Font Creation Software

Andy Leese

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Oct 30, 2006, 9:03:10 AM10/30/06

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Could anybody offer any advice on the best font creation software? I have an
ancient version of Macromedia Fontographer. Obviously FontLab Studio 5.0.2
would be the obvious choice (since they have taken on Fontographer), but is
this is best? Is there any better software available or coming available
soon? Any thoughts, articles or advice would be greatfully recieved.

Thanks> Andy

Armadillo

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Oct 30, 2006, 9:29:14 AM10/30/06

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Fontlab is probably the best commercially available. After aquiring
Fontographer they implemented it's drawing tools and layer system into
FontLab. The only features that were better in Fontographer. FontLab can
be very confusing at first, especially all the OpenType features but on
the other hand it can take care of many settings automatically.

Ikarus and other tools is available at http://www.fontmaster.nl/

I've used Ikarus about 10 years ago and it has probably evolved a lot. At
that time digitizing was much better method for transferring hand drawn
characters into digital outlines than scanning and autotracing, probably
still is, but Ikarus produced really crappy Type1 fonts. Cleaning up the
paths in Fontographer was a must.

If you purchase the whole set of Masters it will set you back 2038.50€.
Compared to 229.10€ (Fontographer > FontLab upgrade) it is very expensive.
Although FontLab don't have all the features that The Masters have it
probably has better value for the money.

Jukka

Andy Leese

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Oct 30, 2006, 12:48:32 PM10/30/06

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Thanks for the response...

When you refer to 'The Masters' am I right in saying you mean the whole set
of DTL FontMaster (including Ikarus)?

For interest do you happen to know what the professional font producers use?
FontFont, Adobe, etc...?

Thanks again, Andy

Armadillo

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Oct 30, 2006, 2:50:10 PM10/30/06

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> When you refer to 'The Masters' am I right in saying you mean the whole set
> of DTL FontMaster (including Ikarus)?

Yes, the whole bundle.

> For interest do you happen to know what the professional font producers use?
> FontFont, Adobe, etc...?

About ten years ago I visited Monotype and they used Ikarus like for example Bertholdt. Also at that time I read an interview of Carol Twombly, a type designer at, in which she talkd about making character drawings for Ikarus. Later I met Lucas de Groot and whe told that he used old Letraset FontStudio

Small foundries use Fontographer for sure. This explains the sometimes poor technical quality and incorrect naming od PC fonts. FontFont, Emiger, HTF, just to name a few.

Anyway, in addition to design tools bigger foundries like Adobe may use custom postprocessing tools for hinting etc. Of course you can make wonders with manual editing but it is very difficult to achieve the quality of Adobe fonts with even FontLab. I do not know what the "Masters" tools are capable of.

Jukka

Armadillo

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Oct 30, 2006, 2:51:10 PM10/30/06

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> read an interview of Carol Twombly, a type designer at ADOBE, in which she

Jukka

Character

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Oct 30, 2006, 3:06:32 PM10/30/06

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Andy Leese wrote:

Jukki/Armadillo has been pointing you in the right direction.

A powerful but dated package, Manutius, is free and the English
version can be downloaded by clicking below. It's from about 1997 and
the interface is Windows 3.1; I've never quite figured out how to use
it, but its dialog boxes look potent :)

http://www.typeforum.de/modules.php?op=modload&name=Downloads&file=index&req=getit&lid=56

If that link doesn't work, the link can be found on its own home page at
http://www.typeforum.de/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=126

- Character