thundernixon / robofont-drawing-helpers

A few random drawing helpers I'm working on for RoboFont

RoboFont Drawing Helper Scripts

A few random drawing helpers I'm working on for RoboFont, to assist with repetitive tasks in my drawing workflow.

But first: an easier way to create new shortkey combos

It is always tricky to find simple, new shortcut key combos that aren't yet used. You can make this much easier by converting your caps lock key into a "hyper" key – ctrl+optn+cmmd+shft, all at once. Use this guide to set it up, if that's appealing to you:

https://brettterpstra.com/2017/06/15/a-hyper-key-with-karabiner-elements-full-instructions/

add-sloped-grid-of-guides.py

Use this to add a grid of guides. If you have set an italic angle in a UFO, the guides will follow it.

You can tweak the code to change the size and basis of the grid sizing:

## Set grid size or number of divisions in UPM2
# gridSize = 25                         ### uncomment this to use units for grid size (and comment-out the two lines below)
divisions = 20                          ### uncomment this to use divisions of UPM for grid size (and comment-out the line above)
gridSize = int(round(UPM / divisions))  ### uncomment this to use divisions of UPM for grid size

You can also adjust the "magnetism" of guides with the final lines of code:

# make guides magnetic
for guide in g.guides:
    # prevent vertical guides from being far more "magnetic"
    if guide.angle == 90:
        guide.magnetic = 10
    else:
        guide.magnetic = 10

remove-selected-glyphs-from-font.py

For some reason, it is weirdly hard to really remove glyphs from a UFO, with RoboFont.

This script removes selected glyphs from the glyphs folder, from glyphOrder, kerning, and components.

I have it setup to ctrl+optn+cmmd+shft+delete

duplicate-selected-glyphs-w_new_suffix.py and make-selected-alt_glyphs-default.py

One of the simplest and most effective ways to experiment with different glyphs is to quickly make alternates.

The duplicate script prompts your for a new suffix (e.g. alt or italic), then duplicates all selected glyphs with this suffix.

The make default script takes suffixed glyphs, and makes them the non-suffixed versions. The previous non-suffixed glyphs get a suffix replaced_by_ and then the suffix that replaced them. This is a bit messy, but I couldn't think of anything more clear.

These can then be turned on in the Space Center, for contextual viewing.

Caveat: the make default script messes with the glyph order in the UFO a bit. So, save your UFO before using it, in case you don't like what it does.

I have the duplicate script setup to ctrl+optn+cmmd+shft+J (like the "copy layer" shortcut in Photoshop). I have the make default script setup to ctrl+optn+cmmd+shft+H (the key next to J).

duplicate-sel_glyphs-w_suffix-all_fonts.py

This duplicates a glyph with a suffix in all open fonts.

If you're working on many masters at once, this can be handy.