Have you read the updated instructions for CS5 at forum.fontlab.com?

I haven't done this in while, but IIRC, the trick is to draw a same-size bounding box around each glyph in the Illustrator file, which will then snap to the baseline-to-cap dimension when imported into Fontlab. Or something like that.

I did the same Nick said. When the glyph is bigger than the ascender limit, I did copy/paste in two steps (say, first the C and later the caron).

But soon I begun to do all design in FontLab. It's much more productive, although you have to adapt yourself during two or three days.

But soon I begun to do all design in FontLab. It's much more productive, although you have to adapt yourself during two or three days.

I never realized what a poor drawing program Illustrator is until I started using Fontlab. It does have its problems, but Yuri really did a great job on node tweaking side of things.

The trick for importing is to set the ascent at 100% of the em square height, then add spacer tick marks to the glyphs delineating the top and bottom of said square. Once all of the glyphs are imported, drag a guideline to mark the baseline of the type, and make a note of its vertical position. Then, reset your ascent to match the vertical area above this guideline, and your descent to match the vertical area below. Then, select all characters and shift them down the same number of units as the descender.

Sounds like you don't have the "Keep size" setting in FLS. Please check:
http://forum.fontlab.com/fontlab-studio-tips-and-tricks/working-with-ill...

Adam

Adam, for me, the problem Rotor described occurs even if I have this setting enabled. I always thought this was due to my Windows Vista 64-bit enviroment.

I have read the instructions, and there is no problem, since I've been working with CS5 & FontLab 5.0.4 without problem 'till now... And I can't find that option in Tools>Options>General Options>EPS and bitmap background (as I said I'm using 5.0.4 and the only option in this section is "Fit EPS files to [Ascender-Descender] height)". Why is that?

And I've also tried with Illustrator CS3 and I get the same problem.
Also I've tried with drawing bounding box and it didn't help :(

Thanks for the replies ;)

Rotor,

in Windows this option is worded differently than in Mac. The option should be disabled. But it does work the same way. At least it should.

I never realized what a poor drawing program Illustrator is until I started using Fontlab.

Yes james, FL is just the same as Freehand, which has always been superior to Illustrator.

Fontographer 5 is even more like Freehand. The drawing tools come exactly from the same source. In fact, Freehand was *based* on Fontographer (both developed at Altsys, then moved to Macromedia). Now Fontographer has a safe harbor at Fontlab Ltd., and Freehand has vanished in the Adobe oblivion :)

I have often drawn things in Fontographer and pasted them into Illustrator just because it is easier to do better work in Fontographer. But I have always wondered why I can not cut and paste Fontographer shapes into FontLab.

Well, I probably wouldn't have any problems if I had Mac :)
Anyhow, I've tried to enable and disable the option and it doesn't change anything, plus the problem is that when I enable it and go apply/ok and close that window and than go to that menu again the option is not enabled? Anyone has any problem like that and any solution?
Some strange stuff is happening :)
Well I would be lot happier if I started drawing in FontLab instead of Illustrator but now I'm stuck with this :(

FL is just the same as Freehand, which has always been superior to Illustrator

Like the scaling and rotation tools?

Oldnick,

Scaling and rotation in FontLab Studio is of course based on integer coordinates, so there are limitation. If you perform multiple additive small operations (scale up-down-up-down, rotate with small degrees back-forth-forth-back etc.), you'll get accumulated rounding errors. One way to avoid it or minimize it is to set the UPM size of the font higher for the design process (UPM = 3000 or even 10,000).

Fontographer 5, which allows fractional coordinates, is free from those accumulated rounding errors, so in this sense it is very much like Freehand, and somewhat similar to Illustrator.

In FontLab Studio 6, we won't be able to allow fractional coordinates, unfortunately (since the integer coordinates are buried in many places of the code), but in a later version we do plan to do it.

Yes Nick, but without the tools; double click for a box, hold shift and pull a corner handle to scale proportionally.

Double click for a box, hold shift and place pointer near the middle node on the right hand side to rotate.

Same goes for skewing horizontally and vertically.

> and Freehand has vanished in the Adobe oblivion :)

Speaking of oblivion, when is FontLab Studio going to get some love? :)

We've released Fog5 yesterday and the same day I got FLS6 back on my table :)

Yes Nick, but without the tools; double click for a box, hold shift and pull a corner handle to scale proportionally.

Double click for a box, hold shift and place pointer near the middle node on the right hand side to rotate.

Same goes for skewing horizontally and vertically.

In other words, a VAST improvement over the incomprehensible Freehand approach: three cheers!

I hope that's not an autopsy table, Yuri ;)

Well, all updates begin with that :)

Fontographer 5, which allows fractional coordinates, is free from those accumulated rounding errors, so in this sense it is very much like Freehand, and somewhat similar to Illustrator.

How much of a problem can the integer coordinates be when sharing a file between Fog and Flab? Or does Fog just round everything appropriately when saving a .vfb file rather than leaving it up to Fontlab?

James,

when generating a font in any "final" format (Type 1, TrueType, now OpenType), Fontographer has always performed "Align Points to Grid", and still does. Same happens when you export from FOG to VFB.

Well, anyhow, I've solved the problem by uninstalling the fontlab with Revo Uninstaller Pro [which deletes the whole program even from registry] and now it is all working well once again :)