Multiple axis chaos

1

Hello everyone,

I am working on a project and I am trying to make a font with a couple of custom axes to make my font customizable. For simplicity, I have these three axes:

  1. Weight (100-1000)
  2. Ink traps (0-50-1000) 50 being default
  3. X height (0-100) 0 being the normal (high) and 100 being shorter)

For the main glpyhs file I have three real masters:

  1. 100 weight, 50 ink traps, 50 0 x height)
  2. 400 50 0
  3. 1000 50 0

Now for each of the above masters, I am using intermediates for each case covering the x height and ink traps:

100
{100, 0, 0} – for the ink traps at their highest
{100, 100, 0} – ink traps at their lowest
{100, 50, 100} – short x height

Exact same concept for the other 2 masters.

What I am noticing is that changes to ink traps are causing other axis to change and the sidebearings to change, which should not be happening.

Anyone have any ideas? I figure I have messed up the virtual masters but nothing I’ve done sofar has been able to resolve that.

2

based on the unwanted output you are describing it sounds like your design space is not complete and requires more masters and/or more intermediate masters. are you able to share screenshots of your axis setup in the masters tab of the font info window as well as any intermediate layers or virtual masters you have? also for the ink traps, are you using corner components?

can you clarify this as well: “100 weight, 50 ink traps, 50 0 x height” - is “50 0” a typo? sorry for all the questions! but I think this info would be helpful for diagnosing the issue

1 Like
3

Very easy. Don’t use intermediate masters for this, instead use proper masters. Additionally let me recommend that you use corner components to make the inktraps (if you are not already doing that).