Auto hint vs. true type hinting in glyphs (TT instructor)
Hello everyone. I’m new at TT Hinting and I want to understand how it works. For learning I take a font I’m currently working on, so there are some inconsistencies in the design, but that’s (hopefully) not the center of my question.
You can see on the left side my font as a TTF done with autohint. I think it is better if you compare it to the right side. Right side is the result of my hinting. I think the shapes of the glyphs in small size are clearer in my version. But in the middle sizes there are strange things happen. For example the b got a great contrast on baseline but a small contrast on the top of the x-height (For instance in size 16).
Is it a problem of the construction of my letters or a hinting problem?
I’m working in Glyphs App and this is what I've done:
font information
– I defined stem values & alignment zones
In the design interface
– my letters got extremepoints
– the extreme points in the y direction have an anchor on the alignment zones
– I set stem hints in x and y direction
x direction
y direction
Finally
– Should I take a look to the shape of my outlines or is it a common hinting problem?
– Are there some values I should set in the Font Infos like the blue values or TTFZones etc. (I don’t have a clear picture of how I can make the hinting better with all these different values)?
– Is it for the transformation into TTF important to remove all overlaps in the font?
– I heard different things, so I’m little bit confused–is it important to set hints in y AND x direction?
Glyphs specific questions
– I can hint my letters in the normal design window (Picture below) and I can do it in the TrueType Instructor (the two pictures above), so is it the same kind of hinting or is the first the information for Autohint and the second for real TTF? Because in the first case I can set ghost hints which isn’t possible in the TT Instructor and in the TTI I can set deltas which isn’t possible in the first case
– When I open the TTI (in x direction–you can see it in the picture under the x direction headline) I get two extra points located under the baseline–one on the 0 position in the x direction and another on the end of the right side bearing of the glyph. Is it smart to make a connection (like a interpolation) between this and the nodes of the letter?
I’m thankful for every advise!