Confused about hinting

1

Still trying to figure out how hinting works. Working on a font family in 6 weights, 2 of which are made (bold and extra light). My font is very geometric, with consistent stem widths. TTF zones and TTF stems are set up in the bold weight. Bold is the main weight.

It’s going to have several different outputs:
Output 1: TrueType with autohinting, and old style kerning - in 6 weights
Output 2: Variable TrueType/OpenType for use in inDesign
Output 3: Webfonts

QUESTION 1:
In the regular editing mode (not the truetype instructor), there’s an option to autohint. If I autohint, these grey bars appear.

Do I autohint in edit mode
Do I autohint in edit mode2174×1368 216 KB

Do I need to do this autohint thing
Do I need to do this autohint thing1428×1532 170 KB

But I’ve already set up TTF zones, TTF Autohint options, and TTF stems. Do I need to make those grey bars appear? Is this extra step of right-click - autohint to make the grey bars appear on each glyph necessary?

File Info Masters Bold
File Info Masters Bold2320×1978 255 KB

QUESTION 2:
What kind of setup do I need to do in Font-Info for the Ultralight font? Does it also need TTFZones, TTFStems, and TTFAutohint options? Or is this unnecessary?

File Info Masters ExtraLight
File Info Masters ExtraLight2316×2034 259 KB

Thanks. I’ve dug through the tutorials and read the manual, but I’m somehow missing this bit of info.

2

No. This results in manual hints, which will be overwritten by autohint upon export anyway. You can only have either manual or autohint in a font. You cannot mix the two.

In your Ultralight master, you need to set up the stems and autohint settings, yes. You need to do this for every master. If ever you do manual hinting, bear in mind that the hints from the first master will be used for all masters, unless you explicitly instruct this to be done otherwise (with the Get Hints from Master custom parameter).

3

Thanks for your help - clears it up for me.