InkTrapGenerator — Plugin for Glyphs

Jonasss
Jonasss
in Type Design Software

Hi everyone,

I made a plugin for Glyphs that adds ink traps. You can pick one of three shapes — conic, flat, or rounded — or a chamfer if you set the depth to 0. The depth can be a fixed value or a % of the master's stem, so it follows the weight.

Plugin — Link


The plugin has a cap that keeps the trap from going past the stroke thickness, and you can apply it to every joint or just the nodes you select. A couple of things worth knowing: it runs on Glyphs 3 and 4, needs the Vanilla module, and works on the active master.

Plugin — Link

Feel free to use it, it's a 1.0 version.
Feedback, bug reports and ideas very welcome!

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Comments

  • jakeflem
    jakeflem
    Nice little plugin! Might be nice to be able to save presets?
  • Jonasss
    Jonasss
    @jakeflem Thanks for the feedback! You're right, that'd be a nice addition, definitely adding it.
  • Nick Shinn
    Nick Shinn
    edited August 28
    Although they are called ink traps, they also served to counteract the degradation of sharp outline that occurred in the many photographic transfers that occurred during the print production workflow, especially during the phototype era. I believe the little ticks on the outside corners were called “minting.” 
  • jeremy tribby
    jeremy tribby
    Cool! Based on the animation above this looks very similar to the output of roundingUFO - was this inspired by it? Are there any major differences for users to be aware of? 
  • SCarewe
    SCarewe
    Yes, roundingUFO is also what I thought of immediately. I've always wanted something similar in Glyphs, looking forward to trying this out!

    I read through the code a bit, it looks solid, but I didn't take the time to fully understand your approach. What's your idea/principle for inktrap calculation?
  • Jonasss
    Jonasss

    Thank you so much! @jeremy tribby @SCarewe

    I knew roundingUFO a little, it's the obvious reference. But I didn't actually use it as a base, what little I know about how it works is just from its docs. I haven't been able to try it since I don't use RoboFont. One notable difference is that this plugin only does ink traps, while roundingUFO also rounds corners (which, to be honest, probably makes it more complete). One other thing: here the depth can go as a % of the stem, so it follows the weight.

    And @SCarewe  my idea is to find the concave corners by their angle and sink the trap toward the center of the corner, at whatever depth you set. On curves it sits on the real curve, and there's a cap so it won't cut through thin stems.

  • Jonasss
    Jonasss
    @Nick Shinn Oh! I didn't know that, the phototype origin makes a lot of sense. Hadn't heard the term "minting" either, going to read up on it. Thanks for the context!!
  • Kent Lew
    Kent Lew
    We also called them “thorns”. (Those phototype compensations for light spread.)
  • John Hudson
    John Hudson
    Yes, thorn is the term I remember.
    As late as the early 1990s, I met some type designers who had previously worked in phototype and who were unsure whether thorns were needed in digital type. [Arguably, they would be useful if one knew that a font was going to be used in a process that involved multiple photo transfers, but after the demise of phototype most offset print production involved only a single photographic, negative output.]

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