16 Replies Latest reply: Sep 11, 2014 2:55 PM by Peter Spier

Changing stroke [reduction] thickness of a font (Glyph)?

shawninvancouver Sep 10, 2014 11:45 AM

Hello all,

I used the Glyph function for a curly bracket in order to denote two sections on an illustration. It isn't ideal by it gets the point across (I am open to ideas that are better than a font based curly bracket).

Anyhow, because I had to expand the curly bracket character to 72pt, it is now too thick. Is there a feature, in InDesign that will allow me to lessen the stroke size? The Stoke Weight is already 0, so that won't work. I have also lowered the Horizontal scale... that helped with the appearance. Plenty of community help requests talk about increasing stroke thickness, but none cover reducing it.

Another option is to convert the font character to curves. Can I do that without going into Illustrator?

Thank you.

1. Re: Changing stroke [reduction] thickness of a font (Glyph)?

Obi-wan Kenobi Sep 10, 2014 1:17 PM (in response to shawninvancouver)

Hi,

Screenshot, please!
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2. Re: Changing stroke [reduction] thickness of a font (Glyph)?

SRiegel Sep 10, 2014 1:27 PM (in response to shawninvancouver)

I think your best result would be from finding a thinner font to make your bracket from. These are helvetica ultra light.
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3. Re: Changing stroke [reduction] thickness of a font (Glyph)?

shawninvancouver Sep 10, 2014 1:36 PM (in response to SRiegel)

Hello SRiegel,

I actually began looking for a thinner character. Thanks for saving me a lot of time.

But for purely academic knowledge, it would be nice to know how to reduce the thickness of a font's character. I'm thinking that I would have to reduce the character to curves... or rather create outlines. After converting to outlines, I still cannot find a way to 'thin' out the font (or outline). Reducing its Width, just flattens out the outline... not what I am looking for.

Any thoughts?
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4. Re: Changing stroke [reduction] thickness of a font (Glyph)?

Obi-wan Kenobi Sep 10, 2014 1:39 PM (in response to shawninvancouver)

I think a better way is drawing the bracket in ID with a simple stroke, as:
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5. Re: Changing stroke [reduction] thickness of a font (Glyph)?

shawninvancouver Sep 10, 2014 1:39 PM (in response to Obi-wan Kenobi)

Hello Obi-wan Kenobi,

I just want the character to be thinner. So imagine the bracket, uploaded by SRiegel, being 1 pixel thick, rather than about four pixels thick. That is what I am trying to accomplish.
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6. Re: Changing stroke [reduction] thickness of a font (Glyph)?

SRiegel Sep 10, 2014 1:42 PM (in response to shawninvancouver)

There are options, like adding a white stroke, or taking it into illustrator and using a negative offset path, but IMO, none of these produce great results, because the resulting form lacks the visual balance of a font that was designed from the start to be thin.
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7. Re: Changing stroke [reduction] thickness of a font (Glyph)?

Obi-wan Kenobi Sep 10, 2014 1:52 PM (in response to shawninvancouver)

So, define the size you want, select the glyph, make: Cmd-Alt-Shift-O (make iras outline) and apply a white stroke (here: 1 pt):
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8. Re: Changing stroke [reduction] thickness of a font (Glyph)?

shawninvancouver Sep 10, 2014 1:57 PM (in response to Obi-wan Kenobi)

I don't have Helvetica Ultra Light....

But Obi-wan Kenobi, I really like the font example you used. What font/font character (square bracket) did you use?

Obi-wan Kenobi wrote:

So, define the size you want, select the glyph, make: Cmd-Alt-Shift-O (make iras outline) and apply a white stroke (here: 1 pt):

Thanks for this suggestion.
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9. Re: Changing stroke [reduction] thickness of a font (Glyph)?

SRiegel Sep 10, 2014 1:58 PM (in response to shawninvancouver)

Here are some thin fonts that are free

http://www.design-by-izo.com/2011/01/07/10-free-classy-thin-fonts/

maybe one of these will work for you.
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10. Re: Changing stroke [reduction] thickness of a font (Glyph)?

Obi-wan Kenobi Sep 10, 2014 2:02 PM (in response to shawninvancouver)

Avenir Heavy.

Why an outline in interesting? because the stroke alignment settings are different and allow to apply an internal stroke (negative stroke!):

Result:
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11. Re: Changing stroke [reduction] thickness of a font (Glyph)?

Peter Spier Sep 10, 2014 3:55 PM (in response to shawninvancouver)

Would just using vertical scale on the glyph distort it too much?
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12. Re: Changing stroke [reduction] thickness of a font (Glyph)?

Obi-wan Kenobi Sep 10, 2014 4:01 PM (in response to Peter Spier)

Reading Peter's answer makes me think to this solution: using a maths equation editor as MathType or MathMagic does it!
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13. Re: Changing stroke [reduction] thickness of a font (Glyph)?

shawninvancouver Sep 11, 2014 2:50 PM (in response to shawninvancouver)

Thanks again everyone. You folks were awesome, yet again!

Too bad I can only select one answer as correct. I ended up drawing my own bracket b/c I didn't have any of the fonts you folks demonstrated with.
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14. Re: Changing stroke [reduction] thickness of a font (Glyph)?

shawninvancouver Sep 11, 2014 2:51 PM (in response to Peter Spier)

Peter Spier wrote:

Would just using vertical scale on the glyph distort it too much?

The action flattens the font but not the thickness. I wish it were that easy.
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15. Re: Changing stroke [reduction] thickness of a font (Glyph)?

shawninvancouver Sep 11, 2014 2:52 PM (in response to SRiegel)

SRiegel wrote:

Here are some thin fonts that are free

http://www.design-by-izo.com/2011/01/07/10-free-classy-thin-fonts/

maybe one of these will work for you.

Cool. Thank you! Too bad I didn't see this msg until now.
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16. Re: Changing stroke [reduction] thickness of a font (Glyph)?

Peter Spier Sep 11, 2014 2:55 PM (in response to shawninvancouver)

shawninvancouver wrote:

Peter Spier wrote:

Would just using vertical scale on the glyph distort it too much?

The action flattens the font but not the thickness. I wish it were that easy.

The point is to start with a SMALL size glyph, then make it taller.
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