Do you mean an updated version?

Going by the info FontLab has provided it is going to be a Mac OS X compatible version that will be really up to date.
Very NEW version, iow.

. . .
Bert Vanderveen BNO

Any chance of RoboFog for OS X? (fingers crossed really really tightly).

I still use RoboFog for glyph design, and have to have a Mac with OS 9 alongside with OS X computer. And I'm not the only one; Christian Schwartz told me that he uses RoboFog as well. That was some years back, but still, could we make a petition to get Letterror guys to make a new one?

Please.

Pretty please?

Honestly.

Pretty pretty please with sugar on top?

Unfortunately, RofoFog is based on Fontographer 3.5, a version which Fontlab Ltd. cannot maintain (we have not received the source code). Also, the RoboFog developers have long moved to RoboFab, a fully new font development environment, and they also established UFO as a new font interchange format.

There are several RoboFab-based applictions available (Metrics Machine, Superpolator, Prepolator, Glyphs). We at Fontlab Ltd. have supported RoboFab from its inception, and we are now working on supporting UFO natively in our applications. It is likely that Fontographer 5.0 will be able to read UFO files, and we have plans to have full read-write support in Fontographer, TransType, FontLab Studio and other applications.

Fontographer 5.0 is indeed under development. We are making good progress on the project. There will be a native Mac OS X version (universal binary) and a Windows version. The editing tools will stay largely the same, although some improvements have been made, especially in the user interface. Fontographer 5 will also include a streamlined Font Info dialog box (with much better family naming and linespacing management, hopefully much better than anything that we've made before), OpenType support (including quite smart, automatic OpenType Layout feature generation), better Unicode support.

The output of OpenType (PS .otf and TT .ttf) fonts will be handled using FontLab's industry-standard output, so fonts made with Fontographer 5 will be technically fully up-to-date.

In short, Fontographer 5 will be a pure type design application: stable, good, streamlined tools for type design. The type designer won't need to bother about any technical parameters, most of the work will be done automatically behind the scenes, producing optimized OpenType fonts (of course you'll still be able to make Mac and Windows Type 1 fonts).

It will be more powerful than TypeTool and less complex than FontLab Studio. We hope that it will hit the "sweet spot" between simplicity and power.

Cheers,
Adam

I cheer!

Best!

@twardoch

Adam,

Is the price point also sweet? Fontlab's price point takes it out of the running for, say, a web designer who just wants to keep a decent font editor handy in the toolbox.
Can you give a ballpark price?

rich

Adam, I noticed that you mentioned RoboFab in there. Is Fontographer 5 going to be scriptable and work with RoboFab so that FontLab Studio users can take our scripts right into Fontographer?

Richard,

Currently, Fontographer 4.7 sells at US$349, which is sort of half-way between TypeTool and FontLab Studio. We have not announced the final price for Fontographer 5, but one can expect that we will stick to the aforementioned principle.

James,

we are looking into the possibility of adding Python scripting (compatible with the FontLab Python scripting API, i.e. compatible with RoboFab) into Fontographer. While this is possible in theory, one needs to keep in mind that Fontographer is largely based on Macromedia code (though Fontographer 5 will be extended with FontLab code to ensure that opening and generating fonts will be done at our industry-standard quality).

We do have "full blown" Python scripting in FontLab Studio 5, and we have simple scripting support in TransType Pro 3. While we will not add Python scripting into the initial Fontographer 5 release, we are investigating the feasibility of doing this in a later release.

Cheers,
Adam

…one needs to keep in mind that Fontographer is largely based on Macromedia code…

Thanks. On the same topic, will Fontographer go forward with the Macromedia code from version 5, or will future versions be built using the same codebase as FontLab 7?

James,

we have several projects on our draftboard that are paving our way for the time after Fontographer 5 and FontLab Studio 6, but it's too early to announce the details. There are some very interesting and valuable aspects of both the Macromedia codebase and the FontLab Studio codebase, plus we are developing a new codebase. In general, our goal is to use the best aspects of our developments, while discarding the outdated and obsolete parts.

Also, we will evaluate the future directions after gathering some experiences on how FOG5 and FLS6 have been received.

