looking for Font software

[danpik]

I have several "fonts" that I created in Illustrator for some projects. It would be easier for me to be able have these as True type fonts to use on some projects. Does anyone here have a recomendation for a good, low cost, font creator program? I did a search for a freeware one and no such thing exists. There are several free demo ones out there but after you do the work to create the font you can not save it or use it.

Thanks, Dan

 

[Bobby H]

For font editing, I think it comes down to paying some money to Font Lab. They have the font editing market cornered.

Not only do they have their Font Lab application (version 5.1 for Mac, version 5.0.4 for Windows) years ago they bought out the rights to their rival application, Fontographer. Macromedia never did anything to improve FOG once they acquired all those Aldus properties, like Freehand. When Adobe gobbled up Macromedia, the Fontographer property was one of the things cast aside in the app suite mash-up.

Personally, I have an ancient version of Fontographer that came along for the ride with Freehand Graphics Studio 7 way way back in the 1990s. I'm at a crossroads now, needing to jettison some old computer equipment -like the old desktop that keeps the old copy of FOG 4.1.5 alive for certain tasks. Do I pay $200 to upgrade to FOG 5.1 or do I pay $300 for FontLab 5.0.4? Choices choices.

 

[JoshLoring]

I'm interested in this too. I'd like to start making fonts as well

 

[Bobby H]

Typeface design is much easier said than done. I really wish I knew about things like Python scripting, etc. My custom lettering tends to begin and end with custom drawn and vectorized word marks, not entire alphabets with dozens of kerning pairs, much less dozens of OpenType alternatives.

Still, for those into typeface design, I recommend these three books. They'll help:
Anatomy of a Typeface by Alexander Lawson
Letters of Credit, A View of Typeface Design by Walter Tracy
The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst

All three books can be ordered from sites like Amazon.

 

[Fred Weiss]

Bobby H has it about right. FontLab is the last viable solution standing. Having used Fontographer on both Mac and Windows platforms, I would call it the best and most elegant solution ever offered for professional level quality ... especially when used with Freehand as the vector creating application.

So if you want the best, get hold of a copy of Fontographer and Freehand (or Illustrator as a lesser but still acceptable substitute). Be prepared for a moderate learning curve with a few start overs before you get it right. Figure on anywhere from 2 to 24 man hours to do a decent job for each font you generate.

BTW Bobby, Fontographer and Freehand along with a few lesser applications were authored by a Texas company named Altsys. They licensed them to Aldus and had to sue Adobe to get their rights back when Adobe bought Aldus. They then turned around and sold all rights to Macromedia. Back in the late 1980s, Adobe, Aldus and Altsys were the three major players and jointly pushed PostScript through as the standard for imaging and print.

 

[Rodi]

Fred, I love that you mentioned Freehand and Fontographer together. I love Freehand. I totally disagree with you about Fontographer, I think compared to Ares/Letraset FontStudio, fontographer is a dog. But its been 20 years since FontStudio has been upgraded! I had to buy illy 5 to work with fontStudio too (tough thing for a Freehand guy like me!)

Other very viable options are the fontmaster suite from DTL (Free!) or if you know how to compile programs FontForge is really good ( I used an older version on mac and I liked it quite a bit)

 

[Bobby H]

I think most typeface designers are using FontLab Studio now.

For those who prefer Fontographer, FontLab also develops and sells that. The version 5.0.4 (PC) and version 5.1 (Mac) releases are the first upgrades Fontographer has received since the mid 1990s.

Regarding DTL Font Master, the "lite" version is free. It's main limitation: you can't create fonts with any more than 256 glyphs. It's better than nothing. If you want the full versions of any of the DTL font creation modules you have to pay.

 

[oldgoatroper]

I haven't checked lately, but does CorelDraw still have font creation capabilities... ?

 

[Pat Whatley]

High Logic Font Creator

Starts at $70....a lot better than FontLab at $675. I'm sure the two programs are night and day different but I'd personally have to be doing a whole lot of font designing to justify the difference. Works for me....if only I'd get back to working on it.