New Spacing Control and changes in Keyboard Shortcuts
News | Rob Meek (meek) | February 4th, 2009
UPDATE: A few users have had problems with this latest upgrade to the FontStructor. The FontStructor doesn’t load properly and it is not possible to edit anything. The solution is to empty your browser cache and then reload the FontStructor page. Thanks to djnippa for pointing out a useful Google help page on how to empty your browser cache. Please get in touch if you have such problems and this solution does not help.
Keyboard shortcuts are now single keystrokes
Before we get to the new stuff, there’s been a change in the way the keyboard shortcuts work in the FontStructor editor. Until now, keyboard shortcuts where mostly in the form Ctrl-Key for Windows users and Shift-Key for Mac users. In some browsers like Internet Explorer they didn’t work at all. It would be nice to have standard keyboard shortcuts like those familiar from desktop software e.g. Ctrl or Cmd-C for copy, but this isn’t possible in many browsers, so we’ve decided to simply drop the extra “modifier” keys (Ctrl, Shift etc.).
Keyboard shortcuts are now single keystrokes e.g. “C” for copy, “V” for paste, “S” for save etc. Most of them haven’t changed, the extra modifier key has just been dropped, and most will continue to work even if you still use the modifier key. A few, like “V” to select the pointer tool have had to change (because of a conflict with “V” for paste). Here’s a full list of the updated keyboard shortcuts.
New Spacing Controls
If you just want to have fun with FontStruct and make a quick font, you can stop reading now. FontStruct is designed to be easy to use, and aims to hide away or simplify many of the things that can make creating a professional font complicated. FontStruct will space the letters you create automatically and add a space character for you.
If however you want more control and the automatic spacing isn’t good enough for your needs then read on.
We’ve added four new features related to control over the space between letters.
Global Spacing Control
First of all, you can now set a single value for the spacing between all letters in your FontStructions. You do this by going to Preview, then selecting “Spacing” from the “Advanced” dropdown menu. This brings up a new palette titled “Spacing”.
Simply drag the slider in this palette to set the spacing for your FontStruction. I think the control is intuitive but for those who want to know exactly what is going on, the numeric value is in grid squares and is added to the width of every letter which by default (see below) is one grid square wider than each drawn letter. A quick way to make all the letters in a font join together, e.g. for a script font, is to set the spacing to -1. Anyway, drag the slider and see.
Monospacing
Many people want to make monospaced FontStructions – font designs in which every letter has the same width, like Courier and other “Typewriter” fonts for example. You can set a single fixed width (monospacing) for every letter in your font by clicking on the “Mono” radio button in the “Spacing” palette and then adjusting the slider. Again the units are grid units. Sorry it’s taken so long fontcollector!
A Space Character
At last! An editable space character. Sometimes people want to actually draw something in the space character slot but many more will want to adjust the space character’s width. The width of the space character in downloaded FontStructions is determined by a formula which doesn’t always produce good results. Now you can set the width of the space and other letters manually using the final new feature:
Adjustable Letter Width
By default, there is an automatic 1-grid square space added to the width of each letter in FontStruct. Now you can set the width of each letter manually. Go to the “Advanced” Menu and choose “Show” and then “Letter Width”. This will make the width of the letter visible as a solid green line. Drag this line to set the width of the letter you are editing. If you want to go back to the default 1-grid square width, click on the little “R” icon to reset the guide and it will start adjusting automatically again. Note that there is a close relationship between the global spacing setting and the adjustable letter width. The global spacing setting value is basically added to the letter width.
There’s a new help page about all these new spacing control features.
Other Changes
Along with these changes, there have been a number of minor optimizations to the FontStructor. The performance of some of the tools and the Preview have been improved.
Hurrah! :)
– thalamic — February 4, 2009 #
Thank you for the new monospacing features! I haven’t tried them yet, but you know I will.
