Glyphs App Essential Training

Course details

Every designer has a typeface in them. The Glyphs app is a friendly yet powerful program that will help unlock that inner visual voice. This course helps you make your own fonts using the Glyphs app, starting with an introduction to the parts of letters (type anatomy) and the parts of a font (the character set). Charles Nix leads a tour of the Glyphs workspace and then coaches you through the construction of a complete font—from outline to stroke, stroke to character, characters to typeface. There are special sections dedicated to spacing, kerning, optional OpenType features, and font testing and export. Charles also shows how to create type families with multiple masters. The conclusion includes resources for further learning about typography and typeface design.

Learning objectives
Measuring type
Classifying type
Using the Glyphs app tools, windows, layers, palettes, and menus
Working with Glyphs app scripts
Drawing letterforms and characters
Using filters
Creating punctuation and reference marks
Deploying OpenType ligatures and stylistic sets
Fitting and kerning
Exporting and testing fonts
Setting up masters and instances for a font family

Concepts

0. Introduction

01 - Welcome
02 - What you should know
03 - Exercise files

1. An Introduction to Type Design

04 - Anatomy - The parts of letters
05 - Glyph sets - The parts of fonts
06 - Type measurement
07 - Type classification

2. The Glyphs Workspace

08 - Font info
09 - Font view
10 - Essential tools
11 - Edit window
12 - Background layers and guides
13 - Kerning palette
14 - Menus
15 - A note on scripts

3. Drawing Glyphs

16 - Sketching, drawing, and refining
17 - Drawing in Glyphs basics
18 - Drawing letterforms in Glyphs
19 - Drawing characters in Illustrator
20 - Using filters

4. Completing a Basic Glyphs Set

21 - Creating characters that share parts
22 - Completing the Latin characters
23 - Building figures
24 - Creating punctuation and reference marks
25 - Compound characters

5. OpenType Features

26 - What are OpenType features
27 - Ligatures
28 - Stylistic sets

6. Fitting and Kerning

29 - Fitting basics with metric keys
30 - Spacing by eye
31 - Spacing numbers
32 - Kerning groups
33 - The kerning game

7. Exporting and Testing

34 - Font file types
35 - Testing fonts - Sample texts and strings

8. Multiple Masters

36 - Planning a type family
37 - Setting up masters
38 - Setting up instances
39 - Keeping masters compatible

Conclusion

40 - Next steps