Graphic editor FontLab Studio, which can then be downloaded for free via a direct link, is real professional font editor, which is used in their work by developers from global companies Adobe, Apple, IBM, Microsoft, Monotype, Bitstream and many others.
Program for working with fonts FontLab Studio has all the necessary capabilities to create any type of highly artistic and high-tech. High-quality fonts created in the FontLab Studio program can be seen in the best publications in the world and on the most popular Internet sites. 
Most design studios and printing houses use fonts produced by the FontLabStudio program. Not surprising, because the program, which you can download for free in this post, supports OpeneType, TrueType, ASCII/Unix Type and many other types of fonts, allows you to import and export vector fonts in AI and UZYB formats, as well as in TIFF and BMP.
A professional program for working with fonts, FontLab Studio has its own viewer and powerful ready-made fonts, there are options for a large number of tools and filters, the editor program supports various encodings (including Unicode) and many other features.
FontLab Studio 5 has been significantly improved compared to previous versions and is now aimed at printers, professional designers, type artists and graphic design studios.
Professionals will appreciate FontLab Studio's huge selection of functions for creating, processing and modifying fonts of various categories, support for generating Windows Type 1 and OpenType PS and Arabic and Hebrew characters. Excellent drawing tools, batch character transformation, encoding templates, and more than 200 levels of undo and redo actions have been implemented.
Download archive with FontLab Studio 5.0.4.2741 By
There are hundreds of different fonts freely available on the Internet, including exotic and handwritten ones, but even such an abundance of them will be completely useless if you need a font that imitates your own handwriting. The reasons why such simulation may be needed may vary, but it is not so much a matter of reasons, but rather how to implement it.
It turns out that it is very simple. To do this you need a program High-Logic FontCreator and a little perseverance and patience.
Before moving on to the description of the process, let me say a few words about the process itself. . This program is intended for creating and editing fonts. With it, you can update existing and add new symbols, correct their markup, view and install fonts, fix incorrectly displayed fonts, and convert images to text.
Some useful information
So, install and run the program. Next, in the main menu, select File -> Open -> Font File and open any Cyrillic font, copied in advance to a folder convenient for you. FontCreator will parse and display its contents in an internal window, each cell of which will contain a specific character.
If you double-click on such a cell, the program will open the symbol in a small window with a grid layout with guides.
By grabbing the markers with the mouse, you can change the font size, its height and width, the angle of inclination, as well as the shape of the contours themselves.
As for the guides. There are seven of them in FontCreator: WinDescent, BaseLine, x-Height, CapHeight, WinAscent and two more vertical ones without a name.
BaseLine- reference reference line on which "costs" font.
CapHeight- determines the height of capital letters.
X-Height- determines the height of lowercase letters. The exception is lowercase letters of handwritten fonts, which have at the top "tail". The height of such symbols is determined by the line CapHeight.
Lines WinDescent And WinAscent serve to limit characters that have additional elements, for example, a dash in the short “I” or a tail in “Ш” or “р”.
Unnamed vertical lines determine the width of the character. It is different for each symbol.
We may not even suspect it, but all these lines are taken into account by text editors, thanks to which the letters in the text do not overlap each other, are not located one above the other, but stand straight, like drilled soldiers on a parade.
Create your own handwritten font
Take a regular sheet of white A4 paper and write on it in a row all the letters (lowercase and uppercase), as well as all the symbols that you intend to use when printing. It is best to write with a black gel pen so that the characters on the sheet are clear and stand out well. Next, scan the sheet into an image format JPEG or PNG. If you have a device that supports stylus handwriting, use it.
Select the symbol in the image and copy the area to the clipboard. Next, go to FontCreator, find the same symbol in the table of cells, double-click it to open it in the editor, select it and press the Delete button, and in its place paste our selected area of the image (in the menu Edit -> Paste) .
The program recognizes the picture and converts it into an editable outline. Now all that remains is to scale the outline so that its top coincides with the line x-Height, if it is a lowercase letter and with CapHeight, if it is a capital letter. Snap to line BaseLine is done automatically. "Tails" letters "r", "y", "V", "b" tie to WinDescent or WinAscent respectively.
To avoid any overlaps and ensure that the handwritten font you created looks natural, drag the right vertical guide to the far right point of the scaled symbol.
