Some readers might like these two print screen images made at 16% from FontCreator 5.6 and then made into graphic files using Microsoft Paint showing an early stage and the final stage of producing the Lowercase h with spiral flourish glyph. The first image has been reconstructed from the final stage of the glyph, but is as it was at the time of the original design.
early_stage.png
final_stage.png
The early stage image shows how a framework has been produced using straight lines. Verticals and horizontals are not the same width. The ascender is 64 font units wide and the vertical section at the right is 48 font units wide. The other sections are mostly 32 font units wide, though the tip of the spiral is not quite so wide.
The final stage image is then produced by changing the on-curve points of the calligraphic part to become off-curve points and then adding an on-curve point between adjacent off-curve points.
This adding of on-curve points is quite straightforward. Simply select a point on the contour and consider the next point in the clockwise diection. If both are off-curve points, key an a character so as to add an on-curve point between them: if either or both of them are on-curve points, then key a w character so as to move the selected point marker to the next point on the contour. The process is then repeated until every point on the contour has been considered.
In practice, a first design for the calligraphic part is designed, then the points of that part are all made off-curve and the design considered. The points are then made on-curve again and the design altered and then the points of that part are all made off-curve and the design reconsidered. This process is repeated until a design that is liked is produced, after which the adding of the extra on-curve points takes place.
I hope that this is of interest.
William Overington
17 April 2010