I'm new to Fontlab and type design software in general. I am working on a font intended for motion design. a primary function is to create outlines of the letterforms and have an ability to transform and distort easily using the nodes. The font was intentionally designed on a 16x9 letterbox size and a thirds grid with very straight sides and exact radius corners for this reason. however, the letters contain way more nodes than the original artwork that was created. Since I am so new to this software, I am certain this is user error, but I can't find a solution scouring the web. Can you all point me in a direction of what I am doing wrong?
All letterforms are built from the same root shapes and have minimal nodes such as the S below: this is how it looked in Adobe Illustrator originally.
However, this is how it looks after being converted from text using 'create outlines' in Adobe Illustrator.
I am trying to figure out where all these extra nodes are coming from?!? thoughts?
Comments
When you export from FontLab, what font format are you using? TrueType, I suspect.
If so, the contours get converted to quadratic, which is an approximation and often uses more on-curve points. Converting from font to outlines in Illustrator converts the contours BACK to cubic, which is ~ lossless, but unless done with extra cleverness does not result in any simplification: you still have all the extra points from the initial conversion to TrueType quadratics.
This is just a suspicion, but it is a common enough problem and totally matches the symptoms you are showing. (This general problem is not specific to any particular font editor, btw.)
So, if that is indeed what is happening, if you export OpenType CFF (.otf, with PostScript style outlines) you would avoid that problem.
One of the most notable being that your horizontal strokes need to be a tad thinner than your vertical strokes, to appear to be the same thickness.