Manual kerning

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johnw
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Joined: Wed Oct 26, 2016 1:09 pm

Manual kerning

Post by johnw »

In the 6.5 version of Font Creator kerning was quite easy to do. First Tools > Autokern, experiment a little with the settings and then Format > Kerning for some fine tuning.
Now, in later versions the way Autokern works is completely different - which, apart from the process taking quite a while, is OK. But ... I can not find the equivalent of Format > Kerning anymore and thus can not fine tune anymore. Why is this function gone?
Bhikkhu Pesala
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Re: Manual kerning

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

To cut a long story short, it's gone because it is legacy feature.

Formerly, only kern table kerning was supported, but Pro fonts from Adobe etc., use only GPOS kerning, and do not support kern tables.

FontCreator supports both. When you use the Autokern feature now it generates OpenType GPOS kerning tables. When you export a font, you may include both legacy kern tables and/or GPOS kerning tables.
Export Options.png
Export Options.png (9.63 KiB) Viewed 3752 times
To fine-tune kerning pairs use the OpenType Designer from the font menu (shortcut Ctrl F8), select the Kerning Pair Adjustment lookup, and manually tweak any kerning pairs that don't look right to you by adjusting the XAdvance value for the first glyph of the pair — the hyphen in my screen shot.

If a font contains kerning classes, adjusting one pair automatically adjusts all others in the same class at once. So, in this screen shot, hyphen A, hyphen, A grave, A acute, etc. This is actually a lot less work than before even for a basic ANSI character set font, though it may seem like more work.
Adjust Kerning Pair.png
Adjust Kerning Pair.png (68.84 KiB) Viewed 3754 times
You will find some tutorials on my FontCreator Review page (see my signature)
My FontsReviews: MainTypeFont CreatorHelpFC15 + MT12.0 @ Win 10 64-bit build 19045.2486
johnw
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Oct 26, 2016 1:09 pm

Re: Manual kerning

Post by johnw »

Thank you. But ... when experimenting a bit with a font that did not yet have any kerning I got a kerning-pair for JC but not for JG or JO. Which I would then want to add with manual kerning. But how?
Bhikkhu Pesala
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Re: Manual kerning

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

johnw wrote:Thank you. But ... when experimenting a bit with a font that did not yet have any kerning I got a kerning-pair for JC but not for JG or JO. Which I would then want to add with manual kerning. But how?
If JC is already part of a kerning class that includes JG and JO it will have a @ in front of it in the dialogue, so the pairs are already there. Open the drop down by the C to check.

To add a single pair, click on the green + icon at the top of the list of pairs to add another pair, and adjust the XAdvance to be the same, or open the Class Manager to add C, G, and O to a kerning class.

When you use Tools, Autokern in FC10, it should generate some kerning classes automatically, depending on the shapes of the glyphs. C, G, and O are similar shapes, as are V and W.

I created all of my classes manually for greater control, but Autokern on a new font will do all that donkey work for you.
My FontsReviews: MainTypeFont CreatorHelpFC15 + MT12.0 @ Win 10 64-bit build 19045.2486
johnw
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Joined: Wed Oct 26, 2016 1:09 pm

Re: Manual kerning

Post by johnw »

Thanks again. This will keep me busy for a while.

Does this mean that all the true-type fonts I made with manual kerning do not work anymore?
Bhikkhu Pesala
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Re: Manual kerning

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

My font has separate classes for C, G, and O because while they might be the same shape on the left, they are different on the right, so although I want an adjustment pair like C hyphen, I don't want one for G hyphen or O hyphen.

See the screen shot to see how the Class Manager works.
Kerning Class Manager.png
Kerning Class Manager.png (80.57 KiB) Viewed 3742 times
My FontsReviews: MainTypeFont CreatorHelpFC15 + MT12.0 @ Win 10 64-bit build 19045.2486
Bhikkhu Pesala
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Re: Manual kerning

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

johnw wrote:Thanks again. This will keep me busy for a while.

Does this mean that all the true-type fonts I made with manual kerning do not work anymore?
No. They will continue to work in all Windows applications that support legacy kerning pairs, which I believe is most. If you open those fonts in FC10 for editing, if I remember rightly, GPOS adjustment pairs will be created from them. When you export your edited fonts, you will be able to improve them by adding both types of kerning tables.

Many more programs do not support GPOS kerning than do not support legacy kerning, but it's the way to go for the future. I would much rather adjust 1014 kerning classes, then 33,902 kerning pairs. If you open a modern font like Calibri or Gabriola, you may be horrified by how many pairs they contain.
My FontsReviews: MainTypeFont CreatorHelpFC15 + MT12.0 @ Win 10 64-bit build 19045.2486
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