designing your own font for Windows

[MikeD]

Anyone doing this?
Is Font Forge the best font editor in general (besides being free?)
Anyone have any tips or short cuts?

 

[Terremoto]

If you want the best font creation tool then FontLab Studio is at the top of the pile. Bit of a learning curve but well worth it in my opinion.

Dan

 

[TyrantDesigner]

font forge is great for the price ... if you're just looking to do a couple custom fonts for your own system go with font forge

 

[MikeD]

Thanks for the advice!
At the moment, I only need to make one font so I think Font Forge, but there is a possibility of more in the future. Fontlab Studio is $650, maybe I can get the bossman to buy it. Obviously, I'm new to the software; can you tell me what makes it better than the rest, please?
Thanks again!

 

[round man]

not too sure about the latest greatest versions but coreldraw has a truetype import export filter that can be used to create custom fonts,...I recall having to do a custom install to load the import/export filter in order bto be able to create a font and there was quite a learning curve on setting up a page to draw the font on and then create the font,...but once you get started it isn't all that difficult,...I think it was version 7 they started this,...

 

[MikeD]

Thanks RoundMan!
I have a copy of corel somewhere around here. I will try that out first. That will make the process easier- no cygwin.
I appreciate the fact that you and the others took the time to help me.
Mike

 

[Jackpine]

Ditto.

not too sure about the latest greatest versions but coreldraw has a truetype import export filter that can be used to create custom fonts,...I recall having to do a custom install to load the import/export filter in order bto be able to create a font and there was quite a learning curve on setting up a page to draw the font on and then create the font,...but once you get started it isn't all that difficult,...I think it was version 7 they started this,...

 

[Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?]

I use a program called High Logic Font Creator. It's full featured and is super user friendly.

 

[Steve C.]

I have used all of these, corel, high logic and font lab. They all have quite a learning
curve, but high logic font creator was the easiest. I have an older version that will
not support OTF which is why I went to font lab. Many of my first fonts were created
in Corel. Kerning is a problem with Corel.

 

[MikeD]

Welp,
I (our I.T. guy) got Font Forge installed, and it seems very straightforward since I'm making the glyphs in Illustrator and just using F.F. to import the graphic and export it as a font. However, once I click the import button in F.F., it crashes. I started using CS4 .eps, and the crash was immediate. Went all the way to Ai3.eps and instead of crashing/closing, F.F. just froze up. I'm going to try .svg format, although F.F.'s author recommends .eps from AI, and .svg from Corel. Next I will install a copy of Corel, but I'm a heck of a lot more efficient in Ai.
Anyone know what mistake I'm making?

Thanks for the advice!

 

[Steve C.]

Welp,
I (our I.T. guy) got Font Forge installed, and it seems very straightforward since I'm making the glyphs in Illustrator and just using F.F. to import the graphic and export it as a font. However, once I click the import button in F.F., it crashes. I started using CS4 .eps, and the crash was immediate. Went all the way to Ai3.eps and instead of crashing/closing, F.F. just froze up. I'm going to try .svg format, although F.F.'s author recommends .eps from AI, and .svg from Corel. Next I will install a copy of Corel, but I'm a heck of a lot more efficient in Ai.
Anyone know what mistake I'm making?

Thanks for the advice!

Your should have the option to export as PFB (Adobe Type 1 Font) or TTF (true type font) . You might need to size it to 720 pt. before exporting.

 

[MikeD]

PFB is the default format displayed in the import dialogue box of F.F.- I was switching to .eps, but will give the PFB route a shot.
Thanks!

 

[Steve C.]

PFB is the default format displayed in the import dialogue box of F.F.- I was switching to .eps, but will give the PFB route a shot.
Thanks!

Illustrator and Corel both support PFB. Using Illy with FontLab
you can also just cut and past. Let us know what works.

 

[TyrantDesigner]

Illustrator and Corel both support PFB. Using Illy with FontLab
you can also just cut and past. Let us know what works.

I was just going to suggest that ... pasting just copies the data (at this point is just random connected points and the curve math) into font forge so there is no formatting to contend with.

 

[MikeD]

tried control C + Control V from CS4 to F.F. but the vector graphic didn't transfer. I also tried pasting from "Edit", Paste" but the paste option was grayed out. Tried clicking and dragging from ai to FF, but couldn't get that in there that way either.

WhooooHooooo!
SVG import worked!!!!!

Thanks to all of you for your help and advice! Signs101 has been such a great resource for me over the past couple years.