FontCreator 10.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

FontCreator Manual

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

All rights reserved. No parts of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means - graphic,
electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or information storage and
retrieval systems - without the written permission of the publisher.

FontCreator is a trademark of High-Logic.

Microsoft, Windows and OpenType are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft
Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.
Apple, the Apple Logo and Macintosh are registered trademarks and TrueType is a trademark of
Apple Computer, Inc. registered in the United States and other countries.
Adobe and PostScript are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated which may be registered in
certain jurisdictions.
All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the sole property of their respective owners.
The Unicode Character Database is provided as is by Unicode, Inc.

While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this document, the publisher and the
author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of
information contained in this document or from the use of programs and source code that may
accompany it. In no event shall the publisher and the author be liable for any loss of profit or any
other commercial damage caused or alleged to have been caused directly or indirectly by this
document.

November 2016
 Contents I

Table of Contents

Part I Getting Started

1 Welcome to FontCreator 10.1
................................................................................................................................... 2
2 What's...................................................................................................................................
New in FontCreator 10.1 3
3 Technical Support
................................................................................................................................... 4
4 Registration
................................................................................................................................... 4
5 Credits
................................................................................................................................... 5

Part II Quick Start Tutorial

1 Your First Font -- a Brief Tutorial
................................................................................................................................... 7
2 Edit a Glyph - Character 3
................................................................................................................................... 7
3 Edit a Glyph - Character A
................................................................................................................................... 8
4 Edit a Glyph - Character B
................................................................................................................................... 9
5 Test and Install the Font
................................................................................................................................... 10

Part III About Fonts

1 TrueType
................................................................................................................................... 13
2 OpenType
................................................................................................................................... 13
3 Color...................................................................................................................................
Extension 13
4 Web Open Font Format (WOFF)
................................................................................................................................... 14
5 Font Copyright
................................................................................................................................... 14

Part IV Opening, Creating and Saving Fonts

1 Working with Font Projects
................................................................................................................................... 16
2 Open...................................................................................................................................
a Font 16
3 Create a Font Project
................................................................................................................................... 18
4 Save ...................................................................................................................................
a Project 19
5 Export a Font
................................................................................................................................... 19
6 Close...................................................................................................................................
a Font 22

Part V Editing Fonts

1 Editing Options
................................................................................................................................... 24
Undo Command
.......................................................................................................................................................... 24
Redo Command
.......................................................................................................................................................... 24
Repeat Your..........................................................................................................................................................
Last Action 24
Finding a Glyph
.......................................................................................................................................................... 24
Tags .......................................................................................................................................................... 25
2 Editing Fonts
................................................................................................................................... 25
Using the Font Overview
.......................................................................................................................................................... 25

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

I
II FontCreator Help

Used By .......................................................................................................................................................... 27
Insert Characters
.......................................................................................................................................................... 27
Insert Glyphs
.......................................................................................................................................................... 29
Copy and Paste Glyphs
.......................................................................................................................................................... 30
Adding a New Character - the EURO Sign
.......................................................................................................................................................... 31
Font Name .......................................................................................................................................................... 32
Font Type .......................................................................................................................................................... 32
Font Embedding
.......................................................................................................................................................... 33
Monospaced versus Proportional
.......................................................................................................................................................... 33
Unicode versus Symbol
.......................................................................................................................................................... 33
Recommended Glyphs
.......................................................................................................................................................... 34
3 Editing Glyphs
................................................................................................................................... 37
Introduction .......................................................................................................................................................... 37
Empty Glyphs .......................................................................................................................................................... 38
Simple Glyphs.......................................................................................................................................................... 38
Introduction
......................................................................................................................................................... 38
C ontours......................................................................................................................................................... 41
Points ......................................................................................................................................................... 44
Join and Split C ontours
......................................................................................................................................................... 47
Freedraw......................................................................................................................................................... 48
Composite Glyphs
.......................................................................................................................................................... 49
Introduction
......................................................................................................................................................... 49
Add Glyph Member
......................................................................................................................................................... 50
Glyph Member Properties
......................................................................................................................................................... 51
C omplete.........................................................................................................................................................
C omposites 52
Glyph Metrics.......................................................................................................................................................... 53
Color Glyphs .......................................................................................................................................................... 53
Introduction
......................................................................................................................................................... 53
Add Glyph Member
......................................................................................................................................................... 54
Palettes and C olors
......................................................................................................................................................... 55
4 Format
................................................................................................................................... 56
Properties .......................................................................................................................................................... 56
Identification
......................................................................................................................................................... 56
Extended......................................................................................................................................................... 58
Legal ......................................................................................................................................................... 61
C ustom ......................................................................................................................................................... 63
General ......................................................................................................................................................... 64
Overview ......................................................................................................................................... 64
Font Header Flags ......................................................................................................................................... 68
Metrics ......................................................................................................................................................... 70
Ranges ......................................................................................................................................................... 73
Overview ......................................................................................................................................... 73
Unicode C haracter Range
......................................................................................................................................... 75
C ode Page C haracter Range
......................................................................................................................................... 76
C haracteristics
......................................................................................................................................................... 78
Smoothing ......................................................................................................................................................... 79
Overview ......................................................................................................................................... 79
Insert Range ......................................................................................................................................... 81
Font Information
.......................................................................................................................................................... 81
C alculated Fields
......................................................................................................................................................... 81
Unsupported Tables
......................................................................................................................................................... 84
OpenType Layout Features
.......................................................................................................................................................... 85
Introduction
......................................................................................................................................................... 85

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Contents III

Types of .........................................................................................................................................................
substitution and positioning 85
OpenType Designer
......................................................................................................................................................... 87
OpenType Designer ......................................................................................................................................... 87
C lass Manager......................................................................................................................................... 91
Subtable Manager ......................................................................................................................................... 92
Designer Settings ......................................................................................................................................... 93
Autokern Settings ......................................................................................................................................... 94
Substitutions ......................................................................................................................................... 95
Single Adjustment ......................................................................................................................................... 95
Pair Adjustment ......................................................................................................................................... 96
Marks ......................................................................................................................................... 98
C ursive Attachment ......................................................................................................................................... 99
Anchor Manager ......................................................................................................................................... 100
C hained C ontext ......................................................................................................................................... 101
Feature Parameters ......................................................................................................................................... 101
Script Editor
......................................................................................................................................................... 104
OpenType Layout Feature C ode Editor
......................................................................................................................................... 104
Automatic OpenType Layout Features
......................................................................................................................................... 105
Script Syntax......................................................................................................................................... 106
Basics ................................................................................................................................... 106
C omments ................................................................................................................................... 107
Script ................................................................................................................................... 107
Language ................................................................................................................................... 107
C lass ................................................................................................................................... 108
Feature ................................................................................................................................... 109
Feature Params ................................................................................................................................... 109
Lookup ................................................................................................................................... 111
Lookupflags ................................................................................................................................... 111
Subtable ................................................................................................................................... 112
Sub ................................................................................................................................... 112
Pos ................................................................................................................................... 114
Examples and Help
................................................................................................................................... 116
5 Tools
................................................................................................................................... 116
Glyph Transformer
.......................................................................................................................................................... 116
AutoMetrics .......................................................................................................................................................... 117
Metrics ......................................................................................................................................................... 117
Glyph Selection
......................................................................................................................................................... 120
AutoKern .......................................................................................................................................................... 121
Setup ......................................................................................................................................................... 121
Kern ......................................................................................................................................................... 123
Import Images
.......................................................................................................................................................... 123
Import Raster Image
......................................................................................................................................................... 123
Import Vector Image
......................................................................................................................................................... 125
Sorting Glyphs
.......................................................................................................................................................... 131
Generate Glyph Names
.......................................................................................................................................................... 132
TrueType Collection
.......................................................................................................................................................... 132
External Tools
.......................................................................................................................................................... 133
6 Printing
................................................................................................................................... 133
Print Font .......................................................................................................................................................... 133
Print Glyph.......................................................................................................................................................... 134
7 Font...................................................................................................................................
Validation 134
Setup .......................................................................................................................................................... 134
Results .......................................................................................................................................................... 137

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

III
 IV FontCreator Help

8 Testing and Installing Fonts

................................................................................................................................... 137
MainType .......................................................................................................................................................... 137
International Keyboard
.......................................................................................................................................................... 138
Test Your Font
.......................................................................................................................................................... 138
Test TrueType/OpenType
......................................................................................................................................................... 138
Test Font - Edit Text Samples
......................................................................................................................................................... 139
Test Web font
......................................................................................................................................................... 139
Installing Fonts
.......................................................................................................................................................... 140
Character Map
.......................................................................................................................................................... 141

Part VI Toolbars
1 Overview
................................................................................................................................... 144
2 User...................................................................................................................................
Notes 144
3 Transform
................................................................................................................................... 145
4 Glyph Properties
................................................................................................................................... 145
Glyph Properties
.......................................................................................................................................................... 145
Select Character
.......................................................................................................................................................... 147
5 Validation
................................................................................................................................... 148
6 Preview
................................................................................................................................... 151
7 Background Image
................................................................................................................................... 152
8 Comparison
................................................................................................................................... 153
9 Samples
................................................................................................................................... 154
10 Color Glyph Members
................................................................................................................................... 155
11 Palette
................................................................................................................................... 156
12 Anchors
................................................................................................................................... 157

Part VII Customizing FontCreator

1 Options
................................................................................................................................... 160
General .......................................................................................................................................................... 160
View .......................................................................................................................................................... 160
Preview .......................................................................................................................................................... 161
Naming .......................................................................................................................................................... 162
Validation .......................................................................................................................................................... 163
Import .......................................................................................................................................................... 164
Advanced .......................................................................................................................................................... 165
2 Grid ...................................................................................................................................
Options 167
3 Metrics Options
................................................................................................................................... 168
4 Guidelines
................................................................................................................................... 169
Options .......................................................................................................................................................... 169
Guideline .......................................................................................................................................................... 171
5 Keyboard Shortcuts
................................................................................................................................... 171
6 FontCreator Data Files
................................................................................................................................... 175

Index 177

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

Part

I
 2 FontCreator Help

1 Getting Started

1.1 Welcome to FontCreator 10.1

Introduction
FontCreator allows you to create and edit TrueType, OpenType and Web Fonts.
The editor lets you easily select and modify the entire character set. Features
include the ability to convert images to outlines, thus enabling you to create
fonts with your own signature, logo and handwriting.
The intuitive interface makes FontCreator the perfect tool for both new and
experienced users. The advanced validation features make the design process
easy and help you to avoid common mistakes.

The OpenType Designer allows you to easily add OpenType Layout Features to
your fonts.

Key features
• Create and edit TrueType and OpenType fonts
• Opening and exporting of Web fonts
• OpenType features are preserved upon opening a font
• Visual OpenType layout features
• OpenType feature code can also be edited
• Redesign existing characters
• Add missing characters
• Convert vector and raster based images (e.g. a signature, logo or
handwriting) to character outlines
• Edit or regenerate font names
• Fix character mappings
• Generate, modify, and clean up kerning pairs
• Correct fonts that display incorrectly
• Add or correct composite glyphs
• Transform individual glyphs or an entire font (e.g. to make a bold version)
• Extract TrueType fonts from TrueType Collection
• Preview fonts before installing
• Install fonts in Windows

Make sure you have the latest version of FontCreator:

http://www.high-logic.com/

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Getting Started 3

1.2 What's New in FontCreator 10.1

New features in this version of FontCreator include:

Features released with version 10.1 are:

• Improved glyph outline editor
• Autokern unmapped glyphs
• Color-coding of kerning pairs in list box
• Added language option in WOFF Test page
• Paste (and paste special) supports Anchors
• Complete composites (CompositeData.xml) supports glyph names
• Extensive updates to Complete Composites for Latin Extended-B, C, D, and for
unmapped glyphs
• Improved display of glyphs
• Fill color in OpenType Designer
• New insert glyphs transform feature
• Smart glyph navigation based on active category
• Improved detection of overlapping kerning classes
• Support for feature params in OpenType code compiler for character variants,
optical size, and stylistic sets
• New [+] button in OpenType Designer to add selected OpenType feature
glyphs to preview
• Some minor enhancements and bug fixes

Features released with version 10.0 are:

• Unicode 9 support, including 72 new emoji characters and support for several
lesser-used languages
• New vector based import of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)
• Copy and paste as SVG between FontCreator and other vector editing
software, e.g. Inkscape, and Adobe Illustrator
• Contour optimize feature which reduces the number of points (nodes)
• New glyph transformer features (optimize contours, inverse effect, and select
range of glyphs by glyph name)
• Improvements related to OpenType layout features
• Added support for design and supported languages tags (dlng and slng in the
sfnt font table meta)
• New extend corner feature which allows you to make adjustments to a curve
without interfering with the adjacent curve
• Ellipse tool draws a "perfect circle" with 20 nodes instead of 12 if drawn at very
large sizes
• New vector based import of Initial Graphics Exchange Specification (IGES) files
• Tag enhancements (indication in Glyph Edit window, tag context menu items,
toggle, and shortcuts)
• Improved font validation checks

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 4 FontCreator Help

• Fixed Windows 10 incompatibility issues with CFF based OpenType fonts

• Improved contour direction detection
• Updated naming language id list
• Improved preview of OpenType layout features
• Visually reversed order of backtrack in chaining context lookups
• Updated OpenType layout feature script, language, and feature tags
• Several minor improvements and bug fixes

A complete list of current and previous changes can be found online:

http://www.high-logic.com/fontcreator/history.html

1.3 Technical Support

Online User Manual
The user manual is also available online:
http://www.high-logic.com/fontcreator/manual10/index.html

Forum
The forum is available to you for support and information about managing and
designing fonts. This forum has become a place where all users of FontCreator
can share their knowledge. Membership of the forum is free. There's a good
chance other people have asked the same questions as you, so you may be able
to find the answers you need. Feedback and suggestions are also welcome in the
forum.
http://forum.high-logic.com/

Frequently Asked Questions

View the most frequently asked questions (and answers) about FontCreator
here:
http://www.high-logic.com/fontcreator/faq.html

1.4 Registration

Evaluation
During the trial period, FontCreator runs in Professional Edition mode and most
features are enabled. After using FontCreator for a 30-day trial period, you must
register and pay for it, or remove it from your system. Registering makes your

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Getting Started 5

copy legal and helps support our efforts to develop innovative products to best
serve your needs. Thank you for your support of FontCreator!

Why Register?
Registration allows you to continue using FontCreator 10.1 and entitles you to
the following benefits:
• All future versions of FontCreator 10.x.
• Direct support from the developers.

Three Editions
FontCreator is available in three editions: a home edition for personal use which
can't be used for commercial use, a standard edition that will suit most font
designers, and a professional edition to get the most out of your fonts. To view
the differences between the FontCreator editions see the comparison chart:
http://www.high-logic.com/font-editor/fontcreator/comparison.html

To Register
The quickest and most convenient way to register is online via credit card. Other
supported payment methods like checks and cash are also supported. For more
details take a look at our registration page:
http://www.high-logic.com/register.html

1.5 Credits
FontCreator contains several unmodified libraries that are available under the
MPL.
• VirtualShellUtilities from http://www.mustangpeak.net/;
• Virtual Treeview from http://soft-gems.net/;
• ADOM from http://philo.de/xml/
• SynEdit from http://synedit.sourceforge.net

FontCreator also uses an unmodified version of TTFAutohint which is available

under the FTL. The FreeType Project (www.freetype.org).

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

Part

II
 Quick Start Tutorial 7

2 Quick Start Tutorial

2.1 Your First Font -- a Brief Tutorial

The quickest way to introduce yourself to FontCreator is to make a font. To
make it personal we will describe how to make a font of your own handwriting.
On the File menu, click New Project to start a new font project and create a
font.
It is important to give our handwriting font a personal name, otherwise we will
not be able to identify (and install) the font properly. The font name is not the
same as the filename (for example timesbd.ttf has Times New Roman Bold
as the font name, where Times New Roman is the font family name and Bold is
the font style).
To give our font a name we type "My Handwriting" in the Font family name field
and press the OK button.

Now you will see the Font Overview window. All cells have a caption and to give
you a visual guide, most cells contain a sample character shown as light grey
outlines. Sample characters don’t really exist in the font, you have to add glyph
data yourself. In this tutorial we will add this data for glyphs mapped to
characters 3, A and B.

2.2 Edit a Glyph - Character 3

From the Font Overview window we double-click on the cell with the caption
"3". Now we see the corresponding Glyph Edit window. Choose Freedraw
Contours in the Insert menu. During this operation a left mouse-click draws and
a right-click erases .

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 8 FontCreator Help

Press the Convert to contours button to convert the Freedraw image to

contours.

