Selecting and locking anchors

Glyphs
1

I occasionally run into the issue when selecting anchors and having them accidentally shift. I have two questions:

  1. is it possible to add a click and drag option to be able to select anchors with a modifier key?

  2. is it possible to add an option for locking the vertical, horizontal, or both positions of an anchor?

I typically want to lock the vertical position to some level (baseline, x-height, cap-height, etc) and then focus on shifting the anchor along the horizontal.

I am imagining X and Y padlocks next to the values.
Screenshot 2021-03-04 at 12.26.07

2

One option for the shifting along the horizontal, in the meanwhile: if you use the Shift key while dragging, movement will be in either horizontal or vertical to the original position.

3

I never drag anchors. Always move them with the arrow keys.

4

There is the SelectionPalette plug-in that adds an option for selecting all anchors at once.

5

I don’t necessarily need to select all the anchors. At times I want to be able to select nodes and anchors together using drag-n-select in one fell swoop…instead of dragging to select the nodes and then clicking on the anchor.

Would it be possible to use a modifier key ( Option+drag ) to include anchors in the selection?

Thoughts on adding locks on the anchor x/y positions?

6

This particular combination is already taken for selecting only on-curve points

7

Oh didn’t realize that was there. That could be handy.

What about?:
Cmd + Drag for selecting only anchors
Cmd + Shift + Drag for selecting anchors and nodes
(or vice-versa)

8

The command key can’t be used as it is used to temporarily switch to the select tool from other tools.

9

What if modifier keys aren’t used…instead the direction of click-n-drag can determine selection type.

There is an option in architecture/3d modelling programs (Rhino, Revit, SketchUp) to differentiate object selection by either dragging from the Top-Left –> Bottom-Right or Top-Right → Bottom-Left.

Here is an example from Rhino (start – 2min):

Maybe TL->BR is the default node selection and TR->BL can include anchors (and perhaps even guidlines?) in the selection box.

10

That is an interesting idea.

11

Any news on how we can click + drag + [modifiers] to only select anchors?

This would be useful if we have a multiple anchor in one place. Instead of moving them one by one, or selecting the all the anchors and moving them altogether.

12

Selecting all anchors is easier than that. Press Cmd-A multiple times. It depends on the content of the glyph, but all anchors is usually the third Cmd-A.

13

Yes, but out of 8 anchors i only want to select bottom_1 and ring_1 which is on top of each others.

a keybinding would be convenient. no?

14

Some Select buttons in the Anchors sidebar would help.

Screenshot 2024-07-10 at 12.13.12

15

This is a very good idea. What’s that plugin called? Adding Select buttons shouldn’t be too hard.

16

I think it is JAF’s GitHub - justanotherfoundry/freemix-glyphsapp: Scripts to be used with the Glyphs font editor.
But since @FlorianPircher is working on the anchors plugin to end all plugins GitHub - florianpircher/Anchor-Annotations: A plugin for Glyphs that offers many customizable modes for displaying anchors in Edit View. perhaps it is better integrated with that one?

17

Is clicking buttons in the palette sufficient? If so, the feature is best added to the palette plugin.

Regarding the suggested click + drag + modified key, those are all already used:

  • Command: Temporarily switch from other tools to the Select tool
  • Option: Select on-curve nodes only
  • Control (held before click): Choose action from context menu
  • Control (held after click): Adjust selection angle (useful for italics)
  • Shift: Modify current selection instead of starting new selection
18

I’d also add my voice for a modifier to select anchors. Click-to-select requires an annoying level of precision.

When do people use that? If you move on-curves, off-curves move too anyway. It seems only useful if you intend to option-drag the on-curves, but in those cases off-curves are usually far away enough so aiming is not a problem, or at least a way less frequent problem than selecting anchors.

Maybe there could be a toggle in the preferences to swap that for anchors only?

19

I think I never use Option-drag, so remapping it in the next major app version to select anchors only is fine by me.

20

I want a feature that enables me to copy anchors from a list, and then paste them in on all the other layers in one go but staying at the same relative positions. Eg. an anchor is placed on top of a node of the outline. I copy it, but then when I use this special paste function it will paste itself onto that same node in all the other layers.

In general I need a “do this, but for all layers” function.