When I Copy and Paste a scanned image into an Edit window I end up with a glyph which, on activating Points mode, has hundreds of points, faithfully reproducing every imperfection in an original hand-drawn character. No matter what scanner settings I use the result is the same.
How can I smooth the resulting glyph outline, in Point mode by, probably, reducing the number of points?
Perhaps FCP3.1.1 is too accurate!
Joe.
Multiplicity of points.
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It depends what kind of font you want to create. Most fonts have smooth outlines with smooth curves and straight lines, but not everyone wants the machine-cut look. Some typefaces have rough outlines to make them look hand-drawn. Handwritten fonts also have irregular outlines.
Many people scan handwriting to make fonts, so they want to trace the contours accurately.
You could try using Corel Draw (version 4.0 exports TTF), which has autoreduce function to reduce the number of points. Its probably a bit much to expect a $50 Font Editor to include a sophisticated vector graphics program. Corel Draw 4.0 is about $10 now if you can find it (Corel Draw Essentials does not seem to support Truetype export). After creating the basic character outlines in Corel Draw and exporting to a Truetype font. Open that font in Font Creator and make the final adjustments, character mapping, etc. Corel Draw is fine for Vector Graphics, but it is pretty crude for font editing.
In Font Creator it is just about practical to select multiple points by dragging a rectangle around them, then pressing the delele key. That way you end up with a managable number of points to adjust.
Many people scan handwriting to make fonts, so they want to trace the contours accurately.
You could try using Corel Draw (version 4.0 exports TTF), which has autoreduce function to reduce the number of points. Its probably a bit much to expect a $50 Font Editor to include a sophisticated vector graphics program. Corel Draw 4.0 is about $10 now if you can find it (Corel Draw Essentials does not seem to support Truetype export). After creating the basic character outlines in Corel Draw and exporting to a Truetype font. Open that font in Font Creator and make the final adjustments, character mapping, etc. Corel Draw is fine for Vector Graphics, but it is pretty crude for font editing.
In Font Creator it is just about practical to select multiple points by dragging a rectangle around them, then pressing the delele key. That way you end up with a managable number of points to adjust.
Multiplicity of points
If you have access to PhotoShop, the add-in filter, 'KPT5 Smoothie' does a good job.
phb
phb