Typophile

Layered Fonts

Jon Sleeman

Hi, I am trying to create a series on fonts that can be used for childrens handwriting practice.

I need the fonts to appear layered when used in Illustrator.

I am using FontLab and have created 3 separate fonts with the same metrics. One font is handwriting and the other two are guidelines.

After generating the fonts and loading on the computer, each font is out of step with the other on the vertical position.

Does anyone know why this is happening? Is it Fontlab or is it Illustrator?

Thanks!

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James Montalbano

Do all three of your fonts share the same vertical metrics?

You probably have FontLab calculating them for you automatically, which is not a good idea in this case.

Jon Sleeman

Probably not, I don't know where or how to set vertical metrics...

James Montalbano

The location is in Font Info in FontLab.

This is the panel:

Here is the How to: http://typophile.com/node/13081?

Jon Sleeman

Worked out how to change the vertical metrics, thanks for your help.

Still having a problem with one of the fonts, but this appears to be an Illustrator issue, it only sits in the right place if the fonts are mixed within the same text box. If a single font is in a text box it jumps...

paragraph

Leading?
prgr

Jon Sleeman

I did check the leading, so its not that. Illustrator seems to seems to push the character (which is a square) to the top of the text box.

I have decided to try things a different way now, as it not crucial all of the fonts are layered.

But thanks all for your help, much appreciated and I have learnt something new in FontLab!

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