Poll: What OS and apps do you use for designing type?

Stephen Coles
21.Oct.2007 8.19pm

A question raised by a recent discussion: what digital tools are type designers using today? Let’s keep the discussion separate, and use this thread only for poll answers.

On what operating system do you do most of your type design work?
(Examples: Mac, Windows, Linux)
In what application do you do most of your letterform drawing?
(Examples: Illustrator, Fontographer, FontLab, Corel Draw)
In what application do you do most of your font editing and mastering?
(Examples: Fontographer, FontLab, DTL FontMaster)

Rules: Please, no discussion here. Only one post per user. Only one answer per question. “Both” is not a valid answer — I recognize that many type designers use both Mac and Windows and more than one or two applications, but for the purposes of this simple poll, please only respond with the primary OS and apps (one for drawing and one for mastering) that you use for the bulk of your work.

Results and analysis will be published on Typographica.
Thank you for participating!

Eben Sorkin
21.Oct.2007 8.36pm

1. Mac OS X 10.4.10
2. FontLab Studio 5.0.2
3. FontLab Studio 5.0.2

4. Other tools: AFDKO

dezcom
21.Oct.2007 8.45pm

1. Mac OS X
2. FontLab Studio 5
3. FontLab Studio 5

raph
21.Oct.2007 9.17pm

1. Mac OS X 10.4.10
2. Spiro
3. FontForge

Kristian M
21.Oct.2007 11.29pm

1. Mac OS X (10.4.10)
2. FontLab Studio 5 (5.0.4)
3. FontLab Studio 5 (5.0.4)

RachelR
21.Oct.2007 11.56pm

1. Mac OS X
2. FontLab Studio
3. FontLab Studio

kris
22.Oct.2007 12.35am

1. Mac OS X 10.4.10
2. FontLab Studio 5.0.2
3. — (Chester masters.)

J Weltin
22.Oct.2007 12.51am

1. Mac OS X (10.4.10)
2. FontLab Studio 5 (5.0.4)
3. FontLab Studio 5 (5.0.4)

Reetsde
22.Oct.2007 12.56am

1. Mac OS X (10.4.10)
2. FontLab Studio 5 (5.0.4)
3. FontLab Studio 5 (5.0.4)

kegler
22.Oct.2007 1.29am

1. Mac OS X
2. FontLab Studio 5
3. FontLab Studio 5

Goran Soderstrom
22.Oct.2007 1.33am

1. Mac OS X
2. FontLab Studio 5.0.4
3. FontLab Studio 5.0.4

Pieter van Rosmalen
22.Oct.2007 1.55am

1. Mac OS X
2. FontLab Studio 5.0.4
3. FontLab Studio 5.0.4

4. Other tools: BitFonter

badani
22.Oct.2007 2.05am

1. Mac OS X (10.4.10)
2. FontLab Studio 5 (5.0.4)
3. FontLab Studio 5 (5.0.4)

Nick Cooke
22.Oct.2007 2.33am

1. Mac OS X 10.4.10
2. Freehand 10 / FontLab Studio 5
3. FontLab Studio 5

paul d hunt
22.Oct.2007 2.33am

1. Windows XP SP 2
2. FontLab Studio 5
3. AFDKO
4. Other tools: TTX

magnus_rakeng
22.Oct.2007 3.13am

1. Mac OS X 10.4.10
2. Illustrator CS3
3. FontLab Studio 5.0.1

4. Other tools: FontLab Studio 5.0.1 (for drawing)

malcolm
22.Oct.2007 3.52am

1. Windows XP SP2
2. a pencil
3. In-house s/w

4. Other tools: Epson Scanner, Photoshop, FontLab Studio 5.0.4 for drawing
FontLab Studio 5.0.4 for mastering

Quincunx
22.Oct.2007 4.53am

1. Windows XP SP2
2. FontLab Studio 5
3. FontLab Studio 5

4. Other tools: Illustrator CS3 (+ pencil/paper of course) for drawing

oogby
22.Oct.2007 6.30am

1. Windows XP SP2
2. Fontlab Studio 5.0.3
3. Fontlab Studio 5.0.3

isaiasloaiza
22.Oct.2007 7.20am

1. Mac OS X (10.4.10)
2. FontLab Studio (5.0)
3. FontLab Studio (5.0)

William Berkson
22.Oct.2007 7.49am

1. Windows XP SP2
2. FontLab Studio 5.0.4
3. FontLab Studio 5.0.4

James Puckett
22.Oct.2007 8.10am

1. Mac OS X (10.4.10)
2. FontLab Studio 5 (5.0.4)
3. FontLab Studio 5 (5.0.4)

PvdL
22.Oct.2007 8.25am

1. Mac OS X 10.4.10
2. FontLab Studio 5.0.2
3. FontLab Studio 5.0.2

4. Other tools: BitFonter for drawing and mastering, RoboFab for editing and mastering

gaultney
22.Oct.2007 9.09am

1. Mac OS X 10.4.10
2. FontLab Studio 5.0.2
3. FontLab Studio 5.0.2

4. Other tools: Photoshop CS2 for drawing (if hand-drawn), Robofab, a variety of other Python and Perl scripts for editing and mastering