The contours should stay within the visible area, this area is defined by the
WinAscent and WinDescent reference lines and the left and right bearings (vertical
dashed lines). Make sure the glyph is within this area, parts outside this area will
most likely be invisible. The left and right bearings can be changed by dragging
them to their desired position. The glyph should be positioned between these
lines, otherwise characters will overlap each other.
We close the Glyph Edit window to return to the Font Overview window.

2.3 Edit a Glyph - Character A

From the Font Overview window we double-click on the cell with the caption
"A". Now we see the corresponding Glyph Edit window. Choose Contour in the

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Quick Start Tutorial 9

Insert menu. During this operation a left mouse-click creates a point onto the
contour and a right mouse-click creates a point off the contour (used to create a
Bézier curve).
Press the Apply button (or click on the first point) to finish the contour. We
create two contours to complete the glyph.

Contours that need to be filled black must have a clockwise direction. If we want
to make a white area inside an existing contour we must make the direction of
the new contour counter clockwise.
Finally make sure the contours are within the visible area (as described in the
previous section); if necessary adjust the left and right bearings.
We close the Glyph Edit window to return to the Font Overview window.

2.4 Edit a Glyph - Character B

To personalize character "B" we want to import an image of our own
handwritten "B". This image should not be too small or too large, we
recommend an image dimension of 300x300 pixels. Bitmap, GIF, PNG and JPG
images can be created with a paint program and if you have a scanner you could
also import an image of your character "B" into the appropriate software.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 10 FontCreator Help

From the Font Overview window we double-click on the cell with the caption
"B". Choose Import Image in the Tools menu. Press the Load button to select
the image you want to use and press the Generate button. Now you will see
your image in the Glyph Edit window. Finally make sure the contours are within
the visible area (as described in the previous section); if necessary adjust the left
and right bearings.

2.5 Test and Install the Font

Now we have finished the first three characters we want to see the result. We
test the new font by selecting Test in the Font menu. Type upper case "A" and
"B" and number "3" in the text field to see your creation.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Quick Start Tutorial 11

To make your font available to other applications select Install in the Font
menu. The Font Installation wizard will guide you through the installation
process.
At the end of the installation process you will be informed that the font is installed
successfully. Almost all applications (like Word) immediately allow you to use the
font, but sometimes require a restart before they recognize the newly installed
font.

When you are satisfied with the font, you need to export and install it.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

Part

III
 About Fonts 13

3 About Fonts

3.1 TrueType
TrueType is a scalable font technology designed by Apple Computer, and has
been superseded by the OpenType format. However people still refer to
TrueType fonts, while in fact 99.9% of all fonts that come with Windows are
OpenType fonts.
See also: http://forum.high-logic.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1619
A TrueType font file contains data, in table format, that comprises an outline
font. Rasterizers use combinations of data from the tables contained in the font
to render the glyph outlines.

3.2 OpenType
The OpenType font format is an extension of the TrueType font format, allowing
support for PostScript font data. Technically there are two OpenType Font
flavors; TrueType based and PostScript based. OpenType was developed jointly
by Microsoft and Adobe to produce a hybrid between Type 1 and TrueType fonts,
with additional features that work on Macintosh and Windows computers.
OpenType fonts can include OpenType layout features, which allow font
designers to design better international and high-end typographic fonts.
Some descriptions (of various fields in this document) are copied from the
specification available online at:
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/otspec/

3.3 Color Extension

As revealed at the Microsoft Build Developer Conference in June 2013, Windows
8.1 comes with a revolutionary extension to the OpenType font standard, which
introduces multi-color fonts. The technology which is both simple and powerful
uses multi-layer glyphs which are in essence scalable outlines that are rendered
and processed like any other character, except each layer has its own color.

High-Logic is convinced this new technology will open new colorful doors. That is
why FontCreator was the first font editor to support the new multi-color fonts
extension.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 14 FontCreator Help

The beauty of the color extension, is that the fonts will continue to work like any
other font on devices and systems that don’t support the extension yet. That is
why it is strongly recommended to always include the base outlines for each
glyph (used as fallback in case color fonts are not supported, or not wanted in a
particular situation).

3.4 Web Open Font Format (WOFF)

The Web Open Font Format (WOFF) is a font format based on the same
principles as OpenType and TrueType fonts but has been optimized for use in
web pages. WOFF is supported across all recent major browsers. Fonts that are
used in webpages are also called "web fonts".
FontCreator supports both importing and exporting WOFF fonts.

More information about Webfonts and how to use them:

http://www.webfonts.com

More information about the Web Open Font Format:

http://www.w3.org/TR/WOFF/

3.5 Font Copyright

Unless you know otherwise, you should assume all fonts to be copyrighted
works that are someone's property and treat them as you would any other
software. Fonts are software products in their own right, and are protected by
international copyright law as well as individual license agreements. Even
redistributing so-called 'freeware' or 'public domain' fonts is problematic. If you
have created a font yourself (without using anything from other fonts), it is your
property.

The use of any commercial font is governed by the terms of its manufacturer's
End User License Agreement (EULA). Several major font vendors specifically
allow altering a font, as long as the altered font is only used on machines for
which you have licensed the original font. If you have questions about what can
or can't be done with a font, you should contact that font's manufacturer.

The Copyright Notice field in the Legal tab on the Font Properties dialog may
direct you to the copyright holder, but be aware that this field may be blank, or
may have been altered. Also the License Agreement and the License Agreement
Link fields might have important information.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

Part

IV
 16 FontCreator Help

4 Opening, Creating and Saving Fonts

4.1 Working with Font Projects

FontCreator uses its own file format to store the font data, several other
settings and configuration parameters:
• Font data
• Font properties
• Export settings
• Guideline, Grid and Metrics settings
• OpenType Layout Features
• User notes

This will make sure that regardless of the font format you export, all information
about the font will remain available.

Opening existing project files

There are several ways to open existing project files:
• Select Open project from the File menu
• Select a recent project from the Reopen submenu in the File menu
• Select a recent project in the Windows Taskbar Jumplist (only available on
Windows 7 and later)
• Double-click a project file in the Windows Explorer
• Drag a project file from the Windows Explorer onto FontCreator

4.2 Open a Font

There are several ways to open a font file.

Open fonts already installed on your system

To open an installed font file select Open from the File menu and choose
Installed Font option.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Opening, Creating and Saving Fonts 17

Open any font that is available

From the File menu, select Open and choose Font File option to open a font
through Windows default open dialog box.
Warning: If you want to open fonts that are located in Windows fonts folder you
should use the Installed Fonts command (or drag and drop), because this folder
is marked (by Windows) to be a special folder and therefore behaves differently
(e.g. it shows font names instead of file names).

Drag and drop a font file

Another way to open a font, is to drag a font file from Windows Explorer and
drop it onto FontCreator.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 18 FontCreator Help

Reopen a font file

To open a font that you've used recently, choose Reopen from the File menu
to display the names of the last ten used fonts. Click on the font you want to
use.

4.3 Create a Font Project

On the File menu, click New Project to create a new font.

Font family name

In Windows, the Font family name is displayed in the font menu. The Font
family name will appear as the font name when you select a font in a word-
processing program, etc.

Font style
The font will be identified through its Font family name and the Font style. To
create a full font family, you will need to create four fonts, each with a different
Font style, but with the same Font family name.

Predefined outlines
Selecting "Include outlines" will add outlines for several common characters. This
will speed up creating your new font. You can replace or modify these glyphs
later. The outlines can be used royalty free in your own fonts.

Note: On the Personalize tab, accessed by Tools -> Options, there are default
naming values, that will be added to the new font.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Opening, Creating and Saving Fonts 19

See also:
Default Naming Values
Insert Characters

4.4 Save a Project

To save an active project select Save Project in the File menu. If you want to
save the active project with a different name, or in a different location, select
Save Project As in the File menu, choose a name and location and click Save.

4.5 Export a Font

To export an active project to a TTF/OTF or WOFF font select one of the export
formats in the Export Font submenu in the File menu. The first time you export
your font you will be asked to choose an output location. If you want to export
the active project with a different file name, or in a different location, select
Export Font As in the File menu.

When you open an existing font, the export settings will be set in a way that they
match the original font properties as much as possible.

Output File

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

20 FontCreator Help

Location where the file will be exported. If this field is left blank, FontCreator will
show a save dialog the first time you export the font.

Warning: It is not recommended to export your font directly into the Windows
fonts folder.
Warning: Files locked by Windows can't be saved. This happens when the
Operating System keeps the font in memory. You could try to uninstall (delete)
the font through the Windows fonts folder.

Note about the file extension:

TrueType/OpenType fonts may have the extension .otf or .ttf depending on the
type of outlines in the font (see Outline Format below) and the desired
backwards compatibility. A font file with TrueType outlines should have either .otf
or .ttf extension, depending on the desire for backward compatibility on older
systems or with previous versions of the font. A font file with CFF (Postscript)
outlines should have file name extension .otf.

In all cases, software must determine the kind of outlines present in a font not
from the file name extension but from the contents of the file.

Outline Format
TrueType - The font is exported with TrueType based outlines (quadratic Bézier
curves)
CFF (Postscript) - The font is exported with CFF based outlines (cubic Bézier
curves)

OpenType Layout Features

No - No OpenType Layout Features are embedded in the font.
Yes - OpenType Layout Features are embedded in the font.

Note: OpenType Layout Features are ignored for Symbol Fonts.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Opening, Creating and Saving Fonts 21

Glyph Names
While developing fonts, you can define user friendly glyph names, which help you
quickly identify the glyphs and it allows you to share OpenType layout feature
code.

When your font is ready for release, FontCreator can automatically rename glyph
names to recommended names. Those names used to be important for
accurate interpretation and reconstruction of underlying Unicode text encoding
with some PDFs, but nowadays this is no longer an issue. Since in most cases
glyph names are no longer important, you can decide to leave them out to
reduce the file size. We even recommend omitting them in WOFF fonts to reduce
the file size.

Note: Glyph names are still required (and thus always included) in CFF based
fonts, but even that will likely change in the future.

Legacy 'kern' Table

The kern table is mostly useful for fonts to stay backwards compatible with older
word processing software, but we recommend to no longer include it. Instead
use OpenType Layout Features to include kerning.
No - No legacy kern table is added to the font
Yes - A legacy kern table is added to the font. The kern table will be build from
the first pair adjustment lookup located in the Latin script, default language, kern
feature. The lookup must only contain values for XAdvance for the first glyph.

Note: The legacy 'kern' table is never included in CFF based fonts.

Hinting
Hinting information will improve readability on screen for smaller font sizes.
No Hinting - No hinting is added to the font
Autohinting - Hinting information is automatically generated
Keep Original - Stores hinting information that was originally available in the
font.

Note: Hinting is not available for CFF outlines

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 22 FontCreator Help

XML Metadata (Web Font only)

If enabled, a small xml file is embedded in the font that allows web browsers to
identify the font without having to load the entire font.

Legacy TrueType Fonts

Sometimes it's preferred to export a font in the old TrueType format for older
software. Set the export settings to the following settings:

Output file extension: .ttf

Outline Format: TrueType
OpenType Layout Features: No
Glyph Names: Regenerate for release
Legacy 'kern' Table: Yes
Hinting: No Hinting

4.6 Close a Font

To close the current font or project select Close in the File menu. To close all
active fonts and/or projects at once select Close All in the File menu.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

Part

V
 24 FontCreator Help

5 Editing Fonts

5.1 Editing Options

5.1.1 Undo Command
The Undo command from the Edit menu reverses the last action made to the
active font. So using Undo returns the font to its state prior to the most recent
operation.

Note: The Undo button on the toolbar has a small arrow which allows you to pull
down a menu and select multiple actions to be undone.
5.1.2 Redo Command
The Redo command from the Edit menu re-applies the actions or commands on
which you have used the Undo command. FontCreator supports Multiple Redo,
which is particularly useful if you have performed the undo command more than
you had intended. If this occurs, and you want to re-apply them, either choose
the Redo command as many times as necessary or use the drop arrow on the
Redo button located on the Standard toolbar.

5.1.3 Repeat Your Last Action

When you select Repeat from the Edit menu the program will repeat the last
action you have done. When the Repeat command can't be selected, you can't
repeat the last action.

5.1.4 Finding a Glyph

You can search for glyphs and or characters by their glyph name and mappings.
Select Find on the Edit menu to open the Find window or use the keyboard
shortcut CTRL+F.

The input field accepts several kinds of keywords:

• Single character : Entering a single character will find the entered character if it
exists in the font. (Example: "a") Note that this type of search is case-
sensitive regardless of the case-sensitive checkbox!
• Part of glyph name

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Editing Fonts 25

• Start with: "A*" will return Agrave, Aacute, etc.

• Ends with: "*grave" will return Agrave, Ugrave, etc.
• "#353" will show that exact Glyph ID
• Unicode ranges $0032-$0046, $0062, 65, 214, etc. (can be entered in
decimal or hexadecimal)
5.1.5 Tags
Tags allow you to mark glyphs so they appear with a small colored bar in the
Font Overviews. The same color is shown on the tab bar for glyph edit windows.
To tag a glyph, right click on one or more selected glyphs and select one of the
tags from the Tag submenu, use the keyboard shortcut keys (CTRL + 1-5) or
drag and drop them from the font overview window onto one of the tag
categories. You can view all glyphs that have a tag by selecting the Tagged
category from the categories panel or select one of the tag subcategories to
view all glyphs that have a specific tag assigned to them.

You can select glyphs with a specific tag through Select Tagged command from
the Edit menu.

Toggle Tags
To untag a glyph, you can either select Tag None, or tag the glyph again.

Note: Each glyph can only have one tag.

5.2 Editing Fonts

5.2.1 Using the Font Overview
In the Font Overview window there is a list of categories and a grid where all
cells have a caption and a part that shows the glyph.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

26 FontCreator Help

The categories panel is a convenient way to quickly show a subset of characters

or glyphs and allows you to display them in several groupings and orderings. To
change the current grouping and ordering use the Overview Toolbar on the
main toolbar.
When creating Unicode fonts, the categories panel shows a convenient list of all
Unicode blocks that contain at least one mapped glyph. When you add new
characters through the Add Characters dialog or change character mappings
the Unicode categories are automatically updated. If you are creating a symbol
font, a symbol category will be shown instead.
The Glyphs category contains several sub categories. One of them is the Unused
category, which is only shown when the font contains one or more glyphs that
are inaccessible by normal means. It is recommended to delete such glyphs as
they are of no use.
Each cell has a caption that is used to display the glyph name, Unicode name, the
codepoints or the glyph index. To select the kind of caption, use the Overview
Toolbar or right-click in the Font Overview window and select a specific
caption. Setting the caption type to Automatic will automatically change the
captions to the value of the current selected grouping method. This means that
when you group by Advance Width, the cell captions display the Advance Width
value.
You can also switch between decimal and hexadecimal values for the codepoints
and glyph indexes in the Display Format submenu of the View menu.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Editing Fonts 27

5.2.2 Used By
The Used By window (available by right-clicking a glyph in the Font Overview
window or Glyph Edit window and selecting the Used By menu item) is used to
display an overview of all glyphs that use the selected glyph. To jump directly to
one of the displayed glyphs double-click it in the window or select it and click the
OK button.

5.2.3 Insert Characters

Select Characters in the Insert menu to add glyphs with their character
mappings and glyph names to the font. This option is available when the Font
Overview window is active.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

28 FontCreator Help

Select a Unicode block from the combo box, "Go to Unicode Block". Uncheck the
"Sorted" field to sort the blocks in numerical code-point order instead of
alphabetical order. if necessary, choose another installed font which includes the
characters to be added. Characters can be added anyway, but it helps if the
glyphs can be previewed.
Use the next and previous block or next and previous plane buttons to scroll
through the font. The code point of the character to add can be found by
entering the decimal value in the "Go to Code Point" field, or by entering the

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Editing Fonts 29

hexadecimal value preceded by a dollar sign. For example, enter 8364 or $20AC
to find the Euro Sign (€).
Either a character or (part of) the Unicode name of the character can be used in
the field, "Find by Character (Name)". For example, type "€" or "euro" to find
the "EURO SIGN". When enter a character it will find an exact match, but with
part of the Unicode name you can find another match if you press the Find Next
button again.
Click on a character to select it and preview it in the glyph preview at bottom
left. Double-click the character, or click the Add button, to add its code-point to
the list of selected characters at the bottom of the dialog. Keep adding individual
characters by double-clicking, or hold down the Shift key and double-click to add
a range of characters. The codepoints will be displayed in Hexadecimal or Decimal
notation depending on the setting in View -> Display. You can also type
codepoints into the characters to add field, separated by commas (or hyphens
to add a range of characters), or cut and paste a predefined list of characters
from a text file. For example, pasting 256-383 then clicking OK would add the
entire Latin Extended-A character set.
Click OK to dismiss the dialog and add the characters to the current font. If the
glyphs exist in the overview sample font, and if "Show samples in empty glyphs"
is on, grey outlines of the new characters will be displayed in the font overview.
Characters or entire character sets can also be added using Transform Scripts.
See the topic: Glyph Transformer.

