drawing paths in glyphs

Open path end, with

types of nodes. PostScript differentiates between direction indicator
two kinds of points: on-curves (i.e. Nodes) and
off-curves also called handles. Nodes determine
the position of a path, and handles, its curvature. The
path section between two nodes is called a segment.
Like most font editors, Glyphs differentiates two Line
segment
types of nodes; curve points (green circles), and corner Handles Curve
points (blue squares). Curve points are aligned with segment
the immediate surrounding points; either a node is
surrounded by two handles, or a node with one handle.
Handles are displayed in gray. corner node Node
drawing. Select the Draw tool (P). Nodes are Points and
placed at simple clicks. Close the path by clicking segments selected
back on the first point. Click down and drag to create
curve points with two adjacent handles. A mouse click
Corner node
places the node, holding down and dragging pulls out
the handles. While dragging, press and hold down the
Space Bar; the node is moved and the adjacent handles
are travelling with it. If the Option key is held down, a Path direction. The starting point is marked with a
corner node will be created i.e. the two handles will be little triangle indicating the path direction. All closed
independent from each other. paths should go counter-clockwise, except for the
editing. With the Select tool (V), a path that has paths of counters, which should go clockwise. If this is
already been drawn can be edited. Click on a point done correctly, counters will appear white. Glyphs can
to select it. Shift-click to select multiple points. Click automatically correct and unify path directions, path
down and drag to select all the nodes contained in the orders, and starting points, with Paths > Correct Path
rectangular selection. Add two handles to a straight Direction (Cmd-Shift-R).
path segment by clicking on the line with the Option
key held down. Add nodes by clicking on the segment
with the Draw tool (P). Hold down the Shift key to
insert a point at the nearest extremum or inflection
point of a curve segment. Switch between curve and
corner points by double-clicking on them. Alterna-
tively, press the Return key when a point is selected.
The latter allows to switch multiple selected points at Alignment. Align points with each
once. other with Paths > Align Selection
Dragging a point changes its position. Holding (Cmd-Shift-A).
down the Option key preserves angles (when dragging
handles) or adjacent handles are kept in place (when Align entire paths with the
dragging nodes). Simultaneously holding down Control Transformations palette options.
and Option, while dragging, "nudges" the selection of
points (i.e. the handles adjacent to the selection are
scaled). All of these operations can be executed with
multiple points. The Arrow keys can be used instead
dragging the points: adding the Shift key will make
increments of 10 units, the Command key will make
100 units of increments.
triangle. A curve segment must always have two Deleting. Press the Delete key when a
handles. To ensure good rendering, the handles are curve point is selected to reconstruct the
supposed to intersect in their prolongation, but should segment without this point.
never cross each other. When vectors are correct, a
triangle is formed out of the two nodes points and
the two handles. No part of the path must exceed this
triangle.

Control the relative length of the handles with the

buttons in the Fit Curve palette (Ctrl-Opt 0–9).

1
 latin roman, group 1

broad nib pointed nib constructed

Opening
horizontally Closing into vertical

Constant pen angle Oblique axis = horizontal Horizontal pen angle, Vertical axis = vertical emphasis Geometric construction
emphasis hairline possible

design brief. First you need to decide on Skeleton: Proportion:

