajectory for the paintbrush Stroke is expanded with the shaped brush To use this operation first select the contours to which you want it to apply All contours that have at least one node selected will be processed If nothing is selected the whole glyph contour will be taken 305 306 Select the Tools gt Outline gt Expand strokes command in the menu You will see a dialog box that lets you select options Expand Stroke Stroke options width Angle Roundness Ce OR OG OR 0S Jinx Oa The top area of this dialog box is used to specify brush size and shape Width is the width of the brush ellipse at its widest part Angle is the degree of the brush ellipse slant and Roundness is the relation in percent of the narrow and wide widths of the brush ellipse Below is a sample of the stroke expand with different brushes The next line of options specifies the way the expanding algorithm will process the contour corners and the ends of an open contour WA Flat contour ends vs round ends The last option lets you specify the shape of the brush stroke This is the sample of the stroke above with different stroke shapes When you fini
457. x00C9 OxC9 0x0419 OxCA Ox00CA OxCA Ox041A OxCB Ox00CB OxCB 0x041B OxCC Ox00CC OxCC O0x041C Many different codepages have been defined for many languages and different operating systems AsiaFont Studio 4 includes descriptions for 124 codepages all the known Windows OS 2 MS DOS Mac OS codepages plus a few others like the Polytonal Greek Russian KOI 8 and NeXT Step codepages In AsiaFont Studio a codepage is a filter through which you can look at your font to see how it will work in different environments For example you might include many Unicode characters in your font and see how it would work if it was installed in OS 2 with the Arabic language selected This gives you the opportunity to easily create fonts that will be properly encoded and will always work correctly To select a codepage in the Font Window 1 Switch the Font Window to the Codepages mode by clicking the Codepages 55 button 2 The encoding selection combo box will show the names of all available codepages Ms Windows 1252 Latin 1 ng MS Windows 1252 Latin 1 MS Windows 1250 E asten European MS Windows 1251 Cyrillic MS Windows 1253 Greek MS Windows 1254 Turkish MS Windows 1255 Hebrew MS Windows 1256 Arabic MS Windows 1257 Baltic MS Windows 1256 Vietnamese MS Windows Symbol MS DOS 437 Latin US M5 DOS 737 Greek 437G MS DOS 775 Baltic MS DOS 850 Latin 1 MS DOS 852 Latin 2 MS DOS 655 Cyrilic MS DOS 857 Turkish MS DOS 860 Por
458. y In Windows only two characters are really necessary the notdef and space characters On the Mac a couple additional characters are required CR and NULL Note that AsiaFont Studio will generate these characters only if they do not exist in the font so you can create them manually and control their appearance We recommend leaving this option on especially if you are developing Macintosh fonts Device Dependent Metrics Device dependent metrics hdmx and vdms gt hdr table PPM use lt and to define ranges like this 11 13 15 16 9 13 15 17 19 21 24 27 29 32 33 37 42 46 50 54 55 67 r5 Note that these values will not be used if you try to keep existing TrueType hints Create vdms table it is necessary if this font has vertical delta instructions The hdmx control lets you customize the sizes for which AsiaFont Studio will generate records in the hdmx TrueType table This table is used to pre calculate pixel metrics of font glyphs so it will not be necessary to run a hinting program to get the correct width If you don t want AsiaFont Studio to generate a hdmx table for your font empty this editing field Use a colon to separate entries and to define ranges of PPM Use the Create VDMX Table control to ask AsiaFont Studio to automatically calculate a VDMX Vertical Device Metrics table This is necessary if some characters in the font are hint
459. y default OpenType names that aren t already covered Do not export OpenType With this option AsiaFont Studio will not export any name records additional name records Export only OpenType When this option is selected only additional name name records ignore records are exported all other names from other default names pages in the Names section are ignored gt Final note please use this page carefully AsiaFont Studio doesn t verify information that you put into additional name records Be sure that you read and understand the name table specification 178 Copyright Information Font copyright information 4 gt Created by FontLab Ltd Inc Creation year 2003 Copyright Copyright c FontLab Lid Inc 2003 All nights reserved Trademark FreeFontPro is a trademark of FontLab Ltd Ine Build Copyright and Trademark records Notice Description On the copyright page you can enter information about the creators of the font If you have created a new font you should enter your copyright notice here If you have edited an existing font that was not your creation you must not remove the information contained on this page or you may violate copyright laws Created by Name of the company or person that created the font If you are creating a new font enter your name or the name of your company here Creation year Year when the font was created This is used by AsiaFont Studio to automa