Note: The number of glyphs that may be included in one font is limited to 65535.

See also:
Glyph Transformer
5.2.4 Insert Glyphs
Select Glyphs in the Insert menu to add glyphs to the font. This option is
available when the Font Overview window is active.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 30 FontCreator Help

Note: The number of glyphs that may be included in one font is limited to 65535.
5.2.5 Copy and Paste Glyphs
The Paste Special command is used to specify what parts of a group of glyphs
(already copied to the clipboard) should be pasted.

You can select any number of glyphs in the Font Overview window by clicking
on them while holding down the Ctrl key. You can perform several operations on
the selected glyphs. If you paste the selection to another font the glyphs will be
pasted to the selected glyphs. If you want the pasted glyphs to be placed in
another position you can select the same number of glyphs you copied prior to
the paste action, or select just one glyph.

Outline Data will copy the outlines.

Metrics are the Left Side Bearing and Advance Width of each glyph
Glyph Name will paste all glyph names
Codepoints will paste the mappings. Keep same codepoints adds new mappings
to the glyphs. Mappings that already exist will be reassigned to the pasted
glyph(s) when the Overrule same codepoints option is selected. You can also

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Editing Fonts 31

choose to add mappings. Add codepoints adds all mappings. When mappings
are already available, they will be reassigned to the pasted glyph(s).
Anchors will include all available anchor points which can be used by OpenType
layout features

5.2.6 Adding a New Character - the EURO Sign

Sometimes a font is missing one or more characters. This will explain how to add
the EURO sign to an existing font.

There are two ways to add a character to a font.

1a. The easiest and recommended way is to simply add a character at
the end of the glyph list
- Select Characters from the Insert menu. Enter "€" or "EURO SIGN"
into the Find by Character (Name) and press the Find Next button.
Now select the Add button and press the OK button.

1b. Alternatively you can add a glyph at the end of the glyph list and
manually set the glyph name and codepoint
- Select Glyphs from the Insert menu and insert one glyph after the last
glyph.
- Open the Glyph Properties tool window (View -> Glyph Properties or
shortcut F3) and enter "Euro" as Glyph Name.

- Click the Generate button next to the codepoints to automatically fill

in the proper code-point.
- Click the Apply button to assign the changes

2. Edit the glyph

Double-click the Euro glyph to open the Glyph Edit window. There are
several ways to add contours to the glyph:
• Freedraw contours (Insert -> Freedraw Contours...)
• Import an image (Tools -> Import Image)
• Add new contours (right-click and select "New Contour...")
• Paste contours from other glyphs
• Drag outlines from the Samples toolbar

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 32 FontCreator Help

• Copy and paste from other software like Adobe Illustrator

3. Adjust the right and left bearings

Around the glyph there are four lines that represent the Bearings. These
are shown by default but you can hide them through the Show Bearings
button on the Drawing toolbar. The left and right bearings can be changed
by dragging them to their desired position.

You could also adjust the bearings from the Glyph Properties tool window.

4. Test the font.

Select Test TTF/OTF or Test WOFF in the Font menu.
Add a Euro sign in the text area with Alt-0128 or use a font manager like
MainType to copy and paste the EURO character into the text area.

5.2.7 Font Name

Be careful not to confuse the font name with the file name. Windows uses the file
name to install a font, while the font name is used to identify the font.
To change the font name select Properties from the Font menu.

5.2.8 Font Type

If you want to make a bold font out of a regular font, you also need to make all
your glyph outlines bold. This can be easily accomplished through the transform
features, using the Medium to Bold script. There are several other scripts that
can make a font thin, italic, etc.

If the font already contains bold outlines, but is recognized as a regular font, then
you need to change a few settings on the Font Properties dialog:
On the Identification tab:
• Font Subfamily
• Weight
• Bold checkbox
• Italic checkbox
• Italic Angle

On the Characteristics tab

• PANOSE Weight

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Editing Fonts 33

5.2.9 Font Embedding

Select Properties from the Font menu and select the Legal tab page. Here you
can alter the Font Embedding Licensing Rights.

Note: Embedding symbol fonts may not be possible in Word.

5.2.10Monospaced versus Proportional
A monospaced font is a font where all characters have the same width. These
fonts are often used to emulate typewriter output for reports, tabular work and
technical documentation.
In a proportional font the width of each character, including the space character,
varies with the shape of the character. Proportional fonts are easier to read and
are preferred for publishing applications.

From proportional to monospaced

To change a proportional spaced font into a monospaced font, follow these
steps:
• Select the AutoMetrics command (Tools menu) to force the advance width
to be the same for all glyphs including .notdef and combining marks. The only
exception is (format) control characters (e.g. .null) which are allowed to be
zero-width.
• The advance width of combining marks may be collapsed through OpenType
glyph positioning (e.g. using an OpenType single adjustment lookup in the
mark feature).
• If necessary, change the outlines of glyphs that are too wide.
• In the Properties dialog (Font menu) on the Characteristics tab set Family
Kind to 2 (Latin Text) and Proportion to 9 (Monospaced).

5.2.11Unicode versus Symbol

Important: Symbol fonts are legacy; we recommend designing a Unicode font
instead. If there are codepoints assigned for your characters, then use them,
otherwise use the private use area.
Symbol character sets have a special meaning: all of the characters in the
Unicode range 0xF000 - 0xF0FF (inclusive) will be used to enumerate the
symbol character set. All glyphs in this range are mapped to the range 0x0000 -
0x00FF.
Symbol fonts do not form words, so line breaks can occur after any character
code. A spell checker should not check symbol font-formatted material.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 34 FontCreator Help

You can convert your font between Unicode and Symbol though the Convert
Font menu item in the Tools menu.
Note: only the first 224 characters of symbol fonts will be accessible: a space
and up to 223 printing characters.

5.2.12Recommended Glyphs
In addition to script and language specific punctuation and native numbers, the
following glyphs are highly recommended for inclusion in fonts.

.notdef - the very first glyph!

All fonts must include a .notdef (missing character) glyph as first glyph (glyph
index 0). The .notdef glyph is very important for providing the user feedback that
a glyph is not found in the font. For example, if your font doesn't contain a
question mark, the user will see the .notdef glyph to warn the user about the
fact the actual character is missing.

This glyph should not be left without an outline as the user will only see what
looks like a space if a glyph is missing and will not be aware of the active font's
limitation. It is recommended that the shape of the .notdef glyph be either an
empty rectangle, a rectangle with a question mark inside of it, or a rectangle with
an "X". Creative shapes, like swirls or other symbols, may not be recognized by
users as indicating that a glyph is missing from the font and is not being displayed
at that location.

Note: sometimes an operating system, a word processor, web browser, etc will
use a fall back font, so the user will still see characters that are not included in
the actual font.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Editing Fonts 35

Obsolete glyphs - .null and nonmarkingreturn

The .null and nonmarkingreturn glyphs used to be required, but they no longer
need to be included in your fonts. If you include them, it is best to follow these
guidelines:
.null -> glyph index 1; no contours; zero advance width.
nonmarkingreturn -> glyph index 2; no contours; advance width equals the
advance width of the space glyph.

Space
Obviously a very important character is the space. It usually comes right after
the above mentioned glyphs, but its position is no longer relevant. The space
glyph is often mapped to both space and no-break space; it has no contours and
positive
advance width.

General punctuation and 'Latin' numbers

Glyph Name Descriptive Name Sample Unicode
space space $0020
exclam exclamation mark ! $0021
quotedbl quotation mark " $0022
numbersign number sign # $0023
dollar dollar sign $ $0024
percent percentsign % $0025
ampersand ampersand & $0026
quotesingle apostrophe ' $0027
parenleft left parenthesis ( $0028
parenright right parenthesis ) $0029
asterisk asterisk * $002A
plus plus sign + $002B
comma comma , $002C
hyphen hyphen-minus - $002D

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

36 FontCreator Help

Glyph Name Descriptive Name Sample Unicode

period period . $002E
slash slash / $002F
zero digit zero 0 $0030
one digit one 1 $0031
two digit two 2 $0032
three digit three 3 $0033
four digit four 4 $0034
five digit five 5 $0035
six digit six 6 $0036
seven digit seven 7 $0037
eight digit eight 8 $0038
nine digit nine 9 $0039
colon colon : $003A
semicolon semicolon ; $003B
less less-than sign < $003C

Quotes and Ellipsis

Smart quotes (also known as curly quotes) are fancy characters which make
text look better compared to the straight apostrophe (') and straight quote or
inches character ("). Microsoft Word also automatically changes 3 periods to an
ellipsis.

If your font does not support these characters, you can either turn the "Smart
Quotes" and "Ellipsis" features off in the application (In Microsoft Word it's under
Tools -> AutoCorrect) or make sure these glyphs and their mappings are
available in the font.

Glyph Name Descriptive Name Sample Unicode

quoteleft left single quotation mark ‘ $2018
quoteright right single quotation mark ’ $2019
quotedblleft left double quotation mark “ $201C

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Editing Fonts 37

Glyph Name Descriptive Name Sample Unicode

quotedblright right double quotation mark ” $201D
ellipsis horizontal ellipsis … $2026

Other suggested glyphs

Glyph Name Descriptive Name Sample Unicode
nbspace * no-break space $00A0
currency currency sign ¤ $00A4
section section sign § $00A7
logicalnot not sign ¬ $00AC
degree degree sign ° $00B0
paragraph paragraph sign ¶ $00B6
periodcentered middle dot • $00B7
endash en dash – $2013
emdash em dash — $2014
bullet bullet • $2022
euro euro currency symbol € $20AC

* nbspace is usually mapped to the space glyph

5.3 Editing Glyphs

5.3.1 Introduction
From the Font Overview window you can double-click a glyph to open a Glyph
Edit window and edit the selected glyph. You can also select a glyph, right-click it
and select Edit.

You can "zoom in" to get a close-up view of your glyph or "zoom out" to see
more of the page at a reduced size. You can use the edit field located on the
Drawing toolbar to change the zoom percentage. The Zoom to Selected

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 38 FontCreator Help

button will be enabled as soon as contours or points are selected. Pressing this
button will zoom into the current selection. When you press the Fit to Window
button, the glyph will be shown with the largest zoom factor that also shows the
ascender and descender lines.

In a TrueType font, glyph shapes are described by their outlines. There are three
glyph outline types:
Empty glyphs
Simple glyphs
Composite glyphs
Composite glyphs are simply a combination of two or more other glyphs -
usually, but not limited to, a base character and one or more diacritical marks
that are placed above and/ or below the base character.

To select a composite member click on it. If you want to modify specific member
data double-click a composite member to open the Composite Glyph
Properties window.

Other parts of the manual have a comprehensive explanation of the three glyph
types.

5.3.2 Empty Glyphs

Empty glyphs (like the space glyph) don't have outlines but they do have an
advance width. In a Glyph Edit window you can change an empty glyph into a
simple glyph by adding contours. You can also change an empty glyph into a
composite glyph by adding a Composite Glyph Member.

5.3.3 Simple Glyphs

5.3.3.1 Introduction

A simple glyph consists of a series of contours. Contours are composed of

straight lines and curves. Curves are defined by a series of points that describe
second order Bézier-splines also known as quadratic Bézier curves. The
TrueType Bézier-spline format uses two types of points to define curves, those
that are on the curve and those that are off the curve. Any combination of off
and on curve points is acceptable when defining a curve. Straight lines are defined
by two consecutive on curve points. There is always an imaginary on curve point
between two off curve points.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Editing Fonts 39

In order to distinguish between contour and point related operations, you can
choose to work in contour or point mode. At any time you can change between
Contour and Point mode; select the appropriate Mode from the View menu,
press one of the triangle buttons on the Drawing toolbar or double-click
anywhere in the glyph edit window.

Contours that need to be filled black must have a clockwise direction. If we

want to make a white area inside an existing contour we must make the
direction of the new contour counter clockwise. Contour direction is determined
by seeing in which direction the point index values increase or decrease. Contour
direction is from the smaller point index to the larger. The general rule is that the
contour direction should be such that "black is on the right". Using the glyph "O"
as an example, the outer contour should travel clockwise, and the inner contour
counter clockwise.

Click the Correct contour directions button on the Validation toolbar to

correct the direction of all misoriented contours in a simple glyph or select
Direction from the Edit menu to change the direction of the selected
contour(s).

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

40 FontCreator Help

The character "4" is represented by a glyph with two contours. One contour you
see as the black area and the white area within this glyph is the other contour.

From the Drawing toolbar you can change the way that you modify the glyph.
In the Glyph Edit window, you can change between Contour and Point mode by
double clicking inside the edit area, select the Mode from the View menu or use
the appropriate button on the Drawing toolbar. The main difference between
Contour mode and Point mode is that in Contour mode all operations are
related to the contours while in Point mode you can change parts of the
contours (e.g. move, add and delete points).

Holding down the Shift key while dragging points or contours restricts movement
so the selection moves only in the x or y direction.

In the Glyph Edit window (in Point mode) the rectangles represent on curve
points and the circles off curve points.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Editing Fonts 41

Tip You can nudge the selected contour(s) or point(s) up, down, left, or right by
pressing the arrow keys. By holding down the Ctrl key and pressing the arrow
keys finer nudging is available. By holding down the Shift key and pressing the
arrow keys coarser nudging is available.

5.3.3.2 Contours

You can perform several operations on contours while in Contour mode.

Select contours
To select an external contour of a black area of a glyph click within the black
area. To select an internal contour of a black area click within the internal white
area.

To select more than one contour, press and hold down the Shift key while
selecting contours. Another way is to click on the workspace where no contours
are and, while holding down the left mouse button, drag a rectangle around all
contours you want to select simultaneously.

Use the Ctrl-A shortcut or select Select All from the Edit menu to select all
contours. Holding down the Shift key and clicking a contour already selected will
remove that contour from the current selection.

Resize selected contours

When you select one or more contours, a box with "resizing handles" shows up
around the selected contour(s). Click and drag one of those resizing handles to
change the size of the selected contour(s). By default the selected contour(s)
remain proportional to the original size, as you resize it. Press the Shift key while
you drag one of the resizing handles located at the corners to resize freely.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

42 FontCreator Help

Move selected contours

To constrain a selection so it moves only horizontally or vertically, press Shift as
you drag the selection. Press Alt to ignore the snap to grid and snap to guidelines
features.

Duplicate selected contours

To copy selected contours to a new position, hold down the Ctrl key as you drag
the selection. Hold the Alt key to ignore the snap to grid and snap to guidelines
features. Hold down the Shift key to move only in vertical or horizontal direction.
Any combination of these keys is allowed.

Rotate and skew selected contours

You can rotate by first selecting a contour (or more) and then select it again
(don't double-click). The little rectangles on the corners will change into circles.
These can be used to rotate the selected contour(s). The other four rectangles
are used to skew the selection. To change the origin for the rotation you can
move the little cross in the middle of your selection. To rotate by 15° steps, hold
down the SHIFT key while rotating the selected contours. If SHIFT is held down
on the skew operation, then it will skew by 1° steps.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Editing Fonts 43

Rectangle and Square

To draw a rectangle, click the Rectangle toolbar icon. Then click within the Glyph
Edit window to set the first corner of the rectangle. While keeping down the left
mouse button, move to the opposite corner of the rectangle, and then release
the left mouse button. If you want a perfect square, do keep the SHIFT key
down while defining the rectangle.

Ellipse and Circle

To draw an ellipse, click the ellipse toolbar icon and follow the same procedure as
described with the rectangle above. Use the SHIFT key to make a perfect circle.
Since outlines are made out of Bézier curves, and such curves can't be used to
make a 100% perfect circle, FontCreator will use 12 points which is good
enough for most situations. If drawing a circle or ellipse larger than the em
square (units per em as defined on the General tab on the Font Properties
dialog) it will appear with 20 nodes to provide even more precision.

