User Guide

The buttons
Flip will change the direction of the current hint. See
the “Hint Parameters” section for more information on hint
direction.
New hint is a way to make a new hint anywhere you want;
simply fill in the location fields in the left side of the dialog
box to position the hint. Since most hints must involve actual
points, this is really useful only for ghost hints (hints that
exist only to pull part of a character into an alignment zone).
Remove gets rid of the current hint.
Forward and Back moves the hint around relative to the
other hints of that type. This is the same thing as dragging a
hint with the pointer tool, except that with the buttons, you
only move in or out one hint level with each click. To move
a hint all the way out or all the way in, keep clicking on the
appropriate button until it grays out, which indicates that’s
the farthest the hint can go in that particular direction.
Autohint performs the same task as the Autohint item in
the Hints menu—it will turn on autohinting and rehint the
character.
Next and Previous are the controls which change the
currently selected hint. Next will choose the next-outer hint
of the currently selected type, and Previous will choose the
next-inner hint of that type. To move on to examining other
groups of hints, choose a different hint type in the Hint type
pop-up menu.
Vertical Alignment Zones
In addition to stem width hints, Type 1 font hints also control
the vertical positions of characters. Due to the way the
human vision works, curved letters like the “O” should be
drawn taller than straight letters like an “E” if they are to
appear to be the same height. The technical term for this is
Fontographer User's Manual
10: Expert Advice Page #23