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Show HN: I made a grid based font editor and font

brutalita.com

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Re: Show HN: I made a grid based font editor and font

#2

Post by javierbyte »

Hello HN! I wanted to make a font that I can "snap" to vertices on a grid for an upcoming project, and after starting making it I decided that it was going to be easier to iterate if I made an editor too. It uses opentype.js to generate the font and some invisible textarea tricks combined with svg for the text editor.

Re: Show HN: I made a grid based font editor and font

#4

Post by Timpy »

javierbyte wrote: post #2

Hello HN! I wanted to make a font that I can "snap" to vertices on a grid for an upcoming project, and after starting making it I decided that it was going to be easier to iterate if I made an editor too. It uses opentype.js to generate the font and some invisible textarea tricks combined with svg for the text editor.

It took me a second to realize what I was looking at, but this is a very cool toy to play with.

When I click the same bubble twice in a row it clears the entire field of bubbles. Is this intended behavior? Seems like I should be able to undo a click that I've made. Using Firefox on MacOS.

Re: Show HN: I made a grid based font editor and font

#6

Post by reaperducer »

I have a fascination with segmented LED and LCD fonts. This, I expect, will be a major distraction for me today.

Before everything standardized on 7-, 14-, and 16-segment displays, there were a lot of creative alternatives. A bunch of different 7, 8, 9, and 22-segs, including my favorite one: https://www.flickr.com/photos/adam_sporka/1843883266

I once owned a Fossil watch that had an ~18-segment display that displayed the time in Chinese, and drew the characters slowly. It was endlessly fascinating.

For a Christmas bonus this year, my company sent everyone indoor/outdoor weather gadgets. Enormous beautiful screen, but I keep staring at it thinking about how it could be more efficient with better fonts and fewer segments.

Re: Show HN: I made a grid based font editor and font

#7

Post by awb »

Timpy wrote: post #4
javierbyte wrote: post #2

Hello HN! I wanted to make a font that I can "snap" to vertices on a grid for an upcoming project, and after starting making it I decided that it was going to be easier to iterate if I made an editor too. It uses opentype.js to generate the font and some invisible textarea tricks combined with svg for the text editor.

It took me a second to realize what I was looking at, but this is a very cool toy to play with. When I click the same bubble twice in a row it clears the entire field of bubbles. Is this intended behavior? Seems like I should be able to undo a click that I've made. Using Firefox on MacOS.

I also lost some font progress to this feature. Maybe a “clear” button would be more intuitive?

Awesome project though and beautiful fonts!

Re: Show HN: I made a grid based font editor and font

#9

Post by martneumann »

This is so cool.

Some suggestions:

  - I have no idea what the four buttons at the top mean
  - The edit sidebar could be a little bigger. I'd even onsider making it horizontal? (Edit: just noticed it becomes horizontal when zooming in. Nice!)
  - Undo/Redo would be nice
  - Add a little message people can use to give credit to you
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