We replace all the characters you need in exactly the same way. The work may seem long and tedious, but the result is worth the effort. After all the characters have been replaced, we export the project to the desired font format and install it into the system.
The program used in the example High-Logic FontCreator is the best tool for creating and editing fonts. Unfortunately, it's paid and when working in trial mode, does not allow you to export projects to font formats ready for installation. But whoever seeks always finds. We believe that finding on the Internet, although not the latest, but a completely working version, will not be difficult for you.
A font designer, like no one else, requires a high-quality selection of programs for creating, modifying, viewing and managing fonts. In this review, I tried to more or less fully consider three categories of programs that are vital in everyday work - editors, managers and font viewers, as well as various utilities. I hope that this review will also be useful to designers and layout designers who, due to their occupation, often come across fonts.
FONT EDITORS
Alphabet Synthesis Machine
A very remarkable program implemented as a Java applet. If desired, any web surfer can try his hand at creating fonts. Only the font you create will not be close to the Cyrillic or Latin alphabet. The fact is that the mechanism of this editor is built like this: the supposed author goes to the page with the downloaded Alphabet Synthesis Machine applet, draws a certain character (it is not at all necessary that it looks like any letter of the Cyrillic or Latin alphabet), and ASM, based on the parameters this sign completes the entire alphabet. Moreover, to generate the remaining characters, a gene construction algorithm is used. The resulting product, more similar to the font of a foreign civilization, can be saved on your computer in TTF format.
About 50 similar fonts are created per day. If you wish, you can delve into the archive of this project.
It would seem that this is an absolutely useless project - creating fonts that cannot be used in the daily activities of a designer or layout designer. However, this is not true. The creators of ASM relied on philosophical concepts, which can be found on the project server pages. We will not touch on them, so as not to be distracted from the topic of the review.
- Golan Levin, Jonathan Feinberg, Cassidy Curtis
- http://alphabet.tmema.org/entry.html
BDF Font Editor
A simple font editor written in Tcl/tk under *nix. Allows you to create and modify fonts in BDF format.
BitCopy
Quite an interesting editor for creating, modifying and converting fonts. BitCopy makes it easy to create bitmapped fonts from scalable PCL and PostScript printers. Works with all standard font formats, including PostScript Type 1, TrueType and FastFont. In terms of editing, BitCopy allows you to: rotate characters, “apply” shadows, invert (white/black), generate bold and thin styles (relative to normal), scale, create new characters using “application”, etc.
Font Creator Program
Font Creator is a fairly average program. Allows you to convert blanks from raster format (.bmp) to vector, as well as create and edit fonts in TrueType format. Among the functional features we can note: reading and writing TTF fonts, raster->vector conversion, primitive tools for working with curves, combining and splitting contours, unlimited number of rollbacks/repetitions (undo/redo), kerning, PCL5 window, splitting composite glyphs into simple ones, results preview window (control text), Unicode mapping, autokerning, autometrics.
FontLab
TypeTool like a lightweight version of FontLab.
In terms of the number of functions and ease of use, I consider FontLab to be the font editor of all times. It has everything you need both to create fonts from scratch and to modify them:
- Glyph Editor - environment for creating characters;
- TrueType & Type 1 Hinting - manual and automatic hinting;
- VectorPaint Tools - excellent tools for working with vector objects;
- FontAudit Technology - a unique technology for automatically identifying and eliminating problems with the contours of created characters;
- Font Metrics and Kerning - professional font metrics and kerning editor with automatic functions;
- Transformations - various transformations applied to both individual characters and their groups;
- Font Header Editor - access to editing all font properties from the name and supported code pages to specific TrueType metrics.
The latest, fourth, version of FontLab now has full support for the OpenType format - import, creation, editing, export and conversion. Also, earlier versions introduced similar support for fonts in the Multiple Master format. The new Macro Language function is very useful, which allows you to write not only scripts in Python, but also create your own tools and even plugins, which will significantly expand the already considerable capabilities of the program. Also worth noting are the new tools for working with contours - Knife, Magic Wand, 3D Rotate, Scale and Slant, Sketch mode for creating a new contour using Ikarus-like tools. Plus, to all this splendor, a customizable user interface allows you to customize almost everything - from keyboard shortcuts to new buttons on the tool palette.
