Adjusting Glyph Metrics

In SnowB BMF, you can fine-tune the metrics of your font’s glyphs at both a global and individual level. This allows for precise control over character spacing and positioning.

Global Glyph Metrics

Global metric adjustments affect every glyph in your font, providing a uniform way to control the overall layout. You can find these settings in the left sidebar.

Global Settings

• xAdvance: Defines the default horizontal space each character occupies. It controls how far the cursor advances after each glyph is rendered.
• xOffset: Shifts all glyphs horizontally. A positive value moves them right, and a negative value moves them left.
• yOffset: Shifts all glyphs vertically. A positive value moves them down, and a negative value moves them up.

All metric values are in pixels and default to 0.

Individual Glyph Metrics

For more granular control, you can override the global metrics for specific glyphs. This is perfect for fixing spacing issues with particular characters.

How to Adjust Individual Glyphs

1. Activate Preview mode in the workspace.
2. Type the characters you want to adjust into the preview text field.
3. Click on a character in the preview area to select it.
4. The individual adjustment panel will appear at the bottom.

Individual Settings

For any selected glyph, you can override the following:

• xAdvance: Sets a custom advance width for the selected character.
• xOffset: Applies a unique horizontal offset to this glyph.
• yOffset: Applies a unique vertical offset to this glyph.

These individual adjustments will always take precedence over the global settings.

Common Use Cases

When to Use Global Adjustments:

• To apply a consistent spacing change across the entire font.
• To adjust the font’s baseline for better alignment.
• To counteract platform-specific rendering quirks.

When to Use Individual Adjustments:

• To correct spacing for problematic characters (e.g., “W” or “I”).
• To reposition punctuation and special symbols.
• To create custom kerning pairs.
• To balance the visual weight of different characters.

Best Practices

• Start Globally: Begin with global adjustments to set a baseline for your font.
• Adjust Individually: Use individual tweaks for exceptions and fine-tuning.
• Preview Often: Continuously test your changes with different text samples in preview mode.
• Consider the Target: Keep your target platform’s text rendering in mind.