The tg Font Collaboration Thread

[Gare]

Mike, when I opened your file, I gasped at how precise and beautiful your traces are!

And...we need a few revisions. Actually I did them on page 2 of the attached, but nobody learns anything if I just correct people's work covertly.

1. You had one or two nodes at extremes. That is, the control handles were way too long and the arc of a curve went way past a recommended 45 degrees. The fix is to put another node (control point) right next to the first one at high magnification, and make the connection between the two a straight line segment.



2. You got a few non-essential nodes along the outline, probably because you used a Boolean operation which will produce 'em unless shapes are perfectly overlapped (and they never are!). My own solution is to put a copy on the guides layer, delete the superfluous nodes, and then correct the outline back—because shapes change when you delete control points) using your guides layer as your...um, guide.



3. An oval at the bottom of one glyph had some superfluous nodes at its top. I see it's not exactly a circle, but it would have been wicked hard to just delete these control points without un-shaping the oval. So I matched the oval shape with the Ellipse tool, deleted the control points that made up the oval (which didn't change the rest of the design), and then used the Boolean Add command to the oval I made.




4. You had two areas where a path crossed itself. It cannot, because when typed out, it will have a gap in the "loop" portion. Also, it could fault a PostScript printer. Paths must not do a figure 8 on themselves. You accomplish the effect when it's intentional by using two shapes closely arranged together. In this case, it's an error and not deliberate so a support control point can be added (I did this) to reinforce the apogee of the curve.



I think your work is artistically stunning, Mike, an example for the unfortunate few, such as myself, who will have to follow to make this the best picture font in existence! People, please download the attached Xara file and take a look at a craftsman's intelligence, grace, and mindfulness in action.



-g-