GOTE
GOTE - GNOME OpenType editor. The name is very loud, let's see what comes out of this idea. The beta version that I tested so far only works with TrueType fonts. In the next version, the creators promise support for Type1. While the set of functions is small, it is still possible to create a font from scratch. In its work, the program uses Gnome libraries - specifically, glib, gdk, gtk+, gnome, gnomeui, libglade. These libraries are included in almost all recent Unix/Linux distributions, including FreeBSD, Solaris and Irix.
- Robert Brady (Department of Electronics & Computer Science, University of Southampton)
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LaserJet Bitmapped Font Editor
Bitmapped font editor for DOS. Maximum font sizes are 110 pt (VGA), 80 pt (EGA), 88 pt (Herc&AT&T), 44 pt (CGA). There is a whole range of special effects. It is possible to import black and white images in .PCX and .TIF formats. Unfortunately, not all mouse models are supported, which may seem crazy to modern users.
Macromedia Fontographer
Despite the fact that the program has not been updated for a long time, it is still considered one of the most professional editors. In addition to the functions inherent in these programs, Fontographer allows you to import/export images in EPS format, as well as kerning pairs. Authors can generate fonts in PostScript Type 1 and TrueType formats.
Unfortunately, in Win 2000/XP OS the editor works with critical errors. But no updates or fixes are expected in the program. It's like the natural death of Fontographer...
PfaEdit
A very dynamically developing and promising UNIX-based editor for creating and editing fonts in Type 1 and TrueType formats. In terms of the number of functions and ease of use, it can be placed between FontLab and Fontographer. And among *nix platforms it is the undisputed favorite. A very big plus is the ability to correctly convert fonts into different formats for different platforms - Type 1, TrueType (PC, UNIX and Mac). I advise developers to take a closer look at this program.
Pilot Font Editor
An interesting simple font editor for PalmOS. Includes: fontedit (the Pilot Font Editor itself), GetFonts (a utility for downloading system fonts) and FontHack123 (a utility for replacing system fonts with your designs).
Softy
A unique editor for creating TrueType and bitmap fonts. Probably, the author - David Emmett - could have made him a real sweetie. Unfortunately, David died several years ago from a terminal illness. This editor is very popular all over the world among aspiring type designers. The editor has all the necessary functions for creating and modifying fonts. The output formats are TrueType, FON, FNT, LaserJet SFP, SFL.
TypeDesigner
A very advanced professional editor. TypeDesigner not only has tools for creating and modifying fonts, but also a number of functions that automate routine operations. Among the program's features are: support for editing fonts in Type 1 and TrueType formats; simultaneous editing of up to eight fonts; test printing with a bunch of functions; global transformations (stretch, italicize, shift position, change boundaries, ...); autokerning; global change in stem width; context-sensitive assistance; auto hinting with adjustable parameters; kerning editor; any rotations and mirror images; any operations on a contour; import EPS, Calamus CFN fonts; 10 levels of undo/redo (Undo/Redo), etc.
FONT CONVERTERS
CrossFont
The program runs on Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000, XP and converts TrueType and PostScript Type1 fonts between Macintosh and PC platforms. AFM, PFM, INF, PFA, .dfont formats are supported at input and output. During conversion, all metrics and hinting are preserved. I must honestly admit that I do not consider the results of this program to be sufficiently correct and satisfactory.
TransType
The program runs on Win and Mac platforms. Allows you to convert TrueType and Type 1 fonts between both platforms, as well as simply from one format to another. The Multiple Master format has not been forgotten either. From my own experience I know that all transformations occur as correctly as possible, and I recommend TransType for use by font creators.
TrueBlue
TrueBlue is a free Mac utility for converting fonts from True Type (TTF) format to PostScript Type 1 (PS). Moreover, converted fonts can be immediately installed into the system with one click. Batch mode is supported, i.e. all conversion work can be carried out both with individual files and with entire folders containing fonts. In addition to the standard conversion procedure, it is possible to change the names of fonts and entire families, write them in Binary/Ascii encoding formats, translation into latin1, latin2, latin4, latin5 is supported, as well as Cyrillic (Russian, Bulgarian, etc.).
FONT MANAGERS AND VIEWERS
!Fonts
Fonts will allow you to sort your fonts into groups, such as script, gothic, decorative, etc. After which you can connect this or that group with one click “on the fly”. To create a new group, delete or install a font, you will have to click not once, but twice. Not bad in my opinion.
