Glyph-Level PostScript Hints

A glyph hint identifies a stem or alignment edge in a particular drawing. Place it on the geometry the rasterizer should preserve, then inspect the small-size result rather than judging hint density as a measure of quality.

Stem Hints and Ghost Hints

A stem hint records an edge position and a width to the opposite edge. Horizontal hints measure vertical thickness; vertical hints measure horizontal thickness. In the hint view, FontLab displays them as green bands, in bold where the width matches a declared standard stem.

A ghost hint identifies one horizontal alignment edge when there is no suitable opposite edge to form a stem. It allows a flat top or bottom to participate in the appropriate alignment zone.

Ghost widths are special encodings, not physical stroke measurements. Top ghosts use the PostScript −20 encoding; bottom ghosts use −21. FontLab displays the distinction with a 45-degree grid pattern and upward or downward arrow rather than asking you to draw a twenty-unit stroke.

Top ghost hint	Bottom ghost hint
A top ghost hint uses an upward arrow in the width field to identify its one-edge alignment role.	A bottom ghost hint uses a downward arrow. It is distinct from an ordinary positive-width stem hint.

Zones provide the shared font-level alignment. A relevant glyph-level hint triggers the font-level zone or standard-stem relationship for that glyph; adding only the shared value is insufficient. Inspect the zone, the source edge, and the rendered result together when an overshoot appears to round inconsistently.

Adding and Editing Hints

Make the intended glyph layer current and enable View hints in the Glyph window’s viewing controls. To hint a stem, select the appropriate edge nodes and choose Tools > Hints > Add Horizontal Hint or Add Vertical Hint. Check the resulting position and width against the stroke.

Horizontal stem hint	Vertical stem hint
An ordinary horizontal stem hint shows its position and width in the contextual widget.	A vertical stem hint measures horizontal thickness; compare its direction icon with the horizontal-hint widget.

A single selected node can supply a horizontal ghost-hint location. Choose the horizontal hint command, then inspect whether FontLab selected the intended top or bottom relationship.

The Attach tool provides the linked-hint gesture described as the Magnet tool in older material: Shift-drag between the relevant nodes. A thick guide can also be converted to a hint through the Guides controls. Use the creation route that makes the measured edges easiest to identify.

Move the hint's main line to move its position, or adjust its second edge to change the width. With nodes visible, snapping can help place the edges accurately. A hint is an axis-aligned measurement; an ordinary diagonal guide is not automatically a diagonal PostScript stem hint.

For a selected horizontal hint, the Width field accepts the ghost shorthand: + selects the bottom-ghost relationship and - selects the top-ghost relationship. Check the resulting arrow and alignment edge. These entries change the hint type rather than adding or subtracting one unit.

With Match Edits and hint matching enabled in Preferences > Variations, deleting a hint can also remove its matching hints from compatible masters. Check that scope before deletion, then inspect the affected masters.

Select an unwanted hint and delete it, or use Tools > Hints > Remove Hints for the relevant glyph or Font-window selection. Removing hints is different from removing the source contours.

Hints Linked to Nodes

A hint linked to nodes, or linked hint (called a link in older documentation), derives its position or width from associated outline nodes. Recall the related following relationships of servant nodes in Editing Modes and Modifiers and power guides in Rulers, Guides, and Power Guides. When those nodes move, the hint follows the drawing. An unlinked hint retains independent values and can drift away after an outline edit.

Node-based hint creation and the Attach gesture can establish links directly. Autohinting can also convert generated hints into node links when that preference is enabled.

Use Tools > Hints > Link Hints to Nodes to associate existing hints with suitable nearby nodes. Inspect the chosen nodes afterward, particularly around several close edges. Unlink Hints removes those associations while retaining ordinary hint data.

Links are useful in a multi-master source because corresponding nodes provide the geometry from which hint positions can be derived. They do not remove the need for compatible outlines or correct source correspondence. Inserting, deleting, or restructuring nodes still requires a hint review.

Hints, Components, and References

PostScript hints belong to the glyph-layer hinting data, not simply to the contour content shared by an element reference.

Both manual component composites and auto layers can receive source-glyph hints when its content is resolved for supported PostScript output. Hint the component sources and inspect the assembled result. A clean source hint does not guarantee that every transformed, overlapping, or hybrid construction needs no further attention.

An element reference shares content without automatically supplying the host glyph's complete hint data. A glyph built from references therefore needs suitable host-layer hints or autohinting. A hybrid glyph containing components and additional contours needs coverage for those additional contours as well.

Keep source precision separate from output policy. Fractional positions can be retained where the chosen representation supports them, but rounding and conversion settings may change the exported result. Check the resulting font rather than discarding useful fractional source measurements merely to make the hint labels integers.

Treat source-hint transfer and final hint coverage as separate checks. A simple host made entirely from well-prepared components can reuse that preparation, while a hybrid host introduces contours that need their own coverage. Moving or transforming a component can also make the assembled result worth inspecting even when the source glyph renders well on its own.

Element references share drawing content rather than a source glyph's hinting role. Their convenience for repeated geometry does not remove the host's responsibility for suitable hints. Choose the reuse mechanism for the construction, then inspect the hint data and output appropriate to that mechanism. Do not copy an unrelated hint set merely because two glyphs look similar at one size.