User Guide

FontLab 4
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T o o l s and O per a t i o ns
FontLab’s Glyph Window may work in several modes. The four most
important modes are:
Edit mode
The main mode used to move everything in the glyph, from
guidelines to nodes to glyph margins.
Sketch mode
Used to draw new outlines
VectorPaint
mode
A set of tools used to create new glyphs or modify existing
glyphs.
Meter mode
Used to measure contours.
Other modes include TrueType and Type 1 hinting and eight additional
operations:
Transform
Selection
Scales, rotates or skews the selected portion of the
outline
Interpolate
Modifies the outline by moving a few “base” points
Background
Sets the size and position of the bitmap background layer
Envelope
Modifies the outline as if it was stretched on rubber
Curve
Approximates a segment of the outline with a curve
Set
Lets you set precise positions of outline points
Reverse contours
Reverses the contour’s direction
Set startpoints
Changes the starting points of contours and rearranges
contours
Type 1 hinting
Type 1 hinting
TrueType hinting
Manual TrueType hinting
When the Glyph Window is switched to one of these modes, you may see
additional toolbars, panels and dialogs. They are shown and hidden
automatically, depending on the mode and most of them hide when the
Glyph Window is deactivated.