The Font Overview window includes a collapsible Smart Sets panel, which can be toggled using the Sets button.

The Sets button can be found at the top right of the toolbar in Multi-Window Mode, and at the bottom left of the window in Single Window mode.

The Smart Sets panel shows both Default Sets (global) and Font Sets (local).

Smart Sets can be grouped into folders, and folders can be nested.

The Smart Sets interface works as a filter: when one or more sets are selected, only the glyphs which belong to those sets are displayed in the Font Overview.

Actions

The Smart Sets panel supports the following actions:

action description
click Show only the glyphs in the selected set(s)
⌥ + click Show all glyphs in the font, and select all glyphs in the set
double click Edit the Smart Set item, either as a search query or as a list of glyph names
right click (only for list‑based Smart Sets) Show a contextual menu with a list of missing glyphs and an option to create them
click + drag
drop between sets
change the order of the sets
drop on top of Default Sets / Font Sets
copy dragged set to location
delete (del or backspace) Remove the selected Smart Set
drag and drop glyphs Drag selected glyphs from the Font Overview into a set to add them to the set
esc Reset the font overview query
⌘ + Reset the font overview query

Options

The popup menu at the bottom left of the panel provides the following options:

option description
Create new set from glyph names Opens a sheet to create a new Smart Set from a list of glyph names
New Default Sets Folder Create a new folder to group default sets
New Font Sets Folder Create a new folder to group font sets
Delete Item Delete the selected set
Export Default Sets Export default sets to a .roboFontSets file
Load Default Sets Load default sets from a .roboFontSets file
Export Font Sets Export font sets to a .roboFontSets file
Load Font Sets Load font sets from a .roboFontSets file
Export To a Font Group Export the selected set to a group

Creating list-based Smart Sets

To create a new list-based Smart Set, choose Create new set from glyph names from the options menu. This will open a sheet where you can input the name and glyph names in the Smart Set:

Choose between Default Set (saved in the app defaults and available for all fonts) or Font Set (saved in the font and available only for this font). Press OK to create the Smart Set.

Add missing glyphs

Each list-based Smart Set displays a counter with the total number of glyphs in the set. If available, a second number shows how many glyphs in the set are missing from the font.

To create missing glyphs in a Smart Set, click on the counter next to the Smart Set – this will open a popover with a list of missing glyph names:

Select which glyphs you wish to create, and click on Create Missing Glyphs. This will open the Add Glyphs sheet with additional options to automatically add unicodes, add as template glyphs, mark glyphs, etc. See Adding glyphs using the Add Glyphs sheet.

Creating query-based Smart Sets

Query-based Smart Sets are defined by one or more search queries. The glyph names in these sets are the result of the query applied to the current font.

To create a query-based Smart Set, make a new search glyph query using the Search Glyphs panel, then click on the Save Set button.

Last edited on 01/09/2021