what kind of writing you want to base your design: The lowercase n and o are Make the o a little wider
broad nibbed ductus (open, dynamic, Humanist, the starting points for the to compensate for the loss
Garalde; word shapes and horizontal flow of the construction of most other of white space in its closed,
lines optimized), pointed nibbed ductus (closed, lowercase letters. round counter.
static, Transitional, Didone, Slab Serif; single letter
shapes optimized), constructed (geometric, modular),
monolinear, sans serif, or a mixture thereof.
sketching. Begin with the lowercase n and o.
The o needs to be a little wider than the n, because
the counter will appear too small otherwise. Use a Sketching:
scribbling technique for sketching your letters: take a Simulate the broad nibbed
pencil or a ballpoint pen and simulate the pen stroke pen with a simple wiggling
with a zigzagging movement. When you’re satisfied technique.
with your shape, you can carefully trace the outline
and at the same time decide on details: thin or blunt
joins? Round or corner serifs? Eventually, mark the
extremum and inflection points on your sketch by Extremums:
drawing perpendicular lines on the outline. Determine the extremum
digitization. With these marks, you can digitize and inclection points of the
the letter. In the n, first draw the polygon without curves. Points above each
curves, quickly and roughly. Then, in a second step, other form a steeper angle,
transform your flat segments into curve segments points next to each other form
wherever necessary. To do this, hold down your a shallow angle.
Option key and click with your Select tool (V) on
each segment. Two handles (aka off-curve points,
or bcp = Bézier Control Points) will appear. Pressing
the Shift key, drag handles horizontally or vertically. Rough digital sketches:
Align points by selecting them with the Select tool (V) With the Drawing (P) and
and choosing Paths > Align Selection. The algorithm Circle (shift-F) tools, create
automatically decides between horizontal and vertical rough outlines. Use the
alignment. You can precisely set distances by selecting extremum and inflection
points and then inserting values for width and height points as a guide.
of the selection rectangle in the grey Info box (Cmd-
Shift-I). This allows to sync stem widths.
fine-tuning. Pay attention to the correct types Align points (Cmd-Shift-A) and bring them Move on curves to extremum points with the Edit
of nodes (blue = corner, green = smooth transition), exactly on the baseline with the arrow keys. tool (V); the o appears deformed (left half too low,
remove unnecessary points, and make sure your path right half too high); it will be corrected after.
directions are right (counter-clockwise except for Refined digital sketches:
counters). Glyphs helps you with Paths > Tidy up Paths Fine-tune the drawing with the Edit tool (V), Nudge (Ctrl-Opt move),
(Cmd-Opt-Shift-T) and Paths > Correct Path Direction Fit Curve (Ctrl-Opt-1 through 8), and Align (Cmd-Shift-A).
(Cmd-Shift-R).
spacing. As a rough first spacing, set the left and Tilted bcps converge, horizontal
right side bearings of the lowercase o to about a third and vertical bcps stay parallel. Less curvature outside, and more inside
of the counter width. For the n side bearings, the (with Fit Curve).
distance to the stem (without the serifs) needs to be
smaller than for the o on both sides.
exporting. Export the font directly into the
Adobe Fonts folder to test the type colour of your n Correct the
and o (/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Fonts). Create curves o with Nudge
with Opt-Click (Ctrl-Opt).
on segments.

2
latin roman, group 2

overshoot. Overshoots indicate how much a For the lowercase u, rotate the n of 180° around its center. Replace the
round shape extends vertically above the x-height or bottom serifs of the n now at the top of the u with upper serifs. Since the
below the baseline. A good starting point is 10 units white space appears stronger above than below, too much white space is
(=1/100 em), small sizes need more, and big sizes gathering in the u in comparison to the lowercase n. Compensate by moving
need less overshoot. When you are satisfied, enter the the two stems closer to each other, and curving the arch at the bottom left a
value in File > Font Info > Masters > Alignment Zones: little sooner. The counter of the u should appear optically as large as the n’s.
position 0, size -10 for the baseline, and position 500,
size 10 for the x-height. Overshoots are indicated with
beige stripes. This allows to see if the overshoots are
consistent throughout the glyphs.
serifs. Add serifs as separate components. For the lowercase m, simply duplicate the n. In most
Read more about it at glyphsapp.com/tutorials/ cases, the double white space will appear too large in
serif-components comparison to the white space of the n: make the m
Work on your letters in the context of words. narrower, similar to what you did in the lowercase u.
For sample words, go to justanotherfoundry.com/gener- Make sure that both counters and the distances between
ator and enter the letters you already have. This way, the serifs appear equal.
you can react to irregularities while designing. When
you are done with your letters, set the width of the
wordspace (« space »).

There is usually too much white space in a lowercase r. Several corrections

can be applied to balance the letter. Lower the join. Deepen the notch.
Keep the branch as short as possible. On the right side, make the arch lower
than the n’s. As an option, add a vertical serif or terminal (often a smaller
version of the c’s). Extend the right bottom serif.