Stephen Coles
22.Oct.2007 9.33am

_ _ I N T E R M I S S I O N / A L E R T _ _

Thank you for the response thus far. Most of you dutifully followed the poll structure, but some folks missed the one answer per question rule. If you’d like to list other tools you use, you may put them in a new list item called “Other tools”. I have edited the offenders’ posts. Feel free to change your response if my edit is inaccurate.

Again, please limit each answer to one primary app for this poll. We can dive deeper in a later survey.

_ _ _ _ _ _ G A M E _ O N _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

bert_vanderveen
22.Oct.2007 10.03am

1. Mac OS X 10.4
2. none
3. none

4. Still working on idea’s and design with pencil, thin marker and lots of Moleskine notebooks and various bits of paper.
Mind you, I do have FontLab in it’s latest incarnation on my Mac for that special moment when I am going to really start…

. . .
Bert Vanderveen BNO

Mark Simonson
22.Oct.2007 10.33am

1. Mac OS X 10.4
2. FontLab Studio 5
3. FontLab Studio 5

Ken Messenger
22.Oct.2007 10.44am

1. Mac OS X 10.4
2. Adobe Illustrator
3. TypeTool 3

andreas
22.Oct.2007 11.03am

1. Windows XP SP 2
2. FontLab Studio 5
3. AFDKO

4. Illustrator 8, UltraEdit, InDesign 2, some MS tools, ...

MASTERING & EDITING are two very different tasks!
Of couse for editing of the outline data I use FontLab, but mastering is done with a lot of different tools and one main set of these tools is the AFDKO.

typodermic
22.Oct.2007 12.21pm

1. Windows XP
2. FontLab Studio 5
3. FontLab Studio 5

Down10
22.Oct.2007 1.13pm

1. Mac OS X 10.4
2. FontLab Studio
3. FontLab Studio

I can’t really call myself a “professional,” though.

Jean-Baptiste Levee
22.Oct.2007 2.16pm

1. Mac OS X 10.4.10
2. FontLab Studio 5.0.4
3. FontLab Studio 5.0.4

4. Other tools: AFDKO, Robofab, TTX, FileMaker Pro.

cuttlefish
22.Oct.2007 4.29pm

1. Mac OS X 10.4.9
2. FontForge
3. FontForge

mrschwartz
22.Oct.2007 4.45pm

1. Mac OS X 10.4.10
2. FontLab Studio 5.0.4
3. I don’t do my own mastering, but I think it’s done in the AFDKO

4. Other tools: Robofab, Superpolator, FeatureProof, TextMate, various small and specific applications...

joshua.erickson
22.Oct.2007 5.18pm

1 Windows Vista
2 Font Creator 5.6
3 Font Creator 5.6

Christian Robertson
22.Oct.2007 6.02pm

1. Mac OS X
2. FontLab
3. FontLab

4. Other tools: lots of python

russ_mcmullin
22.Oct.2007 6.36pm

1. Windows XP
2. Illustrator CS2
3. FontLab Studio 5

redsil
22.Oct.2007 6.42pm

1. Mac OS X (10.4.10)
2. FontLab Studio 5
3. FontLab Studio 5

other tools: a hammer

Nick Sherman
22.Oct.2007 7.02pm

1. Mac OS X
2. FontLab
3. FontLab

boardman
22.Oct.2007 8.30pm

1. Mac OS X 10.4.10
2. Illustrator CS3
3. FontLab

Nick Shinn
22.Oct.2007 9.37pm

1. Mac OS X
2. FontLab Stuio 5
3. FontLab Stuio 5

Jos Buivenga
23.Oct.2007 1.18am

1. Mac OS X 10.4.10
2. FontLab Studio 5.0.4
3. FontLab Studio 5.0.4

fontality
23.Oct.2007 3.57am

1. Windows XP
2. FontLab Studio 5
3. FontLab Studio 5

kentlew
23.Oct.2007 6.40am

1. Mac OS X 10.3.9
2. Fontographer 4.7.2
3. Fontographer 4.7.2

4. On occasion I will use Font Lab Studio 5.0.2 for some tasks. I don’t actually do my own final mastering. This is done by the foundry.

