This might be a very “specific to me” problem, so I’ll outline my process and see if there’s an ideal solution.
I use Glyphs, primarily, for lettering design. More often than not a logotype or some specific string of letters that will likely never change (i.e. I don’t “need” the type to be functional as such).
I usually draw each letterform in its own assigned glyph, so that I can edit one at a time and space as I normally would (unless it’s some sort of complex script or composition where just using a single “Glyph” as an artboard makes more sense).
When I get my typed out string of letters feeling just right to the point where I’d love to just copy/paste the whole thing into Illustrator and start playing with color, treatments, whatever, I can’t because because each Glyph is separate, so naturally I have to export the font and then do some fussing in AI to get it feeling how I had it in the first place (not to mention, the added clutter of having to export a new test font sitting around every time I want to make a small edit).
It would be awesome if I could export (or copy) my whole working window of glyphs as a single object to paste into AI and play a bit more. Having typed this whole thing out, I acknowledge that I very well may just have a stupidly specific process, ha.
Hit Cmd+P and I the print dialog save as PDF.
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Brilliant. I should have made this post years ago, ha. Thanks so much!
I actually have a nearly identical workflow for logotypes/wordmarks but just create a custom non-exporting glyph and place the individual letters as components. You can still work on the letters individually, but then once you want to transition back to Ai. just decompose the letters in the composite wordmark glyph and Copy/paste.
Cmd+P works just as well, but this way you don’t have to repeatedly save out PDF’s
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Oh this is also really good. Thank you for the tip—I’m glad to know that I’m not alone!
If you just copy paste the the decomposed outlines, why not export the font and use that glyph directly as a font? You can use this: Testing Your Fonts in Adobe Apps | Glyphs
That’s a good point - I use the Adobe fonts folder all the time, but specifically for lettering/logotypes this is just the workflow I’ve gotten used to.
Either accomplishes the same goal and funny enough, they’re both two key commands (Cmd+E in Glyphs then Cmd+Shift+O to convert to outlines in Ai. or Copy+Paste). If exporting is preferred I wouldn’t argue with that approach at all,
I find the position of the pasted outline in Illustrator in not consistent, so you need to manually move it. with a font, you can keep it for longer as a font when working on the shapes and it updates in the composition without doing anything in Illustrator.
That’s a good point and actually a compelling argument - I hadn’t thought about the advantage of keeping position/scale consistent when exporting as a font vs copy/paste.
I can only speak for my needs, but most of the time this Glyphs → Ai. workflow is for generating/comparing numerous variations of the same logotype/wordmark and to keep a visual timeline of the evolution it goes through.
I use layers to keep an archive of the work, but it’s easier to compare a dozen variations of a wordmark by placing them side by side in Ai. than it is to create a separate layer in Glyphs for each variation and individually select them to compare with one another in the editor.
For better or worse I’ve gotten used to the way Ai. handles pasting outlines from glyphs but will definitely try your method — the advantage of having a logotype/wordmark update dynamically in any composition/layout makes complete sense and very useful!