Cheers,
Adam

@twardoch

>Currently, Fontographer 4.7 sells at US$349, which is sort
>of half-way between TypeTool and FontLab Studio.
>one can expect that we will stick to the aforementioned
>principle.

Thanks for the info.

rich

I'm sure Fontographer 5 will have smooth and accurate previews. Will kern editing be improved? I sure hope so.

There used to be a plug-in for Quark (back in the 90s) called KernEdit. It allowed you to adjust kerning in context and save it directly into the font file using keystrokes while going through pages of text and kerning pairs -- a very efficient way to adjust kerning.

I'm looking for a utility which does just that. It would be great if Fog5 incorporated something similar. Any news on that?
Dani

Hi Mr trwardoch

Can we expect antialiasing or will imported images still be bitmaps?
I think it's strange that on the fontlab site there's not a peep about fog 5
and that any info to be had is in here. pip pip

Can our grandchildren expect, that …? I hope the price will not change, because probably US$349 is less than the costs of a burger, when the next version of Fontographer is released.

Thanks, Adam!

> I think it's strange that on the fontlab site there's not a peep about fog 5
> and that any info to be had is in here.

I don't think it's strange. Forums such as Typophile allow less formal discussions about topics, without the "burden" of an "official" announcement. We use the feedback on the FontLab Forum and on Typophile to improve our products. Our official website will include a finalized and streamlined announcement that will present the finalized product -- which currently is still taking shape.

Best,
Adam

Adam

Let me be more precise
I was in a newsagent last Thursday
morning in Liverpool St station.
I picked up "Design Week" – in it was a
full page ad for Fontographer 5
Great I thought, and went on to the
Fontlab site. No mention of it
All you needed to say was "Fontographer
5 coming soon"

So it's a sense of frustration
that made me post what I did.

But I am very much looking forward
to seeing high quality previews
of scanned drawings and typeforms

cheers

I am informed that Fontographer 5 will be released on Monday 10th May – new look, useful guides that aren't black, OpenType-friendly. Fablious, exciting news.

@Twardoch: Can you tell me if the autotrace function will be improved?

Thanks, Joe

> I am informed that Fontographer 5 will be released on Monday 10th May

This *is* actually news to me since we haven't set a release date yet. But it is safe to say that Fontographer 5 is "coming very soon".

Best,
Adam

On the Fontlab site it says Fontographer 5 is "coming soon" It also says it will be released in May 2010. That means sometime before Monday. Well I'm waiting (sound of fingers drumming on desk in the middle of a rainy bank holiday in London)

Photofont QX is still announced for 2009 and coming soon. But better waiting than getting a program, that is loaded with bugs. (Although sometimes you wait and get a program, that is loaded with bugs.)

http://www.fontlab.com/photofont/qx/

You could indeed say "very soon", but "imminently" sounds more impressive and has more wiggle room :-)

I always forget. What is the name of Fontographer's biggest competition and what are the pro's and con's of each? I may have the opportunity to design a typeface next year and if all goes well the department will pay for the software. If I recall, Fontographer is easier to use but the other one offers greater control?

To Shinn, what software do you use to design fonts and why?

FontLab Studio is "the other". They are both sold by the same company.

I can't speak for Nick Shinn, but I use Fontographer for importing EPS files, basic housekeeping, and rough spacing. In FOG, with simple keystroke combinations, I can add extrema, correct path direction and remove overlaps 1-2-3. FOG also lets you perform rotate and flip operations to composite characters, which can be handy at times. However, for the industrial-strength work, I generate a Type 1 font file, then open it in FontLab. FL5's whole-em-unit point placement and extra levels of zoom allow for a much higher degree of fine-tuning than FOG allows.

Christopher, I started out with Fontographer in '93, but switched to FontLab in 2005, as Fog had fallen beside the way. I suppose I could pick up with the resurrected Fog again, but I've become acclimatized to Flab. I've never used Illustrator to draw glyphs, although I was quite adept with it in the early 90s.

FOG also lets you perform rotate and flip operations to composite characters, which can be handy at times.

Off topic, but...

You can do this in FontLab, too, although it may not be obvious how: Select the component. In the Properties panel, in the Scale section, enter -100 in the X field to flip horizontal; -100 in the Y field to flip vertical; or -100 in both to rotate 180°.