ADing Font Manager
A fairly advanced font manager that allows you to: find and show both installed and uninstalled fonts on drives (including network drives). It can generate and save font samples in JPEG or GIF formats (and it is possible to create an HTML page with these font previews). Shows the character map and saves it in HTML format. Finds duplicates. Installs and uninstalls fonts. The program can perform all of the above operations with fonts located in a ZIP archive. And so on, so on.
Adobe Type Manager (ATM)
I don’t even know if it’s worth writing about this program, which is the de facto standard for everyone involved in design and printing... Adobe Type Manager (ATM) allows you to organize work with fonts in PostScript Type 1, OpenType and TrueType formats. You can activate only specific fonts or entire sets of them and disable them as soon as you no longer need them.
Current versions: 4.6 for Macintosh and 4.1 for Windows.
Advanced Font Catalog
Advanced Font Catalog (AFC) is a convenient program, with an interface similar to Windows Explorer (aka Explorer), and allows you to catalog your font deposits, no matter where they are located: hard drives, network drives, CD-ROM, optical, ZIP, Jazz discs, etc. In addition to simply viewing font samples as a test phrase, AFC allows you to add comments to each font file, directory or disk; organize a search by file name, font, style, font author or your comment; import descriptions and comments from files "index", "files.bbs", "descript.ion" and so on. AFC has a multilingual interface. Any of the eight languages can be selected after installation. Available languages: English (default), Russian, Danish, Hungarian, Portuguese, Slovenian, Spanish and Turkish.
AL Font Installer
The program serves as an add-on for Windows Fonts. Allows you to view, install and remove fonts of any Windows-compatible formats from any sources and media. She's not exactly my type, but she's worthy of close attention.
AMP Font Viewer
This program allows you to view installed and not installed fonts (bold, italic, bold italic, underline, color), and also organize them into categories according to certain conditions. In addition, the program allows you to remove and install specific fonts or entire sets, print examples of each font from a custom list, connect fonts “temporarily,” etc.
Anchek FontPeeper
Anchek FontPeeper is a small professional utility for viewing your fonts in PostScript Type 1, TrueType, OpenType (Win 2000/XP only) font formats, including character sets (mapping), restrictions, styles, code pages and more.
Extensis Suitcase
Extensis Suitcase is one of the best font managers that exists in personal and online versions. The online version allows you to use the same set of fonts for your workgroup. You can view fonts in four ways at the same time: one font in different sizes; all characters of the alphabet; an array of text typed in the selected font and a set of characters in custom text. It is possible to print samples with very flexible settings. Connecting and disconnecting font sets is almost identical to Adobe's ATM.
Fontastic
A very simple font viewer. All it can do is display a test phrase of any size up to 500 points in the following styles: bold, italic, underline, strikethrough.
Font Buddy 2
Recently, quite a few simple and functional font viewers have appeared. FontBuddy 2 is one of them. The program's capabilities allow you to view and print installed fonts and simply collections located on other disks and media. It works quite correctly with ATM and Suitcase, has support for double-byte fonts (for example, Japanese) and a duplicate search function. Some operations are performed using the Drag and Drop method. The interface is in three languages, however, Russian is not among them. Requires MacOS 9 and higher.
FontExampler
It’s impossible to come up with a simpler program than FontExampler. Based on the suggested text sample, the application generates a list with examples of all installed fonts. Works only under MacOS X 10.0.
FontExpert 2000
In my opinion, the best Russian program in the “middleweight” category. Last year it was already included in one of the reviews, where it received only flattering reviews and for good reason - the program is developing very dynamically, acquiring more and more capabilities with each new version.
I will take the liberty to say that at such a pace of development, we can expect its transition to the category of heavyweights, where Suitcase, Font Reserve and others feel at ease. FontExpert views, prints and manages TrueType, OpenType, Postscript Adobe Type 1 and bitmap (.fon) fonts. Detects problems. The built-in “expert Kirillov” offers solutions to every problem (conflicts in file names, typefaces, character sets, bad file, bad font substitution, etc.).
