Vn 6.0 Import Image

Discuss FontCreator here, please do not post support requests, feature requests, or bug reports!
Post Reply
Dick Pape
Top Typographer
Top Typographer
Posts: 1360
Joined: Wed Oct 01, 2003 1:19 pm
Location: North Dallas, Texas

Vn 6.0 Import Image

Post by Dick Pape »

Just tried new version 6.0 and really am impressed with the Import Image enhancement by which I can queue up an entire alphabet of letter images and let it build a font "unattended". Before, so much time was spent getting a single image and generating the contours and then going back for another -- really wasn't time enough to go do something else while waiting for it to complete. Now I can set it up and walk away until it's done with the whole upper or lower case.

I can now spend more time on the look of the font and the corrections that have to be made to each letter.

Wonder feature. Thanks, Erwin
Erwin Denissen
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 11108
Joined: Fri Oct 04, 2002 12:41 am
Location: Bilthoven, The Netherlands
Contact:

Re: Vn 6.0 Import Image

Post by Erwin Denissen »

Dick, I'm glad you like this new feature :D

I hope you enjoy other enhancements as well!
Erwin Denissen
High-Logic
Proven Font Technology
William
Top Typographer
Top Typographer
Posts: 2038
Joined: Tue Sep 14, 2004 6:41 pm
Location: Worcestershire, England
Contact:

Re: Vn 6.0 Import Image

Post by William »

Dick Pape wrote:Just tried new version 6.0 and really am impressed with the Import Image enhancement by which I can queue up an entire alphabet of letter images and let it build a font "unattended".
How does one get FontCreator 6.0 to do that please?

William Overington

17 June 2009
Bhikkhu Pesala
Top Typographer
Top Typographer
Posts: 9873
Joined: Tue Oct 29, 2002 5:28 am
Location: Seven Kings, London UK
Contact:

Re: Vn 6.0 Import Image

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

  1. Create the alphabet as a whole series of individual graphic files (vector or bitmaps).
  2. Select A.pdf to Z.pdf (or whatever) in Windows Explorer
  3. Drag and drop onto A in the Glyph Overview.
FontCreator will import them one by one in sequence.
My FontsReviews: MainTypeFont CreatorHelpFC15 + MT12.0 @ Win 10 64-bit build 19045.2486
William
Top Typographer
Top Typographer
Posts: 2038
Joined: Tue Sep 14, 2004 6:41 pm
Location: Worcestershire, England
Contact:

Re: Vn 6.0 Import Image

Post by William »

Thank you.

William
William
Top Typographer
Top Typographer
Posts: 2038
Joined: Tue Sep 14, 2004 6:41 pm
Location: Worcestershire, England
Contact:

Re: Vn 6.0 Import Image

Post by William »

I may be missing something here, but I cannot seem to get it to work.

William
Jowaco
Posts: 331
Joined: Tue Oct 15, 2002 11:05 am
Location: York, UK

Re: Vn 6.0 Import Image

Post by Jowaco »

I'm having no difficulty dragging and dropping bitmaps of prospective glyphs into a new font opened in FC6.

Joe.

Does this help:
Attachments
Batch procedure.
Batch procedure.
Batch 02.png (160.86 KiB) Viewed 16135 times
Dick Pape
Top Typographer
Top Typographer
Posts: 1360
Joined: Wed Oct 01, 2003 1:19 pm
Location: North Dallas, Texas

Re: Vn 6.0 Import Image

Post by Dick Pape »

Another view on this is to select a group of images and drop them into the starting letter (e.g., A.)
FC-Drag&Drop.jpg
FC-Drag&Drop.jpg (79.28 KiB) Viewed 16138 times
FontCreator will import them one by one in sequence.
Last edited by Dick Pape on Wed Jun 17, 2009 9:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
William
Top Typographer
Top Typographer
Posts: 2038
Joined: Tue Sep 14, 2004 6:41 pm
Location: Worcestershire, England
Contact:

Re: Vn 6.0 Import Image

Post by William »

I got it to work satisfactorily after looking at Dick's graphics.

