Does anyone offer one-to-one Glyphs 3 tutoring?

Eris Alar

I finally, after a decade of wanting it but never feeling confident enough to spend the money (it’s expensive here in Australia due to exchange rate) I got a copy Glyphs 3 last week. I’ve not had a chance to spend much time with it, but I did spend a couple of hours trying to understand the interface and workflow, but ended up feeling overwhelmed and dejected. I’ve found some great YouTube tutorial videos by Lynne Yun which seem to be from 2020 and aimed at her students during lockdowns. But I feel there is a large part of the theory or thinking about how the app is set up, what a good workflow could look like, what plugins are required etc that I am just missing. 

I’ve tried looking over their website and their forum but their ’getting started’ content either starts further along than where I am or i can’t find it at all. 

I started reading the manual. But is is dense and again, does not really seem to be aimed at people totally new to it. 

My type design experience so far is: buying TypeTool (I think that was its name) back around 2008 and trying it, then around 2012 getting Glyphs Mini. Other than that I have used Adobe Illustrator for lettering. I never lasted long on the other apps, mostly because either I found it too hard to use, or these low-end options had features I wanted removed ( but it has been so long I cannot remember specifics). 

I really want to try making at least a 1 weight display face I feel proud enough about to release commercially. I hope I make many more. 

What I am wondering is: are there any people out there who offer one-to-one tutoring? I honestly feel too nervous to try signing up for class, plus it would have to be remote and I have not idea what exists for those options. I feel working with one person who can answer my specific questions, point me in the right direction, and be available for follow up later on if needed would be idea. Essentially someone I could pay by the house, do a video call with where I share my screen, ask my questions and they help me. I hope I would only need a few sessions as it’s mostly about the app itself and not about type design theory (unless they wanted to include it in the plan and I agree to it).
I’m feeling pretty nervous talking about it here, given most of you are industry veterans, and I had originally hoped to just work it out myself. Thanks for your time. 

George Thomas

Youtube offers some possibilities for you, such as this one on the G3 UI:

https://tinyurl.com/3vmv9tt4

Eris Alar

George Thomas said:

Youtube offers some possibilities for you, such as this one on the G3 UI:

https://tinyurl.com/3vmv9tt4

Thanks I’ll check it out, but I really to want to talk with someone, ask questions etc if possible ;-)

Rainer Erich Scheichelbauer

The manual is a complete technical description, and probably not what you need at this stage. It is not meant to be read in one go.

First of all, you can explore on your own, experiment and try things.

Secondly, do take your time and revisit the Getting Started tutorials, especially Sketching, Drawing Good Paths, and Edit View. Cross bridges when you get there.

And of course there are loads of good and free video tutorials, short and long, some about lettering, some about type design. Many of them are listed on the glyphsapp.com/learn page, just below the handbook section. Lynne Yun’s class is great, for example, but perhaps you prefer something shorter, like the videos by Winston and and Tyler.

Type design theory and app usage are two different things, of course. But some of the classes combine the two to some extent at least.

Best place to ask Glyphs things, also and especially newbie questions, is the Glyphs forum. You will find that the community is very helpful, and even the most advanced type designers will be glad to help out and answer beginner questions. I admit that I love to see how sometimes a (semingly) basic question triggers an interesting exchange between experienced and buddying designers in the forum.

Eris Alar

Secondly, do take your time and revisit the Getting Started tutorials, especially Sketching, Drawing Good Paths, and Edit View. Cross bridges when you get there.

Maybe mine glitched but I couldn’t find the getting started tutorials. The ones on the website are all mixed up and confusing. I’ll post in the glyphs forum if I don’t get any leads here :-) 

George Thomas

Getting Started is here: https://glyphsapp.com/learn

Simon Cozens

The first "Get Started" tutorial on that page is "Creating an Arabic font", which seems like a bit of a deep-end way to start. The "drawing paths" tutorial is the twentieth one in the list.

George Thomas

A large color box on the right if you scroll a little is "Getting Started".

jeremy tribby

Eris, if you take a look at the spreadsheet of available designers @ https://typecritcrew.com/ there are a number of people who list Glyphs specifically as something they can help with. it sounds like you prefer one-on-one help, so this could be a good resource for finding people with availability.

I agree with Rainer, though, that the Glyphs forum has a lot of really helpful people for any asynchronous questions you might have. I have gotten a lot out of the forum over the years and try to be one of those helpful people where I see opportunity

Tyson Edwards

These two courses on LinkedIn Learning were invaluable for me:

https://www.linkedin.com/learning/glyphs-app-essential-training?trk=learning-topics_trending-courses_related-content-card&upsellOrderOrigin=default_guest_learning

https://www.linkedin.com/learning/design-an-italic-typeface?trk=learning-topics_trending-courses_related-content-card&upsellOrderOrigin=default_guest_learning