Among the possibilities:
- installed Windows fonts - select a character set, download, uninstall, filter by character set;
- fonts on disk - select a character set, copy, cut, paste, install, filter fonts by character set;
- font search - powerful search with saving results for later work;
- font properties - detailed information about the font, version, metrics, Panose parameters, etc.;
- symbol table - comparison of fonts, scaling, colors, selection of Unicode section;
- text samples - select from a list of samples, enter your own text, load text from a file, select colors from the ribbon palette;
- preview and print - 5 types of reports for printing; Windows shell addition - the Open, Print and Install by FontExpert commands for .ttf files are added to the Windows Explorer context menu (a property page with detailed information about the font file is also added for .ttf files).
The program allows you to filter fonts, for example, to select from a complete list only fonts that contain Cyrillic or only symbolic fonts, or those that have the Greek alphabet, etc. You can easily “scroll” through the character sets available in a font, for example, viewing the same font with different sets: “Cyrillic”, “Western European”, “Greek”, etc.
Font Explorer
Average manager in terms of bells and whistles. Among the possibilities we can note: a tree-like hierarchical representation of a set of fonts; sorting by name, font family and other criteria; fairly complete information about the characteristics of fonts; preview of all font characters; automatic generation of previews of all fonts with recording to a file; printing with flexible settings; installing/uninstalling fonts directly from the program and more.
FontLib 98
A very good font manager. Allows the user to view, print and install fonts from any source (network drive, CD-ROM, etc.), complete sets and connect them en masse. The program has other features that you won’t have to search for long - the interface is simple and friendly.
Font List
A very simple font viewer. All it can do is view and print samples of the fonts installed on your system.
FontLook
A very simple and incredibly easy to use font viewer. Allows you to view and print both installed fonts and collections located on network drives, CD-ROMs, etc. Has very flexible settings for printing samples.
FontMatcher
This is a wonderful free utility that helps you find the right font using a scanned sample in a few minutes. It's a pity that it only works with TrueType fonts and hangs when ATM is enabled. I advise you to carefully consider the settings. The speed of processing and accuracy of determination will depend on this.
FontPage
A simple program with a friendly and intuitive interface. With it you can view fonts, including styles (bold, italic, underline, 3D, color); print samples of individual fonts and the full set. Supported formats: TrueType, Type1, OpenType and bitmap fonts.
Font Preview
The simplest program to view the fonts installed on your machine. It is possible to sort by several parameters.
Font Reserve
Font Reserve is one of the most powerful font managers for the Mac platform. However, according to the developers, work is now underway to port it to Windows. Perhaps by the time you read these lines, a version for Win 2000/XP will already appear. Font Reserve is practically in no way inferior to such monsters as ATM Deluxe or Suitcase, but moreover, it uses a new technology based on the use of databases. Plus, an original interface in the “X” style and features such as showing kerning pairs and so on, so on, so on…
FontReview
FontReview is a compact font viewer for Windows 95/98/NT4/2000. I should note that during installation it replaces the standard Windows viewer and, after removing FontReview, you risk being left without the standard FontView. Doesn't work with Cyrillic. After this, I don’t really want to consider the huge number of its advantages...
Font Service
Font Service is a rather interesting font manager, but with a somewhat, I would say, “wooden” interface. You know how it happens, everything seems to be fine and everything is in place, but no, you constantly hit sharp corners. So it is in this case - at first you have to make a lot of extra clicks until you figure out how to use this or that function. And the program’s functions are quite decent: connecting and disconnecting fonts on the fly, previewing them, printing them, searching by font name or file name, comparing samples in subwindows, etc.
Font Show 2000
A small program for viewing TrueType fonts and printing their samples. You have the opportunity to view not only the test phrase, but also the full set of characters.
FontShowcase
FontShowcase aims to view and print both installed and uninstalled fonts. The printing functions are quite flexible - you can choose to print a sample of one font, all of them, or just a selected group. New to viewing font samples on the screen is a slide show. What has become familiar in graphical viewers seems somewhat alien in the case of fonts. It is possible that this is just a matter of habit... Additionally, you can note the search function by font name and writing comments on any of the samples.
Font Thing
Well-known program for managing TrueType fonts for Win95/98,NT. The manager allows you to: view installed and not installed fonts in the form of a test phrase and each character separately, detailed information about the font, print samples, make notes on these samples, install and remove fonts, “temporarily” connect any number of fonts, search and filter by some parameters, compare several samples, etc.
