Typophile

Problem with overlap in new script font

Joebob

Hi all,
I've been working on a new script font named dearJoe 5 and I am encountering a problem I've never seen before: After manually kerning the whole thing I am now testing the font (in Photoshop etc.) and I notice that in some letter combinations, when they overlap, the letters are not displayed correctly. Where the overlap is, the color is inverted: what should be black shows as white. When not overlapping all characters seem fine.
Now I could not find the solution myself and I hope it's something simple like a problem with the contours but really I couldn't tell.
So my question is: what could cause this problem, how do I solve this and is there a way to check all characters at once for this error?

Thanks a lot for helping me out on this.

All the best,
Joe

AttachmentSize
dJ 5 overlap.jpg31.62 KB
Typography.Guru

It's a very simple error. You need to make sure your contours have the RIGHT (depending on your outline format) and the SAME direction.

Ralf

Joebob

Hi Ralf, thanks for your quick reply.
Could you please explain what direction is the RIGHT direction and is there a way in which to treat the whole font at once to solve this problem?

Thanks,
Joe

Typography.Guru

If you use PostScript outlines take a look at chapter "3.5 Direction of Paths" in this PDF:
http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/en/font/T1_SPEC.PDF

If you use TrueType contours, it's the other way around.

Ralf

Nick Curtis

If you're working in FontLab, select all, then CONTOURS > PATHS > SET PS (or TTF) PATH DIRECTION. In Fontographer, select all, then ELEMENT > CORRECT PATH DIRECTION.

Joebob

Thanks Oldnick,

that is what I was looking for. And thanks Ralf, the PDF you suggested will come in handy too.

Joe

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