The future of Glyphs :)

Hi,

Since new Fontlab is released, I wonder what are you guys planning for the future? What great features can we expect? :sunglasses:

There are some big changes in the pipeline. Canā€™t say much yet :wink:

edit: correct typo

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Can? :smiley: Go on!

Please a sketchboard from which glyphs can be used as components in the font. Or more options for multiple screens :smile:

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And I like Genius and X-servant functionality from FL6 :smiley:

Iā€™d love to see a preview window similar to RFā€™s Space Center, with multiple lines of test area.

A preview area other than the edit view?

Yes, a separate window to place on a secondary monitor that can show glyph edits being made on primary monitor amongst a wider range of contexts than one line of preview can show effectively.

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I really like that you can change trakcing in Fontlab IV while doing the metrics. I would love to judge the spacing of a text in Edit view with different tracking.

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I agree. The option of multiple windows would be awesome

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I downloaded the Fontlab VI 30-day trial after having been a paid Glyphs user for just a short while so far. I was excited at first because the new UI looks so fresh and clean, and I am a slave to my eyes for better or for worse. :slight_smile: Howeverā€¦ I donā€™t think Iā€™ll need the full 30 days to decide that Iā€™ll stick with Glyphs.

I donā€™t know if everyone has this problem (I see it in videos, too) but general drawing and point manipulation in Fontlab takes frustratingly long and the process is so laggy. Glyphs is incredibly snappy by comparison, especially with just basic drawing, that I almost couldnā€™t believe it. Almost every action from selecting points to dragging handles seemed to be responding poorly for me.

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Interesting. I purchased FLVI when it was launched because it will probably be useful for certain things that are maybe not possible or tricky to do in Glyphs. But I donā€™t plan to go back to it as my main font editor.

My impression is that it is very fast. (Maybe it depends on hardware.) Document sizes for the same font data appear to be smaller than with Glyphs, but they are not human readable. It has a lot of interesting new features. On the other hand, the UI and workflow of the new FontLab is so different, both from Glyphs and previous versions of FontLab.

Iā€™ve changed primary font editors twice in the last five years (FontLab -> Robofont -> Glyphs). Itā€™s hard to imagine it would be worth the time and effort to do it yet again, especially given how happy and efficient I am working in Glyphs.

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Mark, I agree with everything you have said. FLVI will be another tool to complement Glyphs.

Maybe thatā€™s the better way to phrase it, I feel much more efficient in Glyphs. Perhaps thatā€™s just learned behavior, I canā€™t tell myself.

In general I still believe Glyphs feels much more lightweight and easy to use (although, like I said, I believe the Fontlab UI to be more visually appealing to me). Opening up the FLVI trial again and pushing some points, I stand by my previous statement but it may have been a bit reactionaryā€¦ Iā€™ll concede there. There is something though, I donā€™t know exactly what, that to me makes Glyphs seem to just cruise on my machine compared to Fontlabā€™s new release. Glyphs just zips.

You mean something like @SimonCā€™s GlyphsSILE plug-in? Or @Toscheā€™s waterfall window?

My first impression of FLVI was also that there appears to be ā€œmoreā€ but maybe this is just the visual appearance? Can it do anything useful that Glyphs cannot? Glyphs is very powerful under the hood, getting lots of things right without the user even noticing unless they are font-tech experts. As a funny side note, I realised that Glyphs seems to be working without a single slider in the UI, and it is working well.
I believe a good font editor supports both the visual aspects of making fonts as well as the organisational, rational side. Each has its place, and I feel Glyphs is good at not trying to make the organisational side overly visual as a UI. There are simply parts of the font making work that are more about thinking and less about looking, and the UI for this should be pragmatic rather than visual and flashy.

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I was kind of overwhelmed seeing the new FontLab UI. Thereā€™s so much choice, so much options.

I do not see myself going back to FL as my main editor. For me Glyphs just sits in exactly the right spot between the bare naked RoboFont and the fullpacked FL.

The only place where I feel lost in Glyphs is in the Font Info panel. Thereā€™s only very basic info to fill in, more control has to be done with custom parameters. For instance, Iā€™d really Glyphs to offer standard textfields to fill in values for vertical family metrics, WinAscent/Descent and line-gap control.

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We are working on a quite big update of the font info. Stay tuned.

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Thatā€™s great news!

FontLab VI seems to run like smooth 4k 60fps comparing to Glyphs which usually drops frames for me.
FontLabā€™s tools for measuring and all the info that shows up while moving mouse over the outlines looks very useful and gives many options. One of my favourite things about the selection (countour) tool in FL is that it becomes a lasso tool when i hold alt.
Regardless, iā€™ll stick to Glyphs for the most part now.

I just hope thereā€™s a plan for some workspace thatā€™d suit lettering work more.
And an option to turn off those ā€œsmartā€ guidesā€¦ Please. :wink: