FontForge Outline View vs Filled View Mode

In FontForge, switching between outline view and filled view allows type designers to balance technical vector precision with visual legibility. While outline view exposes the underlying structural paths, control points, and contour directions that define a glyph, filled view simulates how the character renders as a solid shape to the end user. Understanding what each mode displays helps you identify drafting errors, adjust optical weights, and ensure your fonts render correctly across various platforms.

What Outline View Shows

The outline view is the primary workspace for vector editing in FontForge. It strips away fill colors to reveal the wireframe geometry of your glyph:

• Control Points and Handles: Outline view displays every on-curve point and off-curve Bézier handle. This allows you to manipulate curves, move coordinates, and ensure smooth transitions between segments.
• Contour Directions: Paths feature arrows indicating direction (clockwise or counter-clockwise). In PostScript and TrueType fonts, path direction determines whether a shape is filled or cut out (such as the counter inside an "O" or "P"). Outline view makes these directions visible so you can spot reversed paths.
• Overlapping Contours: If a glyph is constructed from multiple distinct shapes that overlap, outline view shows the intersecting segments clearly before you merge them with the Remove Overlap command.
• Metrics and Guidelines: In this mode, alignment references such as the baseline, ascender, descender, cap height, and side bearings are fully visible, along with user-defined guidelines.
• Extreme Points and Inflections: FontForge highlights points placed at the horizontal and vertical extrema, which are critical for proper rasterization and hinting.

What Filled View Shows

Filled view renders the glyph as a solid silhouette, mimicking how it will appear in word processors, web browsers, and print:

• Final Visual Appearance: Filled view conceals nodes, handles, and direction arrows, presenting only the final rasterized shape. This lets you judge the optical weight, contrast, and balance of the character without vector clutter.
• Winding Rules and Counters: It immediately reveals whether your contour directions are correct. If an inner counter (like the hole in an "A") appears solid black rather than transparent, the filled view instantly warns you that the contour direction is reversed.
• Visual Smoothness: Curves that look mathematically correct in outline mode can sometimes look bumpy or distorted once filled. Filled view helps you evaluate the true aesthetic quality of your curves at various zoom levels.
• Spacing and Kerning Context: Viewing filled glyphs side by side provides an accurate preview of typographic rhythm, black-to-white space distribution, and side bearing balance.

When to Use Each Mode

• Use Outline View when drawing, placing extrema, aligning nodes to the grid, fixing stray points, and adjusting handle lengths.
• Use Filled View to proof your design, check that counters punch through correctly, evaluate visual weight alongside neighboring characters, and verify the overall aesthetic before exporting the font.