Just realised that I've been using FontLab alomost every day for sixteen years.

The package says you should be wary of typographic erection that lasts for more than 4 years.
Have you seen a physician?

Cheers!

Yes, and two quaint old cast-iron bathtubs mysteriously appear in the forest when you use it :-)

...or you can just flip by right clicking in the glyph window> Outline >H mirror, V mirror.
Rotate by selecting all, double click, hold shift (for constrained angles) and rotate with the rotation icon that appears when moving the mouse to the middle node on the right hand side.

Just realized that I’ve not been using FontLab for more than sixteen years ;-)

...or you can just flip by right clicking in the glyph window> Outline >H mirror, V mirror.

Oh, yeah. Forgot about that, I guess. But you still can't rotate components, except by 180° (using a flip and a mirror).

You can do this in FontLab, too, although it may not be obvious how: Select the component. In the Properties panel, in the Scale section, enter -100 in the X field to flip horizontal; -100 in the Y field to flip vertical; or -100 in both to rotate 180°.

...or you can just flip by right clicking in the glyph window> Outline >H mirror, V mirror.
Rotate by selecting all, double click, hold shift (for constrained angles) and rotate with the rotation icon that appears when moving the mouse to the middle node on the right hand side.

Perhaps I should have said there's no way to rotate components easily...

It's simple once you get the hang of it.

It’s still May 2010 in Alaska.

Having May 2010 as the release date on the Fontlab site when it is now June 1 does not inspire me with any confidence

OK, it is now corrected to say June 2010 ;)

It *is* really coming soon. We've found some last-minute problems that we decided to fix before release.

Best,
Adam Twardoch
Fontlab Ltd.

Yes, by all means a good decision, fix it before release.

Thats a pretty cool hat by the way Adam.
do you know how much it will cost in British pounds
(Fontographer 5 not the hat) cheers

I think Adam got that hat from Thelonious Monk :-)

The suggested retail price for Fontographer 5 will be US$399. Upgrade for version 4.7 users will be US$149 and for version 3.x and 4.1 users will be US$199. I don't know the GBP or EUR prices yet, but if you order online from fontlab.com, it'll be the same price converted to your local currency plus your local VAT.

I bought my hat in a 2nd-hand shop here in Berlin. Recently, I found a scrap of a German newspaper folded inside my hat. The newspaper is from 1976, I'm 35 now, so the hat may very well almost as old as I am, or possibly even older. I like my hat very much. :)

Adam

<|;-)

But it doesn't have any corners so it can't be your hat

Und hätt' er nicht drei Ecken
Dann wär' er nicht mein Hut oder 'was ahnliches
You must surely know that song

A question for Mr Twardoch. I have an ancient version of Fontographer (3.3)
(it should really be in a museum) I registered with Altsys and got Fontographer 4, the thing is I have lost my Fontographer 4 serial number although I still have all the Fontographer 3.3 discs and seriel numbers. Is it possible to buy Fontographer 5 as an upgrade with this documentation?

Well, Adam has already said:

"...and for version 3.x and 4.1 users will be US$199."

So, presumably, either of the versions you had (or still have) would be eligible for the same US$199 upgrade price.

Version 4.7 is the Mac-only one released by FontLab a few years ago.

Gary,

any 3.x version (Altsys) as well as 4.0.x and 4.1.x (Macromedia) will be eligible for the $199 upgrade. The 4.7 version released by FontLab in November 2005 will be eligible for the $149 upgrade.

It's really coming soon :) Definitely in June, I'd say.

Adam

That's great news

That makes it £134. Yes I can do that hurrah
Thanks Adam and Mark I'll buy you a coffee when you are
next in London.

Hey Adam,

Give us some hints... what kinds of new bells and whistles will Fontographer have?