FontWorld
A simple font viewer. I decided to mention it only because this application runs on BeOS, which in itself is great. I like this OS and I know what difficulties BESHKI supporters experience due to the shortage of programs.
Font Xplorer
A fairly well-known font manager from Moon Software dates back to 1996 and is built on the platform of the also fairly well-known Multimedia Xplorer program. The program is aimed at professionals in the fields of design and desktop publishing. It seems that many working in the above-mentioned areas have already tried this program, and perhaps still use it. Font Xplorer allows you to view both installed and not installed TrueType fonts, compare multiple samples, print according to professionally designed templates, search for and remove duplicates, rename, view full information about fonts and their authors, copy characters as a vector image, " repair" problematic fonts, completely customize the toolbar for yourself, etc.
Hamster Font Manager
HFM is an interesting font manager for Unix systems. Currently includes support modules: X-Window, Ghostscript, TeX. The PostScript module operates with PS fonts. Unfortunately, HFM is not friendly with other formats. Distributed under GPL (GNU Public License).
- Institut für Informatik - Universitat Stuttgart
- http://www.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/ifi/se/service/hamster/index_e.html
ListFont
A simple free viewer of installed fonts. But it can show all the characters in all available code pages, which is important for those who use a writing system that is not based on the Latin alphabet.
MasterJuggler Pro
An interesting font manager that allows you to connect fonts dynamically, without leaving the program you are working in at the time. Most operations can be performed using the Drag and Drop method. This is one of the few managers that allows you to work with fonts located on network drives. What else can MJP do? It can check and correct fonts for the most common errors (broken file, duplicate names or IDs, misaligned metrics, etc.), and is compatible with all DTP and design applications, QuickDraw GX and any computer running Mac OS 7.0 and higher.
Printer"s Apprentice
Many people have tried this program. Printer""s Apprentice is a professional font manager for Windows 95/98/NT4/2000/XP. Easily works with fonts in TrueType and Adobe Type 1 formats. Has tools for viewing, printing and installing fonts from a wide variety of media. I highly recommend that those readers who do not yet have their favorite font manager take a closer look.
TTFMan
The simplest font manager that allows you to view all installed and not installed fonts. In addition, it is possible to install and remove fonts, as well as print samples with a predefined test phrase and a custom one.
TTf Manager
TTf Manager allows you to manage TrueType fonts in Windows 95/98/NT4/2000/XP. Using the program, you can: install and remove fonts, sort them by category, find and solve problems with fonts automatically, search for and remove duplicates, organize a search by font name, highlight installed fonts and differences in versions, use a special window to display font information (file name, font name, code pages, PANOSE, etc.), view the character set, print samples (with a huge number of options), rename fonts, etc.
Typograf
A fairly well-known font manager, known, unfortunately, for its rather unstable work. The program allows you to view, print and manage TrueType and Type 1 fonts.
The sorting has very flexible settings, and the information about fonts is simply excellent. Typograf allows you to find and remove duplicates, group fonts according to specified parameters, connect and disconnect them interactively. The manager allows you to work with several types of fonts: TrueType (preview, installation, “temporary” download), PostScript Type (preview, installation, “temporary” download) - if ATM is available, raster (.fon) fonts. For all these font types, all available information is shown: full name, family name, author information, version, copyright, size, date of creation and modification, classification by PANOSE system, IBM Font Classes, internal metric structure, etc.
Unicode Viewer
The program allows you to view all font characters, regardless of the code page. Actually, that’s almost where it all ends. Very simple and stupid...
WGL Assistant
I can rightfully call WGL Assistant one of the most used and useful programs. It solves many problems when using multilingual TrueType fonts (Unicode fonts/WGL4 fonts) in all Windows applications, including programs that do not support the Unicode standard. WGL Assistant, in the process of installing fonts, creates their virtual counterpart with a certain suffix. For the Cyrillic alphabet this will be the prefix "Cyr". This font will work quite correctly with almost any application. As a font manager, WGL Assistant can view and install highly flexible fonts across different code pages.
Win32 Font Lister
A simple and rather mediocre program for viewing both installed and not yet installed fonts. Has a standard set of functions. I included it in the review for two reasons: firstly, it is one of the few programs that allows you to make printouts of font samples in several columns and place headers and footers on them; and secondly, it allows you to save font samples in BMP and JPEG formats.