I then checked back to what Bhikkhu Pesala had written.
Bhikkhu Pesala wrote:
  1. Create the alphabet as a whole series of individual graphic files (vector or bitmaps).
  2. Select A.pdf to Z.pdf (or whatever) in Windows Explorer
  3. Drag and drop onto A in the Glyph Overview.
FontCreator will import them one by one in sequence.
Glyph Overview.

I had been trying drag and drop to the Glyph Edit Window for the letter a.

I had not realized even how to start until I read Bhikkhu Pesala's post. Ah, it is drag and drop from Windows Explorer, that's how it is done - yet I should have read the rest of the post more carefully!

I used for the tests four specially and quickly made png files, a.png, b.png, c.png, d.png each 50 pixels wide by 100 pixels high, made in Microsoft Paint.

Many thanks to all who posted. Joe, I do not follow what is contained in the left window of your graphic.

William
Jowaco
Posts: 331
Joined: Tue Oct 15, 2002 11:05 am
Location: York, UK

Re: Vn 6.0 Import Image

Post by Jowaco »

Pleased you got it sorted. The left Window shows selected images of handwritten characters in a folder which has just been opened.

Joe.
William
Top Typographer
Top Typographer
Posts: 2038
Joined: Tue Sep 14, 2004 6:41 pm
Location: Worcestershire, England
Contact:

Re: Vn 6.0 Import Image

Post by William »

Thank you for your reply.

I tried opening the folder that contains my four png files using Windows Explorer and tried various View options.

I found that when I used Windows Explorer with View Thumbnails and then Edit Select All, that I got a picture similar to what you posted, though the thumbnails are rather larger. That may be because I usually use the computer at an 800 pixel by 600 pixel screen display. I tried resizing to a 1024 pixel by 768 pixel screen display temporarily as a test and got smaller thumbnails. I have always viewed folders with View Details and did not realize that it was Windows Explorer that you were using.

William
Fred Goldman
Posts: 72
Joined: Tue Jan 31, 2006 8:30 pm

Re: Vn 6.0 Import Image

Post by Fred Goldman »

Does this work for other languages? And how do you control the size of the vector arts when they are imported?
Fred
Bhikkhu Pesala
Top Typographer
Top Typographer
Posts: 9873
Joined: Tue Oct 29, 2002 5:28 am
Location: Seven Kings, London UK
Contact:

Re: Vn 6.0 Import Image

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

It works for any vector shapes — you can make up your own language if you want.

Don't worry about the size too much. Design at a convenient size, e.g. on A4 paper or US Letter, publish each page to a separate PDF file and import them all at once. Use the Transform Wizard to resize them to whatever you want, and to move them down to the baseline.

An outline that was 8.269" tall on A4 Landscape paper, and was aligned to the page edges, imported at 2048 funits, positioned on the baseline.
My FontsReviews: MainTypeFont CreatorHelpFC15 + MT12.0 @ Win 10 64-bit build 19045.2486
Fred Goldman
Posts: 72
Joined: Tue Jan 31, 2006 8:30 pm

Re: Vn 6.0 Import Image

Post by Fred Goldman »

Aha, the transform wizard, I didn't think of that.

But how will it know which images to place into which glyphs? Does it go by the order they are sorted in Windows Explorer?
Fred
Bhikkhu Pesala
Top Typographer
Top Typographer
Posts: 9873
Joined: Tue Oct 29, 2002 5:28 am
Location: Seven Kings, London UK
Contact:

Re: Vn 6.0 Import Image

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

Try it and see is often the best approach. Since it takes all of ten seconds to import a whole load of files, you can easily try it again another way. I find that If I select files A.pdf to Z.pdf in Explorer, then drag them into glyph A, they come in as expected.
My FontsReviews: MainTypeFont CreatorHelpFC15 + MT12.0 @ Win 10 64-bit build 19045.2486
Post Reply