Some selected highlights of the upcoming Fontographer 5 version include:
— glyph antialiasing (smoothing) in all application windows and glyph window zoom level up to 1600%;
— radically redesigned and updated, easy-to-use Font Info dialog for editing the relevant technical parameters, with updated, intelligent automatic generation of OpenType-compatible font family naming and of cross-plattform linespacing values;
— reading and generating OpenType fonts (both PS/.otf and TT/.ttf flavor) with 20,000+ glyphs, with the ability to define the features using the most recent Adobe FDK for OpenType (AFDKO) version 2.5 syntax;
— reading and generating the FontLab VFB format for easy integration into a FontLab-based workflow;
— the Adobe PostScript autohinter and the excellent FontLab TrueType autohinter, integrated Adobe and Microsoft rasterizers for high-quality bitmap generation from the hinted outlines, and the ability to export the bitmaps into the BDF format.

This is only a selection of the improvements, there are many more, including some nice surprises.

Fontographer 5 will run natively on Mac OS X (universal binary), Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7.

[Salivating…]

Adam, will the new Fontographer be Python scriptable?

reading and generating the FontLab VFB format for easy integration into a FontLab-based workflow;

I really hope UFO not being part of that sentence was just an oversight.

John,

the initial release of FOG 5.0 will not be scriptable but we are considering enabling scripting at a later point.

James,

we have built a UFO reader but not yet a writer. UFO won't be part of FOG 5.0, but we definitely plan to support it in later releases (and in the next FontLab Studio).

UFO won't be part of FOG 5.0…

Sigh…

Well, if we make decisions between "do we want to implement UFO in this release" and "do we want to make sure that this release produces fonts that don't break", I hope you understand the necessity of prioritization :)

It's HERE! http://www.fontlab.com/font-editor/fontographer/

:D

Since it is now out, I have some time to comment :)

UFO: not in 5.0, even for reading. We just needed some more time to test it and decided to not delay release even further for this single reason. Will be added soon: code is done, just needs some attention.

Scripting: on our list for future update, but it will depend on how good it will go. Fog5 project already took much more time than we have planned, so we need to be very careful with our resources for some time. In any case, it will not be "live scripting" as in FLS, but "in-out", where font data is "out" to Python and then comes "back" from the script. Our plan is to make it Robofab-compatible.

I/O: In Fog5 we have some mix of legacy and FLS code. Type3 input and output, MM output and .fog i/o (extended to support new stuff) is based on old Fog4 code. Everything else (OTF, TTF, T1, VFB, suitcases, export of BDF fonts) is hadnled by FLS, which is improved over 5.x. OTF export is done with Adobe FDK 2.5, so yes, you can add GPOS stuff there.

Hinting: T1 glyph autohinting is done with Adobe algorithms. FLS code is not used. Font-level hints are generated by FLS algorithms in most cases, with one exceptions for alignment zones: in dialog box for their editing old Fog4 code is used (which is good and which is fixed compared to 4.7). Conversion of T1 hints to TT instructions is done by our code, the same that works in FLS5.

Bitmap generation (if you need that): as Adam said earlier, Fog5 uses native rasterizers when you generate NFNT bitmaps on export of suitcases (T1 or TT). Internally, in the UI it will run old rasterizer, unchanged since 4.1.

Windows and Mac: two versions are equal with one exception: you cannot import and export mac-format fonts (LWFN T1s and T1/TT suitcases) in Win version. That will be added later if all goes well (and if anyone will ever need it).

I have posted some clarification regarding working with bitmaps to
http://forum.fontlab.com/fontographer-b8.0/

You're invited to the Fontographer board on the FontLab forum!

Best,
Adam

Yuri, Adam,

A question: What is meant by "Fontographer 5 for Mac Add-on for registered FontLab Studio 5 users US$99" -- is this a separate product that ties in with FL, or is it just FG5 Full Program at a special price for FL-owners? *confusion*

Cheers,
Bert

is it just FG5 Full Program at a special price for FL-owners?

true. :)

Three questions please . . .

1) Is importing from Illustrator the same? Re: using the block method will the copy/paste method as it currently works today . . .

2) Doess the new version force points to snap to grid like FLAB on import or do we still get points wherever we want till we do an align points to grid function?

3) Is there a dialog to add OT features or is this limited to FLAB?

Thanks in advance . . .
Stuart

It looks like the only way to add OT features (other than the kern feature) is using an external .fea file. So, you either code it by hand in a text editor or use some other program (e.g., FontLab Studio) to do it.

