FontLab TV: glyph construction from scratch
The first letter is the hardest. The FontLab TV glyph construction episode is a calm, deliberate walkthrough of drawing one letter — n — from a blank glyph cell to a finished, point-clean contour you can build a font around.
What it covers¶
The starting point. Before drawing, set the UPM, ascender, descender, x-height, cap-height, and overshoot lines. The episode shows where these go in FontLab and why getting them right at the start saves rework later.
Why n. Three vertical stems, one curve, the basic stress axis — n contains the DNA of every other lowercase letter. Get it right and h, m, u, i, r follow.
Bézier discipline. Two on-curve points per extremum, handles aligned to the curve direction, no spurious points. The episode shows the difference between a clean two-point curve and the same shape drawn with five points and offers a concrete heuristic: if removing a point does not change the shape, remove the point.
Overshoot. Curved letters need to extend slightly above and below straight letters to look the same height. The episode shows the standard overshoot values (1–2% of UPM) and how to apply them via overshoot zones rather than per-glyph fudging.
Quality checks. FontLab’s contour audit catches reversed paths, duplicate points, near-collinear handles, and other geometry sins. Run it before you call a glyph done.
Why it matters¶
Every glyph after the first is a variation on a structure you set up at the start. This episode is the patient version of “draw one letter properly” — and it pays off across the entire font.