Adding Contours and Outlines to a Glyph

There are several ways to add outlines (contours) to a glyph:
• Using the Freedraw Contours tool
• Select the Add rectangle or Add ellipse button on the Drawing toolbar and
place it on the Glyph Edit window.
• Draw a new contour:
First select Contour from the Insert menu. A left mouse click creates a point
on the contour and a right mouse click creates a point off the contour for a
Bézier curve. Creating points while holding down the Ctrl key generates
straight lines (horizontal or vertical). After you have created your contour you
press the Apply button.
• Samples toolbar:
Drag and drop a glyph from the Samples toolbar into a Glyph Edit window.
• Copy contours from other glyphs, even from other fonts and paste them.
(These operations carried out in their respective Font Overview windows)
• Import a stored vector or bitmap file of an image of a glyph into a Glyph Edit
window using Import in the Tools menu.
• Paste a Clipboard image of a glyph into the Glyph Edit window. The Clipboard
image could be created in another application which has graphics editing
capabilities e.g. a cropping function. This operation is performed using the
Paste option in the Edit menu.

Optimize Contour
This advanced feature will try to reduce the number of points that make up the
contour(s).

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 44 FontCreator Help

Note: the optimize contour feature might slightly change the original outline, so
do experiment with it to ensure it suits your needs. At all times you can make
use of undo and redo, so it should be easy to compare the optimized contours
with the original outline.

5.3.3.3 Points

In Point mode the rectangles and the larger green circles represent on curve
points. The rectangles represent corners, while the large green circles indicate the
curve is smooth. The smaller circles are off curve points. Such off curve points
are also known as handles or control points.

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 Editing Fonts 45

Change curve segments

To change a curve, just click on the curve segment, and move the mouse to the
desired position.
If you want to divide a curve into two segments, just click on the curve.

Select points
To select a single point click on it. To select more than one point hold down the
Shift key while clicking on several points or another way is to hold down the left
mouse button and drag a rectangle around the points you want to select
simultaneously, whether a few or all points in the glyph. Use the Ctrl-A shortcut
or select Select All from the Edit menu to select all points. Hold down the Shift
key and select points you want to add or remove from the current selection.

Move selected points

To constrain a selection so it moves only horizontally or vertically, press Shift as
you drag the selection. Press Alt to ignore the snap to grid and snap to guidelines
features.

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46 FontCreator Help

There are several operations related to points (move, add, delete, change points
to on or off curve, etc.). Select one or more points and then right-click one of
them to open a sub-menu with even more point related features.

Every contour has a start point with a green mark and an end point with a red
mark. To change the start point, right-click a point and select First Point.

Smooth Curves around On Curve Points

To guarantee smoothness, the on curve point at which two curves meet must
be on the line between the two off curve points on either side. It is not always
easy to keep an outline smooth around on curve points. Fortunately there is a
command that will do just that. Right-click one or more on curve points, which
are surrounded by off curve points, and select Smooth Curves around On
Curve Points. If no points are selected it will apply to all points.
If an on-curve point lies almost on the line between its neighbour off curve
points, it will be moved onto the line. If the 3 points are all almost horizontal or
vertical, all 3 points will be aligned.
All points affected will be selected after the operation.

Extend Corner
The Extend Corner feature allows you to make changes to a contour segment
without interfering with the other side of the corner. To use it, select one point,
and right-click and select Extent Corner.

The screen shots below show how a curve is changed with help of Extend Corner
and Join Contours.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Editing Fonts 47

5.3.3.4 Join and Split Contours

Both Contour mode and Point mode have ways to combine and split contours.
Usually Union, Intersection and Exclusion, available in Contour mode, and Knife,
available in both modes, are recommended. If these features don't give expected
results the two remaining features (Join Contours and Split Contour) available in
Points mode might help.

Union, Intersection and Exclusion in Contour mode

Use the Union feature to merge several overlapping contours.
Use the Intersection feature to keep all overlapping parts.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 48 FontCreator Help

Use the Exclusion feature to remove all overlapping parts.

Knife in both modes

Use the Knife feature to split contours. Hold down the SHIFT key while using the
Knife feature to force the cut line by 15° steps.

Join Contours and Split Contour in Point mode

When you want to combine two contours you have to select one point on each
contour. Next right-click one of these points and click "Join Contours" on the
shortcut menu.

To split a contour into two contours, select two points (these points should not
be neighbors) on the same contour and then right-click one of these points and
click "Split Contour" on the shortcut menu.

Note: Make sure the two combining contours have the same direction.

Note: Union, Intersection, Exclusion and Knife are not available in the Home
Edition of FontCreator.

5.3.3.5 Freedraw

The Freedraw tool can be used to manually draw lines that can be converted
into contours. To enter Freedraw mode select Freedraw Contours from the
Insert menu, or select the Freedraw tool from the Drawing Toolbar.

When the Freedraw tool is active, the Freedraw toolwindow will be visible. On
this toolwindow you can set the Brush width, delete the last stroke or convert
the drawn lines into contours.
To draw straight horizontal or vertical lines you can hold down the SHIFT key
while drawing.
To erase part of the drawing, you can use the right mouse button as an eraser
tool.

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 Editing Fonts 49

When you're satisfied, click on “Convert to contours” to add the contour to the
currently displayed glyph (contours cannot be added to composite glyphs). To
cancel, just close the Free Draw dialogue with the close button.
The new contour will not be joined to existing contours, even if it was drawn
crossing them.

5.3.4 Composite Glyphs

5.3.4.1 Introduction

Composite glyphs are made out of "soft links" to one or more other glyphs -
usually, but not limited to, a base character and one or more diacritical marks
that are placed above and/or below the base character.

Create composite glyphs

You can create a composite glyph when you are editing an empty glyph in a
Glyph Edit window. To add a composite glyph member select Glyph from the
Insert menu. To add one or more glyphs as composite glyph members first
copy glyphs from the Font Overview window and then paste them into a Glyph
Edit window that contains an empty glyph or a composite glyph.

Move selected glyph members

You can change the position of each of the used glyphs within the Glyph Edit
window.

To constrain a selection so it moves only horizontally or vertically, press Shift as

you drag the selection. Press Alt to ignore the snap to grid and snap to guidelines
features.

Transformations
Besides moving glyph members, it is possible to perform operations like scale
and rotation by double-clicking on the glyph member or right-clicking and select
Glyph Member Properties .

Duplicate selected glyph members

To copy selected composite glyph members to a new position, hold down the
Ctrl key as you drag the selection. Hold the Alt key to ignore the snap to grid and
snap to guidelines features. Hold down the Shift key to move only in vertical or
horizontal direction. Any combination of these keys is allowed.

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 50 FontCreator Help

Convert to simple glyph

To convert a composite glyph to a simple glyph select the glyph in the Font
Overview window or in the Glyph Edit window and select Make Simple from
the Edit menu.

Join composite glyph members

If composite glyph members intersect such as with C cedilla, Get Union of
Contours on the Glyph toolbar will convert the composite glyph to a simple
glyph and join intersecting contours into one contour.

5.3.4.2 Add Glyph Member

You can add a composite glyph member to an empty glyph, which will then
become a composite glyph. You can also add more glyph members to existing
composite glyphs. If you wish to edit an empty glyph or modify a composite
glyph you can select Glyph from the Insert menu.

In the Select Composite Glyph Member window, select the glyph you want to
add to the composite glyph and press the OK button.

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 Editing Fonts 51

5.3.4.3 Glyph Member Properties

When you have opened a composite glyph in the Glyph Edit window, you can
modify the properties of each composite glyph member. Either double-click a
Glyph Member or right-click it and then select Glyph Member Properties.

In the Composite Glyph Properties window you can modify the position, scale,
rotation, transformation and special flags of the selected member. Use the
Previous and Next buttons to walk through the members.

The Flags consist of a set of fields:

Use this glyph's metrics

If set, this forces the advance width and left side bearing (and right side bearing)
for the composite to be equal to those from this original glyph. This works for
hinted and unhinted characters. Only one member can have this option selected.
Without this flag, the actual left side bearing and right side bearing of the
composite glyph will be used.
Round xy to grid
Round the x and y offsets.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 52 FontCreator Help

Overlap compound
Used by Apple in GX fonts.

Scaled component offset

Composite designed to have the component offset scaled (designed for Apple
rasterizer).

Unscaled component offset

Composite designed not to have the component offset scaled (designed for the
Microsoft TrueType rasterizer).

Note that the behavior of the Use this glyphs metrics operation is undefined
for rotated composite components.

5.3.4.4 Complete Composites

Use the Complete Composites feature to add composite glyph members to

your glyphs. To use this powerful feature, select a glyph, or a range of glyphs,
right-click and select Complete Composites. The selected glyphs will be
composed using data in CompositeData.xml, which is read when FontCreator
first uses the feature. This feature works with over three thousand glyphs that
are defined in this file. To get the most out of this feature follow these guidelines:
• The selected glyph(s) must be defined in the composite data file; either
known by Unicode codepoint or by glyph name.
• If the selected glyph(s) are empty or simple they will be replaced wherever
composites are defined. Do not include simple glyphs in your selection if
you don't wish to replace them with composites.
• If the selected glyph(s) are already composites they will be replaced only if
the composite glyph members are different, not if their positions or scale
factors are different.
• All composite members must be present in the font. If any composite
members are mapped, but still empty, the composite glyph will be completed,
though obviously missing the contours that have not been defined yet.

Info: Read the documentation about the content of the file CompositeData.xml
and an explanation about how to modify and add glyphs. This document is
available from our website:

http://www.high-logic.com/font-editor/fontcreator/tutorials.html

Note: Complete Composites is not available in the Home Edition of

FontCreator.

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 Editing Fonts 53

5.3.5 Glyph Metrics

Several horizontal and vertical lines, also known as glyph metrics, will help you
with your font design. You can activate them through the Metrics Options
window.
To change the metrics, click Properties on the Font menu and then click the
Metrics tab.
In the Glyph Edit window there are two vertical lines (normally the glyph outline
lies in between these lines) that represent the left and right side bearings. These
are shown by default but you can hide them through the Show Metrics button on
the Drawing toolbar. The left and right side bearings can be changed by dragging
them to their desired position. You can also adjust the bearings through the
Glyph Properties tool window. White space should be evenly distributed
between the left and right side bearings of glyphs except when font is specifically
designed with ligatures for joining characters in a cursive script font.

Nonspacing combining marks should have a zero advance width. They are used
in mark to base, mark to ligature, and mark to mark lookups in the OpenType
Designer.

Note: Lining numbers (i.e. the digits 0 - 9) should all have the same advance
width.

Tip: In the Glyph Edit window you can step through with the Back and Forward
blue arrows in the Drawing toolbar to make adjustments.

See also:
Metrics Options
5.3.6 Color Glyphs
5.3.6.1 Introduction

Each glyph can have its own color information assigned to it. If a host application
does not support the color font extension, the regular outlines will be shown.
There are a couple of similarities with making a composite glyph, but there are
also several differences.

Create a single color glyph

The easiest way to create a color version of a glyph is to select the "Colorize"
option from the right-click menu when editing a glyph. This will automatically add
the current glyph and assign a single color to it.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 54 FontCreator Help

Create a multi-color glyph

To make a multi-color glyph, you need to add other glyphs and then define a
color for each of these color members. Unlike composite glyph members, you
can’t change the size or position of these color members. You will need to make
sure the individual glyphs are all designed to fit into the color glyph. One other
important requirement is the fact that the metrics of the base glyph and the
color members must be the same. So the offsets (usually set to 0) and the
advance widths have to match.

Remove Color
To remove all color information from a glyph, do right-click it in the glyph
overview window, and select "Decolorize".

Switching between color and normal mode

When editing a glyph, click the "Color Mode" button or select Color Mode
from the View menu.

5.3.6.2 Add Glyph Member

To add one or more Color Glyph members, make sure you are in Color Mode
and right-click in the Glyph Edit window and select Add or click the Add icon .

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Editing Fonts 55

In the Select Color Glyph Member window select the glyphs you want to add
to the color glyph and press the OK button.
You can change the order of the color glyph members via the up and down
buttons on the Color Glyph Member toolbar, the Order options in the right-click
menu or via the Alignment toolbar. To show and/or hide toolbars, select
Toolbars on the View menu.

5.3.6.3 Palettes and Colors

A font can contain one or more palettes that allow a host application to quickly
change the color scheme. By using palettes you can make different color
schemes that allow your font to use different colors with, for example a different
background color.
The palette colors are global, so if you change a color which is assigned to
several color members, then all those members will use the updated color. If you
want a unique color for a specific color glyph member, then add a color to the
palette and use that instead.
When in Color Mode you can assign colors to specific members, by selecting the
Paint Bucket tool from the Drawing Toolbar and click on one of the color
glyph members in the Glyph Edit window. You can change the current color by
clicking on one of the palette entries in the Palette Toolbar.

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 56 FontCreator Help

See also:
Palette

5.4 Format
5.4.1 Properties
5.4.1.1 Identification

Global and horizontal layout information about the font is found on the
Identification page (in the Font Properties window). On the Font menu, click
Properties, and then click the Identification tab.

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 Editing Fonts 57

In general it is strongly recommended to only use letters, digits and the space
character for the naming fields. For example the Mac refuses fonts which contain
a quote in the name, so Jack's font will fail to work on a Mac. For CJK fonts,
you can use custom naming fields to provide names for Chinese, Japanese,
Korean, etc.

Font Family
The name the user sees. Maximum length is 31 characters.
Font Subfamily
The name of the style.
Width
Indicates a relative change from the normal aspect ratio (width to height ratio)
as specified by a font designer for the glyphs in a font.
Note: Although every character in a font may have a different numeric aspect
ratio, each character in a font of normal width has a relative aspect ratio of one.
When a new type style is created of a different width class (either by a font
designer or by some automated means) the relative aspect ratio of the
characters in the new font is some percentage greater or less than those same
characters in the normal font -- it is this difference that this parameter specifies.

Weight
Indicates the visual weight (degree of blackness or thickness of strokes) of the
characters in the font.
Note: Windows automatically adds fake bold to any font with weight set to
either Thin or Extra-light (Ultra-light), so better avoid these weights.

Italic Angle
Italic angle in degrees from the vertical. Zero for upright text, positive for text
that leans to the right (forward).
Font revision
Set by the font manufacturer.
Note: For historical reasons, the Font revision version is not used by Windows
to determine the version of a font. Instead, Windows evaluates the version string
from the Version String field.

Created

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 58 FontCreator Help

The date and time the font was created, press the Now button to set these fields to the
current date and time.

Modified
The date and time the font was last modified, press the Now button to set these fields to the
current date and time.

Automatically update modified timestamp when exporting font

When checked, the timestamp will be automatically set to the current date and
time when you export a font.
Generate the following naming fields automatically (recommended)
When checked, the Full Font Name, Version String, Unique Font Identifier
and PostScript Name fields are automatically updated

5.4.1.2 Extended

The Extended page is used to alter the Additional Naming and Additional
Font Styles fields. On the Font menu, click Properties, and then click the
Extended tab.

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 Editing Fonts 59

Typographic Family & Typographic Subfamily (Windows only)

In Windows, the Family name is displayed in the font menu; the Subfamily name
is presented as the Style name. For historical reasons, font families have
contained a maximum of four styles, but font designers may group more than
four fonts to a single family. The Typographic Family and Typographic Subfamily
IDs allow font designers to include the preferred family/subfamily groupings.
These IDs are only present if they are different from fields Font Family name and
Font Subfamily name.
WWS Family
The WWS Family name *
WWS Subfamily
The WWS Subfamily name *

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60 FontCreator Help

PostScript CID Findfont Name

Its presence in a font means that the Postscript name field in the Naming window
holds a PostScript font name that is meant to be used with the "composefont"
invocation in order to invoke the font in a PostScript interpreter.
This field must be restricted to the printable ASCII subset, codes 33 through 126,
except for the 10 characters: '[', ']', '(', ')', '{', '}', '<', '>', '/', '%'.

Compatible Full (Macintosh only)

On the Macintosh, the menu name is constructed using the FOND resource. This
usually matches the Full Name. If you want the name of the font to appear
differently than the Full Name, you can insert the Compatible Full Name in this
field.

Sample Text
This can be the font name, or any other text that the designer thinks is the best
sample to display the font in.

Additional Font Styles

These are rarely used styles that indicate the font is primarily a decorative or
special purpose font.
Underscore: Characters are underscored
Strikeout: Characters are overstruck
Negative: Characters have their foreground and background reversed
Outlined: Outline (hollow) characters, otherwise they are solid
Oblique: Font contains oblique characters (available if Version is set to 4 or
higher on the General tab)

Size-specific Design Selection Mechanism

These fields are used for fonts with multiple optical styles. When working across
multiple optical fonts, there should be no intentional gaps or overlaps in the
ranges.
From: This value (in points) is the lower value of the size range for which this
font has been designed. The value is inclusive—meaning that the font was
designed to work best at this point size through, but not including, the point size
indicated To. When used with other optical fonts that set From and To, it would
be expected that another font has this same value as this entry in the To field,
unless this font is designed for the lowest size range.

