User Guide

few times and see how the other controls respond. It might
give you an idea of how each slider affects the fit tightness.
If you change any of the other controls in the dialog, the
Curve Fit pop-up will automatically switch to “Custom” to
indicate that you have customized the values. Once you
have customized the settings you can always go back to
Loose, Normal, or Tight by changing the Curve Fit pop-up
back to one of these settings. You can switch back to
Custom as well. Normal is generally the best all-purpose
selection. Tight would be a good selection for more intricate
designs, while Loose would be good for characters with
straight angles (such as block letters) and poor quality
scans. Choose “Custom” if you want to set the Curve fit
options manually.
Allow curve fit errors
This control will have the largest affect on your tracing
results. A low value means Fontographer will allow fewer
curve fit errors, and you’ll get a very tight trace with more
points. A higher value means Fontographer will allow more
errors, and you’ll get a loose trace with fewer points.
Balance lines
This control will have very subtle, almost unnoticeable
affects on your tracing results. A low value means it will do
almost nothing. A high value means Fontographer will
attempt to align lines when it thinks it’s necessary. For
instance, it might try to align the left and right parts of the
crossbar in a “T” character.
Eliminate close points
This control can help eliminate redundant points (points that
are almost on top of each other). A low value means that
almost no points will be eliminated, and the shape of the
path will be the most accurate. A high value means that it
will eliminate as many points as necessary, but it may
slightly alter the shape of the curve in order to do so.
Make straight lines
This control has very subtle effects. It determines how
straight a curve should be before it is turned into a straight
line. This will never turn extremely curvy paths into straight
Fontographer User's Manual
2: Creating New Fonts Page #5