Export single line font

Hi,
is it possible to export single

You can do that by not removing overlaps when exporting. Remove Overlap also deletes all open paths.

But there are only a few special cases where you need open paths. Personally I only know of a cutting plotter that needs open paths. We had this case a couple of months ago in the forum. In all other cases, you need closed paths. Most rendering engines cannot handle open paths. So, I guess what you probably want is this:

Add these custom parameters to your instance:
Filter: GlyphsFilterOffsetCurve;5;5;1;0.5
Filter: GlyphsFilterRemoveOverlap;

Which error are you getting?

Really open paths are not possible. It is not supported by OpenType or TrueType font.

You can use the method mekkablue described above to make a very thin outlined version of your paths.

Hi, thank you for answers.
I need it really single line, because the font should be used for laser or mechanical engraving. Every extra path will extend the production time, and make stroke doubled.

I found this test kit, where you have three font formats used for engraving.

http://www.onelinefonts.com/download/TestFont(A-D).zip

I am not able to export the SP version, which is actually the most useful one. It is not even possible in Fontlab, so it is real mystery.

In Glyphs, i get this error:
makeotfGlyphs [FATAL] premature end of input

And in Fontlab, it automatically close open contours.

Very nice thing about Glyphs is, that it physically show the single stroke in preview, but it is a pitty that you can’t export it…

If you open the fonts in either Glyphs of FontLab you will see, that the paths are doubled up. That means they are not open but just have not area between them.

What version of Glyphs do you have?

Depends on what you think an open path is. OpenType renderers assume an implicit closepath at the end of any path description, because there is no such thing as an open path in OpenType. Note that the closepath is not stored in the font, so Glyphs theoretically can export the font with open paths, the problem is just finding a renderer that ignores the implicit closepath.

Which software do you use for engraving?

See this discussion for reference:
http://www.glyphsapp.com/forums/index.php?action=vthread&forum=4&topic=879

can you please tell me what the values exactly mean? i try to get the thinnes stroke possible (1;1;1;0.5) but i just try and fail with that. is this the thinnest possible stroke?

and is it possible to have very pointy sharp corners?

How about copying and pasting exactly the same shape over the original and close the line ends? In theory would appear perfectly single-line but be closed. I don’t know if that’s possible to export and how a cutter will behave, though.

in my case i actually still want some line.

for the moment i decreased the otf line by increasing the units to 3000. still i cannot figure out, what the 3rd value does (and the 4th i can only guess).

The custom parameter is described in the appendix of the handbook as well as in the app help (click the question mark symbol). The values are the same as in the filter dialog and in the same order.

You can go even thinner if you set the grid step to zero. Try 0.3 for example.

thank you, mekkablue!