So, you can generate OT fonts with features, but you can't program the features within Fog.

The installed Fontographer 5 Demo crashes on Windows XP SP3, when you start it.

Thanks for the details, Yuri. I’ll look forward to seeing where you go with Fontographer in the future.

1. The demo version for Windows has been updated now, sorry for that. Please re-download.

2. The main organization for the windows is largely the same as in FOG 4, i.e. a Font Window, a Glyph Window, a Metrics Window. No classes editor, no OpenType features editor, no Preview panel etc. You can specify OpenType Layout features in an external text editor using the AFDKO 2.5 syntax. We plan auto-generation of OpenType Layout features for common European scripts in a later version, but there won't be a "visual" feature editor -- this is something for FontLab Studio. I mean, you can use Microsoft VOLT or the demo version of FontLab Studio, or one of the DTL applications or FontForge etc. to develop the features if you want. Or a text editor. Or something else (I think DTL announced a GPOSMaster which they will present at ATypI Dublin). But Fontographer has rock-solid glyph drawing, convenient and easy Font Info, solid PS and TT autohinting, and can "do" OpenType, in principle.

3. The Illustrator copy-paste has been improved for format compatibility but the principle is the same.

4. The fractional-coordinate drawing is the same as in FOG 4. Generally, the drawing interface is largely the same, except antialiasing and zoom up to 1600% (in FOG 4 it was 200%).

5. The "add-on" basically means that as FontLab Studio user, you can buy Fontographer 5 for $99 and use both at the same time (so there is no special add-on application, you get the regular Fontographer 5 application). You can move your projects back and forth, you can e.g. design in FontLab Studio and then move to FOG and generate the fonts from there, benefitting from the much more cleaned up Font Info settings, the Adobe PS autohinting and the fact that it does AFDKO 2.5. So those who generated fonts using standalone AFDKO 2.5 could use FOG 5 now, then they'll be able to use Adobe PS autohinting and AFDKO 2.5 compilation, but also the FontLab-quality PS-to-TT hint conversion. Or, if you like FOG's simple drawing tools better, you can draw in FOG, then move to FLS5, use the class-kerning editor or Python scripting there, and then master your fonts in FLS. Whatever you like. FOG opens and exports VFB files.

One catch: FOG won't import the OpenType features from VFB. If you have feature code in FLS, save it as a FEA file, save the font as VFB, open the VFB in Fontographer, then in Font Info / Encoding, point to the FEA file for feature definitions.

It's not quite perfect but we didn't want to haphazardly clutter the FOG UI interface with new panels etc. -- that would make it the new FontLab Studio. However, there WILL be a new FontLab Studio. Fontographer is just an application that by definition is simpler, and should remain simpler. No manual fine control over some technical aspects of the font, but automatic algorithms instead.

Yuri, Adam,

Thanks for the clarification...

Cheers,
Bert

Thanks Mark and Adam . . .

Hey Adam, can't seem to purchase the $99 add-on . . .

Here's the link from your site: https://www.cleverbridge.com/313/uurl-utmo3mvi0k

Reports a failed page error . . .

Stuart :D

It worked for me this morning, except that the download link was to version 4.7. Sent an email to FontLab and got a correct link. No idea if it was fixed on the site or not, but I assumed so. Sounds like they are having problems with the purchase pages.

Looks like the link was working again and I just purchased my upgrade! That said, there are two significant problems I've noticed since playing in Demo mode while I wait for my serial number to arrive . . .

1) Metrics Window - It took me a few minutes to discover how to load a text document in to run though since the link on the right is now on the left but I'm OK with that, what I don't like is that I've lost the ability to toggle through the document using the keyboard up and down arrow keys while in the text string window and now must move the mouse to click the string of text above and below or the arrows to the right . . .

2) Autospacing - It's actually the same as it was before if not improved however even if you click the option to modify the left sidebearing, it always remains zero. Not that I use this feature much other than for quick 'what if' spacing reviews, but this has always bothered me and I was hoping it was fixed in this release . . .

Otherwise, solid effort FontLab gang! Really, it's nice to have this old beast in my arsenal with shiny new teeth!

