How to Show or Hide Tool Palettes in FontForge

This guide explains how to toggle and manage floating tool palettes in FontForge, allowing you to customize your workspace to suit your font design needs. Whether you accidentally closed your primary drawing tools or need to clear screen space by hiding the Layers panel, FontForge provides simple menu options to display or hide these interface elements.

Displaying or Hiding Palettes in the Glyph View

Tool palettes in FontForge primarily exist within the Glyph (Outline) editing window. To control their visibility:

1. Open any glyph in your font by double-clicking it in the main Font View window to launch the Glyph editing window.
2. Click on the Window menu located in the top menu bar.
3. Navigate to the Palettes submenu.
4. Click on the specific palette you wish to toggle:
   • Tools: Contains the primary drawing, node editing, knife, and transformation tools.
   • Layers: Displays the foreground, background, and guide layers.

A checkmark next to the palette name indicates that it is currently visible. Clicking an active palette unchecks it and hides the window, while clicking an inactive one restores it to your screen.

Restoring Closed Palettes

If you accidentally close a palette by clicking its individual close button ("X"), it does not delete any functionality. You can restore it immediately by returning to Window > Palettes and selecting the closed palette name again.

Docking and Window Management

Depending on your operating system and display preferences, palettes can either float freely or dock within the editing window. You can modify how these windows behave:

1. Go to File > Preferences from the main menu.
2. Select the Window Manager or Appearance section (depending on your FontForge version).
3. Adjust palette behavior settings, such as whether palettes remain on top or open automatically when launching an outline editing window.