–fontcollector
– fontcollector — February 4, 2009 #
Awesome! I was trying to draw some letters and the keyboard shortcuts weren’t working…I started to panic. :) Then, I noticed the new spacing lines and figured out what was going on. Thanks Rob!
– aphoria — February 4, 2009 #
Hmmmm… the FontStructor doesn’t load properly in Firefox. Safari works fine. Is that a known issue yet?
– laynecom — February 4, 2009 #
I can’t find the space character on the character’s bar – it’s not showing up in mine! I was able to find the green line and everything else, but no character “space”.
Is it only for newly created fonts?
– krs185 — February 4, 2009 #
@krs185. Whoops forgot that. It’s there now. Just reload the FontStructor and you should see it after the lower case and before the numerals.
– Rob Meek (meek) — February 4, 2009 #
Rob –
Awesome! Thanks so much! I was almost done my font, and was hoping there was somewhere I could change the “space” character, you read my mind! :)
Yay!
– krs185 — February 4, 2009 #
@laynecom Some people seem to have had problems with Safari. No other reports of Firefox issues yet. It may well be just a browser cache issue. Try emptying your browser cache and reloading the FontStructor.
– Rob Meek (meek) — February 4, 2009 #
Woohoo! You’re my hero. :)
What do the dotted green lines mean, by the way?
– Arthaey Angosii — February 4, 2009 #
@Arthaey They are guidelines – just there to help you design your FontStruction. They don’t have any significance for the downloaded font.
– Rob Meek (meek) — February 4, 2009 #
Thanks. Deleting the cookies worked. Some session cookies stuff I’m sure…
– laynecom — February 5, 2009 #
@laynecom Glad it worked. If anyone else has similar (or dissimilar) problems please let me know
– Rob Meek (meek) — February 5, 2009 #
I CAN’T EDIT ANYTHING!!!
I’m using Firefox with MAC OS X 3.9 with Flash 9 Player.
All I get is the uploading Fonstruction animation then it goes to a screen with black and grey boxes where the bricks should be.
Any suggestions?
– djnippa — February 5, 2009 #
Have you tried emptying your browser cache?
Could you send me a screenshot?
– Rob Meek (meek) — February 5, 2009 #
You.did.it.
:)
Thanks!
– Em42 — February 5, 2009 #
Hooray!!! And now I understand why I was having problems with the keyboard shortcuts last night. :-D I am going to go empty my cache and get to work… Thanks for these great improvements, Rob!
– SquarePeg — February 5, 2009 #
Rob I have a request. Can P and F shortcuts be exchanged with each other. I understand why they are there in logical terms, but not practical. I, and most probably others as well, use the P function (Select) all the time and hardly ever need the F function (Filter). In normal usage, it is the left hand that is on the keyboard and the right on the mouse for most people, even if they are left-handed. Therefore it makes sense to have a function in constant use (Select) under the fingertips of the left hand instead of lifting it and moving all the way across the keyboard. Granted it is only inches away but it puts a distinct break in the flow of work.
To recap: Make F the shortcut to Select, P the shortcut for Filters. Please.
– thalamic — February 7, 2009 #
How big is the average FontStructor’s left hand? ;-)
What about Q for the pointer tool? It’s another candidate on the left of the keyboard.
You’re right, F is a handily located key for a seldomly used function and P is a stretch. At the same time, I don’t want to change the shortcuts around too much or too often and, as you say, it’s nice if the letter makes some kind of logical sense (F for Filter, P for pointer). Q for Quadrangle, Quick Select … I don’t know.
What do other people think?
– Rob Meek (meek) — February 8, 2009 #
/me breaks out the dictionary
Q for Quarantine, Quandary, Quadrille, Qua, Quell, Quid, etc. Whatever you may want to call it, I’ll take the Q. If you want to maintain P for Pointer, both P and Q could do the same thing. F would have been ideal though.
On a related note, the keyboard shortcut page lists F for both Filter and Download File.
