2 step Clean-up for Scanned-in glyphs

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Dave Crosby
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2 step Clean-up for Scanned-in glyphs

Post by Dave Crosby »

Cleaning cruddy Scanned in Gylphs

Scan, copy to ClipBoard, Paste into FC Editing Window.
Scan, Copy, Paste. Scan, Copy, Paste ... Oh no!!

Scanned images often contain unwanted background junk.
If you have some glyphs or even whole fonts like this, FC gives you at least two choices for cleaning them up:

OPTION ONE: Make a new font.
Convert the glyphs to bitmaps and clean them up and import or paste them into a new font.
Or, you could use the messy bitmaps as background in FC and use Draw Contour to trace only the parts you want.

OPTION TWO: Clean the glyphs within the existing font.
FC can make quick work of this option.
Be sure to save the font under a new name before making changes to assure nothing unforseen occurs.


:arrow: 1. Open an Editing Window, and go to Contour Mode
Use the Mouse to select a PORTION of the glyph.

Image

TOP SECRET - FYEO:
Only contours that are fully enclosed in the selection rectangle will be selected.

Press Delete. WARNING: every contour that has turned red will dissappear!
The knife is handy to carve off those "hangy-down" things.

If the bearings move, move them back.
If anything disappears you wanted, just press the Undo button beside Paste, and make a different selection.
If a major contour moves, undo and make sure you begin selecting from a different location outside of that contour.


Image

:arrow: 2. When all the contours you don’t want are gone, the stuff you still don’t want are parts of contours you need.


To clean the major contours you have to change to Point Mode and select the obvious points you know you don’t want.
Edit NOTE: The knife can be used in point mode too.

Image

Delete, then zoom in for a closer look.

Image

There are still too many points in this glyph. Now you have to decide how far you want to go. Good Luck!
Last edited by Dave Crosby on Sun Dec 18, 2005 2:45 pm, edited 5 times in total.
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Bhikkhu Pesala
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Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

Shortcut keys in point mode can be useful for cleaning up unwanted points.
  • Q Previous point
  • W Next point
  • Del Delete point
  • A Add point
  • Shift Up/Down/Left/Right move by 100 funits
  • Up/Down/Left/Right move by 10 funits
  • Control + Up/Down/Left/Right move by 1 funit
  • G add orthogonal guidelines at node
  • O make node on curve
  • F make node off curve
  • F7 Toggle Glyph Validation Report Window
Updated for FontCreator 5.5

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
Last edited by Bhikkhu Pesala on Fri Jul 07, 2006 3:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Erwin Denissen
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Post by Erwin Denissen »

Bhikkhu Pesala,

Your signature fits perfect with this topic ;-)
Erwin Denissen
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Post by pwillard »

I wouls also like to add that this is precisely how I've been doing it myself. Adopting this method saves TONS of time.
Pete
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