Macromedia FONTOGRAPHER User Manual

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Fontographer User's Manual

Contents

Introduction: What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been

Introducing Fontographer How to get the most out of your

Fontographer materials

Tips icon

Before you begin

Getting started Read me... Registering your software to receive technical

support Network Copy Protection

Chapter One: Modifying Your Fonts

Steps to modifying your font Opening a font Changing the character’s weight Naming your font Saving your work Generating your font Installing the font Using the font Creating an oblique font

Skewing multiple characters

Creating a fraction using composite characters

Unlinking a reference character

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Creating a ligature Changing the character width Creating a condensed character or font Setting the basepoint

Chapter Two: Creating New Fonts

Autotracing

Tracing an image Advanced tracing options

Curve fit Allow curve fit errors Balance lines Eliminate close points Make straight lines Look for cusps Treat nearly flat paths as straight lines Find extrema points

Transformation options

Flip Move Rotate Scale Scale uniformly Skew Multiple transformations 3-D transformations using the Transform dialog

Guidelines

Setting guidelines Setting guidelines from the Font Info dialog Adding new guidelines

Hiding guidelines

Snap to guides

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Creating a stroked font

Outline vs. stroked characters Setting stroke attributes

End caps and joins Expand stroke

Clean Up Paths

Creating calligraphic characters

Calligraphic tutelage from Judith Sutcliffe

Creating variable weight characters Blend Fonts to create new fonts

When things go wrong...

Jonathan Hoefler sez...

Chapter Three: Altering Outlines

Altering a logo

Pasting EPS outlines from the clipboard

Paths and points

Closed paths Path direction and fills Normal fill Even/odd fill Correct path direction Reverse path direction

Types of points

Curve points Corner points Tangent points Selecting multiple points Changing a point type Inserting points Duplicating points

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Power duplicating Removing points

Splitting a path

Splitting line segments Joining points Adding Serifs Merging points Moving a point

Demagnified move

Keyboard commands to move points: Accurate point placement

Point and path preferences

Path display Point display Show and hide control points Editing and placing BCPs

BCP principles

Dragging a control point’s BCPs Dragging a curve point’s BCPs Dragging a corner point’s BCPs Dragging a tangent point’s BCPs Retracting BCPs

Auto Curvature

Chapter Four: Editing Bitmaps

Using the Bitmap Window

The Bitmap Window Editing a bitmap The central edit area Ascent and descent values Offset and width values Visible layers Tools in the Bitmap Window

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Undo and Redo

Changing bitmap views

Enlarging using the View Menu Switching characters in the Bitmap Window

Next and previous character Next and previous point size

When should you recalculate bitmaps?

Preserving your original bitmaps

Chapter Five: Metrics: Spacing and Kerning

Spacing Pair kerning Auto Spacing Auto Kerning The Metrics Window

Character display The spreadsheet area

Importing Metrics

Clearing kerning pairs

Exporting Metrics

The Fontographer Metrics file Copying widths

More powerful spacing and kerning commands

Set Width Equalize Sidebearings

Advanced Metrics operations

Set Metrics Assisted Metrics

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Metrics Assistance Kerning Assistance Advanced Auto Spacing Advanced Auto Kerning

Chapter Six: Printing

Sample text Sample file PostScript file Key map Kerning pairs Characters

The print header

Chapter Seven: Generating and Exporting Fonts

Before you do anything... Easy or Advanced?

Macintosh fonts

PostScript Type 1

The PostScript ID Field

TrueType

Include vertical and horizontal hints Include diagonal hints Dropout prevention Character mapping

PostScript Type 3 Other Type 3 Formats None Encoding Options When should you use Hints? A word about Flex

A special note to designers of nonRoman Macintosh fonts!

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Windows fonts

PostScript Type 1 Other Options

Overwrite existing files Output AFM file Output PFM file Output INF file The CFG file

TrueType for Windows Symbol Encoded PC fonts PostScript Type 3 NeXT and Sun PostScript fonts

Pack your Suitcase: Bitmap fonts

Bitmaps vs. Outlines Adding bitmap sizes Deleting bitmap sizes Bitmap format

None NFNT BDF FON The ID Field The menu name

Creating bitmaps for cross-platform use

Exporting files

Exporting EPS files Exporting Macintosh PICT Exporting Encoding

Chapter Eight: Creating a Font Family

Families: Windows, SUN, NeXTSTEP Font families on the Macintosh

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How Style Merger works Things you should know about Style Merger

Adobe Type Reunion (ATR) compatibility

Chapter Nine: Installing and Removing Fonts

Installing Macintosh PostScript fonts

Installing PostScript fonts in System 6 or earlier Installing PostScript fonts in System 7.0.x Installing PostScript fonts in System 7.1 or

later versions Installing PostScript fonts with Suitcase or

MasterJuggler

Macintosh TrueType font installation

Installing TrueType Installing TrueType fonts in System 7.0.x Installing TrueType fonts in System 7.1 or later

Installing Windows fonts

Installing PostScript fonts in Windows 3.x or higher with Adobe Type Manager 2.x

Windows TrueType and .fon installation

Installing TrueType and .fon fonts in Windows 3.1 or later versions

Installing TrueType Fonts in Windows 95 Transferring Windows fonts from the Macintosh

to your PC Transferring fonts from the PC to your Macintosh

Porting NeXT PostScript fonts to NEXTSTEP

From the Macintosh

Installing PostScript fonts in NEXTSTEP Porting Sun PostScript fonts to the SUN

Installing PostScript fonts

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Installing Type 1 fonts in OS/2 Version

2.0 Removing installed fonts

Removing a Macintosh font

In System 6.0 In System 7.0 In System 7.1 or higher

Removing a Windows font

PostScript TrueType

Removing fonts from the NEXTSTEP operating system

Removing fonts from Solaris 2/Open Windows 3 on the SUN

Removing fonts from OS/2 2.0

Chapter Ten: Expert Advice

General preferences

Options for Undo Using the keyboard to choose a character When reading an outline font

Editing behavior

Distances Behavior of Snap to Point When a path is clicked on

Point display Windows and dialogs

Window preferences Dialog box

Defaults

Font blending—the technical details

The blending process

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Font hinting

Are you still with us? What is hinting all about? Hinting controls Autohint Editing hints in the Outline Window Removing hints Making new hints Selection Info for hints

Hint type Apply to

The buttons Vertical Alignment Zones Hint Parameters

Hints to include Hint order Hint direction Common stems

Changing the default What happens when Fontographer opens up

PostScript Type 1 fonts What happens when Fontographer opens

TrueType fonts Using a resource editor to tweak Fontographer

4.1 on your Macintosh Adding custom encoding vectors

Creating the names resource

Setting Developer IDs Customizing Sample Text printout Customizing Fontographer sounds on your

Macintosh Customizing Fontographer sounds on your PC

Chapter Eleven: Reference Section

Windows

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Font Window View by menu

Outline Window

Tool palette Layers palette Changing and hiding layers Magnification Switching characters

Bitmap Window

Tool palette Ascent/Descent/Offset/Width From outline Magnification Scrolling Switching characters Changing point sizes

Metrics Window

The keys to using the Metrics Window are:

Kerning and sidebearing lines Key commands to change spacing and/or

kerning: Kerning File

Menus About Fontographer The File Menu

New Font Open Font Close Save Save As Revert

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Preferences Generate Font Files Import Export Print Quit/Exit

The Edit Menu

Undo Redo Cut Copy Paste Clear Copy Widths Copy Reference Unlink Reference Select All Duplicate Clone

The View Menu

Preview Show points Magnification Next Character Next Kerning Pair Next Point Next Point Size Previous Character Previous Kerning Pair Previous Point Previous Point Size Snap to Points Snap to guides

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Snap to Grid

The Element Menu

Transform Flip Move Rotate Scale Scale uniformly Skew Arrange Font Info Selection Info Bitmap Info Auto Trace Change Weight Clean Up Paths Expand Stroke Recalc Bitmaps Remove Overlap Correct path direction Clockwise Counterclockwise Blend Fonts Multiple Master

(Macintosh only)

The Points Menu

Align Points Align Points to Grid Merge Points Retract BCPs Split Points Auto Curvature Curve Point

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Corner Point Tangent Point Set Basepoint Reset Basepoint

The Metrics Menu

Auto Space Auto Kern Kerning Assistance Metrics Assistance Set Metrics Set Width Equalize Sidebearings Clear Kerning Pairs

The Window(s) Menu

Open Outline Window Open Bitmap Window Open Metrics Window View Windows by Show Layers Palette Show Tool Palette The Window Choices Make Vertical Stem Make Horizontal Stem Make Vertical Serif Make Horizontal Serif Make Diagonal Hint Build Serif Split Serif Flip Hint Direction Hint Parameters Vertical Alignment Zones Autohint

The Help Menu (PC Only)

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Contents Keys How to Use Help About Fontographer

Special keys

Keyboard alternatives

Appendix A: Tips Appendix B: Answers to

commonly asked questions Appendix C: General information

Type terminology

Fontographer background Bitmap background PostScript background Filling techniques LaserWriter background

Appendix D: A Short Bibliography of Typography and Allied Subjects

Overviews of Printing Types Type Designs from Various Periods Typography Type Designers Typeface Reference Works History of Printing Electronic Typography Bibliographies Book Dealers/Publishers Specializing in

Typography The Fontographer User Guide Bibliography

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Glossary

Fontographer User's Manual

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Introduction

What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been

Introducing Fontographer

How to get the most out of your Fontographer materials

Before you begin

by David Berlow

They say that good things come in small packages. When it comes to Fontographer, this has never been so true. In 1985, I was working at Bitstream designing type on a large proprietary font design system. For those of you who don’t know what this means, I’ll tell you. Large means it wouldn’t fit on a desktop because it was larger than a desk. We had workstations that were about six feet wide by six feet deep by four feet tall, with a 19" vector-monitor, a mouse with four or five buttons, and a keyboard with a few dozen extra keys. If you must know, this was trucktop publishing. Proprietary means that we developed the software and some of the hardware ourselves so no one else could use it, and there were only two or three engineers in the world who knew how to make changes, additions or fixes to the software and this happened quite infrequently and very slowly. In addition, proofing the fonts required a series of conversions, and mastery of a typesetting command language about as friendly as Kanji.

Into this world, one day, came two visitors from somewhere down south. They carried a little box that, because it was so small, I thought was surely a kitchen appliance, a toaster or blender perhaps. But when they plugged it in there seemed to be type drawing going on inside of the little box. There were about ten Bitstream type designers in the room and we all gasped. I climbed upon the table to get a closer look and sure enough, there was a letter on that tiny screen. But

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there were not enough points on the character and not enough buttons on the mouse and the screen was smaller than my face—how could this possibly work? Well, within two months I had a Mac Plus and Microsoft Word, so I could “correspond with our clients.” I also purchased my first copy of Fontographer from Altsys. I played around and drew a few characters. It took a while to get the hang of the Bezier tools. At first I thought I had a tiger by the tail. But for me, used to the real estate of the big screen, and the point structures of Bitstream outline fonts, this “toaster” font design system was like painting a picture through a porthole.

