Huge otf font size

Glyphs
1

Hi there! I need help.

I have created a font with rough effect. It contains more than 400 glyphs, but otf file has very huge size (about 1 MB). Any suggestions how can i optimize it?

2

The only way to optimize it is to remove nodes. Sometimes you can convert curve segments to lines without changing the shape to much.

3

Is there any way how can i do it automatically?

4

I would need to see your design. You can use the Retractor plugin or the Roughen filter.

5

[quote=“mekkablue, post:4, topic:5256, full:true”]
I would need to see your design. You can use the Retractor plugin or the Roughen filter.
[/quote]

Every glyph contains about 2000 points

6

In in that case, I would use a combination of Roughen and Delete Small Paths (get rid of paths a smaller than 300 square units). Try to get each glyph’s average below 1000. Try TTF instead of CFF/OTF.

7

I use the following process:

  • Copy all paths to background layer
  • Run Rainer’s script to retract all handles, converting all curves to lines.
  • Remove overlap
  • Tidy up paths
  • Copy paste to Illustrator and simplify path
  • Copy paste back to glyphs
  • Manually inspect everything for problems. Restore curves and points as needed. This is important because it gets rid of all those ugly unnatural curves and points that make autotracing obvious. This is the most important step, because if you don’t do this it just looks like a bad autotraced logo, and it’s unethical to charge clients for that.

Illustrator could probably be replaced by Simon Cozens Supertool plugin which can simplify paths. It’s only $50, so it should pay for itself in time saved.