oldnick
23.Oct.2007 7.04am

1. Windows Vista Business
2. CorelDraw 9
3. FontLab Studio 5

4. I export EPS outlines to Fontographer 4.1.5, generate a PS font, then open that font in FontLab.

andyclymer
23.Oct.2007 7.59am

1. Mac OS X
2. FontLab Studio 5
3. FontLab Studio 5

patrickg
23.Oct.2007 8.23am

1. Mac OS X
2. FontLab Studio 5
3. FontLab Studio 5

gargoyle
23.Oct.2007 9.03am

1. Windows XP
2. FontLab Studio 5
3. FontLab Studio 5

peterbruhn
23.Oct.2007 10.36am

1. Mac OS X (10.4.10)
2. FontLab Studio 5 (5.0.4)
3. FontLab Studio 5 (5.0.4)

Grant Hutchinson
23.Oct.2007 10.36am

1. Mac OS X 10.4.x
2. Illustrator CS2 *
3. Fontographer 4.7.2 **

* With some exceptions for legacy files, which just work better under AI7
** FontLab Studio 5 is used for any additional OTF shenanigans

benkiel
23.Oct.2007 10.56am

1. Mac OS X
2. FontLab Studio 5.0.4
3. AFDKO

4. Robofab, Superpolator, FeatureProof, MetricsMachine, TextMate & BBEdit, Python

archaica
23.Oct.2007 12.31pm

1. Mac OS X 10.4
2. FontLab Studio 5
3. FontLab Studio 5

Giovanni Jubert
23.Oct.2007 1.20pm

1. Mac OS X 10.4.10
2. FontLab Studio 5
3. FontLab Studio 5

nadine_chahine
23.Oct.2007 1.30pm

1. Mac OS X (10.4.10)
2. FontLab Studio 5 (5.0.4)
3. FontLab Studio 5 (5.0.4)

MarcSalinas
23.Oct.2007 1.35pm

1. MAC OSX 10.4.9
2. Freehand MX
3. FontLab 5

Jill Bell
23.Oct.2007 1.36pm

1. Mac OS X
2. varies*
3. FontLab Studio 5

4. *Illustrator, Fontographer, even do a lot of work in Photoshop

scruggsdesign
23.Oct.2007 1.38pm

1. Mac OS X 10.4.10
2. FontLab Studio 5.0.2
3. FontLab Studio 5.0.2

gthompson
23.Oct.2007 2.19pm

1. Mac OS X 10.4.10
2. FontLab Studio 5.04
3. FontLab Studio 5.04
4. pencil, tracing paper, markers, CanoScan 4.1, Python 2.3.3.

Ale Paul
23.Oct.2007 2.30pm

1. Mac OS X
2. Illustrator
3. FontLab

MaxK
23.Oct.2007 2.56pm

1. Mac OSX
2. Illustrator
3. FontLab

Conor
23.Oct.2007 3.01pm

1. Mac OS X (10.4.10)
2. FontLab Studio 5 (5.0.4)
3. FontLab Studio 5 (5.0.4)

peterf
23.Oct.2007 3.03pm

1. Mac OS X
2. Freehand 9
3. FontLab

txusmarcano
23.Oct.2007 3.22pm

1. Mac OS X
2. Freehand MX
3. FontLab

——————————————————-
Para disfrutar de la Tipografía:

http://lletraorama.blogspot.com

Tim Ahrens
23.Oct.2007 4.37pm

1. Windows 2000
2. FontLab Studio
3. FontLab Studio

4. with macros & AFDKO

peter_bain
23.Oct.2007 5.30pm

1. Mac OSX
2. Adobe Illustrator
3. FontLab Studio

(Also drawing by hand and in FL)

John Hudson
23.Oct.2007 8.55pm

1. Windows XP
2. FontLab Studio 5.13
3. FontLab Studio → VOLT → TTX

gferreira
24.Oct.2007 3.54am

1. Mac OSX 10.4.1
2. FontLab 4.6
3. FontLab 4.6 + Robofab

4. Other Tools: Superpolator, Kalliculator, own macros

Michiel Drost
24.Oct.2007 4.48am

Mac
TypeTool3
TypeTool3

Albert Jan Pool
24.Oct.2007 4.48am

1. Mac OS X 10.4.10
2. FontLab Studio 5.04
3. FontLab Studio 5.04

4. pencil, paper, fineliner, markers, Epson Scanner and some experiments with ScanFont
additional use of DTL FontMaster and FogLamp, TypeTool 3.0

HaleyFiege
24.Oct.2007 6.17am

1.Mac OSX
2.Illustrator CS2
3. Fontlab Studio 5

I’m slowly learning how to replace #2 with fontlab.

