The Editing Tool is an interactive tool to edit visual glyph data such as contours, anchors, components, guidelines, images, etc.

To activate the tool, you can click on the arrow icon in the toolbar of the Glyph Editor or select “Editing Tool” in the Glyph application menu.

Actions

Point Selection

action description
click (no selection) Deselect all.
click + drag (no selection) Select all points inside the selection marquee.
click + drag (no selection) + ⌥ Select only the off-curve points inside the selection marquee.
click + drag (no selection) + ⌥ + ⌘ Select all the anchors inside the selection marquee.
click on a point Select the point.
⇧ + click Add or remove from current selection.
click + drag Move selected points.
⇧ + click + drag Move selected points on x, y or 45° axis.
⌥ + click + drag
If click over cubic on-curve point:
The point will be turned non-smooth and only the on-curve point is moved.
If click over quadratics off-curve point:
Adds extra off-curve point to the segment
⌃ + click + drag Copies the selection while dragging.
⌥ + click + drag (single BCP selection) BCP becomes non-smooth.
⌘ + ⌥ + click + drag (single BCP selection) BCP becomes smooth, and the BCP value is mirrored on the other BCP (if there is one).
⌘ + drag smooth point
If selection is on-curve point:
Point will be moved between the handles.
If selection is off-curve point:
Point will be moved in the same direction as the handle.
join / close contour If a contour is open, and first or last on-curve point is dragged on top of another first or last on-curve point, the contours are joined or closed.
tab Jump to the next on-curve point.

Use ⇪ (Caps Lock) + ⌘ + arrow keys to move a smooth point between its handles using the keyboard instead of the mouse.

If the option Use Shift 45° constrain is selected in the Glyph View Preferences, angles will be constrained to multiples of 45° degrees instead of 90°.

Segment Selection

action description
click Select segment.
⇧ + click Add segment to selection.
click + drag (single segment selection) Move the selected segments around.
⌥ + click + drag (single segment selection)
For line segment:
Create cubic curve segment (adds two control points).
For curve segment:
Drag the handles around. (This will un-smooth on-curve points.)
⌥ + ⇧ + click + drag (single segment selection)
For line segment:
Create quadratic curve segment (adds two control points).
For curve segment:
Drag the handles around.
⌘ + click drag (single segment selection)
For line segments:
Move the selected segment around.
For curve segments:
BCPs follow the handles direction.
⇧ + click + drag (single segment selection) Constrain translation angle to multiples of 90° (or 45°). Works also while ⌥ and/or ⌘ are down.
⌃ + click + drag Copy the selected segment while dragging.
⌘ + ⌥ (no selection) Add point to segment.

Contour Selection

action description
double click Select contour.
click + drag (in/on selection) Move the selection.
⇧ + click + drag (in/on selection) Constrain translation angle to multiples of 90° (or 45°).

Component Selection

action description
click Select the component.
⇧ + click Toggles the component selection.
drag Move the components around.
⇧ + drag Constrain translation angle to multiples of 90° (or 45°).
triple click (in the component) Go to the base glyph for editing.

Jump to layer

To quickly switch between layers, you can double click on a layer outline.

Copy & Paste

action description
copy
in Glyph View:
Copy the current glyph’s selection to clipboard.
in Font Overview:
Copy the selected glyph to clipboard.
paste Paste clipboard contents into the current glyph.

Copy & Paste from external sources like Adobe Illustrator or other vector drawing applications happens from a PDF paste board.

Crosshair cursor

The Editing Tool shows a crosshair cursor while moving a selection – this helps to visually align the selection bounds to another shape or guideline.

This feature can be turned on/off in the Glyph View Preferences under the option Draw dragging cross lines.

Contextual menus

Contextual menus can be opened using a right-click. Depending on the current selection and on where you click, a different menu will be shown.

Last edited on 01/09/2021