Best,
Stuart

One other niggling thing I just noticed about the Metrics window . . . I used to be able to use the left and right arrow keys to move between sidebearing metrics from number to number, it is a very fast way to move between the numbers and I see it's only possible with the Tab key and Shift + Tab key . . .

Can I get cursor keys back please? It makes for faster working rather more movements on the keyboard to move between metrics data . . .

Thanks,
Stuart

Stuart and others,

would you kindly post your suggestions that refer to Fontographer 5 at the Fontographer Wish List board on the FontLab Forum?

We'll be gathering feedback primarily there, and will compile a list of things to fix and implement, based on the suggestions posted on our forum.

Best,
Adam

Adam,
Has the Adobe type 1 hinting algorithm replaced the old auto-hinting method of FOG or is there some special command to invoke?
I will be going back and forth from FontLab to FOG and am trying to figure out the best workflow.

Chris

@ Chris

You are using FontLab, aren’t you? If yes, you also can use the Adobe autohinting program directly in FontLab. The advantage is, that you can decide, if you want to use simple hints or complex hints with hint replacement instructions. You only have to start the AFDKO autohinting macro with pressed control key and a click onto the AFDKO autohinting macro, if you want to display the autohinting options panel.

And as far as I have understood Adam and the Fontographer 5 manual, there is one PS autohinter (the AFDKO autohinter) in Fontographer 5 only, but I may be wrong and wasn’t asked. Your English is better than mine.

Yes, FOG5 only includes the Adobe autohinter, which is built-in. In FLS5, you can use the Adobe autohinter as a macro if you install the standalone AFDKO 2.5 installer and copy the macros that come with it into the FLS5 macro folder.

Adam, running the Adobe autohinter as a macro in FLS doesn't support flex hints. In order to get flex hints, you have to run the AFDKO autohinter directly on the font from the command line. Does FOG5 support the flex hints?

Adam, running the Adobe autohinter as a macro in FLS doesn't support flex hints.

Does the FLS FontInfo option "additional hinting parameters / automatically generate flex hints" overwrite the hints, generated with the AFDKO autohinting macro?

This would mean, that it also overwrites the original FontLab Studio autohinting or the manual hinting, wouldn’t it? The question is, whether the flexhint module, that is built into FontLab Studio, is the same as the one in the AFDKO. And maybe the generation of flexhints is dependent from the status of the "autohint-on-export-option".

Yesterday I purchased Fontographer 5 electronically at the US$99 price available to registered FontLab Studio 5 users, received my serial number, and was sent a download link for the installer for version 4 (FG4WinFull.exe). When I asked the download company (cleverbridge) about this, they said they only handle order and payment-related inquiries, so I thought I'd go ahead and install, assuming the upgrade was somehow built in. No such luck. Installation appeared to be successful, but the program will not come up, dying with the old version's "30202" error message, caused by inability to handle excess RAM under Windows -- a problem I assumed was fixed in version 5.

I'm sure Fontlab will get me the right version, but for now Windows users need to be careful.

David

Wow, that was quick, I have just downloaded FG5WinFull.exe. Guess I jumped the gun -- though getting things straight with the store-front would reduce anxiety.

Does FOG5 support the flex hints?

Yes, but with FLS own code. So glyph-level hints are built by Adobe algorithm, while alignment zones, standard stems and flex are calculated the same way as in FLS5.

Two days into Fontographer 5 and I've still got a smile on my face. You've done a wonderful job — it looks beautiful, it feels great to use, and all the old keyboard commands are with my slippers, pipe and rocking chair next to the dog. Thank you FontLab for keeping faith with the faithful and breathing new life into our worthy old friend. I'm sure it can't have been easy to consolidate old and new coding, improve the functionality yet still retain the essential identity and superbly intuitive drawing tools of Fog, but you have succeeded, and I send you a big, heartfelt thankyou!

Keith / K-Type
Manchester UK

Adam: I think DTL announced a GPOSMaster which they will present at ATypI Dublin

Actually there is some work to do still. So, instead of launching GPOSMaster at ATypI Dublin, Dr. Willrodt will give a sneak preview of the programmed and planned functionality. More info can be found in this PDF.

