something seems to have recently changed about the behaviour of the pen tool. I used to (for years) quite enjoy drawing shapes with it but now it’s not nice at all. It’s hard to explain but it seems to have some weird point snapping behaviour that destroys the curves one has just made, this then takes time to edit. I can’t stand it, I have taken to drawing with straight lines and then converting to curves. Is this a so called improvement? a new feature that I have yet to learn how to turn off, or a bug?
As far as I know, no major changes were made to the pen tool in recent updates.
Does this happen while drawing or after a path has been drawn? What exactly is happening to the nodes that previously did not happen?
Could it be that you have a different gridspacing/subdiv set? That could explain more snapping.
here’s a viddy that might help explain, this is what happens when I try to draw a circle. the next point is placed directly on top of where the control handle is, so I end up with a wobbly flower, not a circle, and then I have to go and tease apart all the overlapped points. I have only just noticed this, after drawing like this for years. it is possible that I have ignorantly turned something on, but I have no idea what
Are you releasing the shift key between placement of a node? If not, that will cause unpredictable behavior.
Yes, only hold down the Shift key while the final dragging of the handle.
And you can try this: Just draw a diamond shape just by clicking (no curves). Then, with the select tool, hold down the Option and Shift and click on the lines. Then Select All and click the right button on the Fit Curve panel. Sounds more complicated than it is.
Listen to Georg. John Downer taught me this at Typecon years ago and I never draw curves with the pen tool. I just drop extrema points and pull the curves into place. Once you get used to working this way you’ll never want to go back.
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no shift key is being used in that viddy, just the pen tool
no shift key was used. I am familiar with your method, my typeface ITC Humana was drawn in a similar way in Ikarus M circa 1994, as I had no digitizer. why is the pen tool behaving as it is in the video? it was not like this before
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For the life of me, I cannot reproduce this behaviour in 3.0.5 (3112). Which exact version of Glyphs are you using?
And are you sure you don’t have a stuck key on your keyboard or something?
Are you using a mouse or a Wacom?
it’s possible, but surely that would be apparent elsewhere, and it isn’t
Trackpad, Apple
Can you try a different user on your mac? Maybe there is some strange preference?
this happens after the path has been drawn. it’s such a pity, as I always used to evangelise to folk about how nice the drawing abilities were in Glyphs, plus, I don’t enjoy drawing letters any more in Glyphs, Make things you love, right‽
my apologies, it happens while the path is being drawn. I had to watch my own movie again, as I have avoided drawing letters in Glyphs because of this
Can you try with an external mouse instead of the trackpad you are using (internal laptop teackpad or external)? My colleagues are using (external) trackpads in Glyphs without a problem. Sorry to be so picky, but would you be able to describe exactly what your inputs are? Are you holding any keys, how are you using the trackpad? Do you do this: Click down, hold the click, drag to pull the handle, let go, move to the next position, then repeat the same process from the beginning?
I also cannot reproduce this (MacBook internal trackpad). You are absolutely right in evangelising people about the greatness of path drawing in Glyphs, but there is most definitely something buggy in your setup. Have you tried a reinstallation of Glyphs?
I really can’t resource this. Do you have any extra mouse software installed? Can you try to add a new user account and try it there? Or with an external mouse? And can you try to start Glyphs without plugins by holding down the Option+Shift key when you start the app?
I draw with the pen tool all of the time and have never seen this.
iMac 12.2.1 with standard Mouse
Something is somehow causing the previous off-curve node to be pulled to the next on-curve node you place. I can’t think of anything, offhand, that would cause that to happen.
Perhaps some plugin is enabled causing trouble here. Restarting without plugins as Georg suggested is worth a try.
I assume you’ve changed the default colors for things. If not, then that could be another indication of some other plugin in use.