I am enjoying making colour fonts.
The process is interesting, yet can, for some cases, be very repetitive.
I am aware that the extra glyphs used for layers in a colour font do not need to be mapped and that they do not need to have Postscript names.
Could High-Logic please consider adding eight extra features to FontCreator? Most of them do not relate directly to colour font technology yet implementing them would be very useful when making colour fonts.
1. Colourize all selected glyphs.
2. Set the palette index of each of the selected colourized glyphs to become that of a particular colour selected from the current palette. This is the way that the font would store the information. The effect would be as if the feature allowed one to colour each selected colourized glyph to become a particular colour.
For example, suppose that a font designer wishes to colour each letter of both uppercase and lowercase alphabets to become green. This feature would do the same as 52 individual colour-setting operations.
3. Select all glyphs after space.
4. Select all mapped glyphs after space.
5. Present a dialogue panel with a textbox such that upon clicking Apply all selected glyphs become named with a Postscript name that is a concatenation of the Postscript name of the most recent mapped glyph and the contents of the textbox.
6. Present a dialogue panel with a textbox such that upon clicking Apply all glyphs after space that have the suffix that is in the textbox are selected.
7. Delete the colourized contours version of each selected colourized glyph.
8. Present a dialogue panel with several textboxes such that upon clicking Apply each selected mapped colourized glyph has added to it, in order, the colourized glyphs with a Postscript name that is a concatenation of the Postscript name of the mapped glyph and the contents of the particular textbox.
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Example of the use of these features.
Suppose that I wish to produce a colourized version of my Galileo Lettering font using the artwork from the existing Galileo Lettering and Galileo Lettering Enamelled font.
Load Galileo Lettering. This has mapped glyphs with PostScript names.
I need to do the following for all characters after space.
For example, consider the letter b.
Select the glyph.
Add a glyph after it.
Name the glyph b.enam
Paste a glyph from the Galileo Lettering Enamelled font into b.enam
Select b.enam
Add a glyph after it.
Name the glyph b.line
Paste a glyph from the Galileo Lettering font into b.line
Select b.enam
Colourize it.
Colour it light green.
Select b.line
Colourize it.
Colour it red,
Select b
Colourize it
Delete the colourized contours.
Build a colourized glyph for b from b.enam and b.line in that order of layers.
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Here is the process again with comments as to which requested enhancement would be used so as to do the operation for every glyph at the same time.
Load Galileo Lettering. This has mapped glyphs with PostScript names.
I need to do the following for all characters after space.
For example, consider the letter b.
Select the glyph.
4. Select all mapped glyphs after space.
Add a glyph after it.
Use the existing Insert Glyphs facility.
Name the glyph b.enam
5. Present a dialogue panel with a textbox such that upon clicking Apply all selected glyphs become named with a Postscript name that is a concatenation of the Postscript name of the most recent mapped glyph and the contents of the textbox.
Paste a glyph from the Galileo Lettering Enamelled font into b.enam
Use the existing Paste facility.
Select b.enam
6. Present a dialogue panel with a textbox such that upon clicking Apply all glyphs after space that have the suffix that is in the textbox are selected.
Add a glyph after it.
Use the existing Insert Glyphs facility.
Name the glyph b.line
5. Present a dialogue panel with a textbox such that upon clicking Apply all selected glyphs become named with a Postscript name that is a concatenation of the Postscript name of the most recent mapped glyph and the contents of the textbox.
Paste a glyph from the Galileo Lettering font into b.line
Use the existing Paste facility.
Select b.enam
6. Present a dialogue panel with a textbox such that upon clicking Apply all glyphs after space that have the suffix that is in the textbox are selected.
Colourize it.
1. Colourize all selected glyphs.
Colour it light green.
2. Set the palette index of each of the selected colourized glyphs to become that of a particular colour selected from the current palette. This is the way that the font would store the information. The effect would be as if the feature allowed one to colour each selected colourized glyph to become a particular colour.
Select b.line
6. Present a dialogue panel with a textbox such that upon clicking Apply all glyphs after space that have the suffix that is in the textbox are selected.
Colourize it.
1. Colourize all selected glyphs.
Colour it red.
2. Set the palette index of each of the selected colourized glyphs to become that of a particular colour selected from the current palette. This is the way that the font would store the information. The effect would be as if the feature allowed one to colour each selected colourized glyph to become a particular colour.
Select b
4. Select all mapped glyphs after space.
Colourize it
1. Colourize all selected glyphs.
Delete the colourized contours.
7. Delete the colourized contours version of each selected colourized glyph.
Build a colourized glyph for b from b.enam and b.line in that order of layers.
8. Present a dialogue panel with several textboxes such that upon clicking Apply each selected mapped colourized glyph has added to it, in order, the colourized glyphs with a Postscript name that is a concatenation of the Postscript name of the mapped glyph and the contents of the particular textbox.
William Overington
17 August 2013