How can you ensure that zones of all fonts of a family are of equal height at small sizes when doing manual TrueType hinting? Wouldn’t it be possible to establish something like FamilyZones, as exists for PostScript hinting? Global deltas in TTFZones are not reliable. If the screen is scaled to anything other than 100%, the effect can be reversed. In ttfautohint, there’s the --reference option. Would it be possible to integrate something like this into manual hinting as well — for a specific range (certain font sizes)?
you can add “TTFZones” to the font custom parameter. that should work very similar to family zones. you also add a “TTFFamilyZonesThreshold” parameter to define until what PPM the family zones will be applied. If you don’t add that parameter, the TTFZones on the font will used for all masters in all sizes.
I can add TTFZones on font level (not just in each master)? I noticed it’s not available in the ‘+’ menu — so I need to enter it manually, correct?
Also: Is it correct to have TTFZones defined for each master and also at the font level? Will the font-level TTFZones override or complement the master-level ones?
There are three modes:
- only TTFZones in the masters: Then each font will get its own zones.
- TTFZones in masters and in the font: The zones in the masters will be used to attached instructions to the zone but the actual zone values will come from the font settings.
- TTFZones in both and a “TTFFamilyZonesThreshold” parameter with a pt value (e.g. 44). then the zones from the font will be used below that value and the ones from the master above.