Illustrator > Fontographer

Göran Söderström16 February 2006 · 13:12

Hi all,

It's my first ever post here on Typophile. Apologies for not presenting me further, but for now my frustration over Fontographer is getting the most attention.

Problem:
I can't import EPS-files into Fontographer. When I import it says Syntax Error... I've tried the backwards compability in Illustrator too. I've exported to EPS 3.0, 8, 9, 10 - and still same Syntax error.

I can't cut & paste Illustrator vectors to Fontographer either...
It becomes pixel out of the vectors and it put's itself on some kind of invisible layer OR nothing happens at all. The funny thing is that it HAS worked one time...

Is there some kind of trick I have to pull here to get the vectors from illustrator to Fog?

Hope anybody can help me.

I have Illustrator CS1, Fontographer 4.72, OSX 10.4.5

Thanks in advance and regards from Sweden.

typotheticals16 February 2006 · 13:55

Fontographer (the old version),on PC anyway, seems to only accept up to Illustrator 7. Save the file in Illustrator 7 style (.ai) and try to import that, if not save in Ill7.eps and try again.

istitch16 February 2006 · 14:18

…not sure what the deal is with the "syntax error". you might want to re-install your apps. i'm no IT expert but i've found that sometimes that can be the simplest way to solve some of the weirdest issues.

anyways, about importing the glyphs: my system only allows me to import illustrator 3.o files. but the first time i did it, i found out that i needed to save my illustrator file with both the stroke and fill turned off (in which i could only view the glyphs in outline mode) because the glyphs weren't showing up. when i turned the fill off, the glyphs imported fine...

not sure if this is the same issue, but...

--------------------
nc

Göran Söderström17 February 2006 · 11:49

It started working after an update of Illustrator CS to CS2.

Now I can even copy & paste with perfect results.

Thanks anyway for great tips.

osro23 January 2007 · 02:24

Hi,

I just found the sollution for your CS2 problem when trying to import eps files created in Illustrator CS2. I can't waith sharing it with the world. Its a bit stupid, but it works fine. Fontographer needs level 1 postscripts to import, CS2 can't make those. Maybe there are other sollutions, but this one could be the one to use when everything else fails.

You create your vector thingies in CS2. Make your path as simple as it can get (no overlapping and such). Copy it and paste in Photoshop as path. Then you export the path in Photoshop as ai. This ai file is ideal to import in fontographer. No error messages what so ever, not when importing and not when creating the font files.

I work with windows and fontographer 4.1, but i think this will work on a Mac too.

Nick Shinn23 January 2007 · 11:11

I had the most fun a few years ago, with CS and early OS X.
I needed to use a filter in CS Illustrator.
Then I saved from CS Illustrator in OS X to Illustrator 8 running in Classic.
Then saved down from Illustrator 8 to an earlier eps format before importing into my 1994 Fog.
It required a lot of experimenting with the various Illustrator settings to get it to work.

Göran Söderström23 January 2007 · 22:44

Thanks for advice!
However, I gave up FOG some time ago for FontLab ;-)

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