Typophile

Minus Front in Fontlab?

Dixon Yamada0 votes


Seems like the closet thing to Minus Front Fontlab has is Delete Intersection. Which sometimes works like Minus Front, and sometimes doesn't. In this pic I have drawn a crude shape on top of the t's ascender with the intent of only using it to chop away at the t. Both the shapes are highlighted in red in the first pic. Most vector programs have a Minus Front feature which would simply trim the area of overlap and the entire object on top. When I tired Delete Intersection in the example here, however, the result was a separate shape for the overlap, and a separate shape for the outline of both object. I have the combined outline shape selected and it appears in red in the second pic.

Nick Curtis0 votes

FontLab’s Merge Contours works fine, but the Intersection operations really bite. Personally, I prefer CorelDraw's straightforward approach: Weld (merge or union), Trim (delete intersection or minus front/back) and Intersection (get), all with the options of leaving or deleting the source and target objects.

Consequently, in CorelDraw, if you selected Trim/Delete Source/Delete Target, what you would end up with is the just the upright in your example, properly “minused.” As it is, you will need to use the Wand Tool to select your trim source and cut or delete it, then use the tool to select the intersection and delete it, then select all and use Merge Contours to clean up any mess let behind.

Bendy0 votes

Does reversing the contour direction of the overlapping polygon help?

K Cerulean Pease0 votes

When I absolutely need this function, I draw a big box around the whole glyph and direct it so that the glyph is reversed out of it. With black as white and white as black, Merge Contours will then do what you want.

Nick Curtis0 votes

Kevin,

That's a clever solution. Still, having a Trim function that actually worked right would be even better.

Captured from web.archive.org on 17 Oct 2018. view this capture