Font Window and Glyph Window
The Font window shows the font as a collection of glyphs. Use it to find a glyph, organize the glyph set, or select glyphs for a common operation. The Glyph window is where you work on the glyphs themselves: draw and edit outlines, adjust spacing, kern pairs, and add hints.
A Glyph window displays text from one font. That text can contain a single glyph or a sequence of glyphs, so you can work on a letter while seeing how it sits beside its neighbors. As with the current cell in Selecting Glyphs, one glyph supplies the immediate editing context. In the Glyph window, it is the glyph whose identity and content you are working with. Showing several glyphs does not by itself make all their outlines editable.
Both windows work with the same font data. An outline change in the Glyph window appears in the Font window; a name change in the Font window applies to the glyph you opened. Switching between windows does not create a separate copy of the font.
Opening a glyph
- In the Font window, find the cell of an existing glyph.
- Double-click the cell, or select it and press Return on macOS or Enter on Windows.
- The Glyph window displays the glyph for editing.
You can also choose Edit Glyphs from the Font window's context menu. To open a sequence, select several existing glyphs and press Return or Enter. Seeing them together is useful for comparing proportions or checking spacing.
The Glyph window shows the active outline within a text string, so editing can be judged alongside neighboring glyphs.
A missing cell needs an additional step. Double-clicking it first creates the glyph according to your new-glyph preferences. Double-click the resulting glyph cell again to open it. Placeholder-based creation inside the Glyph window is covered in Text in the Glyph Window. An existing glyph with an empty layer is different: its identity already exists, so you can open it and begin drawing.
Multiple views
FontLab can reuse an existing Glyph window when you open a single glyph from the same font. If it does, the window's displayed text changes to the glyph you requested. Opening a glyph does not therefore always add another tab.
To keep a separate view, hold Option on macOS or Alt on Windows while double-clicking the cell. You can keep several Glyph windows for the same font, each with its own text context — for example, one for close outline work and another for a comparison string. The font data remains shared between them.
Whether the view appears in a tab or a separate window depends on your workspace layout. Use Window > Open Font Tab or Open Font Window, according to the workspace layout, to return to set-level work. Return to the Glyph window for a glyph's drawing or its place in text.