Tag Colors

[florianpircher]

The idea of assigning colors to certain tags has come a a number of times. I am unsure how this would be handled:

• Should color assignment be limited to a single file?
  • more granular control over tag colors
  • colors are the same for different people working on the same project
• Or should a color assigned to a tag apply across all files?
  • more general color to tag associations (less potential for confusion)
  • colors can be customized per user; different people on the same project don’t have to agree on the same colors

If per file, where would the tag to color table be stored? In a custom parameter? In a file next to the Glyphs file? Would it then also apply to other Glyphs files in the same directory?

And where do you expect to see the tag colors? In the Guten Tag palette, of course. Somewhere else also? Should tags be sorted by color first and by name second? Or should tags be sorted like currently – just by name – and not take color into account?

Would a limited palette of colors suffice (I hope so) or do you want arbitrary colors?

What would be use cases for tag colors:

• visually separate different types of tag categories (what would be those categories?)
• have relationship between tag colors and glyph/label colors
• other use cases (just make tags more pretty?)

[Mark2Mark]

Thanks for pointing me to this discussion.

I hope you don’t mind just pasting my thoughts from the Glyphs forum here, and then come back later, when I have more ideas or answers when working and having this option of colors in mind. 👇

Maybe a textfile next to the glyphs file with tag name and color (name/value)? Or maybe that could even be implemented in the Tag object in Glyphs, in case many users would take up on the idea of colored tags.

Lastly, the Guten Tag could display a little dot or something for each tag of the current layer in the edit view.

[Mark2Mark]

• A palette would suffice for me. (In Script Deck I use color indices, so that one could change the color palette later on)
• Sorting by color might not be important imo. The colors (for me) usually help to read less and find things faster.
• seeing the tags (all of the ones from a file) in the left palette when in Font View would be great, so that one could quickly filter by clicking on the tags, similar to Apple Notes. (I think we already discussed that for Glyphs built in)
• What cases? ... will update this answer ...
• local vs global: maybe the tag-color-table could be stored globally in one folder where also the glyphdata is, and if one puts another one next to a glyphs file, that one has higher priority and overrides the global one for that glyphs file(s) of that folder.

[HugoJourdan]

The Label Key plugin uses an external file stored in the Glyphs/info folder or placed next to the .glyphs file.

Using an external text file is quite useful, especially for collaborating with others and sharing the same color meanings. For Label Key, it prioritizes a text file next to the .glyphs file, and if not present, it uses one stored in Glyphs/info.

I think this is a pretty good approach, as it allows users to have their own color meanings, and if needed, to collaborate with others while sharing the same color interpretations.