Creating and Removing Glyphs

A prospective filter can show positions a font is intended to contain. Creating glyphs turns those positions into actual members of the font. Removing glyphs changes the collection in the opposite direction.

These operations change font data. Before a substantial change, save the native working file and check the current font and selection. A visible placeholder, a blank glyph, and a glyph with drawings are different starting states.

Creating New Glyphs

From missing positions

When the Font window selection contains missing glyph positions, the Font menu's creation command changes from New Glyph... to Create Glyph(s). The wording reflects the task available for that selection.

1. Apply a prospective filter containing the positions you want.
2. Select the intended empty cells. Check that you have selected the target positions rather than merely made one cell current.
3. Choose the Font menu's Create Glyph(s) command.
4. Inspect the resulting glyphs and their names and assignments.

The new glyphs become part of the font. A double-click on a missing cell provides another route to creation. After the glyph has been created, double-click its cell again to open it in the Glyph window. The context menu offers the corresponding creation action.

Creating a glyph does not guarantee that it contains a finished drawing. Depending on Preferences > Operations > New glyphs, FontLab may create blank layers or use available construction information to supply content. A placeholder can remain visible for a blank result because the placeholder is still only a reference image.

A Sidebar category’s coverage counter provides a batch route to missing members of that category. Click the counter, select the glyphs to create in the resulting list, and click Generate Selected Glyphs. This is a separate dialog from the single-name entry described below.

The Sidebar’s missing-glyph dialog lists absent members of the chosen category. Select the intended glyphs, then use Generate Selected Glyphs.

A name that is not in the view

When the selection has no missing positions, Font > New Glyph... opens the new-glyph dialog. Use it when you know the identity to create without first locating a cell in a target set.

The name entry can accept a glyph name, a Unicode character, or a character combined with a suffix. Examples include adieresis, ä, and ä.ss01. These are different ways to specify the intended identity, not requests to use the displayed text as an outline drawing.

Enter the name and inspect the resolved identity before completing the dialog. If that glyph already exists, Create changes to Go to, which selects the existing glyph. Prefix and suffix buttons can modify the proposed name without retyping it.

The name field accepts the intended identity, while Create and Create Blank provide different starting-content choices. Leave replacement off when adding a new glyph.

Create uses the configured creation behavior. Create Blank, when available, creates blank layers without requesting automatic composite content; its keyboard route is Cmd+Enter on macOS or Ctrl+Enter on Windows. The blank choice can be hidden when the normal creation preference already produces a blank result. Blank does not mean the glyph lacks all metrics or identity information.

Generating with Aidus

The same dialog offers the beta Aidus feature to generate a starting drawing using existing glyphs in the font as visual references. It requires a configured Aidus glyph image model that supports image input and image output, and at least one glyph with outlines. The reference images are sent to the configured AI service as part of the request. For the connection and model settings, see AI-Assisted Automation.

For a new glyph, leave Replace existing glyph content off. Turn it on only when you intend to replace an existing glyph's drawing in the target layers.

1. Enter the glyph name or character in the new-glyph dialog. To guide the design, you can follow the name with = and a short description of the drawing you want.
2. Click Aidus. If the button is absent, check the Aidus connection and image-model configuration in Preferences.
3. Wait while FontLab prepares the references, requests an image, and traces the generated shape into editable outlines. The dialog shows progress; Stop requests cancellation.
4. When generation succeeds, FontLab adds the generated content to the font and selects the glyph. The generated result is automatically spaced; inspect both outlines and spacing before saving.

Generation works separately for each master, a stored design such as Regular or Bold. In a font with more than four masters, the dialog asks whether to use All Masters or Current Master; generating all of them takes more time and uses more AI resources.

Treat the result as a starting point for design, not a finished or automatically approved glyph. If generation fails, the dialog reports the problem so you can correct the setup or retry.