A bit later though, the Mac II came out. It didn’t take me long to convince the powers at Bitstream that “corresponding with our clients” would be a lot easier if I had a more powerful machine and a bigger screen and a LaserWriter and a 300 dpi scanner. (I can’t remember how I got the scanner, I think it had something to do with OCR.) The first upgrade of Fontographer also was bought and now I was able to cook. I started making characters that were much more complex than what we could make on our proprietary system and I was making them in much less time. But still I wasn’t making fonts. I will never forget the first time I actually made a font on Fontographer.

Roger Black, the well-known publication designer who worked at Newsweek back then, wanted a font for his redesign of California Magazine. Roger had visited the letterdrawing offices at Linotype where I worked in the 70’s, and he had visited Bitstream as well in the 80’s in several failed attempts to get Linotype and Bitstream to make custom fonts for him and his clients. When he came back to strafe us again in the winter of 1986, we were ready. Matthew Carter, Bitstream’s VP of design, deflected him at me and I told Roger that we had never actually made a font with Fontographer and the Mac, but we would love to try. He sent me the artwork of a long neglected type from an Italian foundry which I scanned, and went to work on digitizing and spacing. I was totally stunned at how quickly it was done and the quality of the results. It was great, and Roger loved it as well. Most especially because it took less than a working week to accomplish. From the time we agreed to do the face to the time it appeared in the magazine was about a month!

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By 1989, Fontographer was getting better and better. Things like remove overlap, correct path direction, merge point, the ability to generate Type 1 fonts and more, were all making it a pleasure to design fonts for the first time in my life. The Mac was getting more powerful and there were a lot of graphic designers, droves in fact, moving to the Mac. But they were constrained in their graphic design by the limited availability of fonts on the Mac. When Fontographer got hinted generation of Type 1 fonts into the market in 1990, the font world was truly changed. By this time I had left Bitstream to concentrate fully on The Font Bureau, the type design company I have founded with Roger Black. We released our first retail fonts that year. The general impression was that they were as good as any fonts available for the Mac. Needless to say, Altsys had become my best friend. Throughout these years, from 1985 to 1990, the most astonishing thing to me was that Altsys was constantly improving the features, performance and ease-ofuse of Fontographer in spite of the fact that there was no competition in the field for Fontographer. When competition and a larger user base developed, Altsys went into overdrive. Through Fontographer 3.0 and 3.5, TrueType and PC font generation, improved printing functionality, Multiple Masters, change weight, and all the rest—Altsys was always doing the right things at the right time for all the right reasons. Today, you have before you the next generation of this great tool. Macromedia Fontographer 4.1 is a truly revolutionary change in the quality and functionality of type design tools. Letter spacing is treated like a database, scaling, rotation, skewing and such are totally interactive functions, and autotrace is amazing! The Font Bureau tested and tempted itself with version 4 as soon as the specification came to us in 1991. Throughout our review and use of version 4, we had the feeling that we had only scratched the surface of what it can do for type designers like us. In the coming year we think we’ll be finding out that we’ve got a tiger by the tail—again!

Good luck to all, and thanks to the Fontographer team!

Introducing Fontographer

Welcome to Fontographer!

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First of all, thank you for buying our product. Second, thanks for opening this manual. We hope you’re reading it not because you’re having trouble, but because you want to learn more about this exciting program.

Our manuals are written by people who actually use (and create) Fontographer and who have graphic arts and typography backgrounds. We’ve tried to be as informative as possible without being stuffy.

We hope you’ll find every aspect of this program easy: from our unique approach to learning, to the panoramic interface of the program itself, and finally, to the actual process of creating fonts. We want your experience with Fontographer to be so satisfying and painless that when you’re through, you’ll agree that this is the best font design program in the world!

As a matter of fact, Fontographer has been the standard for professional typeface and logo design since its introduction in 1986. Before Fontographer, typed images could only be produced by using complex, expensive, and time-consuming procedures. With the advent of personal computers however, typography became attainable to everyone: from the graphic illustrator to the desktop publisher to the business executive. And now, Fontographer provides this capability to you.

So, on with the manual—we hope you enjoy it.

Fontographer 4.1 allows you to generate ATM-compatible Type 1 fonts, as well as Type 3 PostScript fonts, TrueType fonts, PICTs and multiple masters on the Macintosh, and Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) files. You can import EPS files directly, and use their outlines in the drawing window. You can also use metrics information from a variety of sources, and export information to those sources, as well. Additionally, you can import kerning tables from Adobe Font Metrics (AFM) and other files. You can also take advantage of the PostScript graphics you create in Macromedia FreeHand and Adobe Illustrator by pasting them directly into your characters.

Many dialogs in the program give you two options: Easy and Advanced mode—letting you have total control of the program if you want it, or allowing you to rely on its simple

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and automatic settings.

For advance users who don’t always want to rely on automatic hint settings, we have a menu of hinting controls. And in the Metrics arena, Fontographer lets you space and kern faster and easier than ever. With autospace, autokern, and assisted kerning and metrics you can save yourself from having to kern and space each individual character or font separately. Now you can ask Fontographer to do it automatically, or you can use the same kerning and spacing information from one font, for others that kern and space similarly.

So whether you are a novice or an experienced graphic designer, Fontographer allows you to assign your characters and graphic images to any key or combination of keys, and gives you the added ability to instantly repeat and resize these images in any application.

Fontographer makes it easy to create new typefaces or add your logo to existing typefaces. Fontographer’s drawing tools help you create a professional-quality character in minutes and print that character on any Post-Script or TrueType compatible printer. Now, with Fontographer and your personal computer, you can create designs that rival those produced by professional typographers.

How to get the most out of your Fontographer materials

Our User’s Manual is designed for both Macintosh and PC users. We placed keyboard alternatives after certain menu commands; the Macintosh command is always followed by the command for the PC. Get into the habit of using these “quick commands” that our more experienced users prefer.

For basic information about using Fontographer on the Macintosh, and for information about how to set up Macintosh multiple master fonts and KHCRs refer to Using Fontographer on Your Macintosh. For the PC, refer to Using Fontographer on Your PC.

For an update on the changes made to the newest version of Fontographer, see the What’s New guide for current users. What’s New is in two parts: Part I: Best New

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For the PC version of Fontographer 4.1, you will need a 386

Fontographer User's Manual

Features and Abilities, and Part II: Tips for Previous Fontographer Users.

All of the Fontographer manuals assume that you are familiar with the computer and that you have a working knowledge of how your system operates. If you need more information on these topics, refer to your Macintosh or PC owner’s manual.

Tips icon

We’ve also compiled a truly excellent collection of tips you can use to create your fonts. Tips are also easy to find. Look for this tip icon throughout the manual or find them under “Tips” in the Index.

Before you begin

Getting started

Before you can actually start using Fontographer, you need to check to make sure your package is complete. Your package should include a “User’s Manual” (this book), “What’s New,” “Using Fontographer on Your Macintosh” OR “Using Fontographer on Your PC,” a Quick Reference Card, a product registration card, and—of course—a CD ROM. In the event you don’t have access to a CD ROM reader, you will also find a floppy disk request card with which you can request software on 3.5 diskettes.

Make sure that you have everything you need to be able to use Fontographer. If you are using the Macintosh version of Fontographer 4.1, you must have a Macintosh Plus (or higher) computer running a System 6 or later operating system with 5.1 MB hard drive space, and at least 4 MB of available RAM. It’s also a good idea to make sure you have the latest version of Apple’s Hardware System update for your machine. Otherwise you may encounter unexpected results. You can get this utility from your Apple dealer, through local user’s groups, or from Apple’s on-line service AppleLink™.

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For the PC version of Fontographer 4.1, you will need a 386 (or better) computer running Windows 3.1, 3.11, NT, or Windows 95 with 5.5 MB hard drive space, VGA video, and at least 6 MB of available RAM. If you want to print PostScript files from your PC, you will also need have an HP driver dated after September 1993, or use Adobe 3.01 PostScript driver.

Read me...

All Macromedia release and update disks contain a document titled ReadMe (.txt). It contains late-breaking information about the product which may not be present in the User’s Manual. You should read this file before attempting to use the program.

Registering your software to receive technical support

To become a registered user and receive technical support, you must complete and return the registration card included in this package.

Macromedia believes in customer support, and wants to resolve any problems you have.

Our support lines are available Monday through Friday from 6:00 a.m., to 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time. The technical support phone number for Fontographer is (415) 252-9080. Please have your serial number on-hand when you call. You can also try the MacroFacts faxback at (800) 449-3329, or check out Macromedia’s web site at http://www. macromedia.com.

Network Copy Protection

No, Fontographer is not “copy protected.” We know that most people view copy protection with the contempt usually reserved for root canals and tax audits. The last thing we want to do is make it difficult to use Fontographer. We have, however, given Fontographer the ability to detect copies of itself running elsewhere on a network. Should you receive the following message, “Sorry, the user

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named ‘blah blah’ is using a duplicate of this program...,” this means that more than one copy has inadvertently been personalized with the same serial number.

In order to alleviate this problem, simply discard the Fontographer preferences file (located in the Preferences folder in your System folder on the Macintosh, or in the FOG41 directory on the PC), restart Fontographer, and fill out the Fontographer personalization dialog with a different serial number. If you have only one serial number (meaning you only purchased one copy of Fontographer), you must purchase additional copies of Fontographer in order to run more than one copy at the same time. (For additional copies, call Macromedia at (415) 252-2000, or your nearest Fontographer dealer).

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Chapter One

Modifying Your Fonts

Steps to Modifying Fonts

Opening Fonts

Changing Character Weight

About Font Piracy

Creating Oblique Fonts

Creating Fractions

Creating Ligatures

Creating Condensed Characters

Imagine an ideal world where you can create completely new fonts without ever drawing a thing. Picture yourself in this “Font Utopia,” creating new weights of your font, new small caps versions, and new oblique typefaces—without drawing a line, placing a point, or manipulating a curve. Does the very concept sound so far-fetched as to be beyond belief? Well, it’s not...because Fontographer lets you create completely new fonts by modifying your existing fonts.

Why would you want to modify a font instead of buying a new one? The answer is simple: You’ve invested a lot of money in the typefaces you own. Although many talented people create their own from scratch, the easiest way to create a completely new typeface is by modifying the fonts you already have. Fontographer makes it so easy to modify your existing typefaces, that you practically don’t even have to think about it. So, if you don’t have to think about it... what’s the point of this section? This section gives you some quick ways to make modifications. Hopefully, it will encourage you to create some outstanding typefaces of your own.

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Steps to modifying your font

1. Open a font.

2. Modify it; for example, you can simply change the

weight.

3. Save the file (Optional).

4. Generate an installable font.

5. Install the font.

6. Put it to work!

Opening a font

You start Macromedia Fontographer the same way you start other applications—by double-clicking the program icon. In a few seconds, Fontographer’s About box appears. Choose “Open Font” from the File menu to open one of the fonts in your System, a folder, a file server, or a disk (or you can use one of the fonts provided in the Sample Fonts folder).

The standard file selection dialog works in the normal fashion, so you can change drives or directories, open a file, or cancel. You can also specify which types of font file formats you want to display. On the Macintosh you can eject disks as well.

Once the selection dialog is open, you can select a font file by clicking on its name and then “Open,” or simply by double-clicking on its name.

One or more progress dialogs will appear before

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Fontographer displays the Font Window. To cancel progress dialogs, type Command-period on the Macintosh, or Esc on the PC.

Changing the character’s weight

You can quickly create a heavier or lighter version of your character (or the entire font) by using Fontographer’s Change Weight command.

