Windows, Panels, and Workspaces

FontLab separates the area where you work on content from the controls that describe and adjust it. Recognizing those roles helps you choose the working view and the controls you need for a task.

Tool-Based and Parameter-Based Editing

Some work is performed directly on a working area. You select cells in a glyph grid, draw a shape, or move part of a drawing. Other work is performed through parameters: you enter a width, inspect a name, or turn an option on.

In FontLab, this distinction broadly corresponds to windows and panels. A window contains a principal working area where you manipulate content with tools, such as a font's glyph inventory or a glyph's drawing canvas. A panel groups controls for properties, information and previews, or editing content-, tool-, and application-related data. This division is familiar from other vector and bitmap editors.

The distinction describes their roles, not a strict division between viewing and editing. Panels can change font data, contain editable lists, or provide a place to write feature code. A window can also include fields and controls. What matters is the relationship: the working area gives you context, while the associated controls let you inspect or adjust particular aspects of the work.

For example, selecting a glyph cell identifies an object in a font. A panel can then show information about that glyph. Moving to another glyph changes the context that the panel describes. You do not normally need a separate copy of every panel for every open font.

Window Types

FontLab has three principal window types.

The Font window presents a font's glyph set as an inventory. It is the place to browse and reorder glyphs, extend or subset the set, remap character assignments, and prepare selections for those operations.

The Glyph window provides the canvas for designing and editing glyphs. It has several modes, each pairing tools and controls with a particular kind of work, such as drawing or spacing. Optional bars and widgets put frequently used parameters beside the canvas.

The Sketchboard is a freeform canvas that is not attached to one font. It can hold imported artwork while you prepare it for use, provide space for sketching, and arrange editable text frames using open fonts. These text frames support specimens and comparisons alongside the artwork. There is one Sketchboard per application session, available through Window > Open Sketchboard. For artwork and specimen-layout procedures, see The Sketchboard.

Panels

A panel gathers controls or information for a particular subject. You can keep the panels needed for the current task close to the working area and leave others closed. Closing a panel removes that interface surface; it does not, by itself, delete the font information the panel displays.

Opening and finding panels

Choose a panel from Window > Panels to open it. The same set is available through Window > Panels List, a launcher containing buttons for panels. A highlighted launcher button indicates that its panel is open.

The Panels List can be resized and docked like other panels. Its gear button, Select panels, lets you hide buttons you rarely use. This changes the launcher rather than removing those panels from the application: their commands remain available under Window > Panels.

Select panels controls which buttons appear in the Panels List launcher.

Opening, activating, and hiding are distinct actions. A panel can be open without receiving keyboard input. Invoking that panel's menu command or shortcut brings an open but inactive panel forward and gives it focus. Invoking it again while the panel has focus hides it. This explains why a panel shortcut can appear to reveal a panel on one press and close it on the next. Focus identifies the control or working area that receives keyboard input; see Arranging Windows and Panels.

If a panel is open somewhere difficult to reach, hold Option on macOS or Alt on Windows while choosing its name from Window > Panels, or while clicking its Panels List button. This summons it to the current working window.

Compact panel views

Many panels can collapse to a compact header. The header may retain a small set of useful controls or a summary while hiding the larger body. Use the panel's collapse control to reduce it and its expand control to restore the full view.

The collapsed Color panel retains its color field and sampling controls while hiding the larger picker.

Collapsing is useful when you want a panel available but do not need its complete contents continuously. A grouped panel may instead be reached through a tab in its group.

The data a panel describes

Ordinary font-related panels follow the current font: the font whose window or tab you have activated. Within that font, the panel may follow the current glyph, a selection, or another active object. Some panels are explicitly designed to compare several fonts or operate on several selected objects.

The panel's role determines that scope. An open panel is not automatically a view of every open font, and a value visible in one panel does not prove that another panel targets the same set of objects.

Workspaces

A workspace is a saved interface arrangement. It records which panels are open or visible, where they sit, and how windows and panels are docked. A drawing task and a font-production task can need different controls; recalling a workspace avoids rebuilding an arrangement each time you change tasks.

FontLab supplies predefined workspaces under Window > Workspaces. Choosing one applies its arrangement. Workspace commands can also be assigned keyboard shortcuts, so a task-specific arrangement can be recalled without reopening the menu. Creating, naming, saving, and exchanging workspaces are part of the customization workflow. A workspace is a configuration of the interface, not a separate copy of the font you are editing.

Native font files can also carry selected workspace-state information, depending on the save and restore preferences. This lets an arrangement travel with a font; a named workspace can be recalled independently for a task.