A vector network improves on the path model by allowing lines and curves between any two points instead of requiring that they all join up to form a single chain. This helps provide the best of both worlds; it combines the ease with which points can be connected on paper and the ease with which geometry can be manipulated once it’s drawn. Splitting and recombining geometry is much more natural with vector networks. Delete anything, anywhere. Connect anything to anything else. Stroke cap and join styles just work naturally in vector networks, even for points with three or more lines coming off of them. This isn’t the case for paths because it’s impossible to use paths to represent attaching three lines together at a single point.— Evan Wallace of Figma, which is software specifically UI design, but I wonder if these vector tools have relevance for type design.
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Another way we wanted to improve over existing vector editing tools was to add support for direct manipulation. Figma’s bend tool (the command key on OS X) lets you drag the curve around directly. The editor will automatically figure out where to place the control handles for you:
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But I will say that I don’t think paths are the real problem with vectors. The problem is that Adobe Illustrator’s tools for creating and editing paths are trash, and instead of treating them like trash and doing better, everybody else follow’s Adobe’s lead and builds their houses on top of said trash.
I do all my drawing in FontLab even for things other than type. I then paste it into AI since the AI system is, shall we say, deflating?
Looks like a big part of it has to do with accommodating complex shapes where nodes are part of more than one path. Which is cool, but doesn't seem relevant to glyph shapes, except maybe stroke-based designs.
The automatic filling of open paths does seem relevant. Isn't there something like this already in the FLS 6 beta?
I do like their general attitude of rethinking 30-year-old conventions.
If this can actually make graphic designers use vectors decently, I’ll happily endorse it. The Illustrator magic vectors and Sketch kid-proofed version of the same are a huge reason people dislike vector drawing (I think).
The FontLab 6 beta and this are interesting new approaches to an old technology, and I like it. I use SketchUp a lot as well, and there are plenty of ways to draw – they all help me see in different ways.
Nick: Adobe didn't incorporate anything of Freehand into Illustrator when they acquired it, because they had to sell it straight away to Aldus or likely face a court. They could have kept FH, buried AI, and had a monopoly at the high end, but for pride of creation, as AI was/is? the only application Adobe made themselves, having bought most of the rest.
There was a time, in the late 1990s, when Adobe made a nearly great set of vector drawing tools. It wasn't in Illustrator, but rather in Photoshop. (I believe it was in 2.5-3.x, though I'm not certain.) The tools were subtle and supple, and if you were doing work based on antique type, you had the possibility of working over high-quality scans that you could manipulate however you wished. What was especially good about these vector tools was they way they toggled, allowing you to use two hands in harmony. With really good scans that enabled you to differentiate the impression mark from the ink spread, you could make some very subtle judgments. The outlines would then be exported to Ai eps format, then (with some difficulty) imported into Fontographer.
But with Photoshop 4 (to the best of my faulty recollection), the tools were changed. You could no longer toggle them they way you could earlier. I contacted Adobe about this, but nothing came of it. With each successive version of Ai, one winces at the crapulousness of its interface and functionality. It's become a bad neighborhood you try to drive through as quickly as you can. I have a feeling that, before Adobe switched to a subscription model, sales of Ai were quite low. Rather then bolster its interface and usability, they can now hide behind the suite, knowing that the subscribers need at least two pieces badly enough to buy the whole thing.
Also, I agree with you that the Figma vector editing tools are not of special interest to type designers, because they do not relate much to the kinds of vectors we deal with.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fractal-Design-Expression-MAC-CD-sketch-draw-vector-brush-painting-pictures-tool-/261314837816