Changing a colour later

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1

Changing a colour later

I came across this problem while carrying out a real project.

I have produced the following example to show the problem.

Start FontCreator 7.5.0 (build 512)

File
New Project..
test_changing_colour
Regular
Include outlines
OK

Glyph display mode
Auto

Fill outlines is set to fill

Highlight the semicolon
Press the Return key

Right click on the grid
Colorize

View
Toolbars
Palette

Click on the red box in the palette

Click on the comma in the semicolon glyph

Note that both contours become red.
Colourizing seems to group the contours. This is fine as the specification is one colour per glyph.

Close the palette

Close the glyph edit window

Save the project

Close the project

Close FontCreator

Other projects might now be carried out, or not, yet some time later, try to change the colour of the semicolon to become green, without changing the colour of the palette box that is currently red.

That is the problem.

There is a workaround that I have found.

Insert a new glyph after the semicolon

Draw a triangle in it

View
Toolbars
Palette

Right click on the grid

Colorize

Use the previous glyph arrow on the toolbar to get to the semicolon.

Click on the green box in the palette

Click on the comma in the semicolon glyph

I am wondering if this is a bug, yet I am also wondering if I am not doing something correctly to change the colour directly.

William Overington

19 August 2013

2

William, I know you have good intentions, but can you please stick to the point, and stop providing irrelevant information, as this way it takes too much time to read through your posts. At the time I’ve read your post, I don’t even remember what support your want :cry:

You should be able to change the palette index of a specific color member glyph at all times, just make sure you have opened the glyph edit window, and are in color mode. Obviously the Palette toolbar must be visible, so if you don’t see it, select View from the main menu, then click Toolbars → Palette.

3

In which case, it appears that there is a bug.

William

4

I have carefully followed your detailed instructions, William, but I am unable to reproduce the (mis)behaviour which you have described.

5

Thank you for testing.

So, I wonder what is happening. Is it a bug?

William

6

The reason that I chose the semicolon as the example is because it has two separate clockwise contours that are each of a shape that is different from the shape of the other contour.

When, after reopening the project file, I open the glyph edit window, the contours are not grouped and are black, even though the mode is Color. So it seems that the default monochrome glyph is being displayed regardless of the setting of the colour mode.

I am running Windows xp with the screen at 800 pixels by 600 pixels.

William

7

Yes, I found that when I revisited my test project I had to go to the View menu and toggle the ‘Color Mode’ setting back on again. FC doesn’t seem to remember it from one session to the next.

For what it’s worth, I am running Windows 7 with a screen resolution of 1366 by 768 pixels and a ‘Medium’ (125%, or 120dpi) display setting.

8

Thank you for your post.

Well, the project file remembered Color for me! I wonder if it is the different underlying operating systems that is making a difference.

I noticed from your reply that you are using the View menu to change the colour mode.

I have been using the drop down mini-menu that is just to the left of the Fill outlines button on the toolbar.

Yet the two seem to work together alright.

Yet I still cannot get to the colourized glyph without using the workaround that I mentioned in the first post in this thread.

William

9

This is how I do it with FontCreator 7.5.0.512:

  • Open a glyph edit window
  • Click the Color mode toolbar button, on the left side of the zoom buttons
  • Click a color on the Palette toolbar
  • Click on a part of the glyph

What part of this process fails on your side?

10

You’re using the ‘Color mode’ button to the right of the ‘Fill outlines’ button; this has the same effect as the ‘Color mode’ entry on the View menu, which is what I was using. William was clicking on the ‘Glyph display mode’ button to the left of the ‘Fill outlines’ button, and then choosing ‘Color’ from the dropdown list.

Is it ‘by design’ that the colour mode setting is not remembered between sessions?

11

None of that process. It works well.

Until you just mentioned it, I was not aware of the “Color mode toolbar button, on the left side of the zoom buttons”, I was at first trying to select Color from the Glyph display mode drop down menu and later from the View Glyph Display Mode facility.

Thank you for solving the problem.

William Overington

21 August 2013

12

Thank you for your post.

I have just realized that there is a Color Mode two items below Glyph Display Mode on the View cascading menu.

So that explains how you were able to get it to work when I could not.

Rereading this whole thread knowing the answer to the problem is very interesting reading as it shows how the phrase Color mode was being used to refer to two different things!

Thank you for your interest in helping to solve this problem.

William