Create italics

[jpt]

Real ones! This is a ways off. But I removed the existing faux obliques from the Glyphs file and elsewhere for now; even if the released italics end up being mostly or entirely faux obliques (looked pretty good with "Transformations;Slant:7;SlantCorrection:0;Origin:4;"), the standard workflow seems to be having them in a separate file.

It would be nice to have a slnt axis, however. Along with #10, I'm thinking a variable font needs to be an entirely separate compilation step that may involve combining compatible masters from separate Glyphs files into one.

[jpt]

The faux obliques are back in as of a while ago. And couple of problem characters are being replaced. Really needs some sort of Cursify filter to fix to get the stroke angle correct, and some kerning stuff too.

[MattGreyDesign]

I'm aware it's not a free tool, but the RMX Tuner from the Font Remix Tools for Glyphs would be perfect for doing this https://remix-tools.com/glyphsapp/tutorials I haven't yet used it but I'm very tempted to buy it.

[jpt]

Hey @MattGreyDesign -- I use RMX tools extensively and RMX Tuner->Slant isn't much different (or different at all) from the standard Glyphs Transformations->Slant. The Glyphs Transformations->Cursify filter is a little bit better, but that creates other issues.

Ultimately, this method is probably the best way to fix things after slanting them -- http://66.147.242.192/~operinan/2/2.3.4a/2.3.4.34.curves.htm -- but it's an involved process. Writing a script to do it could be helpful although I think that's what Cursify does.

[MattGreyDesign]

That's surprising, I assumed RMX would be better, but I'm guessing you would recommend it for other things?

Usually Italics are manually made but it's a real pain as you probably well know, I think the best method of attack like you say is to start with an italic master from a generated instance that originally uses the cursify/slant.

[jpt]

@MattGreyDesign I absolutely recommend RMX -- I mostly use the Harmonizer and the Scaler. RMX Harmonizer automatically smooths all your curves in the way you might do manually with the assistance of the Speedpunk plugin. And RMX Scaler is great for fonts with multiple masters -- it allows you to very easily create things like smallcaps and fractions without screwing up your stem widths.

I agree real italics are a pain... fortunately Barlow uses a lot of components so not every letter will need modification, and I'm hoping I can write some Python scripts to take care of some of the curves...