• It would be great to display the chosen control value/stem for each instruction in the hinting view, without having to select the instruction. It would make it way easier to see what’s going on.
• I’d love a clarification as to what constitutes an “origin point” for a stem. I typically select two nodes and add the instruction. Which one is the first?
• Is it possible to set a stem that does not round to a full pixel? From the looks of it, it seems the “no stem” option behaves this way, but the manual contradicts that: “You can set it to No Stem for simple rounding”
You mean the origin of a stem instruction? They have one round end and one triangular end. The triangle is meant as an arrow pointing away from the origin.
That is currently not possible. Right now stems are always rounded to full pixels (That is the main idea about stems). But I’m working on allowing fractional stem width for certain renderers.
But I’m afraid that will not really help you. What is it that you like to achieve?
Aha! That was not clear at all. Perhaps it needs to be more obvious?
That is currently not possible. Right now stems are always rounded to full pixels (That is the main idea about stems). But I’m working on allowing fractional stem width for certain renderers.
But I’m afraid that will not really help you. What is it that you like to achieve?
I use unrounded links (stems) when hinting in FLS a lot. I take it FLS is operating with its own terminology. Unrounded links can function similar to the align hint in Glyphs (I think of the unrounded single link as “if you wanna do that, at least do it relative to what I just told the other guy”), where you bind things together, or one can use it for things like the apex of A where rounding to a full pixel forces the diagonals to be either too dark or too light.
It should, by default, be the already touched node.
I’m sorry, but I don’t understand that answer. No node is “touched”.
The interpolated alignment does that:
Conflicting advice from you guys. I’m attaching screenshots from FLS to better explain what I mean:
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Unrounded single link, anchored to the baseline alignment zone. The origin is locked to a pixel edge here, although the anchor might align in other ways. The distance is calculated automatically and not rounded to full pixels.
Rounded single link (note the R), not attached to any control value. Origin point is locked to the grid, and the distance is calculated automatically but rounded to full pixels.
Btw, the example above is just to illustrate the different “stems” (links, in FLS terminology). The V shape is so simple, it might not need that hint. When you start bending other parts to fit the grid though, like in the A below, a single unrounded link comes in handy:
But you said, “either an unrounded align or an unrounded stem without an assigned stem”. I know how to set an align, but how do I set an unrounded stem without an assigned stem?
Sorry, I had the wrong wording. I meant the do not round option (the one that looks a little like currency sign. For stems, this is described in section 11.3.5 of the handbook, p.131 f.
Erich, I’m talking about two different kinds of rounding: One concerns the position of the origin point (round to nearest pixel edge/round up/round down/do not round), the other concerns the rounding of the distance (use control value/round to full pixels/do not round). The small icons for selecting alignment method for stem instructions does not affect the stem, but rather the (invisible) origin point anchor. It would be clearer if you didn’t hide the anchor, and connected these icons to it, instead of the stem instruction. Anyway, Georg explained it nicely:
An unrounded link in FLS = align instruction in Glyphs.
A rounded link with no control value assigned in FLS = stem instruction with no assigned stem in Glyphs.
In the words of the handbook:
The Align instruction binds an (untouched) target node to a (touched) origin one, so that the target node reduplicates the shift of the origin node.
