Custom alignment zone not appearing in edit view

3.0.3 (3066)

When I add one “undefined” alignment zone, it is displaying correctly in edit view. If I add more than one, then only one of them is displayed in edit view.

fun fact:
I need to add this custom alignment zone because I have alternate lowercases which align with the uppercase letters, and the capsHeight is not displayed in lowercase letters. From what I understood in Missing alignment zones from G2 -> G3, I need to set the capsHeight to 0 and add another zone to be able to see it everywhere.

I understand why this feature exist, but I wonder if it is really needed if it pushes to this kind of hack. Moreover, it is pretty handy to see all alignment zones all the time…

1 Like

No. Don’t set the default metics to zero. That messes up your font. Add another metric, name is as you like, and add a filter that it’s only visible in the alternate glyphs.

Not if you have a font that contains several scripts. Or zones for superior figures and small caps (the can get quite close and be confusing).

But is is exactly this kind of use that shows up zone clashes and overlapping.
In G3 I’ve set additional zones that I want to be dispalyed across the whole font as ‘Other’ and give it a name but no filter.

What would be good, would be the option to see the zones expanded horizontally across a line of glyphs (the whole work space). At the moment they are tied to be seen to the selected glyph which means having to select each glyph in order to quickly (or not quickly) to see where the zones fall in relation to each other.

I also spotted that an exported font (as .otf) opened back in Glyphs 2 pulls in the bottom zones (negatiove ones) incorrectly and in G3 the same, but here they are floatin in a parameter, which mean having to add them all over again in ordet to see them. Agghh. (as a side not FontLab 7 pulls them in all OK and clearly displayed).

— still not happy with how zones are handled.

No. You can as well add a different scope to the cap height. Or duplicate the cap height and add a filter for those lowercase letters.

Why would you do that in the first place? Why not take the original .glyphs file or convert the original FontLab file? OTF is not a saving format.

The zones are mainly for design, you can override the PS zone export with the respective parameter. Otherwise the ones without a scope limitation will be taken.

I was interested to see what was happening.

There is no original FontLab file. This type is 100% Glyphs 2. As I say I was interested to see what was happening with the zones. I still find Glyphs confusing in how it does this – so I just keep checking :slight_smile:

Oh.
– I use the zones for hinting, I use guides for design.
which is useful as guides extend the full width so I can see how they (in imitation of a zone) affect a string of glyphs.