Is it possible that Glyphs reverse the contour directions when opening a ttf binary? I was trying to check the contour directions of some build and got crazy until I realised Glyphs might be doing that. Opening the ttf binaries in Robofont displays the correct contour direction + correct first point.
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Yes. Glyphs is doing that on purpose.
When exporting a ttf from a file that has cubic curves, all contours need to be reversed. That includes outlines that have line segments only.
When exporting a file that is has quadratic curves, drawn CW, those don’t need to be reversed. But while exporting, it doesn’t know if paths that no curves need to be reversed or not. So while editing, all curves are expected to be CCW, so all curves are revered. But that means that on import, all outlines need to reverse.
Mh. So if you have a source with quadratic curves, they need to follow a postscript direction to be exported correctly. I find it rather confusing.
Would you consider implementing a flag in the font info like “is_quadratic=true”?
- it could be enabled by default when importing ttf binaries to avoid the reverse contour thing
- it could be set up manually by designer when designing fully with quadratic curves
- it would influence the behaviour of the “correct path direction” button
Then you shouldn’t use fontMake to compile your fonts, too. It does exactly the same thing.
I thought about that but your are the first to actually ask for it.
Technically it only matters what ends up in the final font.
Actually, since I am bumping into these issues… I learnt last week that Fontmake was having flags to disabled the reversing of contours 