Hello - I have been using the stroke-width feature to create an Outline-font. The project was almost finished when my laptop crashed. Everything’s gone now, except 1 woff2 file that i had sent to somebody. I converted it back to ttf and opened the file with glyphs3. Unsurprisingly, the single path that was the outline has been turned into two paths. Is there a way to revert this?
If I delete one of the paths and set the stroke width again it will be a different size than before - moreover it is a ligature-heavy type experiment with so many glyphs that i don’t have the endurance to change manually. It’s my masters project and I already surpassed the deadline, so it’s kind of important to me. If this is a stupid question I’m sorry, total noob here.
Sorry for the file loss, and no, the outline cannot be converted back into a single line with stroke. Considering your deadline, it’s probably best to make any last edits to the outline directly instead of trying to recreate the stroke effect.
But maybe the original .glyphs file can be restored? How did the Mac crash?
The logic board crashed and had to be replaced, unfortunately they didn’t let me keep the removed parts so - if there was any chance of recovery, the warranty conditions prevented it
Let that be a reminder for everyone to do proper a s frequent backups. Use TimeMachine and or store the important files in an folder that is synced to the cloud.
I needed some time to come to terms with the situation, but now I’m trying my best to “restore” the original path that the stroke-width effect was applied to. I used a value of 4, which means all the points fit the grid. I’m prepared to go through all 200 glyphs manually, but just in case somebody knows a workaround or has any tips - let me know
I would suggest you use the “Offset Curve” filter and set -4 as your stroke width. Uncheck “make stroke”.
This will get you a doubled single-line stroke, but you can click on a segment and use Opt-Backspace to delete only the segment while preserving the rest of the outline.
@SCarewe Thank you for the idea! i used -2 horizontally and vertically and then deleted one of the paths. They are a bit different though, depending if based on the outer or inner strokepath. And - I know it’s not a nice curve but just to demonstrate, sometimes the newly generated paths will be super whacky
Thank you so much! This method works a treat for all “one-stroke” glyphs. For ones with separate paths like punches or tittles it takes some fidgeting, but the outcome is exactly what I’m looking for How would I go about scripting for these cases? I had a look at the Variation Interpolator mentioned here but I’m a bit overwhelmed
The complexity of a scripting solution depends on how much you prepare the outlines. You could make it very clever that it recognizes connections and break it apart, or make require that the paths have one stroke (no branching). The later is of course much easier to code. I had worked on something like that some time ago, but didn’t get far.
How would I go about scripting for these cases? I had a look at the Variation Interpolator mentioned