Typophile - FontForge as a Typeface Design Environment--Good Idea, Bad Idea - Comments

Hello, I just found this

Mike_U — Wed, 9 Apr 2008 02:37:30 -0700

Hello,

I just found this little gem of a forum, and must say, fascinating.

I am not a designer, but I’m interested in typography. I do a lot of web design, and, being an academic, have a special relationship to the written (printed) word.

So I just thought I say hello.

And, right after I stumbled across the site yesterday, I ’wasted’ an evening to create my first font.

Looking forward to more typography!

Cheers,

Mike

This answer is a bit

anagnost — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 06:22:43 -0700

This answer is a bit outdated, as FontForge now supports a concept of layers and the spline order is considered a per-layer property (thus it is now possible to store sources for TTF and T1/OTF versions of the same font in the same database). So in order to change to quadratic Béziers in most recent FontForge versions one should do the following:

- go to Element->Font Info->Layers;
- either select “All Layers Quadratic”, or select “Mixed” and then adjust curve type individually for each layer.

I think this information is

Eluard — Fri, 7 Mar 2008 00:23:47 -0800

I think this information is clear in the on-line documentation btw.

You got your answer in the

cuttlefish — Fri, 7 Mar 2008 00:18:02 -0800

You got your answer in the thread in General discussions, but here it is again for sake of completeness:

how to change to quadratic Béziers?

Element > Font Info... > General > Quadratic Splines

Does anyone know how to

nyomdasz — Thu, 6 Mar 2008 21:33:16 -0800

Does anyone know how to change to quadratic Béziers in font forge?

I think it is a closely-held secret.

nyomdasz@yahoo.com

Oh my - morbidly obese

Quincunx — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 18:00:22 -0700

Oh my - morbidly obese extrapolations - that’s some funny stuff. :D

I like morbidly obese typefaces.

It takes one to node one

dezcom — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 12:14:02 -0700

It takes one to node one :-)

ChrisL

Now, that’s a morbidly

speter — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 11:32:04 -0700

Now, that’s a morbidly obese blob.

The red arrows point to

dezcom — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 11:28:31 -0700

The red arrows point to extrema points of this curve. The green dots are points on the curve but many do not coincide with extrema. A well drawn curve would have a point at each extrema of the curve—unlike this one.

ChrisL

Is there a visual you can

bxfl — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 10:42:01 -0700

Is there a visual you can post for this? Hard time grasping it from that description

Extrema is the furthest

dezcom — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 10:34:21 -0700

Extrema is the furthest protruding point of a curve which is ninety degrees from the vertical or horizontal.

ChrisL

What does “extrema”

bxfl — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 10:15:53 -0700

What does “extrema” refer to?

Like putting your thigh on

dezcom — Sat, 8 Sep 2007 09:50:55 -0700

Like putting your thigh on roids, eh Steve? :-)

ChrisL

morbidly obese

speter — Sat, 8 Sep 2007 08:52:13 -0700

morbidly obese extrapolations

It’s glandular!

“Superpolator’s

dezcom — Fri, 7 Sep 2007 07:42:29 -0700

“Superpolator’s precision makes it a great tool for a production environment, but I also find it really fun to use - especially dragging sliders to make morbidly obese extrapolations.”

Can I get one ofthose for Christmas?

ChrisL

FontForge as a Typeface Design Environment--Good Idea, Bad Idea

Steve Tiano — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 02:05:59 -0700

I’ve been having a running conversation on the Design forum about my burgeoning interest in typeface design—I am a book designer and page layout artist. Initially, of course, FontLab Studio comes up as the software package of choice for professional typeface design. Some have said, Type Tool is also something to start with and then, as necessary, make the switch later to FontLab.

Some mention was made of the open source package FontForge. I’m on a dual processor G5 PowerMac running OS 10.4.10. After understanding what was necessary to get the X11 server package installed, it was an eay matter of installing and running FontForge, even though it is UNIX-based and I am not a techie.

But I was also told “given that there is a learning curve for any of the programs,” I “risk wasting time by going with [FontForge]. ... some software people use it, but not the design community.”

How do folks here feel about that? Is it accurate? Should I just stay away from FontForge, start with TypeTool if the investment is presently too much to get FontLab (but assume that professional typeface design will eventually mean moving to FontLab Studio)? Does anyone do viable, professional creative work in FontForge?

Thank you.