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 Editing Fonts 61

To: This value (in points) is the upper value of the size range for which this font
has been designed. The value is exclusive—meaning that the font was designed
to work best below this point size down to the From threshold. When used with
other optical fonts that set From and To, it would be expected that another font
has this same value as this entry in the From field, unless this font is designed
for the highest size range.

*) For more information about WWS please visit our forums at

http://forum.high-logic.com or visit this website:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/text/archive/2007/04/23/wpf-font-selection-
model.aspx

5.4.1.3 Legal

The Legal page is used to enter the Copyright, Trademark, Licensing, Vendor,
and Designer information. On the Font menu, click Properties, and then click
the Legal tab.

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62 FontCreator Help

Some Naming fields can be modified within the Edit Naming Field window
accessed by pressing the [...] button.

Embeddable fonts may be stored in a document. When a document with

embedded fonts is opened on a system that does not have the font installed
(the remote system), the embedded font may be loaded for temporary (and in
some cases, permanent) use on that system by an embedding-aware
application. Embedding licensing rights are granted by the designer (or vendor) of
the font.

Installable (no embedding restrictions)

Fonts that have none of the flags set are installable embedding fonts. Fonts with this setting
indicate that they may be embedded and permanently installed on the remote system by an

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Editing Fonts 63

application. The user of the remote system acquires the identical rights, obligations and
licenses for that font as the original purchaser of the font, and is subject to the same end-user
license agreement, copyright, design patent, and/or trademark as was the original purchaser.

Editable (read-write)
Fonts with this flag set indicate that they may be embedded in documents, but must only be
installed temporarily on the remote system. In contrast to Preview & Print fonts, documents
containing Editable fonts may be opened "read-write;" editing is permitted, and changes may
be saved.

Preview & Print (read-only)

Fonts with this flag set indicate that they may be embedded within documents but must only
be installed temporarily on the remote system. Any document which includes a Preview &
Print embedded font must be opened "read-only;" the application must not allow the user to
edit the document; it can only be viewed and/or printed.

Restricted (embedding is not allowed)

Fonts that have this flag set must not be modified, embedded or exchanged in any manner
without first obtaining permission of the legal owner.

No subsetting
When this flag is set, the font may not be subsetted prior to embedding.

Bitmap embedding only

When this flag is set, only bitmaps contained in the font may be embedded. No outline data
may be embedded.

5.4.1.4 Custom

The Custom page is used to add Additional Naming Fields. On the Font menu,
click Properties, and then click the Custom tab.

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 64 FontCreator Help

Custom naming fields are mostly used to add language specific Font Subfamily
entries, but are also used for CJK fonts to specify Chinese, Japanese, or Korean
naming fields.

5.4.1.5 General
5.4.1.5.1 Overview

This page consists of a set of metrics. On the Format menu, click Settings, and
then click the General tab.

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 Editing Fonts 65

Contents and Layout Version

It can take years before operating systems and software support changes to the
OpenType specification. For compatibility reasons it is possible to choose
between these versions:
Version 3: Released October 2002.
Version 4: Released May 2008. Added Oblique as additional font style, use typo
metrics, and WWS support
Version 5: Released March 2015. Added Size-specific Design Selection
Mechanism

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

66 FontCreator Help

Font Header Flags

This field is used to specify the global information about the font. Press the Edit
button to modify this field through the Font Header Flags window.
Units Per Em
Valid range is from 16 to 16384. This value should be a power of 2 for fonts that
have TrueType outlines. Nowadays 2048 units per em value is the best value for
all fonts of any size including large Latin or non-Latin script fonts.
For OpenType fonts with CFF based outlines it is recommend to set units per em
to 1000.
This value is used to convert values in the pixel coordinate system by multiplying
them by a scale. This scale is:
PointSize * resolution / ( 72 points per inch * units_per_em )
Smallest read. size
Smallest readable size in pixels. Most fonts have this value set to 9.

Recommended sizes:
Note: Word processors that support OpenType features will probably use the
Subscript (subs) and Superscript (sups) features, if available in the font.

Subscript, horizontal
The recommended horizontal size in font design units for subscripts for this font.

Subscript, vertical
The recommended vertical size in font design units for subscripts for this font.

Subscript x offset
The recommended horizontal offset in font design units for subscripts for this font.

Subscript y offset
The recommended vertical offset in font design units from the baseline for subscripts for this
font.

Superscript, horizontal
The recommended horizontal size in font design units for superscripts for this font.

Superscript, vertical
The recommended vertical size in font design units for superscripts for this font.

Superscript x offset
The recommended horizontal offset in font design units for superscripts for this font.

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Superscript y offset
The recommended vertical offset in font design units from the baseline for superscripts for
this font.
Calculate
It is up to word-processing software to use these values for superscript and subscript effects.
However, be aware that not all software uses these values uniformly, so when the default
superscripts and subscripts look correct in one application, they might look wrong in another
application. The calculate button calculates the values so that they look correct in Microsoft
Word 2010.

Strikeout size
Width of the strikeout stroke in font design units. This field should normally be the width of the
em dash for the current font. If the size is one, the strikeout line will be the line represented by
the strikeout position field. If the value is two, the strikeout line will be the line represented by
the strikeout position and the line immediately above the strikeout position. For a Roman font
with a 2048 em square, 102 is suggested.

Strikeout position
The position of the strikeout stroke relative to the baseline in font design units. The value of
strikeout position should not interfere with the recognition of standard characters, and
therefore should not line up with crossbars in the font. For a Roman font with a 2048 em
square, 460 is suggested.

Underline Position
Suggested values for the underline position (negative values indicate below
baseline).

Underline Thickness
Suggested values for the underline thickness.
Note: Word processing applications decide whether they use these
underlinePosition and underlineThickness values or use their own defaults.
Warning: Some Word processors may crash when this value is set to zero.
Caret Offset
The amount by which a slanted highlight on a glyph needs to be shifted to produce the best
appearance. Set to 0 for non-slanted fonts.

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 68 FontCreator Help

5.4.1.5.2 Font Header Flags

The Font Header Flags give global information about the font.

Baseline for font at y=0

Set this field when the baseline for all glyphs is at y= 0 (that is, the x-axis).

Left side bearing point at x=0

Set this field when the x-position of the leftmost black bit is assumed to be the left side
bearing. This field can be ignored, as FontCreator will ensure this field is correct when a font
is exported.

Instructions may depend on point size

Set this flag when there are instructions that depend on point size. Instructions may use point
size explicitly in place of pixels per em. This means that scaling a 12 point screen font to
obtain the equivalent printer font may not produce the identical result as requesting a 12 point
printer font.

Force ppem to integer values for all internal scaler math

When this field is selected integer scaling will be used instead of fractional scaling. Fractional
ppem sizes may be used if this field is not selected.

Instructions may alter advance width

When this field is set it allows the font to alter device dependent widths (the advance widths
might not scale linearly).

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 Editing Fonts 69

Apple specific field 5

This field should be set in fonts that are intended to be laid out vertically, and in which the
glyphs have been drawn such that an x-coordinate of 0 corresponds to the desired vertical
baseline.

Reserved
Reserved, do not check this field

Apple specific field 7

This field should be set if the font requires layout for correct linguistic rendering (e.g. Arabic
fonts).

Apple specific field 8

This field should be set for a GX font which has one or more metamorphosis effects
designated as happening by default.

Apple specific field 9

This field should be set if the font contains any strong right-to-left glyphs.

Apple specific field 10

This field should be set if the font contains Indic-style rearrangement effects.

Font data is 'lossless'

Set this flag when font data is 'lossless', as a result of having been compressed and
decompressed with the Agfa MicroType Express engine.

Font converted
Set this flag when the font is converted (produce compatible metrics).

Font optimised for ClearType

Set this field if the font is optimised for ClearType

Last resort font

If set, indicates that the glyphs are simply generic symbolic representations of the assigned
code point ranges and don’t truly represent support for those code points. If unset, indicates
that the glyphs represent proper support for those code points.

Reserved
Reserved, do not check this field

Note: The Apple specific fields should be set according to Apple's specification. However,
they are not implemented in OpenType.

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 70 FontCreator Help

5.4.1.6 Metrics

This page consists of a set of spacing fields and font design flags. On the Format
menu, click Settings, and then click the Metrics tab.

Typo Ascender
The typographic ascender for this font. Remember that this is not the same as
the Ascender value in the Metrics tab, which Apple defines in a far different
manner.

The suggested usage for Typo Ascender is that it be used in conjunction with
units per em to compute a typographically correct default line spacing. The goal
is to free applications from Macintosh or Windows-specific metrics which are
constrained by backward compatibility requirements. These new metrics, when

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Editing Fonts 71

combined with the character design widths, will allow applications to lay out
documents in a typographically correct and portable fashion.

For CJK (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) fonts that are intended to be used for
vertical writing (in addition to horizontal writing), the required value for Typo
Ascender is that which describes the top of the design space (also known as
em-square). For example, if the design space of the font extends from
coordinates 0,-120 to 1000,880 (that is, a 1000x1000 box set 120 design units
below the Latin baseline), then the value of Typo Ascender must be set to 880.
Failing to adhere to these requirements will result in incorrect vertical layout.

Typo Descender
The typographic descender for this font. Remember that this is not the same as
the Descender value in the Metrics tab, which Apple defines in a far different
manner.

The suggested usage for Typo Descender is that it be used in conjunction with
units per em to compute a typographically correct default line spacing. The goal
is to free applications from Macintosh or Windows-specific metrics, which are
constrained by backward compatibility requirements. These new metrics, when
combined with the character design widths, will allow applications to lay out
documents in a typographically correct and portable fashion.

For CJK (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) fonts that are intended to be used for
vertical writing (in addition to horizontal writing), the required value for Typo
Descender is that which describes the bottom of the design space (aka, em-
square). For example, if the design space of the font extends from coordinates
0,-120 to 1000,880 (that is, a 1000x1000 box set 120 design units below the
Latin baseline), then the value of Typo Descender must be set to -120. Failing
to adhere to these requirements will result in incorrect vertical layout.

Typo Line Gap

The typographic line gap for this font. Remember that this is not the same as the
Line Gap value, which Apple defines in a far different manner.

The suggested usage for Typo Line Gap is that it be used in conjunction with
units per em to compute a typographically correct default line spacing. Typical
values average 7-10% of units per em.

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72 FontCreator Help

Win Ascent
The ascender metric for Windows. This, too, is distinct from Apple's Ascender
value and from the Typo Ascender value. Win Ascent is computed as the yMax
for all characters in the Windows ANSI character set. Win Ascent is used to
compute the Windows font height and default line spacing. For Symbol fonts, it
is the same as yMax.

Win Descent
The descender metric for Windows. This, too, is distinct from Apple's Descender
value and from the Typo Descender value. Win Descent is computed as the -
yMin for all characters in the Windows ANSI character set. Win Descent is used
to compute the Windows font height and default line spacing. For Symbol fonts,
it is the same as -yMin.

Use typo metrics for line spacing

If set, it is strongly recommended to use Typo Ascender - Typo Descender +
Typo Line Gap as a value for default line spacing for this font.

Note: this field can only be used with Contents and Layout version 4 or higher.
That version field is available on the General tab.

Ascender (Macintosh-specific)
Typographic ascent

Descender (Macintosh-specific)
Typographic descent

Line Gap (Macintosh-specific)

Typographic line gap. Negative Line Gap values are treated as zero.

Tip: To automatically calculate ascender and descender values press the

Calculate button.

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 Editing Fonts 73

Additional Metrics
x-Height
This metric specifies the distance between the baseline and the approximate
height of non-ascending lowercase letters measured in Funits. This value would
normally be specified by a type designer but in situations where that is not
possible, for example when a legacy font is being converted, the value may be
set equal to the top of the unscaled and unhinted glyph bounding box of the
glyph encoded at U+0078 (LATIN SMALL LETTER X). If no glyph is encoded in this
position the field should be set to 0.

This metric, if specified, can be used in font substitution: the xHeight value of one
font can be scaled to approximate the apparent size of another.

CapHeight
This metric specifies the distance between the baseline and the approximate
height of uppercase letters measured in Funits. This value would normally be
specified by a type designer but in situations where that is not possible, for
example when a legacy font is being converted, the value may be set equal to
the top of the unscaled and unhinted glyph bounding box of the glyph encoded at
U+0048 (LATIN CAPITAL LETTER H). If no glyph is encoded in this position the
field should be set to 0.

This metric, if specified, can be used in systems that specify type size by capital
height measured in millimeters. It can also be used as an alignment metric; the
top of a drop capital, for instance, can be aligned to the CapHeight metric of the
first line of text.

5.4.1.7 Ranges
5.4.1.7.1 Overview

The Ranges page on the Font Properties window has several fields related to
character ranges and additional metrics. On the Font menu, click Properties,
and then click the Ranges tab.

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74 FontCreator Help

Unicode Character Ranges

This field is used to specify the Unicode blocks or ranges encompassed by the
font file in the mappings for the Windows platform. The Ranges depend on the
selected Content and Layout version. Press the Edit button to modify this field
through the Unicode Character Range window or press the Calculate button the
generate the value.

Code Page Character Ranges

This field is used to specify the code pages encompassed by the font file in the
mappings for the Windows platform. Press the Edit button to modify this field
through the Code Page Character Range window or press the Calculate button the
generate the value.

Automatically update character ranges when exporting font

(recommended)

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 Editing Fonts 75

When enabled the character ranges will be updated when the font is exported.
This will make sure that the ranges are always correct.

Note: The specific content of the ranges depend on the Contents and Layout
version as available on the General tab. You don't have to worry about these
settings if the Automatically update is enabled.

Design languages
Lists the languages and/or scripts which the font is specifically intended to cover.
The list is a series of comma-separated ScriptLangTags. Spaces may be used
between tags but are not required. "cy, mi" and "cy,mi" are both valid.

Supported languages
Lists the languages and/or scripts which the font is known to be capable of
supporting. Again, this list is a series of comma-separated ScriptLangTags.

To understand the distinction between design and supported languages, consider

the case of accented Latin letters. Although the accents are used in common by
a number of languages, the precise shape of the accents can depend on the
typographic traditions of a specific language. Polish, for example, prefers steeper
accents than French. A font which was designed with accents specifically for
Polish would then have po-Latn among its 'dlng' tags but Latn among its 'slng'
tags.

ScriptLangTags
A ScriptLangTag denotes a particular script or language associated with a font.
They are based on the IETF BCP 47 specification, “Tags for Identifying
Languages”. See: http://tools.ietf.org/html/bcp47

5.4.1.7.2 Unicode C haracter Range

This field is used to specify the Unicode blocks or ranges encompassed by the
font file in the mappings for the Windows platform. If a Unicode range is
selected it is considered functional. The determination of "functional" is left up to
the font designer, although character set selection should attempt to be
functional by ranges if at all possible.

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 76 FontCreator Help

5.4.1.7.3 C ode Page C haracter Range

This field is used to specify the code pages encompassed by the font file in the mappings for
the Windows platform. If the Windows platform is Windows Symbol, then the Symbol
Character Set should be selected.

If a code page is selected then the code page is considered functional. The determination of
"functional" is left up to the font designer, although character set selection should attempt to
be functional by code pages if at all possible.

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 Editing Fonts 77

Note: Symbol character sets have a special meaning. If the Symbol Character
Set is selected, and the font file contains a Windows Symbol platform, then all of
the characters in the Unicode range 0xF000 - 0xF0FF (inclusive) will be used to
enumerate the symbol character set. If this code page is not selected, any
characters present in that range will not be enumerated as a symbol character
set.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 78 FontCreator Help

5.4.1.8 Characteristics

PANOSE
These fields are used to describe the visual characteristics of a given typeface.
These characteristics are then used to associate the font with other fonts of
similar appearance having different names. The PANOSE evaluation document
details the specifications for assigning PANOSE numbers.
http://www.panose.com/

Font Family Classification

These fields are a classification of the font-family design.
The font class and font subclass are registered values assigned by IBM to each
font family. These fields are intended for use in selecting an alternate font when
the requested font is not available. The font class is the most general and the

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Editing Fonts 79

font subclass is the most specific. More information about this field is available
online:
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/otspec/ibmfc.htm
5.4.1.9 Smoothing
5.4.1.9.1 Overview

The Smoothing page contains information which describes the preferred

rasterization techniques for the typeface when it is rendered on grayscale-
capable devices. It also has some use for monochrome devices, which may use
the table to turn off hinting at very large or small sizes, to improve performance.
On the Font menu, click Properties, and then click the Smoothing tab.

