Reducing Nodes to Smooth Glyphs

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

Before

This glyph has too many nodes, so I want to reduce the number.


Hiding Screen Clutter

Press Alter H, followed by Alter to hide guidelines, bearing lines, and grid lines.



Control Print Screen to select the screen area for copying using my favourite screen capture freeware, FastStone Capture.

Copy the image to the clipboard, and close FastStone Capture to return to the Font Creator Glyph Edit Window.

Pasting the Image

Note the co-ordinates of the bottom left corner of the current glyph, and its width (or height) in the Transform toolbar.



Delete the current glyph and paste the clipboard contents to create a new one. Move it to the same starting point as the old glyph and resize it to the same width, keeping the aspect ratio locked.

After

The new glyph now has far fewer nodes.

[Dave Crosby]

That is a slick trick!

Many thanks.

[Dick Pape]

I just saw this thread - 6 ½ year later. Does it still function?

I use Snagit, which I own, as screen capture. Not sure how to copy to the clipboard, so save the image as jpg. When Upload the jpg to an Edit window no nodes are changed ...

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

Yes, it still works.

Perhaps Snagit has already copied the outlines to the clipboard after using it — I don't use it. In FastStone Capture there's a button to do that, but saving to JPG will do just as well.

If the glyph is already smooth, this trick won't remove any more nodes.

[Alfred]

I use Snagit, which I own, as screen capture. Not sure how to copy to the clipboard, so save the image as jpg.

I don't use Snagit, but you can apparently create a Capture Clipboard chain or skip the Editor and send your screenshot straight to the clipboard (or choose multiple outputs).

[Erwin Denissen]

With more recent versions of FontCreator you can accomplish this much easier.

You can either use the Background toolwindow, or use the Optimize contours feature.

The Background tool window can be used to reduce nodes in the conventional way:

• Click "Copy from current glyph"
• Select all contours, and delete them (or use the Make Empty feature)
• Click "Convert to contours"

BackgroundImageReduceNodes.png (51.45 KiB) Viewed 27865 times

Basically FontCreator will trace the raster based image of the original outline and will generate new contours.

The Contour optimize feature will try to reduce the number of nodes of the contours, which is faster and more precise.

In the early stage of designing your glyph outlines it might be worth using the first approach, but in general it is recommended to use the Contour optimize feature.

[csc818]

Could it be used to batch smooth several glyphs? I tried, but failed.

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

This tutorial is over 20 years old.

Use the Glyph Transformer to Optimize selected glyphs.