Mark Zones

Balance Diacritics

Align all diacritics inside of the zones

A zone helps to define the vertical area in which all marks shall live. The usually may align to the bottom and/or top of a zone or can be centered.

Putting marks in their proper location relative to all other marks is incredibly simple with “Mark Zones”.

Better than Guidelines

Normal guidelines don’t provide overshoot, “Mark Zones” does.

Guidelines require several adjustments to each individual line and clutter the Edit View. “Mark Zones” allow for a single adjustment, such as position,size or overshoot. That is way more efficient.

Additionally, each zone can be assigned a unique color for clever organisation, also not possible with guidelines.

The labels are displayed neatly for the entire zone, while guidelines have a label beside each line.

Lastly, you can easily show/hide groups of zones by checking or unchecking their respective Custom Parameter.

Labeled Zones

Name your zones for organization

This is optional but very useful. The name will be shown aside each zone and a handy brace links the name label with the associated zone.

Easy Editing

Just drag your zones around

Drag and drop is simply the best when it comes to positioning your zones’ location and thickness.

Hold down the cmd key, and you are in the edit mode where the draggable bits show their readiness to be dragged when you hover over them.

Center Line

Shows an automatic vertical center

Displays a center line in any glyph of type “mark”, ideal for aligning shapes that do not extend from the top to the bottom of a zone.

Custom Parameter UI

Easy editing with a dedicated UI

Clicking on the Custom Parameter of a Mark Zone opens the UI specific to that zone. Here you can configure all attributes for the zone easily using the descriptive user interface.

More Info soon

Stay tuned for more info right here.

This page is currently in the works. All features will be shown and explained very soon. You can try the plugin for free in Glyphs already, though.

Mark Zones
Mark Zones

Perfect Alignment with Mark Zones:
A must-have Glyphs Plugin

“Mark Zones” is a plugin for GlyphsApp that brings your alignment to a whole new level. True to its name, it primarily showcases zones designed for your marks, diacritics, and accents. However, its versatility extends beyond that. Let's delve deeper into its capabilities.

Why is it better than Guidelines?

When it comes to aligning marks, diacritics, and accents, traditional guidelines fall short. They quickly clutter your Edit View, making it challenging to distinguish between different lines.

With “Mark Zones”, you already have the necessary pairs, which you can customize with colors, names, and view filters like scripts or glyph types.

Moreover, traditional guidelines lack the ability to provide overshoot. Achieving a clean and practical display of what this tool does with guidelines requires multiple adjustments to each individual guideline. In contrast, with “Mark Zones”, a single adjustment such as position or overshoot is enough.

Each zone can be assigned a distinct color, a feature unavailable with guidelines.

“Mark Zones” sports additional intelligent features. For instance, if labeled as “Anchors”, it highlights any anchors not positioned on that specific zone or line, indicating potential misalignments.

These zones are stored within the font as Custom Parameters. You can create as many zones as needed, even grouping multiple zones within a single Custom Parameter for shared attributes like color, name, overshoot size, and filter. This functionality also enables you to easily show or hide specific zones via the font info settings.

This plugin for GlyphsApp improves your typefaces’ quality!

Key Features

  • Clean: A zone for aligning marks is better than a sets of guides.
  • Organization: Color and name your zones.
  • Overshoot: Round or pointy marks need to stick out of their zones. Welcome overshoots.
  • Filter: Show certain zones only for some glyphs or scripts.

Say goodbye to misaligned marks with Mark Zones!

Install Mark Zones in Glyphs

Often Asked

  1. Either click the Install button above, and then:
    1. Allow the browser to open Glyphs.
    2. Accept the install dialoge in the app
    3. Relaunch Glyphs
  2. Or do it manually:
    1. Open Glyphs
    2. Open the Plugin Manager by selecting Window → Plugin Manager.
    3. Search for “Mark Zones”
    4. Click Install next to the Mark Zones plugin preview.
    5. Relaunch Glyphs

You can always contact me via my contact form below. Another way is to open an issue on GitHub.

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