To change weight:

1. Go to the Font Window and double-click on the “v”

to open it.

2. Choose “Change Weight” from the Element menu.

The “Change Weight” dialog appears.

3. Enter “30” in the “Change by” text edit box and

click “OK.”

Fontographer increases the weight of the “v” by 30 em units.

Fontographer also gives you the option of changing the

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weight of your character (or entire font) without affecting the vertical or horizontal size of the character.

Go back to the “v” and select “Undo Change Weight” from the Edit menu to undo the changes you performed in the last exercise. Repeat the exercise above, but check the “Don’t change vertical size” option before you click “OK.”

Look at the difference in the two options. You can try the option with the “Don’t change horizontal size” option next.

Now try the exercise with both options checked.

You can now apply the desired weight to the entire font, or just selected characters. From the Font Window, use the pointer tool to click and Shift-click on the desired characters. (You can choose them all by choosing “Select All” from the Edit Menu.) Then repeat the procedure above to apply the selected changes to the desired characters.

Naming your font

You can name your font by choosing “Font Info” (-General on the PC) from the Element menu. The Font Information dialog appears. For this exercise, name your font something simple like “Garamond-Fat.” (Don’t forget the hyphen before the Style Name.) For more information about naming your font, refer to the section “The menu name” in Chapter 7, “Generating and Exporting Fonts.”

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If you want to use a custom style name, be sure to let Fontographer assign a standard style name first and then reassign your custom name. So, if you want to call your bolditalic version of a font “fat slanted,” use the pull-down menu and select “bold italic” first, then change the style name to “fat slanted.”

This will allow Fontographer to recognize and assign the proper style to your custom name.

Be sure to name your font before you save your database file and generate a font. Otherwise your fonts will end up with unusable names like “Untitled.ttf” (for a TrueType font), and you’ll have to start over.

Saving your work

You save Fontographer database files via the Save or Save As commands in the File menu. The database file is where Fontographer stores all the parts needed to construct any font. Just like you save documents in Microsoft Word, or graphics in Macromedia FreeHand™, the database is where you save your fonts in Fontographer.

The standard file saving dialog appears. You can name your databases anything you like, because there’s no relationship between the name of the actual font you’ll use in your programs and the name of the database itself.

1. Choose “Save as” from the File menu.

Macintosh users have the option of creating and naming a new folder to store a font in. You can save your font directly to another folder, drive, or directory on all platforms.

2. Type in “MyFatFont.”

PC users will note that Fontographer automatically gives you the name “MyFatFon.fog” if you also named

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it “MyFatFont” in Font Info.

Generating your font

After you save the file, it’s time to generate an installable font. You will have to do this if you want to use the font in another application besides Fontographer.

Fonts are composed of different files which you will need to install before you can use the font. For more about installing fonts, refer to Chapter 9, “Installing and Removing Fonts.”

1. Choose “Generate Font Files” from the File menu.

The Generate Font Files dialog offers a number of options (including the ability to generate fonts for several computer platforms), but for the purposes of this exercise you’ll use the Easy mode. Choose the computer you’re generating fonts for and select TrueType for the Format. We’ve typed some commonly used bitmap sizes in our example and you can do the same. However, bitmaps are only necessary if you’ll be using a PostScript font on the Macintosh.

The Set Folder/Directory button gives you the option of generating your fonts directly into a specific folder. This saves you the extra step of moving files into folders later.

The Overwrite existing files option lets you replace an existing file (that has the same name) with a new file. If you don’t choose this option (and have a font with the

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same name), Fontographer will create a new font with the same name followed by a bullet ( ), on the Macintosh, or a dollar sign ($) on the PC.

Installing the font

Since installing fonts is different depending on the platform and operating system you’re using, we can’t really cover this in a quick “how-to” here. If you need more information about installing fonts, refer to Chapter 9 or your System’s User’s Manual.

Using the font

Once you’ve installed the font, go to the application of your choice, type some text, and select your font (just like you would any other font) from the Font menu.

Creating an oblique font

By using Fontographer’s Skew feature, you can create your own oblique font. You can consider this an easy way to make an oblique typeface. Actually, it’s sort of like cheating since an oblique font is just a right-slanted version of a Roman typeface; a true italic typeface has redesigned characters that compliment the face. But, skewing is a really easy way to create a new typeface that can add emphasis to your text.

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Again, Fontographer allows you to skew one, several, or all characters at once. As in our previous example, we recommend that you try out your modifications on one character before you apply the transformation to the entire font.

Follow the steps given in the “Change Weight” exercise to open your font.

To skew a character:

1. Go to the Font Window and double-click on the

character “k” to open it.

2. Choose “Transform” from the Element menu.

3. Drag down in the “First transformation” pop-up

menu until you’ve selected the Skew option and made sure the other pop-up menus say: “Do nothing.”

Fontographer defaults to a horizontal skew value of -12 degrees (the appropriate angle for an oblique font, depending on who you ask).

4. Click the Transform button, and Fontographer skews

the “k.”

Fontographer gives you the option of applying other transformations at the same time you skew the character.

To apply more than one transformation:

1. Double-click on the “k” and select “Undo

Transform” from the Edit menu to undo your last move.

2. Select “Skew” from the Transform dialog and

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enter -12 degrees Horizontal (leave Vertical at 0).

3. Then select “Scale” and enter “80” in the Horizontal

text box.

4. Select “Basepoint” from the Center

Transformations around pop-up menu.

5. Click “Transform.”

Fontographer skews and condenses the “k” at the same time.

Try some of the other transformation options to see what effects they have on your character.

Once you’ve finished trying out all the options, you can apply the transformation to several characters or the entire font, by selecting groups of characters in the Font Window.

Skewing multiple characters

You can skew, scale, flip, or move either a single character or a range of characters. Select more than one character in the Font Window by holding down the Shift key while clicking on characters. Select a range of characters by dragging through the characters. In this way you can apply transformations to one, several, or all characters.

Creating a fraction using composite characters

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Fontographer pastes the number “8” on top of the “3.”

Fontographer User's Manual

Have you ever checked out how many fractions are in your font? If you have, you know that most commercial fonts have a small number of fractions, if any. Historically, if you wanted to type the fraction 3/8, you had to type the 3, the forward slash, and the 8, and even then the fraction didn’t look so hot! Fontographer makes it extremely easy to add composite characters made up of more than one character combined in a single character slot to your font. So you can now have traditional fractions in all your fonts!

To create a fraction:

1. Go to the Font Window and double-click on the “3”

to open it.

2. Click on the “8” character slot in the Font Window

(it’s not necessary to open the Outline Window to copy the character) and then select “Copy Reference” from the Edit menu.

3. Click on the “3” Outline Window and

choose “Paste” from the Edit menu.

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Fontographer pastes the number “8” on top of the “3.”

4. Select everything in the Outline Window by

choosing “Select All” from the Edit menu.

5. Go to the Transform menu, select “Scale

Uniformly” as your first transformation, enter 60%, and make sure all the other transformation pop-ups say “Do nothing.”

Fontographer scales both characters to 60% of their original size.

6. Position your pointer away from the characters, and

click on nothing to deselect everything (or simply press the tab key, which always deselects everything). Then click the mouse on the outline of the “8.”

A box will appear around the number “8” (this represents the composite character’s bounding box). Composite characters do not show the points you normally see. (You cannot edit points in a composite character unless you first choose “Unlink Reference.”)

7. Drag the box containing the “8” toward the lower

right-hand corner.

8. Double-click on the path or on any point on the

number “3” to select all of it, and then move the “3” toward the top left corner.

You can create the divisor line by copying the forward

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slash into your character. You can also draw the divisor line if you prefer. However, it is often much easier to use existing characters to create parts.

9. Select the forward-slash character in the Font

Window.

10. Choose “Copy” from the Edit menu.

11. Paste the forward-slash character into the “3”

character slot.

To change a reference character:

1. Open the Outline Window for the actual

character “8.”

2. Modify some part of it.

You’ll see any changes you make to the original eight reflect in the denominator you created in your fraction character.

Unlinking a reference character

Fontographer also lets you remove the link from any composite character. This gives you access to the points in the character as well as removing the link to the original character.

To unlink a reference character:

1. Click on the fraction you created (in the “3”

character slot).

2. Choose “Unlink Reference” from the Edit menu.

As you can see in our illustration, the character’s points are now visible and you can move them individually, or together as a group.

Creating a ligature

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A ligature is a character made up of one or more characters. Most commercial fonts have some commonly used ligatures like “,” and “ú.” However, Fontographer makes it easy to create ligatures of your own without drawing a thing.

To create a ligature:

1. Open the Outline Window for the “f.”

2. Choose “Select All” and then choose “Duplicate” to

create another “f.”

3. Move the new “f” to the right.

4. Go back to the Font Window.

5. Copy the “l” into the same window using the “Copy

Reference” command from the Edit menu.

6. Move the referenced “l” to the right of the second “f.”

7. Choose “Unlink Reference” from the Edit menu.

8. Choose “Remove Overlap” from the Element menu.

Changing the character width

You probably noticed the vertical line that runs through the second “f.” This is the character width line. Width is a moveable vertical line which specifies the width of each character. (Width is covered in more detail in Chapter 5.) When you print a line of text, the origin line of the next character is placed on top of the width line of the current

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character. Since you changed the contents of this particular Outline Window, it’s important that you change the width as well.

To change the character’s width:

1. Make sure you still have the Outline Window for

the “f” open.

2. You can choose “Preview” and turn off Show Points

from the View menu to get a better look at the character if you like.

3. Move the width line with the selection pointer.

That’s all there is to it! So, if your font doesn’t contain the ligature you want, you now know how to create your own with Fontographer.

In some word processing and page layout programs you can set the preferences to automatically substitute curly quotes for straight ones, or the fl ligature if you type “fl.” For the substitutions to occur, you’ll need to be sure to use an Adobe encoded font.

Creating a condensed character or font

Fontographer has the ability to modify character images to produce interesting special effects. You can create these effects in either the Outline Window (on one particular character) or the Font Window (on the whole font). For example, you can create an oblique font by selecting all the characters in the Font Window and skewing them -12 degrees (like we did in the earlier exercise “To skew a

character”). Or you can create an extended font, by

increasing the horizontal scaling factor of the font. Your options are limitless.

You can also create a condensed font by scaling the character 80% horizontally. Condensed versions of a font

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You can also create a condensed font by scaling the character 80% horizontally. Condensed versions of a font are the same height as their counterparts, but are narrower to fit into a more compact space.

To create a condensed character:

1. Click on the Font Window to make it active, and

then press and hold the mouse button while you drag through the characters “a” through “e.”

2. Choose “Transform” from the Element menu.

The Transform dialog appears.

As you can see from the screen shots on this page, Fontographer scales the characters horizontally without changing their height.

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Setting the basepoint

The baseline is the line upon which the letters sit. The baseline position is always at a vertical location of zero. The dot at the intersection of the origin line and baseline is the basepoint.

The basepoint is used to accurately and quickly align points and characters. The basepoint is generally at the character’s origin (where the origin line and the baseline intersect at 0,0); but, you can position the basepoint anywhere. Fontographer allows you to set each character’s basepoint differently. It can be moved as needed by selecting the pointer tool and dragging it to a new location, or by entering a specific horizontal and vertical location.