FEB

"...More info can be found in this PDF."

Thanks for posting the link, Frank.

all the old keyboard commands are with my slippers

Evidently you don't use the Import EPS or Set Width (CTRL+Shift+S) commands...

Nor have you attempted to select multiple glyphs?

Still tinkering — but overall I'm very pleased with the new version. Fast and snappy, and thankfully installs with those goofy sounds OFF as a default. And the display is so much smoother.

I like that you can pick, say Latin Pro encoding (SC, I assume, means it has glyph slots to draw small caps — this is not explained in the manual). I wish that the font window would label these extra slots with the names of the intended characters instead of "**". You can see the names when you open the outline windows, but I hate having to hunt for stuff.

I always thought Fontographer's kerning assistance was more intuitive than FontLab's class-based kerning. However, I know there are limits to how many kerning pairs a program will recognize, hence the necessity for class-based kerning in OT fonts with many glyphs. I don't yet know how a complex OT font generated by the new Fontographer will work with, say, MS Word (the worst offender when it comes to arbitrarily tossing out kerning pairs). Experience will tell.

Also, it would be helpful if Fontographer would automatically generate certain OT features — or at least be able to allow a user to select certain pre-set OT features. I see no reason why — if a font contains things like small caps, ligatures, discretionary ligatures, OSF, historical forms, ordinals, fractions, etc — that the program shouldn't automatically know that it should include these features when generating an OT font (providing the glyphs adhere to a standard naming system). And a user should also be able to select optional features, like case-sensitive forms. These sorts of things are only a few lines of code each, and common enough that the program should be able to handle this without the interface becoming cluttered. Apparently, this is in the works.

Anyway, I'm very happy to be able to create OT fonts in Fontographer. Leslie Cabarga's book made FontLab a lot easier, and maybe I'll need to finish up my OT fonts in FontLab for now. It's a pleasure to work again in Fontographer tho. I never have to look anything up!

Greg,

things like more intuitive glyph cell captions, improved kerning assistance and automatic OT feature generation are all on our short list of things to do in Fontographer. We just did not have time to get those done in the initial 5.0 release.

Best,
Adam

In the 21st century, we know how to right-click...

Nick, I don't and I won't. I prefer to option-click.

Nick, I don't and I won't. I prefer to option-click.

To each his own. Still, a simple contextual menu--e.g., Copy, Copy Component, Paste--would have been a thoughtful and welcome addition.

Is the Fontographer 5 ad-on for $99 still available for Fontlab 5 users?

Is the Fontographer 5 ad-on for $99 still available for Fontlab 5 users?

The email I received—and acted upon—said the promo ended 31 July...

The special offer officially ended on 31 July and we have removed it from the website. However it appears that a few people missed it because of procrastination, vacation, spam filters or other excuses ;) so we're keeping it open unofficially for a while longer. You will have to contact Lisa directly at orders@fontlab.com in order to place the order.

Help! Need to add some glyphs to a font for screen display only -- no print output.
I tried to purchase a Microsoft font from Ascender so that I could add the special glyphs, but they say that ONLY they (Ascender) could add characters to the font because of some special hinting that only they can edit with their specialized tool. The price tag is unsuprisingly steep. As a test, I did add glyphs to the TTF in Fontographer 4.1.5, but the font looked terrible. Ascender said it was due to their hinting process.

Licensing fees for both Bitstream and Adobe are cost prohibitive also (+$50,000).

So I go looking for a free-ware font. A font named Liberation is beautiful and FREE! It's internal notice says, "Digitized data © 2007 Ascender Corporation. All rights reserved." The font looks good in Arbortext before I add glyphs. After I add glyphs with Fontographer and again the generated font look horrid!

I'm guessing that I need to re-hint the entire font (daunting). Is this the real issue? Are there other work-arounds?

If it is the hinting, I need to upgrade my font editing software to do this.
Should I upgrade to Fontographer V.5 or get the FontLabs Suite?

Note: This is a great site! Learning a lot and having fun reading the forum, too.

TypeTool or FontLab Studio can retain existing native TrueType hinting, Fontographer 5 cannot. But the Fontographer 5 autohinting is considerably better than that of 4.1.5.