X-Fonter
X-Fonter is a simple and, I would say, friendly font viewer and manager with advanced features. It allows you to find and view (on any drive, including network drives) any installed or uninstalled fonts. Accordingly, it is possible to install and remove certain fonts. Search and filter font files by name, code page and style; display it all in adjustable size, style and color. When I mentioned advanced functions, I meant such a “bauble” as creating inscriptions in 3D (there is a built-in raster editor) and recording the result in JPEG format. All program settings can be saved and used in the future.
UTILITIES
CacheTT
CacheTT is a console application for modifying fonts in TrueType and TrueType Open formats. Modifications involve creating and/or changing the VDMX, hdmx and LTSH tables.
Digital signatures
It's no secret that fonts are one of the most insecure products. They do not have special keys or codes for installation, and there is no trial period, for example, a 30-day period of use. Microsoft plans to change this situation in the future. For this purpose, the Digital signatures program has already been developed. It allows authors to certify their fonts and insert a special digital signature into them. It will also be possible to determine the period of use of such a font. Future operating systems, for example, some Windows 2005, will be able to check such a signature and, in the positive case, allow the use of such a font, but otherwise, not even install it on the system. All this, however, applies to fonts in TrueType and OpenType formats. Considering that almost all manufacturers see the future in the OpenType format, we can hope that soon fonts will become a fairly secure product.
FastFont
This program optimizes a TrueType file for faster reading. During this optimization process, the most frequently used tables are moved to the beginning of the file.
Flint
32-bit Windows application for testing TrueType fonts. While working, checks hinting instructions and other technological parameters.
Font properties extension
A very useful utility. After installation, right-clicking on a font file and selecting "Properties" allows you to view extended information about the font. Namely: file name and font name, version, code pages, hinting, license text, description, links to the author and foundry, implementation permissions, number of kerning pairs, etc.
Microsoft Visual OpenType Layout Tool "VOLT"
VOLT (Visual OpenType Layout Tool) provides a convenient graphical user interface for adding OpenType tables to TrueType fonts. The program also allows you to import/export glyph names, lookups, glyph groups, etc. Supports Arabic (Naskh and Nastaliq scripts), Bengali, Cyrillic, Devanagari, Greek, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Kannada, Latin, Sinhala, Syriac, Telugu and Thaana scripts. For free.
Microsoft Visual TrueType
A great application from Microsoft for professional instruction of TrueType and OpenType fonts. Works under Windows (Win 95, 98, NT and 2000) and Macintosh (PPC).
SBIT32
A 32-bit console application that inserts bitmap information (""sbits"" (for ""scaler bitmaps")) into existing TrueType fonts. To use SBIT32, you first need to create a file that contains bitmap information (.BDF) and a metrics file (.MET). SBIT32 reads this input and includes it in a TrueType file. By the way, SBIT32 can also be used to remove such data from a font file.
TrueType Friendly Namer
A simple utility for changing font names, which can also be done in batch mode.
TrueType Open Assembler
These two DOS utilities, TrueType Open Assembler (TTOAsm) and TrueType Open Disassembler (TTODasm), work in tandem to create, modify, and validate TrueType Open (TTO) tables.
TTInfo
A cool utility for viewing the structure of TrueType font files. All tables are shown in hexadecimal format. You can view such resources as: name (Name table), head (Font header), hhea (Horizontal header), OS/2 (OS/2 and Windows metrics), maxp (Maximum profile), post (PostScript information), gasp ( Grid-fitting and scan-conversion), PCLT (PCL 5 Table), prep (Control value program), fpgm (Font program).
TTFdump
TTFDump is a console utility for viewing the contents of TrueType fonts. TTFDump parses and modifies the content of tables and subtables to make the font more readable. Available in 16 and 32 bit versions.
This is where we will complete our review of programs for working with fonts. I would like to note that this review does not pretend to be complete. Every month new programs are added, existing ones die a natural death - the authors abandon them, and for a full life of a program it requires development, the release of new versions, support for new font technologies. However, I hope that the review will be useful to everyone who is in one way or another connected with the use of fonts - designers, layout designers, etc.