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For precise numeric entry, choose “Set Basepoint” from the Points menu. To reset the basepoint back to the origin point, choose “Reset Basepoint” from the Points menu.

If you select one point and choose “Set Basepoint,” Fontographer will move the basepoint to that point. However, if you select more than one point, Fontographer will set the basepoint to the center of selection.

In the position display in the Outline Window, distance from the basepoint is continuously updated as the pointer moves within the drawing area. This on-screen measuring tool makes it easy to measure character parts. Just place the basepoint on a reference point of the character and watch the position display as you move the pointer. Horizontal or vertical alignment of points is very easy to check; set a basepoint on one point then drag the other until the horizontal or vertical delta is zero.

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Chapter Two

Creating New Fonts

Autotracing

Transformation Options

Guidelines

Creating a Stroked Font

Clean Up Paths

Creating Calligraphic Characters

Creating Variable Weight Characters

Blending Fonts to Create New Fonts

Somewhere in the dark recesses of a second-hand bookstore, there is probably a well-worn and dust-covered book that contains an old-fashioned typeface no one has seen for years. Imagine being able to digitize that typeface and transfer it to your documents. Or how about that logo you created with a pen or pencil before you ever heard of a graphics program? What about the beautiful effects that are created with calligraphy fountain pens? Wouldn’t it be great if you could use all of these in your word processor? With Fontographer, any of these scenarios is simple.

Fontographer takes what used to be possible with only pen and pencil, and puts it into the hands of the desktop designer.

Autotracing

The bitmap option is one of Fontographer’s most advanced features. Autotracing is probably most useful for tracing scanned images. Say you have an existing character, logo, or image that you want to assign to a keystroke. On the Macintosh, you can scan your image, save it in PICT format, and place it into your Scrap-book or Clipboard.

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A gray bounding box appears.

Fontographer User's Manual

Then you can paste your character into the Outline Window (where it will be used like a background template) and let Fontographer autotrace the image. On the PC, take your scanned image to an application like FreeHand or Adobe

Streamline where you can either copy from the application and paste into Fontographer and then autotrace, or save/export as an EPS and then import into Fontographer.

To paste an image into the Template layer:

It’s remarkably easy to paste an image into the Template (or background) layer. Select an image from the “Scanned images/Scanned.bmp” file on your Fontographer CD. In this example, we use a scanned Vivaldi “f.”

1. On the Macintosh, copy the image from the

Scrapbook or Clipboard and “Paste” it into the Outline Window. On the PC, copy the image from Paint/Paintbrush, and paste it into Fontographer’s Outline Window.

Fontographer will automatically paste the image into the Template layer where it will be shown as a grayed-out image.

To move a Template image:

1. Click the Template layer to select it.

2. Click the template image with the selection pointer.

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A gray bounding box appears.

3. Move the image into place by positioning the

pointer inside the image, then dragging it to a new location.

To resize a Template image:

1. Click the template image to select it.

2. Choose “Transform” from the Element menu

and “Scale uniformly” 90 percent.

Tracing an image

Once you have your image sized and positioned the way you want, you can trace it

1. Make sure you are in the Outline layer.

2. Choose “Auto Trace” from the Element menu.

The Auto Trace dialog appears.

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You have two options: Easy and Advanced.

3. Choose “Easy” and keep the default Curve fit of “5.”

The tighter you set a curve fit, the more points will be placed on your character. By having more points, the tracing will more closely resemble the original image. However, too many points will consume unnecessary memory without appreciably improving the accuracy of your path. It is better to use as few points as possible to get the shape you desire.

When the Tracing progress dialog box finishes generating, you will have a completely traced character in the Outline Window.

You can cancel the tracing operation at any time by clicking on the Cancel button or by typing Command-period, or Esc on the PC.

Advanced tracing options

Fontographer’s Advanced tracing mode offers some specific options.

Curve fit

Choosing an item from this pop-up will set all the other controls in the dialog to recommended settings for Loose, Normal, or Tight fit. Try changing the value of this pop-up a

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few times and see how the other controls respond. It might give you an idea of how each slider affects the fit tightness.

If you change any of the other controls in the dialog, the Curve Fit pop-up will automatically switch to “Custom” to indicate that you have customized the values. Once you have customized the settings you can always go back to Loose, Normal, or Tight by changing the Curve Fit pop-up back to one of these settings. You can switch back to Custom as well. Normal is generally the best all-purpose selection. Tight would be a good selection for more intricate designs, while Loose would be good for characters with straight angles (such as block letters) and poor quality scans. Choose “Custom” if you want to set the Curve fit options manually.

Allow curve fit errors

This control will have the largest affect on your tracing results. A low value means Fontographer will allow fewer curve fit errors, and you’ll get a very tight trace with more points. A higher value means Fontographer will allow more errors, and you’ll get a loose trace with fewer points.

Balance lines

This control will have very subtle, almost unnoticeable affects on your tracing results. A low value means it will do almost nothing. A high value means Fontographer will attempt to align lines when it thinks it’s necessary. For instance, it might try to align the left and right parts of the crossbar in a “T” character.

Eliminate close points

This control can help eliminate redundant points (points that are almost on top of each other). A low value means that almost no points will be eliminated, and the shape of the path will be the most accurate. A high value means that it will eliminate as many points as necessary, but it may slightly alter the shape of the curve in order to do so.

Make straight lines

This control has very subtle effects. It determines how straight a curve should be before it is turned into a straight line. This will never turn extremely curvy paths into straight

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lines; however, curves that appear to be almost straight to begin with may be slightly modified so that they are perfectly straight. A low setting for this control means almost no curves will be straightened. A high value will cause more curves to be straightened.

Look for cusps

When Fontographer traces an image it often finds places where two paths join at a sharp angle. A join of this type is called a cusp, and Fontographer will always place a corner point at such a location. The “Look for cusps” control determines how lenient Fontographer is in finding cusps, and thus it will have an effect on how many corner points are used in the tracing results. Setting this control to a low value means it will find very few cusps, and the results won’t have many corner points. Setting the control to a high value means it will find many cusps, and the results will have more corner points.

Treat nearly flat paths as straight lines

This check box is similar to the “Make straight lines” control; however, it differs in a subtle way. The Make straight lines control can help straighten any curves that are nearly flat. However, the “Treat nearly flat paths as straight lines” checkbox only straightens curves that are nearly flat, and that only bend to one side. For example, this control can straighten a C-shaped curve that bends to the left of the straight line, but it can’t straighten an S-shaped curve that bends to either side of the straight line. If you think the difference between these two controls is too subtle for your needs, then we recommend that you ignore this control and just use the Make straight lines control.

Find extrema points

You should probably leave this checkbox turned on. It will make sure that points are always placed at extrema points in the tracing results, and this is recommended for PostScript and TrueType fonts.

Transformation options

Fontographer’s transformation options are located under Transform in the Element menu. Any of these can be

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applied from the Font Window or Outline Window. When used from the Font Window, you can apply a transformation to one, several, or all characters. On the other hand, in a character’s Outline Window, you can only apply the transformation to the selected points. If there are no selected points, the transformation applies to the entire character.

Flip

You can use the Flip transformation to flip the image to the opposite side of an imaginary horizontal or vertical line.

You access the Flip transformation pop-up menu via the Transform menu, or by double-clicking on the Flip tool in the tool palette.

To flip selected items horizontally:

1. Select a character.

2. Choose “Flip” as the first transformation.

3. Click on the Horizontal radio button.

4. Click the Transform button.

To flip selected items vertically:

1. Choose “Flip” as the first transformation.

2. Click on the Vertical radio button.

3. Click the Transform button to apply the vertical flip.

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Move

The Move transformation can move whole characters, or a specific point a specified horizontal and/or vertical amount.

To move selected items horizontally:

1. Choose “Move” as the first transformation.

2. Enter a value in the Horizontal text box.

3. Click “Transform” to move the image.

To move selected items vertically:

1. Choose “Move” as the first transformation.

2. Enter a value in the Vertical text box.

3. Click “Transform.”

Move an image horizontally and vertically by entering

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values in both text boxes.

Rotate

The Rotate option is used to rotate the selection a specified number of degrees. Selected points rotate around the reference point by a specified angle. Positive angles indicate a counterclockwise rotation, while negative angles specify a clockwise rotation.

You access the Rotate transformation pop-up via the Transform menu or by double-clicking on the Rotate tool in the tool palette.

To rotate a selected item:

1. Choose “Rotate” from the Transform pop-up.

2. Enter a rotation angle in the text box.

3. Click “Transform.”

Scale

There are two Scale pop-up menus: Scale and Scale uniformly. Both of these options are used to increase or decrease the size of an image by a specific scale factor.

The Scale option lets you scale horizontal and vertical attributes independently of each other. You’ll find this feature useful when you want to create condensed and extended versions of a font, since you can apply the scaling transformation to the entire font.

You access the Scale transformation pop-up via the Transform menu or by double-clicking on the Scale tool in the tool palette.

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To scale a character vertically:

1. Choose Scale from the pop-up menu.

2. Enter a vertical scaling value.

3. Click “Transform.”

To scale a character horizontally:

1. Choose the Scale pop-up menu.

2. Enter a horizontal scaling value.

3. Click “Transform.”

Scale uniformly

This option scales the entire image uniformly. If you select a character and enter a scale factor of 50%, the image will be reduced to 50% of its original size (both horizontally and vertically). Doubling the size of the image would require a scale factor of 200%.

To scale uniformly:

1. Choose the Scale uniformly pop-up menu.

2. Enter a scaling value in the text box.

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3. Click “Transform.”

Skew

The Skew option applies a slant to the image. Negative values slant the character to the right, positive values to the left. Vertical skewing can be used to create oblique characters (sort of a “fake” italic). Italics are normally skewed vertically by -12 degrees.

You access the Skew transformation pop-up menu via the Transform menu or by double-clicking on the Skew tool in the tool palette.

To skew selected characters:

1. Choose the Skew transformation pop-up menu.

2. Enter a skew value in either the horizontal or

vertical text box.

3. Click “Transform.”

Multiple transformations

There are times when you’ll probably want to do more than one transformation at once. Fontographer lets you apply up to four transformations (at one time) to one character, or

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the entire font.

Say you want to create a condensed oblique font and move it closer to the baseline to compensate for the skew angle. It’s easier than you probably think.

To apply multiple transformations:

1. Select a character.

2. Choose Transform from the Element menu.

3. Select up to four transformations.

4. Enter the transformation values.

5. Click “Transform.”

3-D transformations using the Transform dialog

Using the Transform dialog to apply 3-D transformations is simpler if you use the tools to setup the transformation. Double-clicking on the Perspective tool will bring up the Transform dialog ready to apply a 3-D rotation transformation. Option double-clicking on the selection tool will bring up the Transform dialog ready to apply a 3-D move transformation.

Let’s do an example of a 3-D rotation. In our example, we will draw and then transform a square/circle .

To use the Scale tool:

1. Draw a square and a circle (holding the shift key

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down to constrain the tools) that start at the origin point and extend to the descent.

2. Drag the width line on top of the rightmost point on

the circle.

3. Choose “Correct Path Direction from the Element

menu.

The character should look like this with Preview selected from the View menu (or press Command- or Ctrl+L):

4. Choose “Select all” from the Edit menu.

5. Option or Alt double-click on the Scale tool to bring

up the Transform dialog with Scale uniformly as the first transformation.