Note: smoothing is optional and only works with TrueType based outlines, so it
will not be included if you export fonts with CFF based outlines.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

80 FontCreator Help

If there are no ranges defined in a typeface, the rasterizer may apply default
rules to decide how to render the glyphs on grayscale devices. The rasterizer will
use the ClearType related values, if ClearType is enabled.

Note: Grayscale rendering and smoothing was invented for screen output and
will not be used by printer drivers.

At very small sizes, the best appearance on grayscale devices can usually be
achieved by rendering the glyphs in grayscale without gridfitting. At intermediate
sizes, gridfitting (also known as hinting) and monochrome rendering will usually
produce the best appearance. At large sizes, the combination of gridfitting and
grayscale rendering will typically produce the best appearance.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Editing Fonts 81

To add a new range, press the Add button. To remove a range, select it and
press the Delete button. To remove all ranges, right-click the list view and select
Delete All.

5.4.1.9.2 Insert Range

In the Insert Range window set the Upper limit and optionally check the Standard and
ClearType fields and press the OK button.

See also:
Smoothing - Overview
5.4.2 Font Information
5.4.2.1 Calculated Fields

Information about the font is found on the Font Information dialog (from the
Font menu).

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

82 FontCreator Help

These fields can't be modified directly as they are calculated and depend on other
font related data, but you can double-click a row to jump to the specific glyph.

Number of Glyphs
The number of glyphs in the font.

Max. Points
Maximum points in a non-composite glyph.

Max. Contours
Maximum contours in a non-composite glyph.

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 Editing Fonts 83

Max. Composite Points

Maximum points in a composite glyph.

Max. Composite Contours

Maximum contours in a composite glyph.

Max. Component Elements

Maximum number of components referenced at "top level" for any composite
glyph.

Max. Component Depth

Maximum levels of recursion; 1 for simple components.

X Minimum for all glyph bounding boxes

Y Minimum for all glyph bounding boxes
X Maximum for all glyph bounding boxes
Y Maximum for all glyph bounding boxes
The bounding box values computed using only glyphs that have contours.

Average Character Width

Average width of all characters

Max. Advance Width

Maximum advance width value

Min. Left Side Bearing

Minimum left side bearing value

Min. Right Side Bearing

Minimum right side bearing value

Max. Hor. Extent

Maximum extent value

First Character
The minimum Unicode index (character code) in this font, according to the
Windows Unicode BMP (UCS-2) or Windows Symbol mapping table. For most
fonts supporting Win-ANSI or other character sets, this value would be 0x0020.

Last Character
The maximum Unicode index (character code) in this font, according to the
Windows Unicode BMP (UCS-2) or Windows Symbol mapping table. This value
depends on which character sets the font supports.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 84 FontCreator Help

5.4.2.2 Unsupported Tables

Over the years the TrueType and OpenType font specifications have been
updated with new tables and numerous tables have become obsolete.
FontCreator supports all common font tables.

EBDT and EBLC can be considered legacy tables. font designers might decide to
keep them for compatibility reasons.
If you want to delete an unsupported table, select the table on the Unsupported
Tables page and press the Delete button.
Note: if your font contains unsupported tables, keep in mind adding or sorting
glyphs might break such unsupported tables.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Editing Fonts 85

5.4.3 OpenType Layout Features

5.4.3.1 Introduction

OpenType Layout Features can be used to extend the functionality of fonts and
create advanced typographic features and add additional capabilities such as
ligatures, alternate glyphs, two-dimensional glyph positioning, specific
functionality for different scripts and languages and much more.
When a font is opened, FontCreator will process all supported features in the font
and split them up into two separate parts. The first part, the glyph substitutions,
will be decompiled into a script that can be edited using the built-in script editor.
The second part, the glyph positioning, will be processed to make them visually
editable in the OpenType Designer.
If the font you're opening contains Microsoft VOLT project data for OpenType
Layout Features, you will be asked if you want to convert this into a FontCreator
project. If you choose not to use Microsoft VOLT project data, the binary
OpenType Layout Features (GPOS, GSUB, and GDEF tables) will be used instead.
You can also import Microsoft VOLT projects later through the OpenType
Designer.
Note: Microsoft VOLT project conversion and importing is only available in the
Professional edition of FontCreator and some features are not supported.

5.4.3.2 Types of substitution and positioning

The OpenType Layout Feature specification describes eight types of substitution

lookups in the glyph substitution table (GSUB) which are all supported by
FontCreator:
# Type Description
1 Single Substitute a single glyph by another single glyph (a -
> b)
2 Multiple Substitute a single glyph by other multiple glyphs (a -
> xyz)
3 Alternate Substitute a single glyph by one of multiple alternates
(a -> x or y or z)
4 Ligature Substitute multiple glyphs by a single ligature (f f i ->
ffi)
5 Context Substitute one or more glyphs in context
6 Chaining Context Substitute context specific glyphs (3rd -> 3 rd)
7 Extension Substitution See * below
8 Reverse chaining Applied in reverse order, replace single glyph in
context chaining context

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86 FontCreator Help

The OpenType Layout Feature specification describes nine types of positioning

lookups in the glyph positioning table (GPOS) which are all supported by
FontCreator:
# Type Description
1 Single adjustment Change the position of a single glyph
(sub/superscript)
2 Pair adjustment Mostly used to define kerning pairs
3 Cursive attachment Used for scripts that require glyphs to attach to the
previous glyphs at exit and entry points
4 Mark to base Attach a combining mark such as a diacritic to a base
attachment glyph
5 Mark to ligature Attach a combining mark to a ligature
attachment
6 Mark to mark Attach a combining mark to another mark
attachment
7 Context Positioning Position one or more glyphs in context
8 Chained Context Position one or more glyphs in chained context
Positioning
9 Extension Substitution See * below

* Extension substitution is a special kind of lookup that is only used for fonts with
a lot of features. FontCreator will automatically include such lookup if needed.

In addition FontCreator also supports all feature parameters currently defined.

So basically FontCreator supports all OpenType Layout Features. For an up-to-

date list of things currently not fully supported, please visit our forums at
http://forum.high-logic.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=5098

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 Editing Fonts 87

5.4.3.3 OpenType Designer

5.4.3.3.1 OpenType Designer

The OpenType Designer provides you with an easy to use visual way to edit
glyph positionings. In the left pane you see how the features and lookups are
organized in your font, and depending on the lookup type you can edit the
properties in the right pane.
The splitter on the dialogue can be dragged to adjust the width of the panes.
Double-click the thumb bar (¦) to dock the script pane when it is not needed or
to undock it.
The left toolbar allows you to add, remove, move, rename and change scripts,
languages, features and lookups. Most of these functions are also available in the
right-click menu when you have selected an item.

Add Add a new script, language, feature or lookup. The available options
depend on which item is selected in the tree. If, for example, you
select a feature, the current script and language will already be pre-
determined on the add dialog.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

88 FontCreator Help

Delete Deletes a script, language, feature and/or lookup. A popup window

will ask you to confirm and select how you want to delete the
selected item.
Rename Rename the selected item. Please note that each script, language,
feature or lookup name has to be unique.
Change Allows you to change the tag (type) of scripts, languages and
tag features. Please note that each tag may only exist once on the
same level of the tree.
Move up *) Move a lookup or feature up
Move *) Move a lookup or feature down
down
Autoname This will provide all your scripts, languages, features and lookups
with consistent and if possible meaningful names
Autokern This will automatically create kerning pairs for pair adjustment
lookups. See also Autokern.
Autoclass Only affects Single and Pair Adjustment lookups: Will (re)group
individual glyphs into glyph classes, based on their left and right side
bearing, width and current adjustment value. This will greatly reduce
the number of visible kerning pairs and allow you to quickly change
adjustment values of multiple glyphs at once.
Break Only affects Single and Pair Adjustment lookups: Will break all
classes classes into separate kerning pairs or single adjustments.
Cleanup Permanently deletes all unused lookups and features, you can use
this to quickly clean up your lookups and features.

*) The order in which lookups are defined is also the order in which they are
processed by host applications. This button allows you to move a lookup down
so they are processed earlier or later. As soon as the host application has found
a match in one of the lookups it will stop processing that specific loookup. This
can be useful to create an "override" for kerning pairs for example. Consider a
large kern lookup which contains several class-based pairs. If one or two pairs
need extra modification, you can add another lookup to the feature and add the
"exceptions" before the actual kern table. This way the host application will find
the "exception" first and will skip the "wrong" value from the large lookup.

The right-click menu on the left pane also provides some additional lookup
specific actions:
Export Only available for Single and Pair Adjustment lookups: Allows you to
export only a single lookup table (including all used classes) and

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 Editing Fonts 89

import it into another font.

Break Break kerning classes into separate kerning pairs.
classes
Autoclass Perform auto grouping on the selected lookup table only.

Preview Area
The preview area allows you to quickly test your OpenType layout features. The
Preview tool window has almost the same functionality.

Import
The import function allows you to import an OpenType Layout Feature Definition
script. If the script contains only a lookup table, the lookup table will be added to
the existing lookups. If the script contains script and language declarations, all
existing items will be deleted and overwritten. The Professional Edition of
FontCreator 10.1 also allows you to import Microsoft VOLT project (*.vtp)
files.

Export
The export function allows the export of all scripts, languages, features and
lookup definitions, including those that are not in use. Class definitions will also be
exported. If you want to export only a single lookup table, you can right-click on
one of the lookup tables, and select “Export Lookup”. Please note that exporting
a single lookup is only supported for Single and Pair adjustments.

Clear
Remove all scripts, languages, features, feature params, lookups, classes, and
anchors.

Lookupflags
Right to From a technical point of view, this is only important for Cursive
Left Attachment lookups. When checked the last glyph in a given
sequence to which the cursive attachment lookup is applied, will be
positioned on the baseline.

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90 FontCreator Help

For all other lookups it is used within FontCreator to indicate that the
lookup is used for right to left writing. For kerning pairs this means
that the first and second glyph will be visually swapped.
Ignore If checked, the processing application will skip over the base glyphs*
Base
Glyphs
Ignore If checked, the processing application will skip over ligatures*
Ligatures
Process Defines which marks* should be processed
Marks
Mark Defines which marks* should be filtered
Filtering
Set

*) Base, Ligature, and Mark are Opentype Types which can be defined
through the Glyph Properties toolwindow.

Clear subtable will delete all entries of the currently selected subtable, to clear
an entire lookup table (including all subtables) use the right-click menu in the left
pane.

Settings
The settings button will open the Designer Settings

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Editing Fonts 91

5.4.3.3.2 C lass Manager

The class manager allows you to manage the classes used in the OpenType
Designer. Here you can add, delete and rename classes and add or remove the
glyphs in the class. Please note that when you delete a class, add or remove any
of its members, the lookups associated with the class will also be changed. This
means for example that when you add or remove a glyph to/from a class, the
associated kerning pairs will also be added or removed automatically.

The cleanup button in the toolbar will delete all classes that are not used by any
of the lookups.

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 92 FontCreator Help

Note: In general the order in which items appear in a class is not important for
glyph positioning, however for glyph substitutions it is.

5.4.3.3.3 Subtable Manager

When a lookup contains a lot of entries, it is recommended (and sometimes

even mandatory) to create multiple subtables to keep things organized. The
Subtable Manager allows you to add, remove, rename and move subtables.
Just as with normal lookups, the order in which subtables appear controls how
they are processed.

Note: There are technical limitations to how many items can be stored in each
subtable. When a font is exported, FontCreator will break up subtables into
several separate subtables if necessary. We do however recommend splitting
larger lookups into several subtables yourself to keep your items organized.

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 Editing Fonts 93

5.4.3.3.4 Designer Settings

The OpenType Designer Settings allow you to modify the look and feel of the
designer.

Background Color
Color of the background
Grid color
Color of the grid
Baseline Color
Color of the baseline
Show Bearings
Enables/Disables the drawing of the bearings
Show Grid
Enables/Disables the grid
Show Baseline
Enables/Disables the drawing of the baseline

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 94 FontCreator Help

5.4.3.3.5 Autokern Settings

With Autokerning, you can generate new kern values for the existing kerning
pairs. You can start this dialog by selecting a Pair Adjustment lookup in the
OpenType Designer dialog, right-click it, and then select Autokern..

You can use the Preview area at the bottom of the OpenType Designer dialog to
test the kerning pairs.

Glyph spacing factor allows you to define the distance between glyphs. The
larger the factor the more space between glyphs, thus the larger the left and
right side bearings.
Preview is where you can define a preview text sample which will be shown in
the preview area.

The Next button takes you to the next where you can set additional options.

Note: The Automatic Kerning wizard is not available in the Home Edition of
FontCreator.

See also:
Autokern new pair adjustment lookup

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 Editing Fonts 95

5.4.3.3.6 Substitutions

Substitution lookups allow you to supply glyph substitutes. There are several
types of glyph substitution. The most common one is the ligature substitution,
but which ones you want to use depends on what you want to achieve.

Within the OpenType Designer you can add specific substitution lookups to your
features.

5.4.3.3.7 Single Adjustment

Single Adjustment is commonly used to create a Capital Spacing, Superscript or

Subscript feature.
On the right pane you can change the properties for each glyph separately, or
when you create a class of glyphs, modify the properties of each glyph in the
class simultaneously.
When you select a class, the droplist on the top of the right pane allows you to
select a single member from the class, please note however that when you edit
a value, it will be for all glyphs in the class at once.

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 96 FontCreator Help

To modify the values, you can either type in the values manually, or use your
mouse and keyboard to drag the glyph into the right position.
• The left and right mouse buttons allow you to change the XAdvance
• While holding down the shift button, you can change the XPlacement and
YPlacement.

Note: For a description of the XAdvance, YAdvance, XPlacement and YPlacement

fields, please see the Pos Syntax
Add... Add a new Single Adjustment
Delete Delete the selected Single Adjustment
Reset Reset the values to their previous values
Clear Set all fields to zero

5.4.3.3.8 Pair Adjustment

Pair adjustments are most commonly used to create kerning pairs.

Note: Even though you can set values for the second glyph, it is recommended
to keep those values all to zero. If you do set any of those values to non-zero,

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 Editing Fonts 97

the text layout engine will skip the next possible pair for adjustment, which is
usually not what a font designer intends, or expects to happen.
On the right pane you can change the properties for each glyph separately, or
when you create a class of glyphs, modify the properties of each glyph in the
class simultaneously.
When you select a pair containing a class, the droplist on the top of the right
pane allows you to select a single glyph from the class, please note however that
when you edit a value, it will be for all glyphs in the class at once.
To easily identify positive and negative kern values (XAdvance for the first glyph),
the listbox will show negative kerning pairs in green, positive in blue, and zero in
red.
To modify the values, you can either type in the values manually, or use your
mouse and keyboard to drag the glyph into the right position.
• The left and right mouse buttons allow you to change the XAdvance of the
glyph you click on
• While holding down the shift button, you can change the XPlacement and
YPlacement of the glyph you click on.

Note: For a description of the XAdvance, YAdvance, XPlacement and YPlacement

fields, please see the Pos Syntax
Add... Add a new Pair Adjustment
Delete Delete the selected Pair Adjustment
Reset Reset the values to their previous values
Clear Set all fields to zero

On exporting a font, all sub tables containing class based kerning will be saved in
a compact class based format, unless the sub table contains overlapping classes.
Then such sub table will be saved in a flat format. To check whether sub tables
contain overlapping classes, open the table in the OpenType Layout Feature
Code Editor and compile the code.

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 98 FontCreator Help

5.4.3.3.9 Marks

Mark to Base, Mark to Ligature, and Mark to Mark are commonly used to add
diacritic marks to base and ligature glyphs. Mark to Base and Mark to Mark are
identical in usage, the only difference is that for mark to mark only mark glyphs
may be used.
With Mark to Base, Mark to Ligature, Mark to Mark, glyphs are connected to
each other via so called anchors. Anchors control the behaviour how the mark
glyph interacts with the base glyph.

Note: the number of anchor values used with Mark to Ligature lookups can be
set through the Glyph Properties.
Each base glyph has an anchor point that is defined with the left X and Y value

and is indicated by the anchor icon: Modifying these values will change the
location of where each of the defined mark glyph will be drawn.
Each mark glyph also has an anchor point that is defined with the right X and Y
value. Modifying these values will change the location of where the mark glyph
will be drawn in relation to the base glyph anchor.