Much has been written about type design, especially about the history of its creation. We have read about many techniques for creating fonts. But where, exactly, should we start? If you are a designer or illustrator and this discipline is new to you, then where should you start?
We found useful information that we collected from many sources and decided to put it all together.
1. Start with a brief
Creating a font is a long and painstaking job, so it is very important to have a clear understanding of what this font should be.
Developing a brief will certainly require research and thought. How will your font be used: will it be needed for a specific project or for personal use? Is there a problem that your font would solve? Will your font fit into an array of similar designs? What makes it unique?
There are many options. Fonts can be created, for example, specifically for academic texts or for posters. Only when you know how your typeface can be used will you be ready to start designing.
2. Fundamental choice
There are a number of decisions to keep in mind. Will it be a sans serif or serif font? Will it be handwritten text based or more geometric? Will the font be designed for text and suitable for long documents? Or maybe it will display text in a creative style and look better in a larger size?
Clue: It is assumed that the design of sans serif fonts is more difficult for beginners, since the capabilities of such fonts are more specific.
3. Pitfalls in the early stages
There are several pitfalls:
- You may decide to start by computerizing handwriting, which can be a useful practice exercise. But because handwriting is so individual, your font may not have much success due to its specificity.
- You should not use existing fonts as a basis. By slightly reworking a font that is already familiar to everyone, you will not create a better font and will not develop your skills.
4. Use your hands
There is a lot of material on how to draw fonts using computer programs, but we strongly recommend that you draw it by hand first. Trying to do this on a computer will make your job much more difficult.
Try to create beautiful shapes of the first few letters on paper, and only then start computer work. Subsequent letters can then be designed based on the existing shapes, according to key features.
Clue: By hand you can usually draw smoother, more precise curves. To make it more convenient, do not be afraid to rotate the sheet of paper the way you need.
5. What characters to start with
Creating specific characters first can help you set the style of your font. Well, then these symbols will be used as guides. Typically, the “control characters,” as they are called, in Latin are n and o, and capital letters are H and O. The word adhension is often used to help test the basic proportions of the font (but some write this word as adhencion because the letter s can be very insidious).
6. Transfer the font to your computer
There are many ways to transfer a drawing to a computer. Some recommend tracing programs, but many prefer to do this work manually so they have full control over the points and shapes.
Many programs need a clear and vibrant design, so once you like your font, trace it with a fine pen and fill in the shapes with a marker.
Clue: If you processed the drawn font as described above, then you can simply take a photo of the drawing and work with it.
7. Program selection
Many designers like to use Adobe Illustrator. It's great for drawing individual shapes and experimenting. But later it becomes obvious that it is not suitable for creating fonts. You will want to work with a program that allows you to work with letter spacing and word creation.
An excellent program is FontLab Studio, but new software such as Glyphs and Robofont are gaining more and more popularity. These programs aren't cheap, but Glyghs has a "mini" version in the Mac App Store with some missing features, which isn't great because those features are important for beginners.
8. Using programs
Don't forget to position the extreme points of the letter shapes (top, bottom, right, left) to better control the process.
9. Words
When you have finished all the work on smoothing out the shapes, look at how it looks in full text. Make it a goal to analyze how the font looks in a line, paragraph, and so on. And don't wait until you've done the entire alphabet.
One of the most popular font design programs. Available on Windows and Mac.
The program is available on Windows, has an intuitive interface and is perfect for beginners.
Another powerful font editor from FontLab that allows you to create new fonts or modify existing ones. Available on Windows and Mac.
This program works on Windows, Mac, Unix/Linux and has been translated into many languages. It also allows you to create new fonts and edit existing ones.
OpenType font editor, available on Windows and Mac OS X. Quite simple and contains a sufficient number of functions.
Another free tool with which you can create dot fonts.
A free trial ($9 per font download) online tool that lets you create fonts from handwritten text.
Another online tool (also almost $10 to download) that lets you create a font from handwritten text.
A free and fairly powerful font editor. Great for beginners and those who don't want to spend money on buying software.
This app is available on iPad and Windows 8. It allows you to create a font from a sketch and edit existing fonts.
Free tool for a limited time. With it you can create fonts and download them.
A free online tool that allows you to create TTF and OTF fonts from handwritten text.
There is a free and premium version. The program runs on Windows, Linux, Mac OS X and BSD.