460. y is to use the Rearrange Contours operation Select the Rearrange Contours operation in the Tools menu When you activate this operation you will see the yellow marks that show the sequence number of each contour To change a contour s startpoints just click on a new startpoint position To change a contour s sequence 1 Place the mouse cursor on the contour whose sequence you want to change 2 Press the right mouse button The selected contour will be highlighted 3 Inthe popup menu choose one of these commands Move contour up To move the contour one step up contour 3 will be 2 Move contour To move the contour one step down contour 3 will be down 4 Make contour first To move the contour to the top of the sequence contour 3 will be 1 Make contour last To move the contour to the bottom of the sequence contour 3 will be the last contour in the sequence Double click to accept the changes you can also press the RETURN or ENTER key on the keyboard or press the Esc key to reject the changes 389 390 Working with Composite Glyphs Composite glyphs are glyphs made up of two or more components like a letter plus an accent One or more of the components are referenced I e their contours are not actually present in the composite glyph but are copied from and linked to some other character Thus whenever the original component contour is changed all the composite glyphs that copy the compo
461. y line of the file contains the real name of the component glyph followed with a single space as the separator by the decomposition name onequarter one_slash_four Means that when you request the glyph named onequarter in the Generate Glyphs dialog box AsiaFont Studio will create a new glyph named onequarter but built as a ligature using the one slash and four components as if you had entered the name one_slash_four You can modify this table to include glyph names you often need to create Vertical Metrics Every font has several vertical metrics values for alignment of text Caps Height Descender The Ascender line defines the position of the top of lowercase characters usually the topmost point of the Latin b The Descender line defines the position of the bottom of the lowercase characters usually the bottom point of p The Caps height defines the height of the uppercase characters without overshoot Usually it is the height of the F The x Height is the height of most lowercase characters like x or v In AsiaFont Studio you can modify the vertical metrics values in the Font Info dialog box but you can also preview and change them visually in the Glyph Window Make sure that the Vertical metrics layer is active and not locked In the Editing field vertical metrics appear as gray lines with a label at the right fA Ascender Et Descende
462. y named points that you can add remove move or rename A special property of anchors is that you can use them in macro programs and in the automatic glyph construction feature To add an anchor right click anywhere in the empty space of the editing field and select the Add Anchor command in the popup menu Add Anchor You will see a new anchor by default it is a small red cross and an editing field asking you to enter a name for the anchor a Name the anchor and click the ENTER key to complete Moving Anchors To move an anchor just drag it with the Edit tool You will see the anchor position highlighted while you are dragging it 338 842 Removing Anchors To remove an anchor right click it and select the Delete command in the popup menu Renaming Anchors To rename an anchor right click it and choose the Rename command Change the anchor name in the editing field Changing Anchor Color You may choose one of five colors to mark the anchor Right click the anchor select the Mark command from the popup menu and choose the color Red Blue Green Magenta Bee Cyan 343 344 Anchor Properties Ctri click the anchor or right click and choose the Properties command in the menu Properties to open the anchor Properties panel Anchors Properties x 0 315 242 bottom C202 512 left 101 96 riab gn EL AT anchor4 43 433 This panel lists all anchors
463. y outlines as they were in the Mask layer regardless their compatibility with the font Use this option only if you are sure the Mask layer is completely compatible with the outline Select the master that you want to replace by the Mask layer in the masters list box Press the OK button to begin the transformation Note that when the Mask to Master command is used the value of the width of the character in the Mask layer is copied to the active master To copy only the width of the Mask character this is always possible Using Interpolation to Make Masters If two styles are completely incompatible you can use the Interpolate operation described in the Glyph Window chapter to make master fonts Put one style on the outline layer and define an axis Put the other style on the Mask layer using the Assign Mask dialog box Select the master that should look close to the appearance of the style on the Mask layer and activate an Interpolation operation Use Interpolation to stretch the outline on the Mask layer This is relatively easy to do because the destination points of the interpolation links will stick to the Mask layer After you complete work with the Interpolation tool use the Edit tool to fine tune the master 621 622 Multiple Master Metrics You can set metrics for Multiple Master fonts as easily as you can for a single master font Of course you can use the Edit tool to adjust sidebearings but it is much
