My Clef

Music notation symbols, fonts, font sources and font creation, SmuFL.
Knut
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Re: My Clef

Post by Knut »

John Ruggero wrote:Knut, thank you so much for your positive reaction and very detailed help with this clef. I will endeavor to put it to good use and post a new result when I think that it is ready. I am learning so much through this endeavor!
You're very welcome!

Two things I didn't mention that might be of some help with a complex shape like the treble clef is:

1. The spiral consists in reality of several fractions of a circle decreasing gradually in size as it moves inward. At the same time, since you're dealing with a calligraphic shape, the inner and outer nodes will generally be offset from the centre by a certain amount This is very difficult to explain, but should be made clearer by this picture of my own node placement for the treble clef spiral.
Skjermbilde 2015-12-29 kl. 00.47.22.png
Skjermbilde 2015-12-29 kl. 00.47.22.png (86.13 KiB) Viewed 9403 times


Keep circular and calligraphic symmetry in mind when determining exactly where to place the nodes. this placement is the key to getting a smooth spiral shape.

2. When tweaking the curves, try rotating/mirroring the clef to view it from different angles. many minor faults in the shape can become much clearer when viewing the clef upside down, mirrored or rotated 90°.
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John Ruggero
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Re: My Clef

Post by John Ruggero »

Thank you again, Knut.Those are very helpful insights into this process. Does this method work with a traced image that already has nodes in place? And can I do it in Inkscape? I was smoothing entirely by eye by adding and subtracting nodes while comparing to the original.
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Knut
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Re: My Clef

Post by Knut »

John Ruggero wrote:Thank you again, Knut.Those are very helpful insights into this process. Does this method work with a traced image that already has nodes in place? And can I do it in Inkscape? I was smoothing entirely by eye by adding and subtracting nodes while comparing to the original.
I can't speak for Inkscape, but I think a traced image in Illustrator almost always has more nodes than necessary, which makes it difficult to get a smooth result. You should reduce the number of nodes to the bare minimum, and adjust the curves by moving nodes and control vectors. Personally, I find such fine tuning much easier to do after import to FontLab.
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John Ruggero
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Re: My Clef

Post by John Ruggero »

Thanks again, for the tips, Knut. I didn't realize that the curves were actually parts of perfect circles which should help. Perhaps I can draw the circles and attempt to fit them against the traced image for comparison purposes.

I tried doing the fine tuning in FontForge, but with little success. Perhaps I should try again. I am limited to freeware, so I will just have to make do.
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Knut
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Re: My Clef

Post by Knut »

John Ruggero wrote: I didn't realize that the curves were actually parts of perfect circles which should help. Perhaps I can draw the circles and attempt to fit them against the traced image for comparison purposes.
That would work. Beware, though, that the circular pattern needs to decrease gradually in size, so won't get perfect circles all around. You will most probably need to do quite a bit of manual tweaking to get it right, but using circles of different sizes as guides is a good idea. There might also be a spiral tool in Inkscape, as in Illustrator, which might serve this purpose.
John Ruggero wrote:I tried doing the fine tuning in FontForge, but with little success. Perhaps I should try again. I am limited to freeware, so I will just have to make do.
If FontForge is lacking control over the vectors, I would stick to Inkscape. This should provide you with a sufficient level of control. I just prefer fine tuning in the font editor, but it's probably just a question of using the software you're most comfortable with.
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John Ruggero
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Re: My Clef

Post by John Ruggero »

Inkscape does have a spiral tool and it helps a lot. I was horrified to see how uneven some of it was. I had done a different clef before this one and spent more time refining. Then, when this one turned out better in terms of proportion etc. I was so happy I "forgot" to do the final smoothing. But this is going a lot better now. But I am still not using the vector control lines which FontForge has, but InkScape doesn't seem to—just adding and subtracting nodes and nudging.
Last edited by John Ruggero on 08 Jan 2016, 17:06, edited 1 time in total.
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John Ruggero
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Re: My Clef

Post by John Ruggero »

Here is the smoother (I hope) version of my clef in action. As before, everything is slightly stretched in the horizontal direction when placed inline. Note that the Maestro noteheads appear wider than usual. Sorry it's so big, but I wanted it large enough to inspect the smoothness and also see it in use in a Maestro environment.
Clef.jpg
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John Ruggero
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Re: My Clef

Post by John Ruggero »

Here is the clef as it actually appears in a PDF attachment:
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Clef.pdf
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Knut
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Re: My Clef

Post by Knut »

That's much better, John.

The few minor bumps that are left (unless I'm mistaken them for pixel distortion) won't be visible in print at normal size.

Congratulations!
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John Ruggero
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Re: My Clef

Post by John Ruggero »

That's what I keep telling myself: that they are pixel distortion and won't be visible. I reached the point where the smoothing was starting to detract from the overall shape, so there I stopped for now, at least. I am sure that I will look it over again and improve it some more when I am more proficient with the tools.

Thanks so much for your help, Knut, and to those who sent encouraging words.

Happy New Year!

PS. The lateral spreading that I see in the inline graphics seems to change at different zoom % and disappear at the higher ones. Very strange.
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