Brick by Brick, the FontStruct Blog

The FontStruct Blog

Connecting Bricks

News | | June 2nd, 2017

Dear FontStructors,

Today we’re introducing a couple of enhancements to the FontStructor editor.

New “Connecting” Brick Pack

connecting-bricks1

Firstly, we’re adding 58 new bricks to FontStruct.

As the number of available bricks has increased over the years, and with the addition of these new bricks, we’ve decided to break up the “All Bricks” palette into multiple pages or “packs”.

“All Bricks” is now named simply “Bricks” and the currently selected pack is shown in the palette title. Just click on the down arrow to switch packs.

connecting-bricks-palette

The classic, core bricks will be remain in the default “Core” pack, but now you also have access to the new “Connecting” pack.

The connecting pack includes monoline, biline and triline shapes, curves, lengths, terminals and miscellaneous connectors, which join perfectly and easily with one another. It’s a fun and novel FontStructing experience.

Note that in order for the junctions between these new bricks to match, the connecting points need to be centred within each grid square, so a small gap always remains, to the left and below your designs.

nudge-connected

To compensate for this you can use the nudge tool (expert mode) to nudge your glyphs, so that they line up with the origin.

I look forward to seeing what our community can create with these new raw materials. We may add a few more bricks to the connecting pack in the coming weeks.

No more default “Cycle” pen

This has been a very long time coming I know. Now, finally, the standard “simple” pen is the default pen type in the FontStructor, and the cycle pen is an option.

Happy FontStructing!

 

 

 

 

 

 


14 Comments

  1. Goatmeal

    @Meek – Rob, my thanks to you and FontShop for continuing to expand and enhance FontStruct for the benefit of all users!  :^)

    – Goatmeal — June 2, 2017 #

  2. Brynda

    OH HECK YES MORE BRICKS!!!

    Brynda — June 2, 2017 #

  3. elmoyenique

    WOOOOOW! GREAT! GENIAL! MARVELOUS! I can’t wait to try them! Thank you, Rob and FontShop for make our dreams possible. Every day FontStruct is more fantastic and creative than yesterday. It’s a pleasure be here. 

    elmoyenique — June 2, 2017 #

  4. softhunterdevil

    Thanks a lot :) . When can we expect more fonstruction competion ? I think every 2 months, one competition can be held.

    – softhunterdevil — June 5, 2017 #

  5. cablecomputer

    Yess! The update is like a breath of a fresh air. Can’t wait to see its potential :)

    And echoing softhunterdevil’s suggestion, it’s been a long time since the last competition held. These creative minds looks craving for a challenge ;)

    cablecomputer — June 6, 2017 #

  6. Rob Meek (meek)

    @softhunterdevil, @cablecomputer yes it’s been too long. soon!

    Rob Meek (meek) — June 12, 2017 #

  7. Brynda

    Can you add more expert tools like free brick movement, brick streching, brick rotation, brick drawing, etc.

    Brynda — June 12, 2017 #

  8. architaraz

    First of all, thanks for the continuous support FS staff, for all the hard work you do to make this tool possible.

    After playing with these new set of bricks here are some things I’ve noticed that either need fixing or modifying (I’m on a MacOS):

    1. I don’t see these new set of bricks with Safari browser.

    2. Fontstructing using new set of bricks on a Chrome browser constantly makes computer to freeze. I had to switch to Firefox, no problem so far.

    3. There are flipped versions of monoline, biline and triline macaroni bricks, please add flipped versions to all cropped-macaroni bricks too, cause by stacking them we can get some really cool new bricks. The resulting stacked bricks effect can also be achieved just by nudging the already available cropped brick, but nudging space really sets its limitations.

    4. Actually, adding flipped variants of all the new bricks may be very helpful, but this is not as urgent as point 3.

    5. And to echo Brynda’s one of the above suggestions, please consider to make free brick movement. I don’t know how to explain it the correct way but I think Mr Meek you and all other experienced fontstructors understand what is meant by this. I will try to explain it in detail in one of the my published fontstructions’ comments.

    6. Lock guides need to be separated to lock extra guides and lock letter width guide. Actually, the latter is not needed as it is the same logic as a monoline spacing. Extra guides should also have the ability to nudge (or grid needs some extra guidelines).

    architaraz — June 14, 2017 #

  9. meek

    @architaraz and @brynda thanks for the feedback – I’ll consider all suggestions.

    Regarding Safari – that is likely to be a browser cache issue – try clearing it.

    When you say free brick movement – I guess you mean movement off the nudging subgrid – so by any fraction of a gridsquare(?)

    meek — June 15, 2017 #

  10. Brynda

    Yeah, Even 1/2^63.

    Brynda — June 15, 2017 #

  11. Brynda

    As well as the ability to define alternates, add custom unicode ranges and define custom glyph sets.

    Brynda — June 15, 2017 #

  12. architaraz

    @meek.

    Cleared cash history but nothing changed.

    And about brick movement, no, I meant smth different, movement still limited to nudging subgrid but more free… I can’t explain it in words but will try to explain using images when I have the chance.

    architaraz — June 17, 2017 #

  13. Rob Meek (meek)

    @architaraz. ok I can see the safari issue. I’ll check it out.

    Rob Meek (meek) — June 19, 2017 #

  14. Brynda

    @Meek, Also, I want to sEE the ability to define alternates, more unicode support, and more expert tools…

    Brynda — June 19, 2017 #