How about some up to date reasons for choosing one of these 3 or all three (I use them all)? Just up to date info on one, Type Tool 3 does generate Open Type fonts. Fontographer 5 is in its latest incarnation a very good re-do of the original program. FontLab Studio is the best and most complex program out there currently that I know of.
I can't speak for anyone else, but my workflow favors using Fontographer to build the basic font, then FontLab to do the fine tuning. I draw my outlines in CorelDraw, then export them as EPS. FOG's EPS Import actually fills the UPM height, whereas FontLab imports at about 95-98%. Also, FOG's basic tools are more easily accessible than FL's: instead of having to drill down a seemingly interminable list when you enter CTRL/CMD+T, FOG's Add Extrema and/or Clean up Paths, Set Sidebearings, Correct Path Direction and Remove Overlap commands are directly accessible with a few keystrokes.
Once I have my basic character set and roughed-in metrics complete, I generate at OTF in FOG, then open it in FL to do the detail work. TypeTool is good for getting your feet wet...
Fontographer is for people who don't want to be bothered with technical details (because there is very good automation of the technical aspects), but are comfortable with having manual control over the design aspects (because there is not much design automation in areas such as composites building, class kerning etc.)
FontLab Studio has much more potential automation, so once you know it well, you can work on large projects faster, but is somewhat more difficult to learn, and also you need to have some understanding of the technical aspects.
In short: in FontLab Studio, you can do "more" but you also need to know "more". In Fontographer, you can do "less" but you also need to know "less".
TypeTool is really just for beginners. I'd say it's good for modifying fonts, and for drawing your first couple fonts for practice.
I do what Nick does, first work on the font in Fontographer, then refine in FontLab Studio. Type Tool was very handy for a long time, but I still worked in Fontographer first. Hey Adam, don't trash your own program TypeTool. It is not just for beginners, and I used it for a long time.
Adam, the comment that in Fontographer you can do less but you also need to know less is an oxymoron. How can you need to know less? One always needs to know more, no matter what field you might be in.
I used Fontographer for many years and continue to do so. I like the new version and thanks to FontLab for reviving it.
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