Newbie font Designer

[Harish]

Hi Allan and all others,

I am newbie and just tried out creating a font with my own handwriting , I found that when I trace graphics , it eventually traces a contour with an "x" and I have to manually delete the overshooting contour points , however for characters like "o " , the middle part of the x results in a lot of manual editing of points .

is there a setting that I can turn off so that I donot get the X along with the traced graphic

[Allan Murray]

The integrated auto-trace feature will overprint an 'X' when using the demo version (there should be a message box telling you so when you do the first trace). On the full version (paid) the 'X' is not overprinted.

You can still use cr8tracer to import traced graphics into the demo version (without an 'X' overprint) if you want to use to to trace a signature for example. See cr8software.net/article003.html

[Jasper]

Hi, I'm also new to this software. I want to make a simple modification to the Font Blair ITC Bold to a few letters such as "D"
I opened the font file and it appears.

How would I select the "D" and modify it so that a portion of the "D" does not appear or is erased. such as the "D" and "A" in the image below?

nnmandi.artisticjeanius.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/apple-touch-icon-114-precomposed.png

[Allan Murray]

This cannot really be done using the light (free) version because there is no easy way to cut contours, and no way of joining contours.

If you are using the full (or demo) versions, then use the knife tool to cut out the pieces, and the glue tool to rejoin the cut contours.

[kaz]

Bring back the glue tool please... I'm wasting too much of my time on the other tools that are not working.

[Allan Murray]

The glue tool was removed because feedback indicated some people were confused by it. Now you should be able to join contours simply by drawing curves/lines from the end of one contour to the beginning of another. You just have to make sure that it is the end-point of one contour that you are joining to the start-point of another. (And the connect touch-up tool still exists for joining close end-points/start-points).

Can you expand on what you find is 'not working'?

I can possibly bring back the glue tool if more people find it useful.

[kaz]

Hi Allan, Does the joining of the nodes work if you paste different curves or lines from other created fonts to create say the letter C rotated to use as part of the letter D, or a line from the letter I to use for the letter F so on so on...

[Allan Murray]

Yes, but you need to make sure the contour directions are correct. (If you horizontally flipped the curve from a 'C' to use as a 'D' for example, the contour direction will be wrong - so use the reverse contour command first).

Also, if you have a closed contour, then you will need to use the knife tool to 'open it up', so that you have an end point to joint to/from.

[kaz]

Yipeeee lol, Got it... it was the reverse contour first(direction of the arrows), why I couldn't join the nodes... so where I was going wrong. Thanks Allan