The glyph chart in the Font window is a visual representation of all the glyphs in the font. To modify the font you have to learn how to use the glyph chart: navigate, select glyphs and select commands.
Navigating
One of the glyphs in the Font window is the “current” glyph. It is specially highlighted:
You can see the current glyph name and its Unicode codepoint in the bottom command bar:
To view different parts of the font in the Font window you can either
use the vertical scroll bar or the auto-scroll mode: if you place the mouse anywhere in the chart; press the mouse button; and move the mouse cursor above the top or bottom of the chart it will scroll up or down accordingly selecting the glyphs.
You can also use the SPACE key to scroll the Font window. Press the space key, press the mouse button and drag the mouse to scroll the window vertically. If you have a wheel on your mouse you can use it to scroll the Font window vertically.
Alternatively you can use the keyboard keys to navigate in the font chart:
Arrow keys Moves the current glyph highlight one cell right, left, up or down, according to the key used
Ctrl+Right arrow Moves 2 cells right
Ctrl+Left arrow Moves 2 cells left
Page Up and Page Down Moves the glyph highlight one screen up or down
Home Moves the glyph highlight to the leftmost glyph on the
current row
End Moves the glyph highlight to the rightmost glyph on the current row
Ctrl+Home Moves the glyph highlight to the first glyph on the chart
Selecting
In addition to the current glyph you can select sets of glyphs in the font chart. These selections behave similarly to selected text in a text editor – you can copy selected glyphs to another place in the font or to a different font; you can apply different effects to the selection; etc. Selected glyphs have inverted colors. The last selected glyph is the current glyph:
To select one or more cells, press the left mouse button on the first or
last cell of your selection and drag the cursor across the cells you want to select. You will see the selection highlighted. If you drag the cursor outside the visible part of the chart, it will scroll accordingly. To cancel your
selection, click on any glyph cell.
Alternative: Using the navigating keys on the keyboard, set the current
cell highlight on the first (or last) cell of a selection, then press the SHIFT key. Move the current cell highlight (as described earlier) to select the cells. Selection does not have to be continuous. If you press the CTRL key, you can select and deselect cells in any order and combination.
Context Menu
Most commands available in the Font window can be selected from the context menu.
To open the context menu, press the right mouse button anywhere in
the chart area or just push the SPACE key once. Here is a sample of the Font window context menu:
Here is what the commands mean:
Width Allows you to easily select one of the predefined widths of the Font window. The width is defined in cells.
Copy Copies the selected glyphs onto the Clipboard. Same as the Copy command from the Edit menu
Paste Places glyphs from the Clipboard into the font starting from the first selected cell. Same as the Paste command from the Edit menu
Append Glyphs Appends glyphs from the Clipboard to the current font
Delete Deletes the selected glyphs. Same as the Delete command from the Edit menu
Action Opens the Actions dialog box. Refer to the “Actions” chapter for more detailed information about actions. Same as the Action command from the Tools menu
Add Note Adds a Note to the current glyph
Rename Opens a rename dialog box
Mark Marks the selected glyph(s) a color. Allows you to select one of the five predefined colors, one of 255 custom colors, or remove the marking
More Submenu with more commands (described below)
Open Glyph
Window Creates a new Glyph window and opens the current glyph in it Properties Opens the glyph properties panel for the current glyph or selected
Contents of the More submenu:
Select Encoding Selects the current encoding – the yellow zone at the top of the
font chart
Select Modified
Glyphs Selects all glyphs which were modified since the last font save Add Suffix to
Name Opens the Glyphname Suffix dialog box allowing to rename selected glyphs by adding suffixes, or replace existing suffixes. Glyphname suffixes are useful when working with OpenType Layout features
Current Glyph is
Default Selects and marks the current glyph as the “default glyph” that is used in Type 1 fonts to represent glyphs that are not present in the font
Remove Unicode Removes the Unicode codepoints in the selected glyphs Save Encoding Saves the currently selected encoding to an .enc file.