6. Choose “Center of Selection” from the Center

transformations around pop-up menu at the top of the dialog.

7. Type in “90” into the text edit field and press return

or click Transform.

The character should look like this in Outline mode:

To use the Perspective tool:

1. Option double-click on the Perspective tool to bring

up the Perspective Setup dialog.

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2. Set the Distance to 1000 and the Point to Basepoint

and press Return or click OK.

This tells the Perspective tool that the image you see in the Outline Window is being viewed as if you are 1000 em units away from the Basepoint.

3. Choose “Select All” from the edit menu.

4. Choose “Set Basepoint” from the Points menu.

Your basepoint just moved to the center of the square/circle, which is defined as the perspective point in this example.

5. Choose Copy from the Edit menu. You will paste

this copy later in this example.

6. Click and hold the mouse on the origin line (the line

that extends from the bottom of the window to the top if the window along the left side of the character).

7. Drag the mouse to the right while holding down the

shift key.

As you drag the mouse you will notice that the information bar looks something like this:

8. Continue dragging to the right until the number

underneath the reads -90.

You have just rotated the selected points by -90 degrees in the XZ Plane. You can also think of it as rotating around the Y axis.

9. Choose Paste from the Edit menu. You now can

apply the next transformation to the copy of the original.

10. Click down with the mouse on the baseline.

11. Now drag the mouse up while holding down the

shift key until the number under the symbol reads 90.

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The character in the Outline Window should now look something like this:

To apply 3-D transformations using the Transform dialog:

Let’s do an example of a 3-D rotation. To make things simple, you will start where you left off using the Perspective tool. For this example to work, the square/circle being transformed should already be copied into the clipboard.

1. Choose “Paste” from the Edit menu.

2. Choose the Perspective tool from the tool palette.

3. Click down with the mouse on the width line and

release the mouse button immediately. The mouse click will be used as the center of the transformation in the Transform dialog.

4. Double-click on the Perspective tool. The Transform

dialog will be brought up ready to apply a 3-D rotation.

5. Choose “Last mouse click” from the Center

transformations around pop-up menu.

6. Set the XY angle to 0, the XZ angle to 90, and the

YZ angle to 0.

7. Set the Perspective Point pop-up to “Basepoint.”

Important: If you wish to setup additional transforms in

this dialog, then make sure you do the perspective transform last. Any transforms that occur after the perspective transform will not have a three-dimensional appearance.

When you are done, the Transform dialog should look like this:

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8. Press “Return.”

You have probably noticed that a three-dimensional box or cube is being created. The previous set of steps created the right side of cube. The next set of steps will create the top side of cube.

1. Choose “Paste” from the Edit menu.

2. Click down on the ascent line.

3. Double-click on the Perspective tool.

4. Set the XZ angle to 0 and the YZ angle to -90.

5. Press “Return.”

If you have been following our example from the beginning, then your character in the Outline Window should look something like this:

To do a 3-D Move:

Let’s continue where we left off, creating a disjointed cube. For this example to work, the square/circle you are transforming should still be copied into the clipboard.

You will now create the back side of the cube by moving the selected points backward (by 800 em units) into the 3rd dimension.

1. Choose “Paste” from the Edit menu.

2. Option double-click on the selection tool to bring up

the Transform dialog.

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The dialog will come up showing Move and Perspective, ready to do a three-dimensional move.

3. Set both the transformation (at the top of the dialog)

and the Perspective transform (at the bottom of the dialog) to Basepoint.

4. Change the Horizontal and Vertical text edit fields

to “0” and change the depth edit text field to “800.”

5. Press “Return” or click OK.

6. Select “Preview, ” and voila:

Guidelines

Setting guidelines

The Guides layer is used to construct drawing guidelines which are common to every character of the font (such as the x-height line). The Guides layer is similar to the Template layer, except it is drawn in light gray or green and appears behind every character of the font. Guides are purposely drawn in a lighter color so they can be distinguished from the outline and template images.

Guidelines may be edited or created from any character’s Outline Window. Change to the Guides layer by clicking on its name in the Layers palette or by typing “g” when the lock icon is in the locked state.

With the Guides layer active, you can edit or draw guidelines with the standard drawing and editing tools.

Changes made to the Guides layer will appear in every character in the font. You can undo changes made to the

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Guides layer just like you would in any other layer.

Setting guidelines from the Font Info dialog

Ascent and descent are already defined and can be reset by choosing “Font Info” from the Element menu and typing the values in the Ascent and Descent text boxes.

Adding new guidelines

Additional guidelines can be set two ways in the Guides layer.

To create a guideline:

1. Select the Guides layer.

2. Use the selection tool to drag vertically from the

baseline or horizontally from the origin line.

You can also create a guide by drawing it with any of the drawing tools in Fontographer.

1. Select the Guides layer.

2. Click on the drawing tool of your choice to draw a

guideline.

Hiding guidelines

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You can hide the guides by checking on the Guides layer checkbox to turn it off or (when the lock icon is locked) by typing Option-G (Macintosh) or Caps Lock+G (on the PC).

Snap to guides

Choose “Snap to Guides” from the View menu. When points are within a predetermined distance (you set this value in the File menu Preferences’ Editing Behavior) from the guideline, they snap or align to that guideline.

Creating a stroked font

Outline vs. stroked characters

Up until this point in the manual, we have been discussing outline characters. You create outline characters by drawing a path around the character’s perimeter. Stroked characters are constructed by drawing just the centerline path. PostScript draws these characters by sweeping a pen along the path. The pen has a width called the stroke weight which is made up of em units. As PostScript sweeps

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along the path, it paints a line that is so many units wide.

Any character which is constructed entirely of equal weight strokes can be drawn as a stroked character. For example, we drew the letters in this Fontographer logo as stroked characters. You must generate these as Type 3 fonts, since neither TrueType nor Type 1 fonts allow stroked characters.

Fontographer gives you complete control over the type of pen you’ll use to create your stroked font. In addition to its width, you can specify its appearance and behavior where segments join. Also, since some people prefer drawing with a pen (in real life situations), Fontographer makes it easy to change the stroked character into an outline character (or font).

Setting stroke attributes

Before you can create a stroked character, you will need to change the attributes of the character from filled to stroked.

To change a filled character to stroked:

1. Choose “Selection Info” from the Element menu.

2. Turn off “Fill” and turn on “Stroke.”

3. Leave the Tint set at 100%.

4. Enter a pen Weight.

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Round joins draw a circle with a diameter equal to the

Fontographer User's Manual

You’ll notice that Fontographer has two pop-up menus for Cap and Join. In our example, we use Round on both since we want the ends of the characters to be rounded. Each of these options is discussed after this example.

5. Click “OK” and get ready to draw a character.

6. Choose a drawing tool, or one of the control point

tools.

7. Draw an “L.”

8. Turn on Preview to see what your character actually

looks like.

End caps and joins

There are three types of end caps: butt, round, and square.

Butt end caps stop right at the end point of the line.

Round end caps project a semicircle out from the end

point. This semicircle has a diameter equal to the stroke weight and center point at the end point.

Square end caps project out one half the stroke weight in the direction of the path.

There are three types of line joins: miter, round, and bevel.

Miter joins extend the outer edges of the lines until they meet at an angle, like the corners of a picture frame.

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Round joins draw a circle with a diameter equal to the stroke width at each bend.

Bevel joins are drawn as if the joining segments were stroked with butt cap ends and the resulting notch filled with a triangle.

Expand stroke

The Expand Stroke command is used to expand stroked characters into contoured (outline) or filled characters.

To expand the stroke width:

1. Choose “Expand Stroke” from the Element menu.

2. Click “Normal pen.”

3. Enter a Pen width value.

4. Click “OK.”

Fontographer automatically changes the stroked character into an outline character.

The Expand Stroke command can also be used to automatically change your stroked character into a calligraphic character.

To change a stroked character into a calligraphic character:

1. Choose “Expand Stroke.”

2. Click “Calligraphic pen,” enter a value, and

click “OK.”

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3. Choose “Selection Info” and change the character

to a “Filled” character.

4. Choose “Remove Overlap” from the Element menu.

Clean Up Paths

One of the most revolutionary features in Fontographer is called Clean Up Paths. This incredible command automatically improves the quality of your outlines by removing unnecessary points. Fontographer will try to change the path as little as possible; less will change the outline as little as possible—more will remove more points and thus, change the path more. And if you have less points, your printing time will be faster as well!

There are two different uses for this dialog: one is to put points where they belong for proper typographical outlines. This is called putting points at the extrema. If you bring up the dialog and only have the Insert points at extrema box checked, that’s all Fontographer will do. Simplify paths will remove points it judges to be superfluous. The slider control adjusts the ratio between getting rid of a lot of points (and changing your path a little), and getting rid of fewer points and maintaining the integrity of the path.

We believe you should spend your time creating wonderful designs instead of worrying about point placement and the

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We believe you should spend your time creating wonderful designs instead of worrying about point placement and the mechanical details of Bzier path construction. When your character is through, just choose “Clean Up Paths” from the Element menu or (even better!) apply the command to the entire font directly from the Font Window.

Creating calligraphic characters

One of the most notable features of Fontographer is the freehand drawing tool which you can use directly with the mouse or with a pressure-sensitive pen and digitizing tablet. Additionally, you can use the freehand drawing tool as either a calligraphic pen or a variable-weight pen.

To use the calligraphic pen:

1. Double-click on the freehand drawing tool.

The Freehand Tool Setup dialog appears.

2. Click on the Calligraphic pen checkbox.

3. Make sure the Pressure sensitive option, the Tight

curve fit and the Draw dotted line Stroke options are all turned off.

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4. Enter a Pen width of 100 em units.

For the purposes of this exercise, you should leave the Pen angle set at 45 degrees since that is one of the recommended angles for calligraphic characters.

5. Click “OK.”

The freehand tool icon will change to a calligraphic pen icon.

6. Press and hold down the mouse button while

moving it around on your desk or mouse pad, or use a digitizing tablet to draw a calligraphic character.

7. Choose “Remove Overlap” from the Element menu.

Fontographer removes the overlapping area, and your calligraphic character is complete.

8. Choose “Preview” from the View menu and turn

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8. Choose “Preview” from the View menu and turn

off “Show Points” to view your character without points and filled.

Calligraphic tutelage from Judith Sutcliffe

Calligraphy is not the same thing as type. Generally, type is carefully structured, straight-backed and neatly drawn. Calligraphy is often looser, more graphically expressive and flowing, and it more closely reminds us of the instrument with which it was drawn. You can use Fontographer to simulate a flat-nibbed pen or a Chinese brush, any of the variety of instruments with which people have written with calligraphic panache over the centuries.

Start by taking a look at the past and present of western, eastern or middle eastern calligraphy. Your local library or bookstore’s graphics section will have books with samples of the work of ancient and modern calligraphers.

Try working with a calligraphic pen or brush. You don’t have to be a whiz at it. You just need to pay attention to the limitations of the medium. Try holding a wide, flat-nibbed pen at a 45 degree angle and making vertical, horizontal and angled lines as well as circles. You will quickly see how the characteristic shapes of western calligraphy are achieved.