filip blazek
24.Oct.2007 6.42am

1. Windows Vista Business
2. FontLab Studio 5 (5.0.4)
3. FontLab Studio 5 (5.0.4)

4. Other tools: My own collection of Python scripts, Illustrator CS3

titus n.
24.Oct.2007 6.45am

1. Windows XP
2. Fontlab Studio 5
3. Fontlab Studio 5
4. (other tools) MS VOLT & FDK macros

WAdams
24.Oct.2007 7.07am

1. OpenStep 4.2
2. Altsys Virtuoso
3. FontForge (running in Cygwin in Windows 2000)

Vera Evstafieva
24.Oct.2007 7.38am

1. Mac OSX
2. Illustrator CS2
3. Fontlab Studio 5

eriks
24.Oct.2007 10.11am

1. Mac OS X
2. SpiekerPencil™
3. FontLab Studio 5.0.3b1

James Grieshaber
24.Oct.2007 11.57am

1. Mac OS X
2. FontLab Studio 5
3. FontLab Studio 5

bvfonts
24.Oct.2007 12.10pm

1. Windows XP
2. Adobe Illustrator CS 2
3. FontLab Studio 5

4. Brushes, ink, pens, pencils, scanner, sketchbook, paper and drawing board.

dan_reynolds
24.Oct.2007 12.23pm

1. Mac OS X
2. FontLab Studio 5
3. FontLab 4.7

viko
24.Oct.2007 3.38pm

1. Mac OS X 10.4.10

2. Fontlab Studio 5.0.2

3. Fontlab Studio 5.0.2

emtype
25.Oct.2007 2.47am

1. Mac OS X (10.4.10)
2. FontLab Studio 5 (5.0.4)
3. FontLab Studio 5 (5.0.4)

k.l.
25.Oct.2007 3.32am

1. Mac OS X 10.3.9
2. FontLab Studio 5.0.3
3. FontLab Studio 5.0.3 → AFDKO 2.6 → FontTools 2.0b2

4. Other tools: DTL FontMaster, scripts, TextWrangler, InDesign

Marten Fischer
25.Oct.2007 7.29am

1. Mac OS X (10.4.10)
2. FontLab Studio 5 (5.0.2)
3. FontLab Studio 5 (5.0.2)

4. Pen, paper & printer etc...

metalfoot
25.Oct.2007 2.59pm

1. Windows XP SP2
2. Font Creator Program
3. haven’t gotten that far yet

Gary Long
25.Oct.2007 6.47pm

1. Mac OS X
2. FontLab Studio 5
3. FontLab Studio 5

Miguel Sousa
25.Oct.2007 8.24pm

1. Mac OS X
2. FLS 5
3. AFDKO

4. BBEdit, Excel, Python (in FLS and Terminal), other AFDKO tools.

sim
26.Oct.2007 5.13pm

1. Mac OS X (10.4.10)
2. FontLab Studio 5 (5.0)
3. FontLab Studio 5 (5.0)

Thomas Phinney
26.Oct.2007 9.04pm

1. Windows XP SP 2
2. FontLab Studio 5
3. FDKO (but Miguel does it)

4. Other tools: Tim Ahrens’ RMX tools. I’ll also do my own interim masterin from FontLab.

Diederik Corvers
27.Oct.2007 9.52am

1. Mac OS 10.4.10
2. Illustrator 11 (cs2)
3. FontLab 5.0.4

Ricardo Cordoba
28.Oct.2007 12.36am

1. Mac OS 9
2. Illustrator
3. Fontographer

Mikhail Kovalev
28.Oct.2007 3.51am

1. Mac OS 10.3.9
2. Illustrator 9 in emulated Mac OS 9, lightning fast compared to my CS versions... i dont know why
3. FontLab 5

Dario Muhafara
5.Nov.2007 5.04am

1. Mac OS X (10.4.10)
2. FontLab Studio 5 (5.0.4)
3. FontLab Studio 5 (5.0.4)

dezcom
5.Nov.2007 5.34am

Stewf, are we going to see a tabulation of this at some point?

ChrisL

Stephen Coles
5.Nov.2007 9.38am

Yes. The poll booth will close this Friday. Please coax your colleagues who have yet to respond.

dezcom
5.Nov.2007 11.49am

My colleagues are having too much trouble with hanging chads and butterfly ballots to vote :-)

ChrisL

twardoch
5.Nov.2007 7.51pm

1. Mac OS X (since I got my MacBook Pro which also runs Windows)
2. FontLab Studio 5.0.4
3. FontLab Studio 5.0.4
4. Other tools: Python, FontTools/TTX, AFDKO, RoboFab, FontQA, LCDF TypeTools, FontForge, Microsoft VOLT.

dezcom
6.Nov.2007 5.02am

Adam has come over to the Dark Side ;-P

ChrisL

david hamuel
6.Nov.2007 5.38am