464. you can double click on any selected node or graphical primitive to activate the Transform operation When this operation is activated you will see a transformation rectangle surrounding the selected area If nothing is selected the entire glyph will be subject to transformation Slant handle Rotate handle Center handle Scale handles So what do all these handles mean and how can they be used To move a selection 1 Position the mouse cursor somewhere inside the transformation rectangle but not on the center handle 2 Press the left mouse button and drag the rectangle to its new place 3 Release the button The selection will be moved To scale or skew a selection 1 Position the mouse cursor on one of the scale handles 5 2 Press the left button and drag the mouse You will see that the transformation rectangle is scaled Hold down the SH FT key on the keyboard to constrain the scale proportionally 3 Release the button when you are done The selection will be modified To rotate a selection 1 Move the mouse cursor onto the rotation handle 2 Press the left mouse button and drag the mouse The transformation rectangle will rotate around its center Hold down the SHIFT key to constrain the rotation angle to 15 degree increments You can also use the slant handle for rotation just press the CTRL key to alternate between rotate or slant 3 Release the button to accept the rotation To move the
465. you press OK in the Save File dialog box a new dialog box will ask you to enter a name for the transformation program This name will be used to identify the program and it will appear in the Transformation programs list box To open a previously saved transformation program press the i button and select one of the programs in the standard Open File dialog box A faster way to open transformation programs is to use the Transformation programs list box The names of all transformation programs saved in the AsiaFont Studio directory will appear in this list Transformation program Corvert Type 1 font to TrueType wt Select the program that you want to open and press the t button You will see the program appear in the Transformation program list box 481 482 Transforming Fonts With the Transform Range dialog box you can apply a transformation program to multiple fonts at once The easiest way is to apply it to all fonts that are open in AsiaFont Studio If that is not enough you can run the transformation program in batch mode processing multiple fonts that are not open in AsiaFont Studio To select fonts for transformation 1 Select Fonts in the Fonts List as the Transformation range Current character only w Curent character only Selected characters All characters in the fant All characters in the characters list All characters which are not in the list All opened fonts Fonts in the Fonts List 2
466. you select a font file in the files area you will see the font name in the bottom of the dialog box You can open many fonts with a single operation just select all of them in the list with a selection rectangle or using Ctri click The current import options appear below the font name field You can set the options here by clicking the Options button We will discuss the import options in full in one of the next sections Note In Windows you cannot open fonts located in the Windows Fonts subdirectory Windows means the actual path where Windows is installed the default directory where Windows stores all the installed TrueType fonts If you open this directory you will see that the fonts names instead of their file names appear in the Open dialog box If you double click on any font you will get the Font Preview window instead of the font opening into AsiaFont Studio To open fonts installed in Windows you must copy the font files into another directory and open them in AsiaF ont Studio from that directory Or you can simply drag drop the font files from Windows Explorer into AsiaFont Studio 53 54 Most Recently Used Fonts All fonts that you recently opened in AsiaFont Studio are added to the bottom of the File menu 1 wmi PFE z wimbi PFE 3 wmb PFE 4 utsbi_ PFE Exit Next time you want them just select the font file in the File menu and AsiaFont Studio will open them Opening Fonts with Drag
467. ype font file that contains features it tries to reconstruct the feature definition file With a few exceptions it works for most possible combinations of substitution and or positioning features In the following sections we will describe the feature definition language in more detail The next section covers the basic rules of the language 643 644 Language Syntax Information in this section is partially taken from the official Feature File Format specification by Adobe with their permission Only those parts of the language that are supported by AsiaFont Studio are described Comments The character indicates the start of a comment the comment extends until the end of the line Special characters pound sign Denotes start of comment ee pease r E arn E DA EO mma eee eee a ee er nn Gained oe cece ate Sac et See ie ae ane ee eT eae st i ane seas Sst ee eee an ie A ne single quote Marks a glyph or glyph class for contextual substitution or positioning double quote Marks a glyph or glyph class for contextual substitution or positioning parentheses Enclose the file name to be included Number A lt number gt is a signed decimal integer without leading zeroes For example 150 1000 Glyphs These are represented by the glyph name A glyph name may be up to 31 characters in length must be entirely comprised of characters from the following set A Z a Z 0 9 period _ underscore a
