I am very familiar with RoboFont and getting more familiar with Glyphs. I am wondering if there is a way to space with a “beam” like you’re able to in space center in RoboFont, or if you can change where the side bearing are calculated from (instead of from an outermost point, from either the midpoint between the baseline and the x-height or from the baseline to the cap-height). I’m just having trouble making sense of the metrics on a font that has serifs.
Yes, you can write a metrics key like =30@200 to use a spacing of 30 at an offset of 200 from the baseline instead of at the furthest point of the outline.
Something that might help you to get a hang of your serif font: try using View > Show Measurement Line. You can move this line up and down (very un-intuitively) by activating the Ruler tool and then dragging the line.