Scope of Editing

In FontLab, you can define the scope of editing, i.e. whether you can edit contours across glyphs, elements or layers.

Editing across glyphs

In situations where you have multiple glyphs visible at once, on the Sketchboard or in a Glyph Window, by default you can only edit the active glyph. In such a case:

• the active glyph is shown in detail with contours and nodes, and has a pale semi-transparent fill that can be changed in Preferences;
• inactive glyphs are shown filled, but without the details visible in the active glyph;
• you can only edit the active glyph, and change which glyph is active (by double-clicking the other glyph) before you can edit another glyph.

To edit across glyphs, turn on Edit > Edit Across Glyphs (AltCmdE). Once this option is turned on:

• all glyphs in the text are shown in detail with contours and nodes, and has a pale semi-transparent fill that can be changed in Preferences;
• you can edit across glyphs, selecting parts of multiple glyphs at the same time.

Editing across elements

If there is more than one element in a glyph, then by default you can only edit the contours of the current element.

To edit across elements, turn on Edit > Edit Across Elements. Once this option is turned on, then you can perform contour editing operations (using tools like Contour, Eraser, Knife ) across multiple elements in the same glyph.

Editing across layers

In the Glyph Window or Sketchboard, by default, you can only edit contours on the currently selected layer or master.

To edit across layers, turn on Edit > Edit Across Layers. Once this option is turned on, you can edit contours across different layers and masters within the same glyph (the Edit Across Elements option must be active as well) or even across glyphs (if Edit Across Glyphs is also active).