Working with instances - workflow

1

Hi everyone,

I’ve got some questions concerning masters and instances. I have a three masters file (Thin, Reg, Bold) and would like to interpolate Light + Extra Light and Medium + Semibold.

Everything works fine, but I would like to edit some letters of the generated instances. Is there a way to edit the instances before they are exported? Otherwise I have to edit the final .otf file, where all components are lost. I have to edit the letters hand by hand… I would expect something like working with a raw-photo-file in Photoshop. I can make changes on the photo, but can always return back to the original photo (or interpolation) by just one click. Maybe it’s a feature request?

Or are my masters not designed perfectly? Are the instances supposed to look perfect, if the masters are done right? Or is there another workflow I don’t know?

Another question: Is there a possibility to insert more than one value to the “Vertical Stem” and “Horizontal Stem” field in the masters? Like in the Vertical Stem window: H=60;O=62 and then in the Horizontal Stem window H=56;O=58; and so on? Like the information of the "HO no t "in the “Maße” (measures in english?) window.

It’s my first font, I am still learning… I am working with Glyphs Version 2.3b (854).

Thanks a lot in advance.

2

You can generate instances with the command of the same name. But that shouldn’t be necessary unless your design requires that. Have you read the Multiple Master tutorials?

And please read the tutorial about autohinting. That should answer your questions about the stems.

3

Yeah, I haven’t read the article about autohinting. Thanks for the advice.

I have read the Multiple Master tutorials. My interpolations work fine, but some letters need improvements. Do I have to edit the final .otf file or is there another way I don’t know yet?

4

I’m usually happy with the result of the interpolation, even from two masters.

What kind of changes do you do? Is it for a lot glyphs or only a few?

There are two options: change the master setup. Or if only a few letters need fixing, you can add those as a extra master: https://www.glyphsapp.com/tutorials/additional-masters-for-individual-glyphs-the-brace-trick

5

I think I will change my master setup :wink:

Thanks a lot Georg and Rainer!!!