Announcement: FontLab 4 for Windows is released!
Yuri Yarmola
editing tools and more!
For more information please visit FontLab page on our site:
http://www.fontlab.com/html/fontlab.html
Best regards,
Yuri Yarmola
FontLab, Ltd.
Marek Williams
dijo:
>OpenType support, macro programming language, customizable UI, new
>editing tools and more!
>
>For more information please visit FontLab page on our site:
>http://www.fontlab.com/html/fontlab.html
Looks impressive, but $549! Yikes!
I downloaded the PDF of the manual but I don't have time to read it
(660 pages!). Can you tell me if it can import a TrueType or Type 1
font and then export it as OpenType? And if so, is there a lot of
reconfiguring that would have to be done? Could an idiot like me do
it?
--
Bogus e-mail address, but I read this newsgroup regularly, so reply here.
Yuri Yarmola
There is $199 upgrade from FontLab 3.x and $199 crossgrade from
Macromedia Fontographer. Please, contact ord...@fontlab.com for more
information.
> I downloaded the PDF of the manual but I don't have time to read it
> (660 pages!). Can you tell me if it can import a TrueType or Type 1
> font and then export it as OpenType?
Short answer: Yes.
Long version:
There is no real difference between TrueType and OpenType; structure
is the same and if you are not going to add typograpy features there
is no need to "convert" TrueType to OpenType. Technically, TrueType
*is* OpenType, but usually fonts get OpenType title only if they have
features. Formally speaking, to make font an OpenType you also need to
add a digital signature table, but if you are not a font foundry, this
is not really necessary.
Type 1 fonts are different, they require conversion, and solution
provided by FL4 is very simple: open the Type 1 font, and save it as
.otf ("Type1", or, more correctly, CFF version of the OpenType format)
using the "File/Generate font..." command.
> And if so, is there a lot of
> reconfiguring that would have to be done? Could an idiot like me do
> it?
You can do a lot of reconfiguration, but you are not required to. What
I will recommend is to add a simple feature to any Type 1 font
containing basic ligatures before you convert it to OpenType:
feature liga{
sub f i by fi;
sub f l by fl;
} liga;
Use the OpenType panel to add a feature ("...OpenType" chapter in the
manual, second from the end :-)
Other thing to care about is Unicode encoding. In most cases FL will
automatically calculate Unicode indexes for Type 1 fonts you open
there, but I'd recommend to check the result before you save the font.
If you want to convert many Type 1 fonts to OpenType, you may try to
use Tools/Transform range... command, then select Fonts in the fonts
list in the
"range" list, click the "..." button and then fill the batch
converting list with the fonts. Do not forget to select destination
format in the list at the bottom ("Transformations" chapter).
If you want to perform more tricks like one described above, I
recommend to find a time to read a manual :-)
I suggest to move to FontLab forum with technical questions:
http://communities.msn.com/FontLab
Emir
fon...@hotmail.com (Yuri Yarmola) wrote:
> > Looks impressive, but $549! Yikes!
>
> There is $199 upgrade from FontLab 3.x and $199 crossgrade from
> Macromedia Fontographer. Please, contact ord...@fontlab.com for more
> information.
THAT (the "crossgrade") is a great idea. Thanks, Yuri.
Emir Kaganovich
Armadillo
> > > Looks impressive, but $549! Yikes!
> >
> > There is $199 upgrade from FontLab 3.x and $199 crossgrade from
> > Macromedia Fontographer. Please, contact ord...@fontlab.com for more
> > information.
>
> THAT (the "crossgrade") is a great idea. Thanks, Yuri.
It is commonly called competetive upgrade but competition may not be the
right word here. :-)
Jukka