The h is mostly the same as the n. Settle for the ascender

length after you have a descender. The top serif does not
have to compensate for the extra black of the join, this is
why it can extend a little more to the right.

For the lowercase j, take the i, remove the serifs, and add
a lower arch to design the tail. The thinnest part must
The lowercase i also doesn’t have be in the bottom right.
to accomodate a join. Draw the dot
wider than the stem to optically Now, you have your first descender. This is a good time
balance its curves with the straigth to adjust the lenght of ascenders and descenders to each
edges of the stem. other. They are right if they appear the same size to
your eye; disregard whether they have or not the same
mathematical measurements.

Use the crossbar of the f for the t’s. Shorten it on the left
side as the t doesn’t have a serif on the baseline. Extend
Use the hook of the j for the f. the crossbar to the right, approximately to the width of
Some f hooks are wider than the j’s, the tail because the tail creates more space at the bottom
many have the same width. than the serif in the f. The arch is located at the bottom
Place the crossbar near the x-height. left and must therefore (contrary to f and j) be thicker
than the stem. To be noted: the t has a very short ascender
in serif typefaces.

3
latin roman, group 3

descenders. Optically, they should appear of the

same length as the ascenders. If the descenders are too
long compared to the ascenders, or vice-versa, they will
draw too much attention. Descenders are less common
than ascenders, that is why it is recommended to
adjust their length to the ascenders.
joins. A curve joining a stem (as in b, d, p, q) must
bend away from the stem a little. Nudge (Ctrl-Opt-
Move) the extremums away from the stem. The lowercase c should be a little narrower than the o.
legibility. The letters e, d, b, p and q mark Delete the right half of the o. Add a bottom right curve
important milestones for the legibility of your that bends up a little, and move the bottom extremums to
typeface. It is important that d, b, p and q are not the right (nudge with ctrl-opt). This way, the bottom left
simply mirrored, and are not too faithful to the o, curve becomes thicker to compensate for the strong wide
but to the asymmetrical c arch. Through the different space of the open counter. For the top terminal, fit in the
arrangements of serifs and terminals, each of the four terminal of the r.
letters becomes unique and they cannot be mistaken
for each other. The lowercase e and c must be easy to
distinguish. For example, the lowercase e can bend
down quicker at the top right than the c, and have a
flatter bottom curve.

The lowercase e reuses the c. Careful, the e is a very dense

letter, but you can brighten it up: e.g. make the arch on
the left a little thinner, as otherwise the crossbar causes
too much black, i.e. nudge the inner extremum a little to
the left; increase slightly the curvature of the inner curves
(Fit Curve Ctrl-Opt-1 to 8).

For the bowl of the lowercase d, use the lowercase c. Use

the ascender of the lowercase l, take the bottom serif
from the lowercase u. Thin the top and bottom joins
to avoid dark spots and to prevent the counter from
becoming too small.

Take the bowl of the d as is for the lowercase q.

Similar to the lowercase d, use the lowercase c as a basis

for the bowl and rotate it 180 degrees. To make things
easier, another option is to use the bowl of the lowercase
d. For the ascender, use the lowercase l. At the bottom
left, the b rarely has a serif. Most broad-nibbed inspired
designs join the stem directly with the bowl. This makes
the b more recognizable.

The bowl of the b is used for the p. The notch, top serif
and top join of the bowl are matched with those of the n.