That knowledge of how the position of the pen affects the line of ink that flows from it is what you need to know to draw calligraphy with Fontographer. You need to internalize the mechanics of the pen in your head. So that when you draw an “O” you know that the pen will issue a wide curving line on the right-side downstroke, but will taper to near nothingness as you pull the stroke to a close at lower left. Because the pen has a precise width, the stroke will have a predictable variance in size. Most basic strokes are made without turning the pen, but more advanced strokes do

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involve a twist of the wrist and pen, and if you carefully study the calligraphy manuals, you will find these little secrets. Also, most letters are made with two or more strokes joined together invisibly. An “O” is made from a downward left stroke and a downward right stroke, not one stroke all the way around. These conventional stroke combinations are shown in most calligraphy manuals and are easy to learn. Remember, you don’t have to be a calligrapher, you just have to learn to think like a calligrapher’s pen.

If you are interested in oriental calligraphy, dip a Chinese brush in ink and press the soft tip to paper, pushing the bristles about half way down and to one side and then gradually lifting it and tapering off to the other side. Note the shape of the ink stroke. The movement of the brush and the look of the marks it leaves is considerably more complex than the workings of the western pen. However, Chinese calligraphy involves a graphic language of a very small number of simple stroke shapes combined into more complex characters. There is a particular way to make dots, horizontal lines, vertical lines, lines angled left, lines angled right, corners and endings of lines. You can find these in books on Chinese calligraphy.

You can also draw with a pen or brush roughly, without paying much attention to any calligraphic tradition, but the instrument will still leave characteristic marks. Those are what you want to remember.

Turning to Fontographer, you might wish to start by copying some calligraphic hand that you admire. There are three ways to do this. One is by scanning the original in and autotracing it. For the instructions on that method, refer back to the beginning of this chapter.

The second way is without a drawing tablet: Choose a couple letters that are most characteristic of the hand you are going to recreate. You might start with the lowercase “l” and “o” as they contain the basic straight and rounded strokes on which the rest of the alphabet will be based. One way to do this quickly is to use corner points for every point you place. That will rough out the letter for you. Then go back and change the points ruling what should be curves to curve points. Adjust, check the black image in Preview, readjust. If you draw an “o” that you think works,

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copy it to the background [Template layer] of “c,” “d” and other rounded characters and construct them over the pattern. That will give you a consistency of form that a calligrapher works for years to achieve in eye and hand coordination. The same goes for your “l” and all the ascenders of the lower case alphabet. You must, of course, keep your stroke widths very similar, as it has all been written with the same “pen.”

But—don’t be too perfect, or you’ll be making something more akin to a text typeface. Let every rounded form vary just a little bit from every other one, let the ascenders lean a little, but not so much that it is obvious. This is a subtle way to add life to your font.

Continue building characters until you have enough to write a word in the Metrics Window and to print out some wordlike gibberish from the Print Sample window. Take the printed proof and look at it upside down. What’s your first impression of the weight of the letters? Turn it right side up and look again. How do the letters look together? Do they look related in their stroke widths, sizes, leanings? If not, try to pick out the offending characters and rework them to fit into the family a bit better. How’s the spacing? Move the margins in the Metrics Window until you get a pleasant spacing, particularly in smaller sizes.

Third method, with drawing tablet: You’ll be doing the same thing as described above, but you’ll have the aid of Fontographer’s wonderful, automatic, electronic calligraphic pen. In your hand it looks like the cordless pen of your drawing tablet, but on screen it draws like a calligraphic pen or a Chinese brush. If you have any natural or trained calligraphic talent, you will find a drawing tablet extremely useful because you can whip out a calligraphic shape with one swoop of that pen. You will want to experiment a bit at the outset with the various nib widths and slant variations available. And you will want to try the calligraphy pen alone, the pressure pen alone, and the combination of the two. For imitating western calligraphy you will use the calligraphic pen with or without the pressure mode. Try it both ways and see which produces most easily the shapes you have in mind.

Now here’s one difference that practicing pen calligraphers will need to curb at the outset. Fontographer

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Now here’s one difference that practicing pen calligraphers will need to curb at the outset. Fontographer characters are usually made in one continuous outline. So make an “O” in one fell swoop, not two separate ones. Pretend you’re writing on really slick paper and your pen doesn’t catch. Go all the way around. If you don’t, you’ll have to patch the two sections together and that’s a drag. (It’s easy, of course, using the Remove Overlaps command, but save yourself time by not creating multiple parts in the first place.)

Since this is spontaneous drawing, you might consider sketching each letter several times in succession across the character window and then picking the best one to keep.

This is only the beginning. Unless you are one of the world’s best calligraphers, you are not going to whip out 26 perfect calligraphic letters on the first try. No problem. Do the best you can. Decide which ones are the right proportions, the best style, and then do minor alterations on the others to bring them in line. Using Fontographer commands, scale them up or down, rotate when necessary, etc. If a stroke is too narrow, grab points on one side and pull to widen it. You can’t do this in ink but you sure can in Fontographer.

Sometimes when you sketch a letter, the Fontographer outline that appears will have more points than are necessary. You want the fewest points possible, so prune out the excess (using Merge Points, or Clean Up Paths). Also check to be sure that you have the path direction correct (clockwise on outer outlines). If your character has overlapping parts, do a Select All and Remove Overlap. If that doesn’t work, make a copy of the outline and put it in the Template layer, then in Outline rework the overlapping section, following the original calligraphic shape. If there’s something that doesn’t please you, just grab the points and adjust. It’s not ink; you can tweak it until you get it right.

Assuming you’ve got a lower case that’s looking good, you can get a little fancier for your upper case characters. Maybe you will add a few flourishes. Remember that the margin and kerning adjustments leave you great leeway in how you place each lower case letter in combination with each upper case. Use automatic kerning to make them fit

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just the way you want.

Let’s say you have now worked out a basic alphabet and it is looking good when you do some proof printing of various letter combinations. But when you print two “l”s together, they look mechanical and wooden. Here’s where the fun begins, and the complications start. Make yourself a nice calligraphic double “l,” with one letter a little taller than the other. Then when you’re setting type you can do a “search and replace” command and drop a hand-tooled double “l” in for every two twin “l”s. Alternate characters look really neat, and give the look of authenticity to calligraphic typesetting. You can create as many double letters as you want. You can create nice combinations of “Th.” You can give your font 15 different “a”s, if you feel in the mood. That’s the creative part.

The complex part comes in with the decision on just where in the world of keyboard character positioning do you put a double “l.” There are no standards and no rules. If you are the only person who is going to use the font, you can do anything you like, as long as you make yourself a map so you can find that double “l” six months from now.

But if you’re going to sell the font, you will do some brow furrowing, because you will probably be supplying both Mac and PC versions of your font, and characters maps differ considerably between the two platforms and also within the two platforms. The safe way out is to not put anything in the “Upper ASCII” positions (numbers 128 to 255) except standard position international accent characters. Put extras into a separate font on the upper/lower case keys, even though it is much less convenient than having all the alternates in one font.

Or, if you’re creating fonts in Mac original format, put the alternates wherever it’s most convenient for Mac users (bearing in mind that there are differences between System 6 and 7 key positions). Then make a separate font and put the “Upper ASCII” characters into it, on upper/lower case keys and supply both fonts for PC users.

Another aspect of calligraphic font making arises if you decide to make a script face, one in which all letters in a word appear joined, as if written in one continuous hand. It is quite possible to create a font of script letters that will

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appear when printed out to be written as a continuous line, but it is not easy. The general principle is that you must design a standard shape for both incoming and outgoing strokes and use them as part of every character. The margins of characters need to be set so that the outgoing stroke of one letter overlaps the incoming stroke of the following character. This takes some careful experimentation with and slight manipulation of each character’s incoming and outgoing strokes. But once you get it to work right, it will look quite natural, especially if here and there you leave an incoming stroke off. You will want to avoid kerning as much as possible and should design an alphabet set that needs very little.

For Chinese or Japanese calligraphy or to give an oriental flavor to a western alphabet, try a cordless pen and drawing tablet with Fontographer set to pressure-sensitive pen only. It’s very quick and sensitive and will take a little getting used to, but with some practice you will be able to construct Chinese characters with only minor need for point adjustments. If you are quite serious about working on a Chinese font, you will probably want to work out a library of the basic strokes and copy from that storehouse when building new characters. The Remove Overlap command will be very handy. You can always adjust each new character for balance and style.

Creating variable weight characters

Variable weight characters give the effect of being drawn with a brush. That is, they can have wide and thin areas. Fontographer’s freehand drawing tool can be used directly with the mouse or with a pressure-sensitive pen and digitizing tablet to give you these effects.

To use the pressure-sensitive pen:

1. Double-click on the freehand drawing tool.

The Freehand Tool Setup dialog appears.

2. Click on the Pressure sensitive checkbox.

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3. Make sure the Calligraphic pen and other options

are turned off.

4. Enter a minimum and maximum stroke width (like

the ones we’ve set here).

Try experimenting with different values, and line caps and joins to get different line effects.

5. Click “OK.”

The freehand drawing tool icon changes to reflect the Pressure sensitive setting.

If you are using a pressure-sensitive pen, go to step 6; if you are using a mouse, skip to step 8.

6. By applying varying amounts of pressure as you

draw, you can create Script characters with thick and thin areas like our example:

7. Choose “Remove Overlap” and then “Clean Up

Paths” from the Element menu.

Fontographer removes the overlapping area, and your character is complete.

If you are using a mouse instead of a pressure-sensitive pen, follow these instructions:

8. Press and hold down the mouse button while

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moving it around on your desk or mouse pad to draw a character.

9. Press the right and left arrow keys while you move

the mouse button to see the different effects you can create.

The left arrow key (or the number “1”) reduces the stroke width (down to the minimum stroke width you specified in the Freehand Tool Setup). The right arrow key (or the number “2”) increases the stroke size (up to the maximum stroke width you specified in the Freehand Tool Setup dialog).

Blend Fonts to create new fonts

Experimentation is at the heart of creating fonts. And Fontographer’s Blend Fonts option is the ultimate vehicle for creativity. Font Blend is going to let us create as new fonts as we like, without drawing a thing.

Well... not exactly. Blend Fonts is very much like our own Macromedia FreeHand’s blending of one object to another. It helps if your fonts are similar in characteristics. Imagine that your fonts are at opposite ends of a one-dimensional line segment and that you are creating a new font that is some percentage of the way between them (or beyond them). You can edit those intermediate versions as you like, and quickly produce a family of weights, say, from just two master designs like Extra Light and Extra Bold.

To blend fonts:

1. Open a font.

Font blending needs the least amount of attention when you blend between similar fonts. In this exercise, we use two from the same family: TimesRoman and TimesBold.

2. Choose “Blend Fonts” from the Element menu.

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The Font Blend panel appears.

The font you opened in Step #1 automatically appears as the Font 1 Source font. Source fonts are the fonts you will base your third font upon.

If you have any other fonts open when you choose Blend Fonts, they will automatically appear in the Font 1 and Font 2 Source fonts pop-up menus.

3. Choose a Source font for the Font 2 position by

clicking on its pop-up menu and selecting “Other.”

A standard dialog appears that lets you choose fonts directly from your drive, directory, or a folder.

4. Enter a Blend amount of 50%.

5. There are three other settings below the Blend

amount; leave them turned on for this exercise.

6. Click the OK button.

Fontographer automatically creates a completely new Untitled font based on the values you set in the Blend amount text box.