– thalamic — February 8, 2009 #
Ok. Q and P now both select the Quadrangle/Pointer tool, for now at least.
We’ll revise the shortcuts again at a later date and try to pay more attention to the keyboard layout then.
Maybe we will have to return to modifier keys (probably shift) for some functions at some point, as most standard latin keys are being used now.
Thanks for the correction on the help page!
– Rob Meek (meek) — February 8, 2009 #
The Q works. Thanks, Rob.
– thalamic — February 10, 2009 #
Monospacing doesn’t work for me.
Actualy it displays fine in FontStruct.
But if I export to TTF it exports as not monospaced font.
– Devel42 — February 11, 2009 #
It works for me but maybe there’s an issue I’m not aware of.
Please tell me the name of the FontStruction so I can take a look.
– Rob Meek (meek) — February 12, 2009 #
Thanks again for the new monospacing capabilities, Rob! A further enhancement, if it’s possible, might be to allow narrow characters such as punctuation marks to be centered within the fixed-width area, rather than requiring flush-left alignment. What do you think?
– fontcollector — February 12, 2009 #
That enhancement was added just five minutes ago ;-)
I hadn’t thought about monospaced fonts where characters weren’t flush-left.
Devel42’s problem (above) was to do with this too, so helping him brought about the enhancement.
– Rob Meek (meek) — February 12, 2009 #
thanks for everything.
very smart to set the letter spacing on the grid!
but i think it could be useful to have more space in the “negative” sector.
E.g., i had to shove the whole set of MOSTLY one brick to the left (one brick across the blue line) and set the spacing to -0.5 to get the overlapping effect and make it flow harmonic.
that is btw the reason, why the first glyph, “A”, isn’t completely visible in the preview window :(
Maybe it’s my communicative day, but i got another wish!
So far the eraser is only able to erase in retangles, unless you’re working with the shift button… would be very cheeky to ask for the ability to erase bricks in a diagonal “line”?
– kix — February 12, 2009 #
@kix If I understand you correctly, you’d like the global spacing slider to go to less then -1? Maybe in a future version.
In the meantime, as a (better) alternative to moving your letters to the left, you could set the width of the letters manually as well – you can get more overlap that way. Remember the global spacing value is added to the width of the individual letter. That width is 1 by default, but it can be zero or negative if you set it manually (Advanced -> View -> Letter Width, and then drag the solid green line).
Regarding the line-eraser, yes we have a ticket for exactly that so yes, one day!
– Rob Meek (meek) — February 13, 2009 #
sorry my fault.
what i meant was the possibility to edit something between 0 and -1. the idea is to include the half brick steps in the negative/left direction as well.
if i would have been able to set the spacing on -0.5, i’d have not problem anyway :)
– kix — February 15, 2009 #
ah ok I understand. those half bricks cause a few problems.
i don’t think we’ll allow a letter width that isn’t in whole grid units at the moment, but it’s an idea for the future.
– Rob Meek (meek) — February 16, 2009 #
I’ve problems with the leading in the window previw . My type fits usually 14×18 squares. Does this problem is my fault?:-(
– leandro — March 16, 2009 #
Spacing in Texture looks OK in the Preview but is much too tight when you use it. What did I do wrong?
– wolfkrim — March 18, 2009 #
@wolfkrim You certainly haven’t done anything wrong. It’s the half-bricks that are causing the problems. The font generator (FontMortar) isn’t dealing with them properly in relation to the spacing (it assumes all bricks are a whole grid square wide). This is quite a tricky problem and it may take a while to be fixed I’m afraid. In the meantime, setting the global spacing to a positive value (like 0.5) might make the download work better and the preview will probably still look ok.
– Rob Meek (meek) — March 26, 2009 #
Yay finally! You guys made my day!
– Suatae — June 24, 2009 #
Ah, finally ! thanks for this info!
– porec — September 10, 2009 #