4
latin roman, group 4 For the roman lowercase g (double storey g), reuse
the lowercase o: scale the outer contour of the o
testing. The lowercase letters a, g, and s, belong horizontally to about three quarters, vertically even more,
not only to the most frequent letters, they are also the approximately two thirds. Reuse the more delicate stroke
most distinct ones. A typeface’s personality is greatly widths of the reduced o for the link and the loop.
determined by these three letters. When these are
accomplished, it is time to revisit all the letters that The spine of the loop should remain above the baseline
have been drawn so far. Printouts and text settings in or touch it, so the rest of the loop has enough space. In
several sizes are recommended for this task. some typefaces, both counterforms appear the same size,
single vs double storey. Both the a and the g other times, the upper counter is smaller than the bottom
have huge differences between their upright and italic one. As a first step you can draw straight lines and add
forms (i.e. double vs single storey). Because they are the bcps afterwards (Opt-Click with the Edit tool). The
perceived as simpler, some romans make use of the spine above the baseline must be stronger, i.e. thicker,
single storied italic shapes, as the main glyphs or as than the lower part of the loop. It is best to draw and
a style variant (Stylistic Sets). Attention: because of adjust it with four vertical handles as in the lowercase s
their similarities to the o derivatives (i.e. c, e, b, d, p, (see bottom).
q), the legibility of a typeface may suffer when single
storied designs are used.

For the roman lowercase a, reuse the shoulder of the n.

In a serif design, the top stroke can start with a vertical
serif, or a drop for example. Sometimes even, the entering
stroke is simply flat. There are no standards for the bowl
height and the middle junction angle.

The basis for the single storey a and g is the q. For the
lowercase a, simply replace the descender with an exit
stroke. For the lowercase g, reuse the descender of j, but
pull it towards the left to the full width of the letter and
increase the curve of the terminal. Raise the lower half of
the bowl, in order to prevent the white space between the
bowl and the descender from becoming too small.

The s inherits the thin parts of the o. In an open design,

the s is quite narrow. The design of the terminals is
flexible, but it should relate to the terminals of the r or c.
The stroke width should appear the same as the vertical
stems. Optically the spine should be positioned in the
middle; to achieve that, the bottom white space and
terminal are drawn larger than the top ones.

The double curve in the middle of the s and in the

descender of the g can technically be achieved with four
vertical handles (see A, B, C, and D). The correct width
and curvature are tricky to find.

– spine is too flat: A, B, C, and D longer

– spine is too steep: A, B, C, and D shorter;
– spine is too thin: A, D longer, and/or B, C shorter;
– spine is too thick: A, D shorter, and/or B, C longer;
– spine is too low: A, B shorter, and/or C, D longer;
– spine is too high: A, B longer, and/or C, D shorter.
Remember to balance the transitions between the
curves segments. rmx Harmonizer, SpeedPunk, and the
SuperTool are helpful for that.

5
latin roman, group 5

diagonals. There are two kinds of diagonals:

downstrokes from top left to bottom right, and
upstrokes from bottom left to top right. t-crossbar The k is mainly about balancing the three white spaces.
The downstrokes are rotated vertical stems, give Taper stems towards joins, pull serifs inside, consider
or take a few units in their width. also shortening them. For the stem, reuse the lowercase l.
The upstrokes must be thinner than the verticals. stem Consider shortening the serif inside to prevent the lower
Use the crossbars of lowercase t and f to draw them. counter from clogging up.
Serifs on diagonals of lowercase letters are drawn
towards the inside of the letter and only a little bit
towards the outside.

For the stems of the v, use the stem of the t or the f for
the downstroke, and the crossbar for the upstroke. The
steeper or narrower the v is drawn, the more the stems
stem t-crossbar
need to be tapered at the join. Pay attention to the depth
join of the join: it should be a little higher than the counter of
baseline the lowercase o. Test your v in a word context.

Use two duplicated v’s as the starting point for the w. The
three enclosed white spaces need to appear balanced;
The outer stems of the w are move the two lower joins towards the outsides and the
steeper than the inner stems, this middle join upwards. The left and right outer counters
makes spacing easier. should match. If the lower white triangle appears too
large, lower the middle join below the x-height.

The y mainly consists of the v. Extend the upstroke

below the baseline into a descender with the tail of the
lowercase j. For optical balance, turn the right stem at a
slightly steeper angle, and/or move it towards the right.
Either way, the notch will become deeper. To prevent the
join from becoming too dark, you can also raise the lower
edge and/or make both stems a little thinner.

