Non-transparent glyphs?

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Dan Kreider
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Non-transparent glyphs?

Post by Dan Kreider »

I need to create the following:

Image

The grid will be a zero-width glyph, and the circled numbers will be typed over it. Is there a way to make those enclosures non-transparent so they don't display the grid line underneath?
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Bhikkhu Pesala
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Re: Non-transparent glyphs?

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

Coloured glyphs can have white glyphs, but if your program does not support coloured fonts, they won't look as intended.
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Dan Kreider
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Re: Non-transparent glyphs?

Post by Dan Kreider »

Thanks, I’ve read through the documentation but am still really stuck.

I have the circle and the number as separate glyphs, but I can’t figure out how to do it. When I enter color mode, everything disappears except for one glyph.

How do I color the number white and place it centered on the circle? Thanks.
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Re: Non-transparent glyphs?

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

Does your software support coloured fonts?
  1. Colourise the circle to black
  2. Colourise the one to white
  3. Add the white colour glyph member to the coloured circledone glyph
Coloured Circled One.png
Coloured Circled One.png (87.73 KiB) Viewed 3679 times
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Dan Kreider
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Re: Non-transparent glyphs?

Post by Dan Kreider »

Thanks, that was helpful. I ended up just making the number white, and using a single positioning to place it on top of the circle. These are guitar chord diagrams, by the way.

It looks correct in Font Creator:

Image

But in Dorico, the numbers are appearing slightly off-center, like this:

Image

Any idea what might be causing that?
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Erwin Denissen
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Re: Non-transparent glyphs?

Post by Erwin Denissen »

That looks like it might be a good solution to your problem.

I am not sure if you already read the tutorial about color fonts:
https://www.high-logic.com/font-editor/ ... olor-fonts

Pay extra attention to the metrics, as metrics of the base glyph and the color members must be the same. So, the offsets (usually set to 0) and the advance widths must match.

Are there warnings in FontCreator? In the upper left corner of the treeview inside the font panel?
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Dan Kreider
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Re: Non-transparent glyphs?

Post by Dan Kreider »

Thanks Erwin, I did read that link. However the color glyphs I'm using are all by themselves, not combined with anything else.

EDIT: But I did go back and correct the metrics of each number to make them zero-width, and now they work. I don't totally understand why... I find color fonts confusing. But I'm glad it works.

The color isn't working in Word or InDesign, I'm not sure why that would be. I tried both COLR and SVG. Surely I'm doing something wrong. I don't know if anyone might be able to take a quick look, but the FCP file is here.
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Re: Non-transparent glyphs?

Post by Erwin Denissen »

I don't understand what text I need to test it...

Do you overlay the color glyphs over regular "monochrome" glyphs?
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Dan Kreider
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Re: Non-transparent glyphs?

Post by Dan Kreider »

Yes that’s correct. You can try 5# for the grid, then 1 for a circle at the first position, then f1 for a white finger number 1 on top of the black circle. The circle glyph is monochrome, and the number on top of it is colored white.

Many thanks!
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Re: Non-transparent glyphs?

Post by Erwin Denissen »

Dan Kreider wrote: Fri May 28, 2021 9:08 pm Thanks Erwin, I did read that link. However the color glyphs I'm using are all by themselves, not combined with anything else.

EDIT: But I did go back and correct the metrics of each number to make them zero-width, and now they work. I don't totally understand why... I find color fonts confusing. But I'm glad it works.

The color isn't working in Word or InDesign, I'm not sure why that would be. I tried both COLR and SVG. Surely I'm doing something wrong. I don't know if anyone might be able to take a quick look, but the FCP file is here.
Well, AFAIK InDesign does not support COLR, but SVG should work although I am not sure if overlay works in all circumstances.

Word does show it (after enabling standard and contextual ligatures), but has issues:
WordColor.png
WordColor.png (98.65 KiB) Viewed 3641 times
Note: I am not sure if YPlacement is widely supported for Latin.
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Re: Non-transparent glyphs?

Post by Dan Kreider »

Hmm, this is what I get when I enter that same string in Word:

Image

the numbers are there but are black, so they're invisible.

It's frustrating that different software renders fonts so differently...!

Could you think of any other way to accomplish this without color glyphs? If I simply hollow out the circle, as I tried already, the grid line displays underneath.
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Re: Non-transparent glyphs?

Post by Erwin Denissen »

Actually I made a mistake, I only enabled:
Ligatures
Contextual Ligatures

While I should have enabled:
Ligatures
Contextual Alternates
WordColor2.png
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Re: Non-transparent glyphs?

Post by Dan Kreider »

Ha! It works!

Word 365? That would explain why mine doesn’t work, possibly...
Dan Kreider
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