Overlapper

Ryan Bugden

Initially conceived and refined between 2022.03.18 and 2023.05.30.

A RoboFont extension that gives you the power to add overlaps (+) and chamfers (-) to your glyph in a dynamic and high-fidelity way. The result is more editability when drawing, and more flexibility when interpolating.

How to use Overlapper:

Overlapping and chamferring:

1. Select at least one on-curve point, preferably on a sharp corner.
2. Hold v, and move the mouse right or left to make your corner into an overlap or a chamfer, respectively. The further you move your mouse, the bigger the overlap or chamfer.
3. Let go of v to commit the resulting shape.

Cross-overlapping:

1. Select an even number of on-curve points.
2. Hold Shift + v, and move the mouse right or left to make your corner into an overlap or a chamfer, respectively. The further you move your mouse, the bigger the cross-overlap.
3. Let go of v (before letting go of Shift) to commit the resulting shape.

Note: You can change hotkey in Extensions > Overlapper > Settings...

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Notes:

• If your glyph has contours with start points that are off-curves, this will make the nearest on-curve the start point in the process. This is the current workaround to preventing Overlapper from crashing RoboFont.
• In cross-overlap mode, when selecting more than 2 points, Overlapper does its best to pair them up. If it's not doing what you want it to do, try to do it on one pair at a time.

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Overlapper is inspired by the Add Overlap extension by Alexandre Saumier Demers. The cross-overlap feature is inspired by Thom Janssen’s Cross Overlap.

Special thanks to Frank Grießhammer, Jackson Cavanaugh, Andy Clymer, and all of the minds behind fontTools (the reason the curve extrapolation is so accurate).