There is a particular optical illusion in the x: the thick

serifs
strokes appear to break the thin strokes. The steeper the
angle of the strokes, the stronger the effect. This can only
be balanced by cutting the thin stroke in two, and slightly
t-crossbar stem pushing the two parts apart. The upper white space must
be smaller than the lower white space, and the serifs must
be pulled inwards. Placing the serifs inwards reduces the
outer white spaces and facilitates spacing.
serifs

There are two possible ways to construct the lowercase z:

the two horizontals in full stem width and the diagonal
in the thin crossbar strength, or, much more frequent,
the other way around, the horizontals are thin and the
diagonal is only slightly thinner than the vertical stem
width.

6
latin capitals, group 1
cap
height Start with capital H. Type it in a word context, i.e. type
a word such as ‘Hema’ or ‘Horn’ so you can judge your
cap height. The cap height of most modern faces uppercase H: Does it appear too bright? Too dark? Too
is about 40% higher than the x-height. While lowercase wide? Too narrow? Is the crossbar too light? Too high? Too
letters have mostly a height of 500 units, the cap height low? Too thin?
stroke
fluctuates around 700 units. width
counter

Uppercase O. Similar to the relationship between the

lowercase n and o, the round shape extends beyond the
straight stems of the H on both sides. At its thickest
The cap height should be closer to the ascender point, the curve of the O must be wider than the stem
than to the x-height, but it should still be clearly of the H; the ratio is approximately the same as in the
smaller than the ascender, especially in thin and lowercase. The top and bottom overshoots remain, at
normal weights. least for now, the same as in the lowercase. Uppercase H
Caps bear more white space; because of their larger and O are the most important reference letters for spacing
size they have bigger counterforms; slightly thicker the other caps.
strokes are necessary to make the capitals the same
colour as the lowercase; otherwise they will appear too
light. Traditionally, the stroke widths of caps are about
5–10% thicker than those of the lowercase.

The I can be made from the H. Serifs may need correction

in order to appear more symmetrical; consider also
lenghtening them a little. Since I doesn’t have a counter, it
may need slightly larger side bearings. Refer to I and j for
the J. Start curving the stem well above the baseline.

Make E by adding serifs to the H crossbars. The middle crossbar is placed

in the optical center (i.e. slightly above the geometrical center), the lower
bar is slightly longer than the upper one, the middle one is the shortest.
This way, the lower counterspace is balanced optically with the upper one.
White spaces appear larger, the higher they are positioned in a glyph.

F, L and T are deducted from E, with minimal optical corrections: draw

L and T narrower than E, and place the middle crossbar of the F a little
lower in order to balance the additional white space in the bottom. While
working on these letters, keep the others close by, combine them with
lowercase letters in order to monitor their colour.

The C, G, Q, and D are derived from the O. For the most part, the curves can
be duplicated. They may have two serifs, or one serif at the top right and a
terminal at the bottom right exit stroke. G may or may not have a spur at
the bottom right. G and Q are not precisely defined; there is a lot of variety
in the design of these two glyphs.

The G takes the shape of the C with small optical corrections to balance
the loss of white space caused by the vertical stem. The upper curve reaches
a little wider to the right, and is sometimes a little more open than the C.
The throat usually has left and right serifs at the top.

The D needs overshoots at the top and bottom only if the straight
horizontal parts are kept short and the upper and lower parts are curvy.

7
latin capitals, group 2 For the B, start by replicating the proportions and the stroke thicknesses
of the E. At the meeting of the two curves in the middle, pull the notch
In very dense letters, strokes must be thinned out towards the center to reduce the amount of black. Similar to the E,
a little, otherwise these letters will appear darker. Top make the lower white space larger than the upper white space. For the
white spaces appear bigger than bottom white spaces; overshoots, the rules explained previously about the D apply here as well.
to compensate, they are slightly reduced. Serifs on The B is very dense and will look too dark if the loss of white space remains
diagonals must be pulled towards the center of the uncorrected. To compensate, make the curves slightly thinner than in the
letter; stems must be tapered at the joins. Break and O, especially the top one, and also possibly the horizontals.
move the stems of the X, similar to the x; upstrokes
thinned, downstrokes have the full vertical stem width
with optical adjustments.