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 Editing Fonts 99

In short:
Modify left X,Y: Change position of all marks in relation to the base glyph
Modify right X,Y: Change position of mark in relation to all base glyphs

When used correctly, anchors are a very powerful tool to quickly change the
position of several base/mark glyph combinations without having to modify all of
your pairs. For example: if you create an anchor for uppercase glyphs and an
anchor for lowercase glyphs, you could change the location of the mark of all
lowercase glyphs at once, without modifying the uppercase glyphs.

< Prev Moves to the next Base/Mark pair

Next > Moves to the previous Base/Mark pair
Reset Reset the values to their previous values
Clear Set all fields to zero
All Same This will set the same anchor value for all glyphs in
the currently selected glyph class

Combining marks and signs that appear in text not in conjunction with a valid
consonant base are considered invalid. In Windows, Uniscribe displays these
marks using the fallback rendering mechanism, on a dotted circle. For the
fallback mechanism to work properly, a font should contain a glyph for the
dotted circle (U+25CC). In case this glyph is missing from the font, the invalid
signs will be displayed on the missing glyph shape (.notdef).

5.4.3.3.10 C ursive Attachment

A Cursive Attachment lookup is mostly used to describe cursive scripts and other
glyphs that are connected with the special Cursive anchor class, which allows
glyphs to connect through entry and exit anchors.

ggg

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 100 FontCreator Help

5.4.3.3.11 Anchor Manager

You can use the Anchor manager to add, remove and rename anchor classes.
Cursive is a special anchor class which is solely used with Cursive Attachment
lookups.
You can add anchors to glyphs through the Anchors toolbar, Glyph Edit window,
and the OpenType Designer dialog.

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 Editing Fonts 101

5.4.3.3.12 C hained C ontext

Chained Context positioning is most commonly used to change the position of

certain glyphs in a specified sequence of glyphs.

5.4.3.3.13 Feature Parameters

There are several features that support additional parameters:

- Character Variants (cv01 - cv99)

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102 FontCreator Help

- Optical size (size)

- Stylistic Sets (ss01 - ss20)
FontCreator supports all these feature parameters. To get access to those
parameters, select or add the specific feature within the OpenType Designer
dialog.

Character Variant

The above Character Variant feature contains the following Alternates lookup:

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Editing Fonts 103

Stylistic Sets

As shown above, all Stylistic Sets feature parameters are grouped together.

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 104 FontCreator Help

Note: At the time of writing this manual, only a few applications make use of one
or more of these parameters, but since more and more professional fonts do
contain them, it is just a matter of time before we see advanced word
processing software and desktop publishing applications to support these feature
parameters.
5.4.3.4 Script Editor
5.4.3.4.1 OpenType Layout Feature C ode Editor

The OpenType Layout Feature Code Editor allows you to take full control
over all the supported OpenType Layout Features in your font. Because adding
features can be very time-consuming the editor uses a scripting language that is
very easy to use and understand.
The OpenType editor supports a script-based syntax to define OpenType Layout
Features for both Glyph Substitutions (GSUB) and Glyph Positioning (GPOS).

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 Editing Fonts 105

To test if the syntax is correct and all Glyph names are valid, select Compile in
the Actions menu, use the shortcut key F9, or click the button on the toolbar. If
there are any syntax errors or glyph names that could not be resolved, the
Output window will list them. You can double-click on the error to quickly jump
to the line where the error occurred.
If you want the compiler to ignore unknown glyphs, and allow empty classes and
lookups, then click the warning icon in the toolbar.
When you click the OK button, the code will be compiled and on success will
replace all your existing scripts, features, lookups, classes, and anchors.

5.4.3.4.2 Automatic OpenType Layout Features

FontCreator can automatically add a lot of common ligatures and other

OpenType Layout Features to your font. The only requirement is that your glyph

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 106 FontCreator Help

names are properly set. For a full list of features and their required glyph names
please see the following web page:
http://www.high-logic.com/fontcreator/otlf/features.xml
These common features can only be added if the font has no OpenType features
yet (or if you explicitly remove those features by clicking the Clear button in the
OpenType Designer dialog). To add these common features, open the OpenType
Designer, and from there click the Code Editor button. FontCreator will then
show a confirmation dialog.

5.4.3.4.3 Script Syntax

5.4.3.4.3.1 Basics

A script consist of several "blocks" containing declarations for scripts, features,

lookups and classes. A block is started by the keyword and optional name
and/or tag following a left curly bracket "{". A block is closed by a right curly
bracket "}".
It is not possible to nest these blocks, with the exception of the language block
which has to be nested into a script block. Names of blocks must be unique
across the script and they are case-sensitive. It is possible to reference a block
before it is declared. A compiler error will be generated when a feature is
referenced that does not exist, and when a feature is declared but not
referenced.

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 Editing Fonts 107

Basic layout of a script:

script <tag> {
<feature references>
}

feature <name> <tag> {

<lookup references>
}

lookup <name> {
[featureflags <flags>]
<substitution declarations>
}

5.4.3.4.3.2 C omments

The script-based syntax to define OpenType Layout Features supports single line
comments. A single line comment ends at the end of the line. To add comments
to your script, simply add a # (number sign) in front of it. Alternatively use two
subsequent slashes:

# This is comment
// This is comment as well

In general comments are not useful, as they will be lost as soon as the code is
compiled into binary OpenType layout features.

5.4.3.4.3.3 Script

The script keyword is used to declare a block of features for a specific script.
When the features are to be used for all scripts, the script "dflt" (default) should
be used.
script <tag> {
feature <featurename1>;
feature <featurename2>;
feature <featurename3>;
}

• tag is one of the script tags defined on the Microsoft list of script tags. The
proposed script tags on that list are also supported. A full list of script tags can
be found at: http://www.microsoft.com/typography/otspec/scripttags.htm

5.4.3.4.3.4 Language

The language keyword is used to include a feature into a specific language. All
features not assigned to a specific language will be added to the default language.
The language keyword can only be used inside a script block. Assigning a feature
to a specific language:

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 108 FontCreator Help

script <scripttag> {
<features> # available in the default language
language <tag> {
<features> # only available in this language
}
}

Where:
• tag is one of the language tags defined on the Microsoft list of language tags
(deprecated languages are not supported). A full list of supported languages
can be found at
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/otspec/languagetags.htm

Don't forget to include features to the default language, as the default language
will be used as fallback in case the language of text in a document isn't available
in the script. Windows always uses the default language, although that might
change in the future.

Note: There are fonts that have unknown language tags like "TUR " and "IPA ",
these are either deprecated or common mistakes. The following table lists
several of these tags and their proper replacements
Wrong Correct tag Description
tag
DHV DIV Dhivehi
IPA IPPH Phonetic transcription
TUR TRK Turkish
CHN ZHS or ZHH Chinese Simplified or Chinese, Hong Kong SAR

5.4.3.4.3.5 C lass

The class keyword is used to declare a class of glyphs to be used for Chained
Context Substitution and several GPOS lookup types.

class @<class name> [ <glyphs> ];

Where:
• name is a name you can create yourself. You may only use a-z, A-Z, 0-9 and
"_" in your name and it must start with an @ (at) sign. Names are case-
sensitive, and may only be declared once.

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 Editing Fonts 109

5.4.3.4.3.6 Feature

The feature keyword is used in two ways: To reference a feature and to declare
a feature. A feature is referenced from a script block to indicate the specified
feature is available in that script.
Referencing a feature:
script <tag> {
feature MyLigatures; # referencing feature "MyLigatures"
}

Declaring a feature:
feature <name> <tag> {
<feature declaration>
}

Where:
• name is a name you can create yourself. You may only use a-z, A-Z, 0-9
and "_" in your name. Names are case-sensitive, and may only be declared
once.
• tag is one of the feature tags defined on the Microsoft list of feature tags. A
full list of available tags can be found at
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/otspec/featurelist.htm

5.4.3.4.3.7 Feature Params

The params keyword is used in two ways: To reference feature parameters and
to declare them. A feature params is referenced from a feature block to indicate
the specified feature params is available in that feature.
Referencing a feature params:
feature CharacterVariants01_1 cv01 {
params FeatureParams_cv01;
}

feature OpticalSize1 size {

params FeatureParams_size;
}

feature StylisticSet1_1 ss01 {

params FeatureParams_ss01;
}

Declaring feature params:

There are currently three defined feature params:
Optical Size features (size) use the sizeparams:
params FeatureParams_size sizeparams {

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110 FontCreator Help

designsize 100; // the design size in decipoints

subfamily 3; // serves as an identifier that associates fonts in a
subfamily
range 80 120; // represents the recommended usage range (start = exclusive)
and (end = inclusive), stored in decipoints
name 1033 "Content"; // The name for the subfamily
}

Stylistic Sets features (ss01-ss20) use the ssetparams:

params FeatureParams_ss01 ssetparams {
name 1033 "Content for Stylisitc Set 1"; // specifies text for a user-interface
label
}

Character Variants features (cv01-cv99) use the cvarparams:

params FeatureParams_cv01 cvarparams {
label {
name 1033 "Capital-eng variants"; // specifies text for a user-interface label
}
tooltip {
name 1033 "Select glyph variants for capital eng."; // specifies a tooltip text
}
sampletext {
name 1033 "Content for Sample Text"; // text that illustrates the effect of the
feature
}
variant {
name 1033 "Content for Variant 1"; // specifies text for variant 1
name 1033 "Content for Variant 2"; // specifies text for variant 2
name 1033 "Content for Variant 3"; // specifies text for variant 3
}
characters [70 80]; // characters codepoints for which glyph variants are provided
}

name
The name keyword requires a language id and text.
Language ID: A full list of supported Windows Language IDs can be found at
https://www.microsoft.com/typography/otspec/name.htm. Like many values,
the language id can be provided in decimal or hexadecimal notation. For example
to use language English - United States, you can provide either $409 or 1033.
Text: The text needs to be enclosed by double quote characters, unless text is
made out the following characters: a-z, A-Z, 0-9. If you want to include a double
quote inside the text, you'll need to add two of them.

Note: the language id used with the name keyword is not related to the language
keyword.

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 Editing Fonts 111

5.4.3.4.3.8 Lookup

The lookup keyword is used in two ways: To reference a lookup and to declare a
lookup. A lookup is referenced from a feature block to indicate the specified
lookup should be used for that feature. Lookups can also be referenced from
Chained context lookups

Referencing a lookup from a feature:

feature MyLigatures liga {
lookup <name>;
}

Referencing a lookup from a chained context lookup:

lookup MyChainedContextLookup {
context (@BackTrackClasses) @InputClasses (@LookAheadClasses);
sub 0 <lookup name>;
}

Declaring a lookup:
lookup <name> <tag> {
<lookup declarations>
}

Note: It is possible to set optional lookup flags (properties) via the lookupflags
keyword.

5.4.3.4.3.9 Lookupflags

The lookupflags keyword is used to modify several flags (properties) of a

lookup. The current supported flags are:
RightToLeft This bit relates only to the correct processing of the
cursive attachment lookup type (GPOS lookup type 3).
When this bit is set, the last glyph in a given sequence to
which the cursive attachment lookup is applied, will be
positioned on the baseline.
IgnoreBaseGlyphs Skips over base glyphs
IgnoreLigatures Skips over ligatures
IgnoreMarks Skips over combining marks
UseMarkFilteringSet Indicates that the lookup table structure is followed by a
MarkFilteringSet field. The layout engine skips over all mark
glyphs not in the mark filtering set indicated.

Applying lookupflags to a lookup:

lookup MyLookupTable {
lookupflags <flags>;

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 112 FontCreator Help

When you want to apply more than one flag to a lookup, simply separate them
by spaces.
Note: Lookup flag names are case-sensitive.

5.4.3.4.3.10 Subtable

Sometimes lookup tables are very large and it's better to break them up into
several smaller tables: for this the keyword subtable can be used. Subtables are
most commonly used in kerning tables that contain a lot of kerning pairs. We
recommend a subtable for every 16,000 kerning pairs.
Declaring a subtable is only possible from within a normal lookup table:
lookup MyKerningLookup {
subtable [name] {
<lookup declarations>
}
}

When declaring multiple subtables, the first subtable is not required to obey the
subtable syntax, but any consecutive subtable is. This means that:
lookup MyKerningLookup {
<lookup declarations>

subtable [name] {
<lookup declarations>
}
}

is valid, but
lookup MyKerningLookup {
subtable [name] {
<lookup declarations>
}
<lookup declarations>
}

is not.

The subtable name is optional, but we recommend defining one for clarity.
Note: The first declared subtable will define the lookup type and all consecutive
subtables will have to be of the same type.

5.4.3.4.3.11 Sub

The sub keyword declares a substitute. As explained in the supported

substitution types section there are several substitution types. Substitutions can
only be declared in lookups. It is not possible to declare a substitution directly in a

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 Editing Fonts 113

feature. Each lookup can only have one type of substitution; this means that if
you want to use several substitution types in a single feature, multiple lookups
have to be declared.
Declaring Single (Type 1) substitutions
lookup MyLookupTable {
sub A -> a.smcp;
}

Declaring Multiple (Type 2) substitutions

lookup MyLookupTable {
sub ffi -> f f i;
}

Declaring Alternate (Type 3) substitutions

lookup MyLookupTable {
sub asterisk -> [asterisk asteriskmath uni2051 uni2042 uni203B uni273B];
}

Declaring Ligature (Type 4) substitutions

lookup MyLookupTable {
sub f f i -> ffi;
}

Declaring Chained Context (Type 6) substitutions

lookup MyLookupTable {
context (@<backtrackclasses>) @<inputclasses (@<lookaheadclasses);
sub 0 <substitution table>;
}

IMPORTANT: The order in which substitute declarations appear is also the way
they are processed by applications supporting OpenType Layout Features. This
means that in the case of ligatures:
lookup MyLookupTable {
sub f i -> fi;
sub f f i -> ffi;
}

is not the same as:

lookup MyLookupTable {
sub f f i -> ffi;
sub f i -> fi;
}

and the latter declaration will have the proper result. Why? When the sequence "f
i" is encountered it will be replaced by the fi character and will no longer match
the f f i sequence. In the latter example "f f i" is matched before "f i" and the
result is as expected.

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 114 FontCreator Help

5.4.3.4.3.12 Pos

The pos keyword declares a glyph positioning. As explained in the supported

glyph positioning types there are several positioning types. Positioning
declarations can only be declared in lookups. It is not possible to declare a
positioning directly in a feature. Each lookup can only have one type of
positioning; this means that if you want to use several positioning types in a
single feature, multiple lookups have to be declared.
For most positioning declarations several coordinates can be defined that
determine the glyph's positioning changes. Each declaration consists of one to
four coordinates.

The format of a coordinate is (including brackets):

<XAdvance YAdvance XPlacement YPlacement>
The XAdvance must always be specified, the YAdvance, XPlacement and
YPlacement are optional.

XAdvance horizontal adjustment for advance

YAdvance vertical adjustment for advance
XPlacement horizontal adjustment for placement
YPlacement vertical adjustment for placement

Declaring Single adjustments (Type 1) positioning

Single positioning is used to alter the position of a single glyph or glyph class and
can be used to easily create subscript and superscript like features using the
same glyphs.
lookup MyLookupTable {
pos A <-20 [0 0 0]>;
}

For classes the syntax is very similar:

class @class1 [A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z]

lookup MyLookupTable {
pos @class1 <-20>
}

Declaring Pair adjustments (Type 2) positioning

Pair positioning is used to alter the position of 2 glyphs or glyph classes and is
mostly used to define kerning pairs.

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 Editing Fonts 115

lookup MyLookupTable {
pos A B <-10 [0 0 0]> [<0 [0]>];
}

For classes the syntax is very similar:

class @class1 [A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z]
class @class2 [a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z]

lookup MyLookupTable {
pos @class1 @class2 <-20>
}

This will create 676 kerning pairs with a value of -20 with only one line of code.
It is also possible to combine a class with a single glyph:
class @class1 [A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z]

lookup MyLookupTable {
pos @class1 hyphen <-10>
}

This will create 26 kerning pairs with a value of -10 with only one line of code

Declaring Mark to Base (Type 4) positioning

Mark to base positioning is used to attach mark glyphs (diacritics) to base glyphs
using anchors.
lookup MyLookupTable {
mark acute 0 0;
mark ring 0 0;
pos A mark -10 30;
pos B mark -10 20;

mark esp 0 0;
pos A mark -10 20;
}

Declaring Mark to Mark (Type 6) positioning

Mark to mark positioning is used to attach mark glyphs to other mark glyphs.
The syntax is exactly the same for Mark to Mark positioning, but only mark
glyphs are used.

Declaring Chained Context (Type 8) positioning

This is syntax is identical to the GSUB syntax. The only difference is that the
substitution tables are GPOS lookups instead of GSUB lookups.

