Trouble with drawing curves

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Lusavia
Posts: 13
Joined: Tue Jun 26, 2018 2:28 pm

Trouble with drawing curves

Post by Lusavia »

Hello Bhikkhu. I watched your tutorial on drawing contours using capital P as example, thanks for posting it. I must be a particularly bad beginner though because I can't reproduce what you showed. I can get to the third point in the outside contour (beginning point, 2nd point top at of vertical line, 3rd point at end of horizontal line where the curve should begin). After that, dragging either produces a curve between point 2 and 3, or just a straight angled line to the 4th point. I don't know what I'm doing wrong so could you explain the exact sequence of when you should hold shift, when to let go if at all, and when to start dragging and when to let go again? Do you keep dragging after the 4th point? I'm using quadratic/TT curves fyi.

This seems to be the first and most basic skill you need to start using FontCreator - but I can't find anything on curves other than your video. Obviously I must be overlooking something in Help because nothing gives the sequence of making curves. Also is there anything that lists the proper names for these curve-related symbols, the green circles, the little gray ones, what the red ones are, etc. I can't even find terminology in Help for all this stuff.

Thanks a lot.
Bhikkhu Pesala
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Re: Trouble with drawing curves

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

Click and drag on the fourth point to create the curve between the third and fourth points. In CFF Postscript mode there will be two handles.
Click 4th Point and Drag.png
Click 4th Point and Drag.png (103.6 KiB) Viewed 2761 times
My FontsReviews: MainTypeFont CreatorHelpFC15 + MT12.0 @ Win 10 64-bit build 19045.2486
Lusavia
Posts: 13
Joined: Tue Jun 26, 2018 2:28 pm

Re: Trouble with drawing curves

Post by Lusavia »

OK thanks much. Are those red star icons showing clicking something you added to your video or part of the program? I don't get them in mine.

Also please direct me to where I can see the proper names of the various circles, green/gray/red. Are they called handles? Thanks again.
Bhikkhu Pesala
Top Typographer
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Posts: 9873
Joined: Tue Oct 29, 2002 5:28 am
Location: Seven Kings, London UK
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Re: Trouble with drawing curves

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

The red stars record the mouse clicks for the video.

See Points in the help file.
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