In R and especially P make the upper bowl bigger in order to reduce the
large white space below. In the P, consider pulling the serif towards the
right side into the white space in order to reduce it further and make is
Important at the transitions of the verticals to the diagonals: the appear more stable on the baseline.
counter notches must have approximately equal depths. To avoid the
clogging of the notches, move the downtrokes away from the stem
(see blue arrows).

In M and N, pay attention to the strokes order. For the thick downstrokes,
use the vertical stem slightly thinned due to the higher density of the
letters. As starting points for the thin upstrokes, use the horizontal stroke,
but again optically adjust it to preserve the colour.

Start by drawing the V the same width as the H, then adjust it optically
if necessary; the downstroke approximately of the vertical stem width, for
the thin upstroke, replicate the width of the thin upstroke of the N. Draw
the notch as steep as in M and N, and drag its base slightly apart (see
illustration), and taper the stems towards the notch (by moving the points
at the base and in the overlap).

Draw the W from two V’s, keeping the serifs on the outer stems. Reduce
the overall width; the outer strokes need to be positioned more vertically,
then balance the three inner white spaces. Consider pulling the middle join
below the cap height. To assess the width, set two words, one starting with
V, and one with W. Both words should have the same colour.

Draw X as wide as V: draw one continuous thick stem (consider thinning

slightly the middle). As for the lowercase x, break the thin stroke in the
middle and move the two sections away horizontally.

The Y relates to the X in a similar way as P to B: the upper part can take
more space; pull the join down in order to balance the top white space with
the two outer white spaces. Make the bottom serifs longer.

Balance the three white spaces in the K: top smaller than bottom, the right
one is inevitably the largest one.

The thicks and thins in the Z are not precisely defined but the stroke order
thin-thick-thin is the most common.

The A can be built from The S is constructed like The U has a thick downstroke on
a mirrored V; on the left, thin the s. Use the vertical the left and a thin upstroke
upstroke, on the right, thick stems of the capitals as a on the right. Put an overshoot
downstroke. The crossbar is reference for the thickness at the bottom. The curve should
approximately the same as of the spine. The S has start early, approximately a third
the H. overshoots at the top and of the cap height.
bottom.

8
lining figures
Reduce height

In some designs lining figures are drawn slightly Increase Start with the zero, the widest figure. Copy the paths of
curvature
shorter than caps because they usually appear in the cap O into the zero, and try to reduce the width. To
groups and can appear too tall (the same as for all maintain the stroke proportions, work with nudging (move
caps text). The exact heigth difference is subject to Thin down the nodes with Ctrl-Opt held down). This way, the zero will
personal judgment and varies a lot. Some typefaces vertical stems become too dark. To correct you can increase the curvature
have a negligeable difference, some others show up with the Fit Curve function, and/or slightly reduce the
to 10% difference. That is why the stroke thickness Thin down stroke width.
must be adjusted in order to maintain the colour. horizontal stems

Beak coherent
with serifs

The upper arch of the three is

Stem thinner used in the two. Small optical
adjustments reduce the extra
Larger serifs white space.

For the one, reduce the width of the H For the three, take elements from
vertical stem by the same proportion the cap B but adjust overshoots and
as for the zero. The beak of the one is stroke widths. The three must not
constructed from a serif, or, in a sans tilt, therefore move the upper arch,
serif, from the horizontal stem. usually towards the right.

The horizontal parts of five, seven

(at the top), four (in the middle),
and two (at the bottom), need to be
The stems of the 4 are drawn coherent.
slightly thinner than in 5 or 1
because of the higher density 7: the diagonal stem can be bent or
of the character. straight. It creates two white spaces
to the left and the right, which need
to be balanced optically.

To build the 8, duplicate the spine of the cap S first, then

adjust it to the height of the zero. Add tapered joins into the
spine; as in the x, move the thin parts away from each other:
Balance the two loops optically. Because the 8 will usually
look too short and too dark compared to the zero, you can
reduce the stroke widths, increase the overshoots and taper
the spine in order to balance the loss of white space caused
by the joins.

