The Sketchboard

The Sketchboard combines a free drawing surface with live text frames. Use it to stage artwork and arrange specimens from several open fonts when a single preview panel is too constrained.

The Sketchboard Canvas

Choose Window > Open Sketchboard. FontLab provides one live Sketchboard canvas in the session. Window > Clear Sketchboard empties that canvas; it does not create a second independent document.

The Sketchboard autosave and startup settings are under Preferences > General > Sketchboard. Autosave preserves the canvas at its configured interval, and startup restoration can bring it back between sessions when enabled (see Customizing the Workspace and the file locations in The User Data Folder and Customizable Data Files), but it is not a versioned collection of named documents. Export important specimens or artwork before clearing or replacing the canvas.

File > Export > Sketchboard... offers VFC/VFJ for native Sketchboard content and SVG/PDF for visual output. File > Import > Sketchboard... restores native content. File > Export > Window Contents... is another visual SVG/PDF route. A native Sketchboard file is not automatically an installable font or a replacement for the font sources used by its text frames.

The canvas uses fractional coordinates. When content moves into a font, that font's rounding and paste settings can affect the result. Compare the pasted outline rather than assuming every coordinate remained identical.

Text-Frame Specimens

A text frame is a freestanding container of live text from one open font—an editable mini Glyph window on the Sketchboard. Several frames complement Text mode’s single passage and the Preview panel’s comparison view. Their shaping and formatting controls recall Text Mode. Open at least one font, select the Text tool, and click the Sketchboard to create a frame. Type or paste the specimen text.

To compare several fonts:

  1. Create a frame and set its text and size.
  2. Use Text > Frames > Clone Frame to make a matching comparison frame.
  3. Select the clone and choose another open font in the Fonts panel.
  4. Arrange the frames side by side and check their feature and wrapping settings.
  5. Compare the same text at the same nominal size before changing either condition.

The frame's Features controls enable Unicode/OpenType processing and per-frame feature choices. Use them for bidirectional or script-dependent text; do not judge an unshaped string as though it represented final script layout.

Wrap modes serve different specimens. Manual uses deliberate line breaks, Auto wraps to a column, and Table presents individual glyph cells. Choose the mode before interpreting changes in line rhythm.

Lock a frame when its text should remain fixed while you arrange the specimen. Locking text does not necessarily prevent moving or resizing the frame itself. The frame's open-in-Glyph-window control takes its text into a full editing window when comparison leads to a correction.

The glyphs remain tied to their source fonts. Editing a live glyph can change that font, not merely the specimen. Frame persistence and visibility also depend on the associated fonts, so keep the native sources and export a fixed proof when handing the comparison to someone else.

Other Sketchboard Uses

Use the same canvas for the drawing tools introduced in Part 11, source placement/tracing in Tracing a Source Image, and color artwork/separation in Working with Color Images. Separate imported artwork items can be transferred to Font Map cells once prepared. Keep enough space and naming discipline to avoid confusing construction material with specimen text.

Drawing tools also work on the Sketchboard without an open font, making it useful for rough shapes and experiments. Text frames require a font, while font-free drawing does not. Treat the canvas as a working adjunct and preserve valuable results in the appropriate source or exported artifact.