Recipe-based starting content

In the new-glyph name field, append = followed by a construction recipe and use Create to build from that recipe. For example, aacute=a+acutecomb@top names the new glyph and requests components with matching anchors. The source glyphs and attachment points must exist. With Aidus, the text after = instead describes the desired drawing. Prefix and suffix buttons retain this text while changing the proposed name.

Add components lets FontLab use available construction information. Create auto layers can retain a recipe-driven relationship instead of only producing manually positioned content.

The result depends on the target glyph and available sources. These options are not a promise to invent a completed alphabet. If your intention is to draw from an empty beginning, use the blank creation route and inspect the result before continuing. Recipe-based construction has its own workflow in Using Recipes for Composite Building.

Adding Glyphs from Catalog

Font > Add Glyphs from Catalog... provides a batch route to glyphs for Unicode characters. It is useful when the target is a character repertoire rather than a list of custom unencoded names.

The catalog's cell treatment differs from the ordinary Font window. In the standard appearance, gray catalog cells represent characters already present and unavailable for addition; available cells are shown separately, normally on white. Do not transfer the Font window's “gray means missing” interpretation to this dialog.

Finding the characters

The catalog offers Categories, Scripts, Ranges, and Smart views. Categories group character types, Scripts group writing systems, and Ranges group Unicode blocks. The catalog's Smart search combines character-property terms; it is distinct from the AI-authored Smart Filters in the Font window.

Choose the view that expresses the intended coverage, then inspect the character grid. The accompanying filter controls help narrow or locate groups. A preview helps identify a character, but the preview drawing is not a promise that your font will receive a finished drawing in that style.

Categories groups candidate characters by type. Inspect the selected cells and flag choice before adding; the displayed reference forms are not finished drawings added to your font.

Selecting and adding

1. Open Font > Add Glyphs from Catalog... for the intended current font.
2. Choose the character group or search for the required properties.
3. Select available cells. Use Cmd-click on macOS or Ctrl-click on Windows for separate cells, or Shift-click for a range.
4. If using Select All, inspect the current catalog result and the selected count before adding it.
5. Choose whether to Flag new glyphs, and select a flag if desired.
6. Click OK to add the selection and close the dialog, or Apply to add it while keeping the dialog open.

After Apply, the font has already changed. Canceling the remaining dialog interaction should not be treated as an undo of additions already applied.

The same new-glyph preferences govern the starting content. Catalog creation establishes glyphs and their identities; available recipes and sources determine whether useful constructed content can be supplied. Inspect the newly added cells and save the working font when the result is the one you intend to keep.

Removing Glyphs

Removing a glyph deletes it from the working font. Hiding it with a filter or marking it noexport is different: those choices retain the source glyph.

Warning: A glyph can be referenced by other glyphs, classes, or feature code. Deleting it can affect more than its own cell. Save before a substantial removal and inspect any dependency choices rather than accepting them solely to dismiss a dialog.

To remove glyphs:

1. Select the intended existing cells in the Font window.
2. Choose Edit > Delete, press Backspace while the grid has focus, or use the matching context-menu command.
3. If a deletion dialog appears, check its glyph list and options. Confirm with OK only when the scope is correct, or cancel.
4. Inspect the remaining collection and any affected relationships.

The simple warning can be suppressed for the current session, so do not rely on a confirmation always appearing. A dependency dialog can present additional choices when the glyphs are used as sources for others.

Those choices include Keep source glyphs, Decompose, To references, and Preserve recipes. They concern how dependent constructions survive the removal. If you are not yet working with those structures, cancel and inspect the relationships first. Their treatment is developed in Building Composites by Hand and Auto Layers. Recipe construction is covered in Using Recipes for Composite Building.

Classes > Clean Up, covered in Glyph Classes, concerns references in class definitions; it should not be read as a guarantee that every external script or every custom textual reference is repaired. Check the systems that use the removed names.

Cutting selected glyphs combines a clipboard copy with removal. It is useful for an intentional transfer, but remains a change to the source font. Use Copy instead when the source glyphs must remain.