Font Forum

Hello,
I'm making a single stroke open type font with your awesome program. I find it easy to draw strokes though I lack much knowledge on font making as a whole. That's why I have a couple of questions for you.
For context, I used the website 'Calligraphr' to create a font that gives each character 15 stylistic variations, exported it into your program and created contour strokes out of the outlines.

1. When exporting and setting my settings to the ones shown, my first points and end points on my characters connect to each other after the export process. Exporting double stroke is okay for now but does a fix for this exist?

2.Somewhere along the way, exporting the font to .ttf started taking longer, but now it takes around 10 minutes. I'm sure I touched something I shouldn't have to make this happen.
Are there any routes to solutions you'd recommend?

All the best,

shtoopr wrote: ↑Wed Aug 10, 2022 4:09 pm 1. When exporting and setting my settings to the ones shown, my first points and end points on my characters connect to each other after the export process. Exporting double stroke is okay for now but does a fix for this exist?

Well, true single line OpenType fonts do not exist, as contours are always closed. This is how it works per the specification. As mentioned in our documentation, you can use the double stroke to avoid the visual issue.

shtoopr wrote: ↑Wed Aug 10, 2022 4:09 pm 2.Somewhere along the way, exporting the font to .ttf started taking longer, but now it takes around 10 minutes. I'm sure I touched something I shouldn't have to make this happen.

I am not sure, but maybe the Remove overlap causes the slowness, so better set Contours to No change.

Hello again,
Thanks for your response.
So Is it just appearing that way as a visual glitch when previewing on windows?
Do we just rely that the program we want to use will support single stroke and remove the line already?
Additionally, remove overlap did speed it up so thank you very much.
Lastly, I'm having an issue with copying and pasting contours into other fonts.
I've included an image of what it looks like before and after being pasted.
The 'Split Contour' option doesn't change it and the knife tool doesn't seem to work either.
Any tips would be extremely appreciated.

shtoopr wrote: ↑Fri Aug 12, 2022 3:18 am So Is it just appearing that way as a visual glitch when previewing on windows?

Actually, this is how fonts are intended to work, but some CNC software / machines do support single or double stroke fonts.

shtoopr wrote: ↑Fri Aug 12, 2022 3:18 am Do we just rely that the program we want to use will support single stroke and remove the line already?

No, do not rely on this, but test it to ensure your specific device supports it.

shtoopr wrote: ↑Fri Aug 12, 2022 3:18 am Additionally, remove overlap did speed it up so thank you very much.

Excellent!

shtoopr wrote: ↑Fri Aug 12, 2022 3:18 am Lastly, I'm having an issue with copying and pasting contours into other fonts.
I've included an image of what it looks like before and after being pasted.
The 'Split Contour' option doesn't change it and the knife tool doesn't seem to work either.
Any tips would be extremely appreciated.

Well, FontCreator is mainly aimed at closed contours, so several features are not "open contour" friendly. You can always select a contour and right-click it to make it open with Toggle Open Contour(s).

And we are willing to enhance support for single line fonts if more people request it.

I can toggle open contour on the original glyph, but not on the pasted one. I have open contours selected in options and set to singlestroke in export settings.
Is it possible the contour forgets it is open contour during the paste?

Also, more single line support would bless my soul, though I appreciate your help anyways

shtoopr wrote: ↑Sun Aug 14, 2022 1:28 am I can toggle open contour on the original glyph, but not on the pasted one. I have open contours selected in options and set to singlestroke in export settings.
Is it possible the contour forgets it is open contour during the paste?

Also, more single line support would bless my soul, though I appreciate your help anyways

I have just tested it, and it works just fine here. Are you sure the Open Contours setting in the target font is set to Single stroke?

It was selected on .Woff export settings (my main form of export) not .ttf, my apologies I slipped up.
Thanks for your help with this!

shtoopr wrote: ↑Sun Aug 14, 2022 3:07 pm It was selected on .Woff export settings (my main form of export) not .ttf, my apologies I slipped up.
Thanks for your help with this!

It has happened to me more than once; Pretty bad user experience... anyway I am glad to know you have figured it out!

Regarding this forum post: http://forum.high-logic.com/viewtopic.php?t=1648
"...I might add a setting that forces FontCreator to not close the contour and maybe give the line a thickness, so it better represents the output that you get when the font is used with a CNC or engraving machine." Was something like this ever added?


Additionally, I too have a "single-line" font that I'd love to email to you. I put quotes around it because when I open it in Font Creator, it gives me the outline of the letters but when I use it in my machine, it registers it as a stoke.
Let me know if I can!
Thanks

shtoopr wrote: ↑Mon Aug 15, 2022 4:00 pm Regarding this forum post: http://forum.high-logic.com/viewtopic.php?t=1648
"...I might add a setting that forces FontCreator to not close the contour and maybe give the line a thickness, so it better represents the output that you get when the font is used with a CNC or engraving machine." Was something like this ever added?

Yes, that is exactly what FontCreator currently supports.

shtoopr wrote: ↑Mon Aug 15, 2022 4:00 pm Additionally, I too have a "single-line" font that I'd love to email to you. I put quotes around it because when I open it in Font Creator, it gives me the outline of the letters but when I use it in my machine, it registers it as a stoke.
Let me know if I can!

I have received a PM from you. Do let me know if the is anything specific you want us to look into to.

I have received the files. One is a general font and is by no means a single stroke font. The other one is an SVG font file, but that is obsolete.

FontCreator does not support SVG fonts, but does support OpenType-SVG fonts. However we strongly believe those will also become obsolete rather soon. OpenType-COLR is here to stay, but that does not support open contours.