468. ype fonts to be directed clockwise Most rasterizers will correctly render TrueType fonts with incorrectly directed contours but it is not guaranteed so we recommend directing contours according to the specification If you don t want AsiaFont Studio to check the contour direction check the Ignore the direction warning option Press the OK button to continue to work with the tool Leave the Always do correction option checked if you want AsiaFont Studio to always correct the outline format when opening a character When the Hinting Tool becomes active you will see that the editing field of the Glyph Window has changed Glyph 66 B from Utopia Semibold I E Pech EEPE EE pon pas ee Gri EAE Link to stem Round distance HE 0x Bo Round position p Ot OF 1 PEBEBBEBEBBBEBBBBEBBBB 4 l iz i i4 15 168 17 14 is 0 1 22 252 24 35 FR fF FS Center Double Se Round destination 2 HEWieBa 2 HEOxvEn Delta PPM range io HBOxEBo ii HBOsBo 2 HBOxBo Delta offset j is HBEOxEo Hgo OA i HBOxBo SFREEd EEL Lztd fers ic HBOxBo HBOxBo O D oe E O 1 3 O did O 1 6 519 Toolbar TrueType Tools Yt X por I tt A hoe FE E At A 10k With the Toolbar you can select the hinting direction the current visual instruction tool and the layers that appear in the editing field of the Glyph Window You can also open and close the Preview and Progra
469. yph In AsiaFont Studio you can do that using the Notes function A Note is a small text box that you can attach to the glyph It is visible in the Font window and in the Glyph window To add a note to a glyph in the Font window left click it press the right mouse button and select the More gt Add Note command in the context menu You will see a Note window Enter the text of the note and click the w button in the caption bar to accept changes or x to reject the changes and close the window There are also keyboard shortcuts CTRL ENTER to accept changes or Esc to exit If you have entered something in the note box you will see the note icon appear in the glyph cell To open the note click the right button on the note icon You will see the note window with the text of the note The window will disappear when you release the button To edit a note double click the note icon or select the More gt Add Note command from the context menu To remove the note open it for editing and remove the text 127 128 Sorting Glyphs Sometimes you may want to sort the glyphs in a font file in some order other than their current order There are two common reasons to do this 1 You may need to sort glyphs to optimize a font s performance if you place glyphs that are used most often at the beginning of the glyph collection in some cases it may improve performance 2 You may need to sort glyphs according to some
470. yph with the name zero in the assigned font will be placed into the master of the glyph with the name zero in the font where the master is being assigned When you select the Assign Master command from the Tools gt Multiple Master menu you will see the dialog box Assign Master Select a master which you want to replace by different font Witt y Do not insert points Do not interpolate compatible outlines Choose font that you want to put into the master of the current font FreeFontPro FreeFontPro eae ae Tou have selected font Utopia Semibold Cabc123 There is a list of masters in the popup menu in the top of the dialog box Select one of the masters to be assigned here There is a list of all open fonts below the masters popup menu Select the font whose glyphs you want to put into the selected master of the current font If you select a Multiple Master font scroll bars and edit controls will appear allowing you to select an intermediate design of the font If you switch on the Do not insert points option then AsiaFont Studio will copy outlines as they were in the source font regardless their compatibility with the outlines in the destination font Use this option only if you are sure the outlines in the source and destination fonts are completely compatible To not let AsiaFont Studio add nodes to compatible contours leave the Do not interpolate compatible outlines option switched on Mask
471. zer and have some limits For example it is possible to define only 12 stems for each direction TrueType stems have no limits and also have some additional properties They may be named and their rounding may be specified for selected PPMs In AsiaFont Studio you can control the rounding of the standard stem widths You can set the PPM size at which any standard stem width is changed from 1 to 2 pixels from 2 to 3 pixels from 3 to 4 from 4 to 5 and from 5 to 6 pixels We call these critical PPM sizes jump PPMs because here the stem width makes a jump from to 2 pixels from 2 to 3 pixels and so on up to 6 pixels wide By default standard stems are scaled linearly and are rounded to the closest integer value When you add a new Type 1 stem it is added to both stem lists Type 1 editable with FontInfo and TrueType 557 To control the TrueType stems properties you open the TrueType stems dialog box Link to stem Automatic Press this button to open the Stems dialog box O None ove ict You will see the following dialog box TrueType Stem Control HR Oo Mame Width PPM PPMS PPM4 PPMS FPM 3 Vis f 3 Ja 1 38 n fs 3 a Ekis T y y yy E ee es ee S ee ee ee y y f ST T ee C a a a E a f ST T WS ee T T ee f ST T WS o S S T WS y y e a e f ST T WS O spe sge Shes Shice pists 4 i g The dialog box consists o

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