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The two source fonts are now dynamically linked to the new font. If you open any Outline window in the new font, you will see both source outlines in the Template layer (like in this illustration).

Any changes you make to the source font’s outline will show in the Template layer, but not change the new blended font’s outline unless you choose “Blend Fonts” again.

To change selected destination characters:

1. Make some changes to a character in one of your

Source fonts.

The change is reflected in the Untitled font character’s Template layer.

2. Click on the Selected destination character’s radio

button.

3. Click “OK.”

Fontographer will automatically reblend the characters.

4. Turn off the Template layer and “Show Points” and

then choose “Preview” from the View menu to view your new character.

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You can continue making minor tweaks to the blended character (or font), or simply save it as a new variation and go on to another variation with a different interpolation percentage.

Closing the new font unlinks the source fonts.

When things go wrong...

Doing the above example using Times and Times-Bold, you most likely encountered an error message after the blend attempt that read, “Could not complete your request because some characters didn’t match during blending. Consult your log file for details about the unblended characters.” When you open the text file Fontog.log, you will see the list of error(s). Here are some examples of possible errors:

char. #1 char. #2 Path # Error

290 290 different

# of paths

303 303 1 different

type of paths

741 char

missing in font 2

Let’s go through the error messages one at a time:

The first headers refer to the character decimal location in the fonts. So character 290 in Font 1 and Character 290 in font 2 don’t match because they have a different number of paths. This means that, for example, your lowercase “g” in font 1 has three paths, but in font 2 it only has two. Or the Ccedillas () don’t match because in one font you used

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remove overlap, causing the character to have one path, but you forgot to do it in font 2, so the still has two paths.

The message “different types of paths” occurs when a character such as is a Referenced character in one font, but is an actual outline character in the other. You can correct this by using the “unlink reference” command on the referenced character. The path # is the number of the path that the error message applies to, and it doesn’t check any further than the first mismatch.

The last message, “Character missing in font 2” means that while one font has this character, the other does not, and Fontographer can’t blend what isn’t there. If the two fonts do not have the same number of character slots, your blended font will have the same number of characters as the font with the fewest character slots.

After consulting your log file, you can go back and correct the errors and then blend again—blending only the selected characters if you wish—to finish your font blend.

Just remember, the key to success using Blend Fonts is that your characters in both fonts must have the same number of paths, the same types of paths, and each font must have the same number of character slots.

For information about the more technical details of the blending process, refer to Chapter 10, Expert Advice.

Jonathan Hoefler sez...

In 1990, Sports Illustrated commissioned my studio to design six typefaces, a set of six sans serifs in differing widths (Champion Gothic Heavyweight, Middleweight, Welter-weight, Lightweight, Featherweight, and Bantamweight.) These fonts were drawn in Adobe Illustrator and manufactured in Fontographer.

In 1992, the rights for these typefaces bounced back to me, and I began selling them retail. Several art directors called to say how much they liked the six fonts, but expressed hope that I would someday extend the range to include a super-condensed typeface. Given that no one was willing to underwrite the design of a seventh font (whereas Sports Illustrated had paid for the considerable development of the

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first six faces), it seemed unlikely that I would ever have the opportunity to revisit the fonts.Until 1993, when Fontographer added the interpolation feature (now called Font Blend).

Using interpolation, I could quickly create intermediate fonts between the Bantamweight and Featherweight types; more importantly, using extrapolation (using a blend amount greater than 100 percent), I was able to carry the changes from the wider Featherweight font, through the narrower Bantamweight font, into a new typeface, a super condensed sans serif I dubbed Champion Gothic Flyweight.

By caricaturing the ways in which the Bantamweight and Featherweight fonts differed, the new extrapolated font highlighted some of the design flaws in the original two faces, which I was able to easily correct. But most importantly, this technique enabled me to create a new font in just MINUTES rather than weeks.

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Chapter Three

Altering Outlines

Altering Logos

Paths and Points

Power Duplicating

Adding Serifs

Editing and Placing BCPs

Auto Curvature

In any art or craft there is a line between grace and excess that the artist usually doesn’t want to cross. Fontographer’s Outline Window can help you walk that line with style. Self-expression knows few boundaries with Fontographer. The only limits are your own imagination and skill—the raw materials, the drawing tools and layers, offer you all you need to start creating typefaces. The Outline Window is the place to test your creative wings. So go for it! Add serifs to a sans-serif font, create geometric designs, or import your favorite illustrations from other PostScript drawing programs. If you want to learn more about the basics of font production make sure you read the

Typography section and Type Designers section of the

Bibliography in the Appendix at the back of this manual.

The tools provided in Fontographer’s Outline Window let you alter graphic images or font characters in a number of different ways. You can move points or paths, duplicate points, merge points, insert points, remove them, or drag them. You may want to alter your outlines based on other images placed in the Template layer of the window, either using copied images from other characters, or scanned images for tracing. Refer to Chapter 2, “Creating New

Fonts,” if you’d like more information about tracing a

scanned image.

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If you already know everything about outlines, paths, and points you can skip this chapter. If not... or you’re just curious... read on.

Altering a logo

This quick-step exercise shows you how to import an image from a drawing program into a character slot in Fontographer so you can access it with a keystroke. You will make some changes to the logo, and then change its width by scaling the image. For practice, import any Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) image created in a drawing program like Macromedia FreeHandor Adobe Illustratoror use the art file, torch.eps, provided on your Fontographer disks.

Fontographer User's Manual

1. Open a font in Fontographer, and from the Font

Window select and open a character‘s Outline Window.

You can delete the character outline from its Outline Window if you need to, by choosing “Select All” from the Edit menu, and then pressing the delete key.

2. Select “Import” from the File menu and then

select “EPS” from the submenu.

3. Select the PostScript file named “Torch.eps” from

the Fontographer Sample Files folder or directory, or choose your own Macromedia FreeHand or Adobe Illustrator EPS file.

Fontographer automatically imports the image into the character’s Outline Window. The image will be scaled to fit between the character’s baseline and ascent lines.

If you choose Preview from the View menu, you can see that the fills are automatically transferred to the typeface.

Important: If you have trouble getting a single character

logo to display on screen and/or print, you may need to break the character into parts that can be placed into multiple key-strokes. For more information, check MacroFacts at (800) 449-3329 for a TechNotes.

That’s all there is to it. If you’d like to modify the image further, you can. The rest of this chapter is bursting with

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additional information about manipulating points.

Pasting EPS outlines from the clipboard

On the Macintosh, you can also paste FreeHand and Illustrator images directly into the character edit window (without saving the file as an EPS).

While you are in FreeHand or Illustrator, select the graphics you wish to copy, then press the Option or Control key and select “Copy” from the Edit menu.

In Fontographer, select a character slot and “Paste” in the image.

The path data will be pasted into your character so it fits between the ascent and the descent. Holding down the Option key while pasting the EPS file (or bitmap image) will retain the image’s size at the moment you copied it.

Pressing Shift-Option-Paste will fit the EPS file (or bitmap image) between the baseline and the ascent. Pressing Shift+Alt+Paste will have the same effect for a bitmap on the PC.

Paths and points

Paths are made of straight or curved line segments which are either connected or unconnected. Characters like the lowercase “i” and “j” are composed of two separate nonover-lapping paths: the dots and the stems. When you join the endpoints of a path, you’ve closed that path.

Important: All typographically correct paths need to be

closed.

If you already know how paths work, you can skip this

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section and go to Types of Points later in this chapter.

Closed paths

Closed paths can be filled; open paths can’t. PostScript always closes paths and fills images unless you specifically command Fontographer to do otherwise. To turn character fill off, choose Selection Info from the Element menu and click off Fill in the Character Information dialog. If you want to have outline and path connections without a fill (this is a character made up of stroked lines), click on the Stroke checkbox. Basically, you should know that 99% of the time you’ll be using closed paths. For more about stroked

characters, refer to Chapter 2, “Creating New Fonts.”

Path direction and fills

A character with an open path remains unfilled by PostScript, but characters with closed paths are filled. PostScript automatically closes paths unless you specify otherwise. Open paths are lines in which the final point does not reconnect to the initial point in the path and are basically worthless unless you’re creating a Type 3 font. A closed path includes an endpoint that reconnects with the first point in the path.

In the Character Information dialog (which displays when you choose “Selection Info” from the Element menu), you can select one of two types of fills—“Normal” or “Even/odd.” The standard PostScript filling technique is called a winding number fill, which is the Normal fill. The Even/odd fill operates differently (refer to the even/odd fill

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section later in this chapter for more information about this

technique).

When you choose “Selection Info,” you will only get the Character Information dialog if no points are selected or more than one is selected. When one point is selected, the Point Information dialog will appear.

Normal fill

You should use the Normal fill type for PostScript Type 1 and TrueType fonts.

Important: The Normal fill relies on the outside path being

described as clockwise, and the next inside path being described as counterclockwise, hence the term “ winding number.”

This results in normally filled characters, like in the “o” below.

The current path direction, clockwise or counterclockwise, is shown in the Element menu. Click on a control point and choose “ Clockwise” or “Counterclockwise” from the Path menu to change path direction. You can also change it via the path direction indicator in the Outline Window. Path direction is only defined on closed paths.

Technically, it doesn’t make any difference whether the outside path is clockwise or counterclockwise, but for the sake of consistency between Fontographer’s fonts and the proper operation of automatic hints, we recommend that the outer paths should be clockwise and the inner paths counterclockwise.

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Reverse path direction

Fontographer User's Manual

Even/odd fill

The other filling technique is called an even-odd fill. You should use the even/odd fill type for PostScript Type 3 fonts or for modifying the behavior of the Remove Overlap command. An outside path is not filled until it crosses a path. The area that it crosses is filled; the next area the path crosses becomes unfilled, and so on.

In the previous illustration of the “O,” even/odd filling would give the desired result even if both paths were clockwise.

Correct path direction

Path directions can be automatically corrected—that is, you can tell Fontographer to examine all the path directions and reorder them if necessary. Path directions must be correctly set for proper filling of characters. Choosing “Correct Path Direction” from the Element menu tells Fontographer to examine all the selected characters and, if necessary, automatically adjust their path directions.

Outer paths will be set to clockwise, inner paths to counterclockwise. When required, Fontographer automatically (but temporarily) reverses these (for instance, when generating Type 1 fonts).

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Reverse path direction

To reverse path direction, select the path to be reversed and click on the path direction indicator with the mouse (in the lower left corner of the Outline Window), or choose the opposite direction from the Element menu—either clockwise or counter-clockwise. Reversing path direction will alter the fill in your character.

Types of points

Fontographer uses three different types of points: corner points, curve points, and tangent points. Don’t be confused by the different point types—like control handles, they’re nothing more than different ways of working with the same basic element. The shape of characters is determined by the kinds of points used to construct them. You control the shape of the line segments in a path by either manipulating two control handles attached to each point or directly manipulating the path itself.

Fontographer User's Manual

Certain principles operate in using the corner, tangent, and curve points. Once you understand these principles, creating and altering characters is easy.

Curve points

When you place a curve point (or convert another type of point to a curve point), Fontographer automatically extends two control handles from the point to create a smooth curve between the preceding and following points on the path. The shape of the lines that extend from both sides of a curve point will be an arc.

The curve point tool is used to create curve points and join curves to other curves smoothly. The curve point tool can be selected by clicking on its indicator. When the lock icon is in the locked position, the numeric keypad equivalent for choosing the curve point tool is “8.”

