Making Fonts
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- 10 Responses
- -scarabin-
i'm thinking about trying my hand at building a font.
i would appreciate any tips or advice you folks could give that would save me time and tears.
all i need is illustrator and fontographer, right?
- mrdobolina0
hey scarabin, I dont know shit about making fonts but long time no see.
- Nairn0
It's stating the obvious, but before you do, have a go at modifying a font you've already got - and I mean doing something that requires you to pay attention to every single character in the set.
- TheBlueOne0
I made a few custom dingbats once in fontographer. But making an actual font?? Wow...awesome..you're a better man than I brother...
- forcetwelve0
pour yourself a large cup of coffee. read this:
http://groups.msn.com/fontlab/ti…
and buy this:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Type-One…good luck!
- oldelpaso0
that "type one" book is a keeper!!!
i got "learn fontlab fast"... which is actually suprisingly helpful (as the name might lead you to believe)
you could just draw them on fontlab, the paths work pretty much the same way.
- forcetwelve0
the basic idea that i follow (as per that msn website i posted) is that yoou set up your illy doc with the ascenders, descenders and x height, then draw your characters to that size, which corresponds to your fontlab document settings.
once youve done one i find that i reuse the same template.
- oldelpaso0
theres this bit of a trick that u can do..
-go to fontlab
-set ur x height
-draw rectangle hat goes from baseline to xheight
-copy rectgle
-paste in illy
(now uve got dimesions of letters)
-drag reference point (where the two rulers meet at the top left hand corner) to the bottom left hand corner of the rectanglenow just drag each glyph into that boxt and when you paste it into fontlabl it will be perfectly registered (or somethin or other)
;)
- THA0
just draw them directly in FontLab. Works well with no fuss.
- -scarabin-0
hey dobs!
thanks guys!
- Mimio0
Use an already exiting typeface as a template for your metrics.