Font Window Anatomy
The Font window places several kinds of information around the glyph inventory. The title identifies the font, the Property Bar governs the display, the central area presents glyphs, the Sidebar provides routes into the collection, and the Status Bar combines glyph information with display controls.
Recognizing these areas helps you distinguish the font’s identity, the view’s settings, and the data associated with a glyph.
Title Bar
The Title Bar identifies the font represented by the window. For an ordinary single-design font, it shows the full font name. A font containing several design masters also identifies the active master alongside the family. Here, the additional name tells you which design is being displayed.
The title or tab also helps distinguish files with similar internal names. Hovering over a font tab can reveal its file path. On macOS, the title's file icon or font tab provides a path menu; in a tabbed view, Cmd-click the Font tab heading (Ctrl-click on Windows) to access the file path.
The internal name and path answer different questions. One identifies the font as a member of a family; the other identifies the working file on disk.
Property Bar
The Property Bar is the control strip normally above the content area. It governs what the Font window presents and how it presents it. Its controls remain associated with the inventory rather than changing into a drawing-tool bar when you select a different glyph.
| Control or group | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Sidebar toggle | Shows or hides the Sidebar |
| Font Info | Access to the font's names, dimensions, and other information |
| Layer/master selector | Chooses the displayed layer or master when multiple choices are available |
| Hide unfiltered glyphs | Shows only matches, or also shows glyphs outside the current filter |
| Cell Caption | Chooses identifying information beneath or above each glyph image |
| Filter Type and Filter | Chooses the organization and subset being presented |
| Sort | Controls the view's display order |
| Color Flag controls | Marks glyphs with colors and supports flag-based work |
| Search | Finds glyphs using names, codepoints, or other criteria |
Hide unfiltered glyphs remains immediately to the left of Cell Caption. It does not move to the Toolbar.
When the Toolbar is docked horizontally in compact mode and has enough room, the Sidebar toggle and layer/master selector move to its left side. Font Info follows if there is space. Search and the flag controls can move to the right side. They retain their state and behavior and are absent from their original positions while hosted by the Toolbar. See Glyph Window Anatomy, “Compact horizontal mode,” for switching modes and the order in which controls fit or return.
The Table and List buttons are permanently at the far right of the Status Bar, after the cell-size controls. They are not Property Bar controls and do not move to the Toolbar.
The active filter is reflected in the filter control even when the choice came from the Sidebar or a search. This provides a place to check why the current view contains a particular collection.
Display order need not be the font's internal glyph-index order. A sort choice in the view helps you inspect the collection; reordering the glyphs themselves is a separate operation.
Content Area
The central Content Area contains two complementary representations.
The Font window combines the glyph-cell area with a list of glyph properties. The highlighted cell and row identify the current glyph.
[REVIEW] Replace the whole-window illustration with the current Property/Status Bar arrangement: Table/List at the bottom right, no proportion buttons on the bottom bar, and Hide unfiltered glyphs before Cell Caption. Include a companion compact-toolbar view if space permits.
The Table view is a scrollable grid of glyph cells. A cell provides an image and a caption, making this view useful for surveying the forms and comparing neighbors. A display set can also contain empty cells for expected glyphs that are not yet in the font.
The List view presents existing glyphs in sortable, editable rows with configurable data columns. It gives more room to compare names and values. Missing positions that appear as empty Table cells are not existing glyphs and do not appear as corresponding List rows.
The List view’s Columns dialog chooses data fields; it is separate from the Table view’s cell-count control.
The Table and List buttons at the far right of the Status Bar let either view appear on its own or both appear together. When both are visible, they sit side by side with a divider between them. Their scroll positions and the space allocated to each can be adjusted independently.
These are presentations of the working font. Making cells larger, showing a list, or changing the space between the two views does not scale or redraw the font's glyphs.
Glyph Cell Anatomy
A glyph cell represents one Table-view position. Its image shows glyph content or a placeholder; Cell Caption chooses identifying information. Captions normally sit below the image but can be repositioned.
The cell-caption selector can show names, Unicode values, metrics, classes, or other glyph properties. It changes the displayed label rather than the glyph’s identity.
An empty cell has no glyph. A blank glyph exists but has no drawing; a space is one example. Under the standard light appearance, existing and missing cells have white and gray backgrounds respectively, but flags and theme settings can alter those colors.
A character placeholder is a reference image, not an outline added to the font. Preferences > Font Window > Placeholder font selects the reference; the missing-glyph display controls choose a light fill or a glowing outline. In the Glyph window, View > Layers & Glyphs > Character Placeholders and Preferences > Editing > Placeholders > Characters in empty layers only control the corresponding canvas display.
The Layers & Masters panel chooses the displayed layer, updating glyph images throughout the Table view. A cell and its marks describe that displayed state, not every drawing stored for the glyph. If the requested layer is absent, FontLab can use the relevant master content.
Small indicators depend on the data, cell size, and display preferences:
| Indicator | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Upper-edge line | Modified glyph or layer |
| Red/yellow caption line | Name/Unicode mismatch or unrecognized name; see Glyph Identity |
| Composite symbol | Components only (gray), or components with drawn content (darker) |
| Blue block symbol | Recipe-generated auto layer |
| Blue/dark-yellow T | Imported binary/editable visual TrueType hinting |
| Red audit mark | Reported FontAudit issues |
| Note icon | Glyph note; larger cells may show its text |
| Shaded metric region | Advance area |
| No-export mark | Glyph excluded from output |
An absent audit mark does not certify correctness. Manual composites and auto layers are alternative construction states, but the shared edge position does not make every construction and hinting mark mutually exclusive. These marks follow the edge opposite the caption.
Preferences > Font Window > Show in cell controls many indicators. Hiding a mark does not change the underlying data.
Sidebar
The Sidebar is the collapsible area at the left of the inventory. It provides routes into related glyph collections, including reference coverage and previously used views.
Its principal sections are:
- Basics, which offers starting collections for planning coverage.
- Categories, which groups relevant character and design properties, including tags and layer-related views.
- Scripts, which organizes coverage by writing system.
- Search History, which records recent filters for reuse.
- Bookmarks, which holds saved, named filters.
- Smart Filters, which holds named filters you can apply to the Font window.
These sections can be collapsed when their contents are not needed. Their presence does not mean every entry describes glyphs already in the font: some views include expected positions as well as existing work.
Status Bar
The Status Bar, normally at the bottom, brings together three groups of information.
The glyph-data fields describe the current glyph and its displayed layer. They include identifiers, advance width and sidebearings, kerning-class information, and controls associated with tags and construction recipes.
The selection and count readouts distinguish selected, filtered, and total content. These counts help you judge the scope of the view and the work prepared for a subsequent command.
The cell-display controls change the Table's column count and cell size. A fixed column count adapts cell width to the window; Flex adapts the count to the chosen cell size. The slider and smaller/larger buttons are shown for Flex. Switching between these modes keeps Table and List at the far right, after the cell-size section.
Cell shape is now set with Preferences > Font Window > Cell > Proportions. The four proportion buttons are in Preferences, not on the Status Bar.
When the top Property Bar is hidden, the Status Bar can show Sidebar, Font Info, and Hide unfiltered glyphs at its left, in that order, followed by the glyph-name fields. A Sidebar or Font Info control already hosted by the compact Toolbar is not duplicated below. Table and List remain at the right regardless of whether the top bar is shown. Hiding a control bar does not close the List view.
The current glyph and the selection are different notions. A multi-glyph selection does not turn every bottom-bar field into an aggregate readout or a batch editor. The bottom bar can show the current glyph’s value while a selection-aware panel shows a shared value or indicates mixed values.