Layers Popover ↩
The features and applications of the Layers popover.
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Actions
The layers popover allows access to layer data. It is accessible from the Font Overview and the Glyph Editor. Through the layers popover, users can:
action | description |
---|---|
drag and drop | Change the layer order in the font. |
click and hold | Rename a layer. |
right click | Open a contextual menu with an option to make the current layer the default one. |
double click on color | Open a color palette to choose the layer color. |
+ / - | Add or remove a layer. |
display controls |
Control how the layer is displayed in the Glyph View.
|
Global Layers Sync Settings | Control the settings for glyph attributes (metrics, unicodes, mark color) syncing across layers |
Layer names must contain ASCII characters only, and spaces, slashes and semicolons are not allowed.
Users are restricted from setting another layer as the default if the font already contains a layer named
public.default
. RoboFont will not be able to save the UFO file.
Global Layers Sync Settings
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The Global Layers Sync Settings popover allows to control which glyph attributes will be synced once edited. For example, consider the following layers structure for glyph A
A (foreground) A (background) A (sketches)
unicode: U+0041 unicode: None unicode: None
color: red color: blue color: blue
width: 400 width: 450 width: 350
if you edit the width of A (sketches)
to 380
(with metrics
as a synced attribute), it will result in:
synced attribute: metrics
BEFORE AFTER
A (foreground) → A (foreground)
unicode: U+0041 → unicode: U+0041
color: red → color: red
width: 400 → width: 380
→
A (background) → A (background)
unicode: None → unicode: U+0041
color: blue → color: blue
width: 450 → width: 380
→
A (sketches) → A (sketches)
unicode: None → unicode: U+0041
color: violet → color: violet
width: 350 → width: 380
Be aware that template glyphs have a special behaviour, a so-called edge case. When a user jumps to a non-existing glyph in a layer, RoboFont creates a template glyph first. If any Global Layer Sync setting is on, the template glyph will inherit the synced attributes from the glyph in the default layer.
For example:
- Only the metrics are synced in Global Layers Sync Settings popover and foreground is the default layer
- User reaches S (foreground) in the glyph editor
- User jumps to S (background) in the glyph editor, but S (background) does not exist
- RoboFont will create a template glyph first (than a real glyph once editing starts to happen) and the template glyph will inherit the metrics from S (foreground) because it sits in the default layer
Sync All Glyphs
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The Sync All Glyphs button will align the selected attributes of each glyph belonging to a non-default layer, to the attributes of the glyph equally named belonging to the default layer (if existing). For example:
default layer: foreground
selected attributes: metrics, unicodes
BEFORE AFTER
A (foreground) → A (foreground)
unicode: U+0041 → unicode: U+0041
color: red → color: red
width: 400 → width: 400
→
A (background) → A (background)
unicode: None → unicode: U+0041
color: blue → color: blue
width: 450 → width: 400
Display Options
Use the icon buttons to toggle different display attributes for layers:
icon | layer attributes |
---|---|
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visibility |
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fill |
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stroke |
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points |
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point coordinates |
Contextual Menu
Right-click on a layer to open a contextual menu with the option to make that layer the default one.
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