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Basically, if a series of curve points is connected, the points will display an arc that takes the most graceful and efficient route in maintaining the line through the sequence of points. In mathematical terms, the slope of the curve is continuous through the point.

Corner points

The corner point tool is used to join straight segments to curved segments or to other straight segments at an angle, or to connect two curve segments at a cusp. The corner point tool can be selected by clicking on its indicator. When the lock icon is in the locked position, the numeric equivalent for choosing the corner point tool is “9.”

When you select a corner point, Fontographer displays the point as a hollow square. You can change an existing point to a corner point by selecting “Corner Point” from the Points menu.

Tangent points

The tangent point tool is used to connect straight lines to curves with a smooth tangent join. Tangent points may also be used to connect straight line segments together. You can select the tangent point tool by clicking on its indicator. When the lock icon is in the locked position, the numeric keypad equivalent for choosing the curve point tool is “0.”

When you select a tangent point, Fontographer displays the

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When you select a tangent point, Fontographer displays the point as a hollow triangle. You can change an existing point to a tangent point by selecting “Tangent Point” from the Points menu.

Selecting multiple points

In Fontographer, you can select a group of points or paths in a variety of ways:

Position the pointer tool outside the area of points you want in the selection, press the mouse button down, and drag to the opposite corner of the group of points or paths you want to include.

A dotted-line box surrounding your selection appears as you drag. Release the mouse button when you’re through selecting points.

You can select an entire path by double-clicking on any point in that path or on the path itself.

To select any combination of points, just press the Shift key and select each point individually with the pointer tool.

Select all the points by choosing “Select All” from the Edit menu.

Changing a point type

You can convert any point into another type of point at any time. To change a point’s type, select the point or group of points, and choose the new point type from the Points menu, or press the Command or Ctrl key plus the appropriate numeric equivalent. The need to change point type arises in cases where the shaping of a line requires different attributes than those offered by the currently selected point type.

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To change point types:

1. Select the point with the pointer tool, by clicking on

it once.

2. Then choose the point type you’d like to change it to

from the Points menu.

The point changes to the new point type.

The check mark beside the point type in the Points menu indicates the selected point type.

1. Select the point with the pointer tool by clicking on it.

2. Then choose the new point type from the Points

menu or use the menu command.

Inserting points

In general, with font characters and other graphic images, the fewer points you include the more graceful the image. On the other hand, there are situations when you need to add points to get more control. One professional typographer—Judy Sutcliffe—recommends “roughing out” characters by drawing them in an outline form with corner points, and then returning and substituting other kinds of points where needed. With whatever process you use for building images or characters, there will be instances where you want to add points to a path, so you can more easily control the path’s shape.

To insert a point:

1. Select the appropriate control point tool (or the pen

tool).

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2. Position the pointer on the figure where the new

point should be inserted (on top of a line or a curve).

If the pointer is positioned some distance away from the line or curve, a new path is started, or if the current path is active (open), it is continued.

3. Click on the figure.

The point is inserted into the figure at that position.

Duplicating points

By choosing “Duplicate” from the Edit menu, you can copy selected points and paths. The duplicated points will offset slightly (down and to the right) from the original outline and are selected.

Power duplicating

By combining the Clone and Duplicate items in the Edit menu you can create some pretty interesting images.

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Follow our example below to create a spiral character, and then try some combinations of your own.

1. Create any shape.

2. Choose “Clone” from the Edit menu.

3. Use the rotation tool on the cloned image.

4. Select “Duplicate” from the Edit menu.

5. Repeat step #4 to make as many duplicates as you

like.

Try this with some of the other transformation tools to see what effects you can create.

Removing points

Anytime you want, you can delete a point in a path by selecting the point and pressing the Backspace or Delete

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key. Fontographer removes the point and opens up the path. Sometimes, you will want to split a path to create two open paths. However, most of the time you’ll probably want to remove points without breaking the path—this is called merging points. We tell you how to do both in this section.

To remove points within a path:

Select the points and choose “Clear” from the Edit menu.

Select the points and press the Delete or backspace key.

This removes active points, opening the path up if it was closed, or splitting it if it was open and the selected point was not an endpoint.

Splitting a path

Sometimes, you’ll need to split a path at a point to create either two open paths, or, if you’re working with a closed path, to create an open path. Simply click on a point and then select “Split Points” from the Points menu. Fontographer splits the selected point into two separate points. Both of the new points are selected after Fontographer splits the point. The point connected to the start of the original path (according to the path’s direction) will be under the point connected to the end of the original path.

To split a path:

1. Click on the point you want to split into two points.

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2. Choose “Split Points” from the Points menu.

Fontographer splits the selected point into two points. The second point is hidden under the top point.

3. Press the Tab key to deselect any selected points.

4. Choose the selection pointer from the tool palette.

5. Click on the split point and move it.

Splitting line segments

If you want to split a path by splitting a line segment (rather than by splitting the path at a point), select the knife tool, and drag across the path where you want to split it. Fontographer splits the path, creating two new points where the knife tool crossed (or intersected) the path.

Joining points

When you want to connect a path to another by joining points, as in instances where you are joining serifs and stems, we recommend using the “Frankenstein” approach—pasting your image together by joining points. This can be especially useful if you want to copy the stems from a serif typeface and add them to your sans-serif

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typeface.

To join points from open paths:

Drag an endpoint of one of the paths over an endpoint of the other path.

Fontographer joins the paths.

In the example below, the curve point changed to a corner point since Fontographer always tries to maintain the original shape of the path.

Adding Serifs

For those instances where you might want to combine the serifs from a serif typeface with your sans serif typeface:

1. Drag around an area to select the points you want

to copy (in your serif typeface).

2. Choose “Copy” from the Edit menu.

3. Choose “Paste” from the Edit menu to paste the

points into the new character (in your sans-serif typeface).

4. Drag the selected path, until the points you want to

merge cover their coordinate points on the other path or paths.

5. Release the mouse button.

Fontographer automatically joins the points and unites the paths.

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Merging points

There will be many times when you’ll want to remove excess points from a character. If you use the methods described in the previous sections, you’ll be left with a broken line segment... or an open path. Merging points simply removes the point from the path and connects the point on either side of the deleted point with a single line segment. This is handy for removing unnecessary points.

Merging points removes the active point, but joins the points on either side, so closed paths remain closed and open paths are not split into two pieces.

See “Cleaning Up Paths” in Chapter 2 for more automatic ways of removing unneeded points.

Moving a point

Moving a point or a group of points can be done in a couple of ways. Use the arrow keys to move the point a certain number of em-units in any of four directions, or drag the point with the selection pointer.

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To move a point with the mouse:

1. Click on the selection tool, position it on the point

to be moved, and click.

2. Without releasing the mouse button, drag the point

to the new location.

When you use the selection pointer to move a point that is connected to other points, you can see the line segments change as you drag. If the point is connected to other points, the connecting lines or curves are shown during the move, so you can see the effect of the move as it happens.

While you’re moving the point(s), the position indicators at the top of the window are continuously updated to show the actual position and distance of the pointer from the basepoint.

Demagnified move

Most drawing programs require zooming to a more detailed view to draw intricate designs. Sometimes, however, this causes a loss of overall perspective. Fontographer has a unique capability called a demagnified move which allows for very precise point placement by constraining cursor movement to one tenth the distance specified in the Preferences, at full resolution.

To use demagnification:

1. Hold down the Control key while dragging a point.

If your Preferences under the File menu are set to the default of 10 em units, Fontographer will move the selection in one-em-unit increments.

Keyboard commands to move points:

Click on a control point to select it, and use the left, right, up, or down arrow keys to move the point by one em unit.

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Click on the control point to select it, and hold down the Shift key while using the arrow keys to move the point by ten times the specified cursor distance.

To move a point by more than one em unit, which is the default preference setting for cursor editing behavior, select “Preferences” from the File menu. Type in the preferred distance in the cursor textbox.

Accurate point placement

For accurate BCP and point placement, select a control point and choose “Selection Info” from the Element menu. Type in whatever coordinates you like. You can move the Point Information dialog anywhere on your screen to allow an unobstructed view of the points you are setting.

Any changes you make in the Point Information dialog are immediately reflected in the character Outline Window. In addition to being able to use the “Tab” key to move through the fields, additional key commands are available for the Next and Previous Points operations. These commands are shown on the Next and Previous buttons.

To select the next point in the path:

Click the “Next pt” button.

To select the previous point in the path:

Click the “Prev pt” button.

To make a point the first point in a path:

1. Select a point.

2. Click the “Make First” button in the Point

Information dialog.

You can undo resetting of the first point by pressing the Cancel button or choosing “Undo” when you’re back in the Outline Window.

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Pressing “Cancel” will undo everything you did in the Point Information dialog and restore the character to its original state.

Choosing “Undo” from the Edit menu will also undo everything you did in the Point Information dialog since selecting it is considered one action.

To retract BCPs into their point:

1. Click on the “On point” checkbox for the incoming

and/or outgoing BCP in the Point Information dialog.

The BCPs will move (or disappear from view) into their point.

2. Click on the checkbox again to disable it and the

BCPs will reappear and return to their previous coordinates.

You can also retract BCPs in the Outline Window with a menu command. See “Retracting BCPs” later in this section for more information.

Point and path preferences

Path display

You can control the way paths appear by setting options in the Preferences dialog. Choose “Preferences” from the File menu. Then select “Editing behavior” from the first popup menu in the dialog.

Next choose the radio button relating to the path behavior that best describes how you want paths to act when you select them.

You can drag paths as a whole. To choose this option, click on the “Select and drag the path” radio button.

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In this case, when you click on a path with the selection pointer, you select the two adjacent points and any segments extending between and on either side of them.

Choose the “Select and edit the path” radio button to move a segment lying between two points (and leave those points in place) when you click on the segment and drag with the mouse.

Instead of having to manipulate control handles to regulate the shape of the segment, you can drag the line in any direction.

The outline of the original position of the line stays on the screen as you drag, enabling you to go back to your starting place. Of course, you can also undo these actions by choosing “Undo” from the Edit menu.

Choosing the “Do nothing” option results in no action taking place when you click on a path with the mouse. In order to move the path, you will have to move the control point or its BCP handles.

Point display

To select the type of point display that you want to see when you edit your characters or graphic images, choose from the possibilities found in the Preferences dialog. First choose “Preferences” from the File menu. Then select “Point display” from the pop-up menu to display the options for viewing points.

Click on each of the options to see the differences you’ll

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get when you edit. For more information on each of the display options, refer tothe section “Point Display” in Chapter 10, “Expert Advice.”

Show and hide control points

Depending on the type of work you are doing, you may or may not want to view your image with the points showing. The Show Points item in the View menu lets you show or hide control points. When you are dealing with very small paths and points that may overlap, the screen can get a little full, and in those instances you can either reduce the point size, or turn off the display of points. This is important for premium WYSIWYG in the Preview mode.

To show control points:

Choose “Show Points” from the View menu to turn on the display of points.

To hide control points:

If Show Points is already checked, choose “Show Points” from the View menu to deselect it.

Editing and placing BCPs

Fontographer gives you considerable control over the shape of curved segments. This is done by adjusting the position of the Bezier Control Points (nicknamed BCPs because

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Macromedia FONTOGRAPHER User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual