TrueEdit supports glyph classes through the class table
(clas
). In the clas
table, glyphs can be
collected in named groups according to the logic of the font
designer. The clas
table is a TrueEdit source table,
used for font production only. In TrueEdit 2.0, the kerning and
optical bounds editors support glyph classes. Specific instructions
for using glyph classes with these editors are included in Chapter
IV: Position effects. Glyph class support may
be added to other areas in future versions of TrueEdit.
Creating a glyph class uses many of the basic TrueEdit operations
described in the section "Working with tables". To create a new
'clas
' table and add your first glyph class:
clas
is added to the list of tables in
the font's Tables window. Select the clas
tag in the
Tables window. Choose Open Table from the
File menu, or press Command-T. The Glyph
Classes window appears. You can also double-click the
clas
tag in the Tables window to open the Glyph
Classes window directly.There are no rules about naming glyph classes, except that each name must be unique within the font. A class is used only within TrueEdit, and is not seen by the font's end user.
The basic operations for editing a glyph class apply throughout TrueEdit, wherever you need to edit sets of glyphs.
To add glyphs to your new glyph class:
The live area is highlighted when the pointer is over it. Remember to release the mouse button to complete your selection, then press again to drag the selection to the editor window. When you release the mouse button, the Glyph Class editor window updates to show the new glyphs in the class. (In some circumstances, the window will not update completely until you close and reopen it. The contents of the glyph class are not affected.)
The blank spot after the last entry is the new live area. If the live area isn't visible, use the scrollbar to move up or down in the window. To add more glyphs to the class:
To delete a glyph from a class:
You may find that you have created a wide variety of glyph classes for your font. A few additional operations will help you manage your glyph classes.
To remove a class:
You cannot change the name of a glyph class once you have created it. As a workaround, you can remove the class from the Glyph Classes table, then recreate it under a new name.
Glyph classes are defined in the 'clas
' table of a
font. Although you can't copy individual classes from one font to
another, you can copy an entire 'clas
' table.
Copy the 'clas' table with caution, because it refers to the glyph numbers in the original font. If the destination font has a different set of glyphs, the copied glyph classes will make little or no sense. If the fonts are very different, you could corrupt the destination font or even crash TrueEdit.