Adding text to a glyph – as outlines

[Frank Grießhammer]

This question could be posted in multiple different mailing lists, but this one somehow seems the most appropriate:

Inspired by a solution Jim Wasco described at ATypI this year, I would like to create a “labeled” version of a font – that means that each glyph has its glyph name written out within itself, as an outline.

This labeled font is then used to see what actually happens during a substitution, and if the result is as was intended.

I was first thinking of using DrawBot within Robofont to create a text box, but there are several obstacles:

– How can I tell DrawBot to use the current glyph (or any glyph) as its canvas?

– Can text composed via DrawBot be converted to outlines?

I also had a quick chat with DJR who suggested using a pen.

I have used pens before, but not for composing text – any pointers?

Maybe there are other solutions I am simply not thinking about at this point; I would appreciate any suggestion.

Thanks!

Frank

[Frederik Berlaen]

He Frank

Best option: a simple textsetter isnt that difficult, even with support for kerning and OT features with Tal's compositor...

you can add the paths to a glyph with a pen + a transformPen

difficult option: use drawbot by adding text as paths in a pdf and extract the contours from the pdf data afterwards

simple example:

"""

from compositor import Font as CompositorFont

from fontTools.pens.transformPen import TransformPen

from fontTools.misc.transform import Transform

# some text

text = "my text"

# get the current glyph

destGlyph = CurrentGlyph()

# load the binary font

sourceFont = CompositorFont("path/to/binaryFont.otf")

# process the text to glyph records, optionally enable some features

glyphRecords = sourceFont.process(stringOrGlyphList=text)

# setup a transform object

t = Transform()

# set a scale

t = t.scale(.3)

# loop over all glyph records

for glyphRecord in glyphRecords:

    

    # set the placement of the glyph

    t = t.translate(glyphRecord.xPlacement, glyphRecord.yPlacement)

    

    # put the dest glyph pen into the transform pen

    pen = TransformPen(destGlyph.getPen(), t)

    

    # get the source glyph from the binary font

    sourceGlyph = sourceFont[glyphRecord.glyphName]

    

    # draw the binary glyph into the pen

    sourceGlyph.draw(pen)

    

    # reset the placement

    t = t.translate(-glyphRecord.xPlacement, -glyphRecord.yPlacement)

    # set the advance width

    t = t.translate(glyphRecord.advanceWidth, glyphRecord.advanceHeight)

    # some kerning

    t = t.translate(glyphRecord.xAdvance, glyphRecord.yAdvance)

"""

good luck

gr Frederik

www.typemytype.com

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[Behdad Esfahbod]

On 14-10-02 08:59 PM, Frank Grießhammer wrote:
> This question could be posted in multiple different mailing lists, but this
> one somehow seems the most appropriate:
>
> Inspired by a solution Jim Wasco described at ATypI this year, I would like to
> create a “labeled” version of a font – that means that each glyph has its
> glyph name written out within itself, as an outline.
> This labeled font is then used to see what actually happens during a
> substitution, and if the result is as was intended.

What an interesting idea!

> I was first thinking of using DrawBot within Robofont to create a text box,
> but there are several obstacles:
> – How can I tell DrawBot to use the current glyph (or any glyph) as its canvas?
> – Can text composed via DrawBot be converted to outlines?
>
> I also had a quick chat with DJR who suggested using a pen.
> I have used pens before, but not for composing text – any pointers?
>
> Maybe there are other solutions I am simply not thinking about at this point;
> I would appreciate any suggestion.

For TrueType-flavored fonts here's a simple approach using fontTools:

- Find glyphs for ASCII characters that can appear in glyph names. If your
font doesn't have them, add to the font from another font,

- For each pre-existing glyph X in the font, create a new glyph Y that is a
composite glyph, referencing glyph X at full size, but also referencing the
ASCII glyphs, with scale and translation, to spell out the name,

- Update cmap to point to glyph Y where glyph X was pointed at.

I might prototype this.

behdad

>
> Thanks!
> Frank
>
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[Frank Grießhammer]

Thank you Georg, David, Paul and Frederik for your code examples.

Thank you also Behdad; it sounds interesting to add this to FontTools, but I think it is a rather specialized use case.

At first, I was also thinking of using the same font within itself (like one example suggested), but since I am working with a very expressive script font, this solution wouldn’t be that convenient. That is why I built on Frederik’s example – I didn’t really have to change it. 

I think showing an image of the result makes clear what I wanted to do:

calt off:

calt on:

The marked version of the font makes it much easier to see what is actually happening in a particular feature.

Find the final code I used attached.

Thank you all again,

have a nice weekend!

Frank

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