Drawing Geometric Primitives

The Ellipse and Rectangle tools create closed contours from a drag or a set of dimensions. Use them for geometric forms, stems, counters, and construction shapes that you can refine afterward.

For the exercises below, begin in an empty glyph or an unused area of the current drawing. Use the Ellipse and Rectangle instructions to draw the two shapes side by side, then select the Contour tool and inspect them: the ordinary ellipse has smooth nodes and curved segments, while the rectangle has corner nodes and straight segments. Both are closed contours made from the same points and segments as a hand-drawn outline.

The Ellipse Tools

Press O or choose the Ellipse tool in the Toolbar. If its toolbox is hidden, double-click the tool button. The group offers a geometric ellipse and an oval with adjustable curve tension. Repeated presses of O switch between the sub-tools; check the active choice before drawing.

Geometric ellipse	Oval with tension
The Ellipse toolbox has Geometric ellipse selected here; this state does not expose a tension value.	Selecting Oval with curve tension exposes the percentage field in the toolbox.

Draw an ellipse or circle

1. Select Geometric ellipse.
2. Place the pointer at one corner of the intended bounding rectangle.
3. Drag toward the opposite corner and release.
4. Inspect the closed contour in the current drawing.

Hold Shift while dragging to make the width and height equal, producing a circle. Hold Option on macOS or Alt on Windows to draw outward from the center instead of between opposite corners. You can combine the center and equal-dimension modifiers.

The tool constructs the ellipse as Bézier curves. It provides a geometric starting shape; it does not decide whether that shape has the optical proportions you want for a letter.

Draw an oval with tension

Select Oval with curve tension to control the curve's fullness. Curve tension expresses the handle extension as a percentage. Around 55% closely approximates a geometric ellipse; higher values make the form fuller toward its corners, and lower values pull it toward a diamond-like shape.

Enter the tension in the toolbox, then drag as you would for an ellipse. The same Shift and Option/Alt modifiers apply. Compare two equal-sized ovals with different tensions to see the effect without confusing it with a size change.

The toolbox value controls the next oval. Set Font Info > Font Dimensions > Curve tension when you want to change the master’s default. That default is also used by other curve-building tools; changing it is broader than setting a one-off oval value.

The Rectangle Tools

Press I or choose the Rectangle tool. Open its toolbox to choose Rectangle, Polygon, or Star. The group also contains Erasing rectangle, which removes existing content rather than adding an ordinary shape; check that it is not active for the following exercises. Erasing is taught in Cutting, Slicing, and Erasing.

Draw a rectangle or square

Select Rectangle, then drag from one corner to the opposite corner. Hold Shift for a square, or Option/Alt to draw from the center. Release to add the closed contour.

With View > Suggest > Stems enabled, the tool can show stem-distance suggestions as you draw. These are useful references, but inspect the resulting dimensions when exact size matters; suggestions are covered in Snapping and Suggestions.

Draw a polygon or star

Choose Polygon and set the number of sides in the toolbox or property bar. Drag from the center outward. The drag sets the radius and orientation of the regular polygon.

In Polygon mode, the toolbox shows the vertex-count field; three is the current example value.

Choose Star and set the number of points in the same parameter control. Drag from the center outward to create it. For both Polygon and Star, Shift constrains the radial direction to 90° steps. They already draw from the center; the center-drawing modifier used for rectangles and ellipses is unnecessary.

The number remains available for subsequent shapes until you change it. Check it when returning to a tool used earlier in the session.

Shared Conventions and Procedures

Draw a counter with reversed direction

Ordinary shapes follow the existing drawing's contour-direction convention. In a blank glyph, the starting convention is PostScript direction. Hold Cmd on macOS or Ctrl on Windows while drawing to reverse the new contour relative to that convention.

Try this with rectangles:

1. In an empty glyph, draw a large ordinary rectangle.
2. Keep the Rectangle tool active.
3. Hold Cmd/Ctrl and draw a smaller rectangle completely inside it.
4. Hold Space for Quick Preview to inspect the result.

The smaller reversed contour creates a counter in the outer shape. It is not a white rectangle with its own paint color. The open area follows from the two contours' directions and nesting. If the interior remains filled, check the active sub-tool and the direction indicators before continuing.

This exercise uses simple nested contours. Overlapping shapes and live effects can have additional fill behavior, so do not assume that every reversed shape is a general-purpose eraser.

Enter exact dimensions

Click the canvas without dragging to open the numeric creation dialog for the active sub-tool.

For an ellipse or rectangle, choose the shape and direction, select an origin reference in the nine-point control, and enter Width and Height in font units. The origin reference determines which part of the shape is anchored at the clicked position. Confirm with OK.

The oval dialog adds a Tension field to Width and Height. The origin selector controls how the new shape is positioned.

Polygon and Star use a shared dialog whose title reflects the selected shape. Enter the corner or point count and Radius. The radius measures from the center to an outer vertex; the star's inner vertices are derived by the tool rather than specified by a second radius field. Confirm to add the shape.

The star dialog uses Radius and Vertices rather than a rectangle’s Width and Height.

For creation without the dialog, the property bar provides position and size fields and an Add control. Choose the origin reference, enter the coordinates and dimensions, then add the shape. Check the result against the rulers and font dimension lines.

FontLab organizes drawing content into elements internally. For these exercises, the shapes join the current drawing; you do not need to manage that structure separately. Once a shape is created, its nodes and contours can be edited like other outline content. Elements are taught in The Element Model; live effects and strokes are introduced in Live Filters and Designing with Skeletons.