User Guide

lines; however, curves that appear to be almost straight to
begin with may be slightly modified so that they are
perfectly straight. A low setting for this control means
almost no curves will be straightened. A high value will
cause more curves to be straightened.
Look for cusps
When Fontographer traces an image it often finds places
where two paths join at a sharp angle. A join of this type is
called a cusp, and Fontographer will always place a corner
point at such a location. The “Look for cusps” control
determines how lenient Fontographer is in finding cusps, and
thus it will have an effect on how many corner points are
used in the tracing results. Setting this control to a low
value means it will find very few cusps, and the results
won’t have many corner points. Setting the control to a high
value means it will find many cusps, and the results will
have more corner points.
Treat nearly flat paths as straight lines
This check box is similar to the “Make straight lines”
control; however, it differs in a subtle way. The Make
straight lines control can help straighten any curves that are
nearly flat. However, the “Treat nearly flat paths as straight
lines” checkbox only straightens curves that are nearly flat,
and that only bend to one side. For example, this control can
straighten a C-shaped curve that bends to the left of the
straight line, but it can’t straighten an S-shaped curve that
bends to either side of the straight line. If you think the
difference between these two controls is too subtle for your
needs, then we recommend that you ignore this control and
just use the Make straight lines control.
Find extrema points
You should probably leave this checkbox turned on. It will
make sure that points are always placed at extrema points in
the tracing results, and this is recommended for PostScript
and TrueType fonts.
Transformation options
Fontographer’s transformation options are located under
Transform in the Element menu. Any of these can be
Fontographer User's Manual
2: Creating New Fonts Page #6