For the 6, use the widths of zero and make sure to

balance the white spaces. Flip the 6 to make the 9.
Adjust optically, i.e. reduce the upper counter and
enlarge the lower one.

9
spacing
Kerning Glyph name Unicode
Spacing is setting the left and right side bearings to the left lsb rsb
(lsb and rsb) of a letter. A properly spaced font needs
very little kerning afterwards and will have a very
regular type colour in paragraphs.
spacing. Select the Text tool (T) and place the
cursor in front of a letter. lsb and rsb values are
displayed in the grey Info Box (View > Show Info, or
Cmd-Shift-I). Set the side bearings by overwriting the Left kerning Width Right kerning
values. Alternatively, use keyboard shortcuts: holding group group
Ctrl while using left and right arrows changes the lsb,
Cmd-arrows changes the rsb, Ctrl-Cmd-arrows moves
the letter inside its width. Add Shift for increments of
10 units.
metric keys. Instead of a number, enter another
glyph name such as 'a' or 'adieresis'. The side bearings × 10
of that glyph are applied. Use the equal sign (=) for
calculations such as =n+10, =z-20, =v*2, or =a/8. Use
the vertical bar (i.e. pipe, |) to reference the opposite
side bearing, e.g. =|u for the opposite side bearing Ctrl Cmd reduce increase
of u, or simply =| for the opposite side bearing of the lsb rsb
same letter. Fixate a number value by entering the The default setting of macOS uses the shortcut
value after the equal sign, such as =400. This helps Ctrl + Cmd Ctrl-arrow keys for switching between Spaces.
maintaining the width in monospaced fonts, and the Move inside the widths Disable this in the preferences (System
width of compound glyphs with unaligned compon- Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Mission
ents. Important: metric keys are not synchronised Control).
dynamically. This means that they need to be updated
with Glyph > Update Metrics (Ctrl-Cmd-M).
synchronizing. Letters with diacritics (e.g. ã)
are ‘automatically aligned’ i.e. they inherit the metrics
of the base letter (i.e. a in this example). Changing the
lowercase a will change all its compounds such as ã. If
the automatic alignment must be avoided, right-click
a component and choose Disable Automatic Alignment Remember to
from the context menu. frequently update
lowercase. Start with spacing n and o. Write a the Metrics
series of lowercase o’s: ooooo. Since the o is sym-
metrical, use the metric key =| for the rsb. Now only
edit the lsb (Ctrl-arrows) and sync the metrics with
Ctrl-Cmd-M. Try to balance the white area inside the
o with the white area between the o’s. Avoid zooming
in too much, it should work at small sizes. When in
doubt, space more loosely, but don’t let the words fall
apart. Now add the lowercase n to the string so that
there’s an n between two o’s, an o between two n’s, Keys out of sync are
and two o’s next to two n’s, e.g. onoonnon. Start by displayed in red.
centering the n between the two o’s (Ctrl-Cmd-arrows).
Continue with adjusting the width of the n so the two
n’s appear as far apart as the two o’s. In the end, all
letters should appear at the same distance from each
other. Then replace the ns with placeholders (Edit – Add
Placeholder, Shift-Alt-Cmd-P) and on the line below,
type the lowercase alphabet, and move the text cursor
from letter to letter. Proceed with the same method for
the other letters. Similar or identical shapes can use a
Metric Key, e.g. the rsb of h = n.
capitals. Start with determining the rsbs of O
90 290 80 70 75 60
and H when they are followed by lowercase letters. For
example used words like Ontario and Home. Then copy
the rsb into the lsb, so the letters are centered. The
spacing will need to be adjusted if the H has asymmet-
ric serifs. Repeat the aforementioned procedure with rsb of n (ignoring serifs) is smaller than its lsb, because
ohoohhoh: replace the Hs with placeholders and step it already has a lot of white space due to the shoulder.
through the capitals. Balancing inner and outer white spaces applies to regular
weights at reading type sizes. Thin or very light weights
have more inner white space than outer white space; fat or
very bold weights have less inner white space. Typefaces
for small sizes have larger lsb and rsb and typefaces for
large sizes have smaller ones.

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