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 116 FontCreator Help

5.4.3.4.3.13 Examples and Help

For example scripts and help with creating custom scripts, please visit our
forums at:
http://forum.high-logic.com/

5.5 Tools
5.5.1 Glyph Transformer
The Glyph Transformer wizard can be selected from the Tools menu. Glyph
transformations are scripts for changing the shape and size of glyphs, and for
automating other repetitive tasks.

FontCreator comes with 70 powerful scripts. There are scripts that allow you to
change a font into an italic or bold version. Other scripts extend a font's range by
adding characters for Greek Extended, Eastern Europe, Vietnamese, Ligatures,
Small Capitals, and more. Several transform scripts use glyph names to insert

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 Editing Fonts 117

unmapped glyphs for use with OpenType features: Petite and Small Capitals for
Latin and Greek, Titling Capitals, Ordinals, Alternative Fractions, Lining, OldStyle,
Proportional and Tabular Figures, Subscripts for fractions, Discretionary Ligatures,
Stacking Diacritics, and Low Profile Diacritics. Each script contains descriptive
comments and advice on how to use it.
These scripts can be modified to suit your needs, and you can compose custom
scripts by adding commands from the list of available features on the left. Save
them to use again later using the save icon, and load a saved script using the
folder icon. Press the OK button to execute the currently loaded script on the
current glyph in the glyph edit window, on the selected glyphs, or on the entire
font.
Tip: Save the font and copy the selected glyphs before using the Transform
wizard, as this operation is not undoable.

Info: If you really want to get the most out of this feature, we encourage you to
read the document Using Glyph Transformations, available from our website:
http://www.high-logic.com/font-editor/fontcreator/tutorials.html

Note: The Transform wizard is not available in the Home Edition of FontCreator.

5.5.2 AutoMetrics
5.5.2.1 Metrics

With the Automatic Metrics wizard (select AutoMetrics from the Tools menu),
you can generate the bearings for a selection of glyphs.

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118 FontCreator Help

Optical
In Optical mode all Latin characters are analyzed to find the best optical space
before and after each character. Please note that this process can take from
several minutes up to several hours.

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 Editing Fonts 119

Glyph spacing factor allows you to define the distance between glyphs. The
larger the factor the more space between glyphs, thus the larger the left and
right side bearings.
Character width for digits allows you to choose how to calculate the advance
width for digits:
- Tabular: It is common digits all have the same advance width, as it allows
numerals to align vertically in tables and financial statements.
- Proportional: All digits have their own advance width.
Preview is where you can define a preview text sample which will be shown in
the preview area.

This feature is not available in the Home and Standard editions of FontCreator.
Note: Add specific OpenType Layout Features if you want to include both Tabular
and Proportional digits.

Fixed Bearings
In Fixed Bearings mode the white spaces before and after the selected glyphs will
be modified. You can select the glyphs in step 2.

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 120 FontCreator Help

Fixed Width
In Fixed Width mode the advance width will be modified so all selected glyphs
have the exact same with. This is especially useful for converting a proportional
font into a monospaced font. You can select the glyphs in step 2.

Note: Fixed might also be useful for the digits (characters 0 to 9), as it is
common they all have the same advance width.
5.5.2.2 Glyph Selection

In the left hand panel you see the glyphs which are present in your font. The right
hand panel will contain the glyphs which you select for modification of bearings.

Use the buttons located between the two panels of glyphs to move glyphs:
• The top button will transfer all glyphs from the left hand panel to the right
hand panel. This is useful if many glyphs need modification. The unwanted
glyphs can be selected and returned to the left panel.
• The second button transfers only selected glyphs from the left panel to the
right panel for modification.
• The third button returns only selected glyphs from the right panel to the left
panel. These glyph bearings, perhaps, require no modification.

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 Editing Fonts 121

• The bottom button will transfer all glyphs from the right panel to the left
panel.

Press the Finish button to return to the Font Overview window to check the
result.
5.5.3 AutoKern
5.5.3.1 Setup

With the Automatic Kerning wizard, you can generate kerning pairs for all Latin
characters. The pairs will be added to a new pair positioning lookup which is
added to the kern feature which is available for Latin script with default language.
You can start this wizard by selecting AutoKern from the Tools menu,
alternatively you can open this wizard from the OpenType Designer dialog.

Kerning is the reducing/increasing of the space allocated between two glyphs to

make them fit more comfortably. Sometimes you want the bearings to be
different in special situations. When you want to change the distance between
two characters you could use kerning pairs. For example the A and the V could
be closer (AV) together than TV.

It is important to first ensure the left and right side bearings are all set correctly
for the individual glyphs. This can be done manually through the Glyph Properties
toolwindow, or automatically through the Optical Metrics feature.

Most but not all Operating Systems and applications support kerning. If they
don't support kerning they simply ignore the kerning pairs. Many sophisticated
word processors, most desktop publishing (DTP) applications, and all modern
web browsers have kerning support.

You can use the Preview area at the bottom of the OpenType Designer dialog to
test the kerning pairs. You can also install the font and use an application that
supports kerning.
Tip: The Test Font window, which temporarily installs the font, also supports
OpenType kerning. The name of the temporarily installed font looks like
FontName 012345. So while the Test Font window is open, you will be able to
use the font in any application (e.g. Word). However, when you open the Test
Font window again you'll have to change the font's name in the application,
because the temporary font name identification number always changes.

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122 FontCreator Help

In Microsoft Office Word select Font from the Format menu and select the
Character Spacing tab. There you can turn on kerning in Word by checking the
kerning for fonts field.

Note: Kerning in Symbol fonts won't be used in Microsoft Word.

Warning: Automatic Kerning can't be used with symbol fonts.

Glyph spacing factor allows you to define the distance between glyphs. The
larger the factor the more space between glyphs, thus the larger the left and
right side bearings.
Preview is where you can define a preview text sample which will be shown in
the preview area.

The Next button takes you to the next where you can set additional options.

Note: The Automatic Kerning wizard is not available in the Home Edition of
FontCreator.

See also:
Autokern existing pair adjustment lookup

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 Editing Fonts 123

5.5.3.2 Kern

In this step, enter the values for white space between glyphs and the minimum
absolute kerning value.

Select Exclude lowercase-uppercase pairs if you don't want to generate pairs

for LC-UC combinations (for example aB and mE).
You can exclude pairs if the kern value is below a certain threshold value.

Click the Finish button to start generating kerning pairs, otherwise click the Back
or Cancel button.

5.5.4 Import Images

5.5.4.1 Import Raster Image

Import image can be selected from the Tools menu when you have activated a
Glyph Edit window or it can be selected from the context menu after right-
clicking in the window.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

124 FontCreator Help

When you click on the Load button you get an open dialog box where you can
open an image file (recommended image dimension between 250x250 and
500x500 pixels). The image will be displayed on the left and there will be a
bitmap that is going to be used for the conversion on the right. There are some
filters and other operations you can apply to the source image before starting
the conversion.

If your source image is small, you might get better results if you resize the
image.

The Threshold level is used to convert a color image into a black and white
image. The Threshold level is the lightness value above which colors are turned
black. All colors with lightness values above the level are turned into black. At a
Threshold level of 1, all colors except white change to black.

Check the Negative image field to invert the image.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Editing Fonts 125

Dilation causes objects to grow in size and erosion causes objects to shrink.
The amount that they grow or shrink depends upon the value specified on the
right of the selection box.

Use the Smooth Filter to smooth the image. This will usually reduce the number
of generated points.

When the Import Mode is set to Trace, the image will be converted with
curves. This is the recommended setting. In case you don't want curves
(especially useful for bar code fonts and pixel fonts), set the Import Mode to
Pixels.

Check the Default field to save the current settings as the default for each new
import. These settings are also used when pasting an image from the clipboard.
Choosing to press the Cancel button will retain these default settings.

Use the settings on the Glyph tab to position and resize the generated contours.

When you press the Generate button the conversion will start.

Tip: You can also paste an image from the clipboard or drag and drop
image(s) from explorer into the Font Overview and Glyph Edit windows.

Note: You can't import images into composite glyphs.

5.5.4.2 Import Vector Image

Import Image can be selected from the Tools menu when you have activated
a Glyph Edit window or it can be selected from the context menu after right-
clicking in the window. When you open a vector based image file, the file will be
instantly imported.
In vector based image editing software you can use all kinds of objects to create
your images. Such objects can be paths, lines, shapes, text, etc. That's not it, as
you can also apply specific strokes to each of these objects. These strokes
control thickness, how segments join, and the appearance of both ends of an
open path. There are numerous other capabilities like fill objects, gradients, etc.

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126 FontCreator Help

FontCreator can only extract the bare paths, thus completely ignores the
strokes, fills, etc. And since glyphs can only consist of closed contours, all open
paths are automatically closed.

Importing Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)

FontCreator supports path, rectangle, circle, and ellipse, so no text, fills,
gradients, etc.

On importing a SVG, FontCreator will also correct contour directions. If for some
reason the glyph outline seems wrong, do ensure your original SVG doesn't
contain overlapping paths.

Importing from Inkscape

For best results do ensure all strokes are converted to closed paths within
Inkscape:
- select all objects
- select Ungroup from the Object menu
- again select Ungroup from the Object menu as some groups might reside in
other groups, etc.
- select Stroke to Path from the Path menu

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 Editing Fonts 127

Then copy and paste that image in FontCreator.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

128 FontCreator Help

Importing from Adobe Illustrator

Here is a logo created with Adobe Illustrator. It contains four lines and a
rectangle with two rounded corners and a gap at the lower right. All of these
objects contain strokes to give them thickness.

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 Editing Fonts 129

When imported into FontCreator, the result is not as intended as the strokes are
not imported, thus the thickness of the objects is stripped off. The lines are all
discarded as contours with only two points are useless. The rectangle is imported
but the gap is no longer there.

One easy step ensures our vector image can be safely imported into
FontCreator. In Adobe Illustrator, select all objects, then from the main menu
select Object -> Path -> Outline Stroke. The result is shown here:

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

130 FontCreator Help

When we import this version of the vector image the result is a perfect fit!

5 contours with 44 points is the final result.

Tip: It is also best to immediately resize the imported contours right after you've
pasted them into FontCreator. The "Add on-curve extremes" feature will round
the coordinates to whole integers, so always do this after you've made sure the
size of the imported contours is correct.

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 Editing Fonts 131

Tip: You can also paste an image from the clipboard or drag and drop image(s)
from explorer into the Font Overview and Glyph Edit windows.

Note: You can't import images into composite glyphs. If you want to include
more contours, then you need to add them to another glyph and add it as glyph
member, or convert the glyph to a simple glyph.

5.5.5 Sorting Glyphs

To change the order of the glyphs within a font select one of the options from
the Sort Glyphs submenu in the Tools menu.
No matter which option you select, these glyphs (if available) will always come
first in the new order.
• .notdef
• .null
• nonmarkingreturn

More information about these special glyphs can be found here: Recommended
Glyphs.

Unicode Codepoints
Glyphs will be sorted by these rules:
• Glyphs are sorted by their codepoints
• Then all remaining glyphs are sorted by their glyph names

Glyph names
Glyphs will be sorted by these rules:
• The glyphs are sorted by their glyph names
• Then all remaining glyphs are sorted by their codepoints

Glyph type (empty, simple, composite)

Glyphs will be sorted by these rules:
• The glyphs are sorted by their glyph type
• Then all remaining glyphs are sorted by their codepoints

Alphanumeric

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 132 FontCreator Help

Glyphs will be sorted by these rules:

• The glyphs are sorted by their mapped character. This features uses default
compare functions as used in Windows.
• Then all remaining glyphs are sorted by their codepoints

5.5.6 Generate Glyph Names

Generate Glyph Names will generate glyph names for all glyphs with a known
code-point. It will also try to set names for glyphs that are used in the specified
OpenType Layout Features.
Note: You can manually add your own glyph names by editing the
"glyphnames.dat" file in the user data folder.
See FontCreator data files for more information.

5.5.7 TrueType Collection

A TrueType Collection file is one or more fonts (TrueType or OpenType)
combined into one file. The Extract TrueType Fonts from TrueType
Collection Wizard, available from the Tools menu, can extract those fonts.

Source file
Select the TrueType Collection file.

Destination folder
The extracted font files will be saved in this folder.

Destination file prefix

The extracted files start with this prefix.

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 Editing Fonts 133

Here you will see all fonts available in the TrueType Collection. Select the fonts
you want to extract and press the Finish button.

5.5.8 External Tools

To quickly access MainType, Windows Fonts folder and Character Map select
Launch Externals from the Tools menu and select the tool you want to open.

5.6 Printing
5.6.1 Print Font
This option (select Print in the File menu) is available when the Font Overview
window is active. If a Glyph Edit window is active you will be able to print a
glyph.

You can choose what kind of font information you want to print:
• Glyphs
• Properties

Print Glyphs
Print all or the selected glyphs.

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 134 FontCreator Help

Print Properties
Print all fields from the Font Properties window.

5.6.2 Print Glyph

Select Print in the File menu to print a single glyph. This option is available when
a Glyph Edit window is active. If the Font Overview window is active you will
be able to print the font.

The print options allow you to print the grid, points and bearings, and you can
choose to fill the outlines.

5.7 Font Validation

5.7.1 Setup
Designing glyphs can be very complicated. The Font Validation wizard, available
from the Font menu, identifies common potential problems and if possible points
you to the specific item (e.g. glyphs, contours and coordinates). It validates all
glyphs and optionally fixes detected problems.

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 Editing Fonts 135

The specific validation tests are explained here:

Duplicate components
This problem will be reported when validating composite glyphs with two or more
identical glyph members.

Empty components
This problem will be reported when validating composite glyphs with empty glyph
members.

Overlapping components
This problem will be reported when validating composite glyphs with intersecting
glyph members. Some font designers consider overlapping composite
components an error, while others don't mind. We recommend to avoid
overlapping contours.
Duplicate contours
This problem will be reported when validating simple glyphs with two or more
identical contours.

Contours with one or two points

This problem will be reported when validating simple glyphs with contours with
one or two points.

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136 FontCreator Help

Contours with incorrect direction

This problem will be reported when validating simple glyphs with contours that
have an incorrect direction (Contours that need to be filled black must have a
clockwise direction. If we want to make a white area inside an existing contour
we must make the direction of the new contour counterclockwise.).

Off-curve extreme coordinates

This test checks whether all off-curve points are inside the global bounding box
(and optionally their local bounding box). You can customize this feature through
the Options window.

The left image shows two red rectangles. The large one is the global bounding
box and the smaller rectangle is a local bounding box between an on-off-on
curve sequence. Both off-curve points lie outside their bounding box. With local
detection enabled, the right image shows the result of clicking the Add on-curve
extremes button on the Validation toolbar.

Redundant points
This problem will be reported when validating simple glyphs with contours with
redundant points.

Duplicate knots
This problem will be reported when validating simple glyphs with contours with
two adjacent points that have the same coordinates but one is on-curve and the
other is off-curve.

Intersecting coordinates
This problem will be reported when validating simple glyphs with (self-)
intersecting contours. Avoid crossing contours whenever possible.
Note: Older PostScript Level 2 drivers do not support overlapping contours.

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 Editing Fonts 137

Suspicious points
This problem will be reported when validating simple glyphs with contours that
have points that require attention because they are likely to be incorrectly
positioned.

Note: The Validation features are not available in the Home Edition of
FontCreator.

5.7.2 Results
After the validation process the (remaining) problems are shown for all glyphs.
Optionally the report can be saved.

Note: The Validation features are not available in the Home Edition of
FontCreator.

5.8 Testing and Installing Fonts

5.8.1 MainType
MainType is a powerful font manager for Windows that helps you maintain your
fonts. Although its main purpose is installing and uninstalling fonts, it also allows
you to insert special characters into documents and the Test window.
You can download MainType from here:
http://www.high-logic.com/font-manager/maintype.html

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 138 FontCreator Help

5.8.2 International Keyboard

Instead of memorizing a long list of Alt number combinations, or using the
Character Map, you could change your language and layout from English-US to
United States-International (or any other available language on your system).
Here's how:
• Single-click the Start menu, mouse over Settings, and then single-click the
Control Panel.
• Double-click the Keyboard icon and then click the Language tab
• Click Add.
• Under "Keyboard layout," place a checkmark next to United States-
International.
• Click OK.
• Click Apply. You may be asked to insert your Windows system disk to finish
loading the process.

You can type in other languages without knowing the Alt codes for a non-English
alphabet. For example, type ~ followed by N to get Ñ. A tilde followed by any
letter will place the appropriate accent on the letter you choose.

5.8.3 Test Your Font

5.8.3.1 Test TrueType/OpenType

Test TrueType/OpenType font

If you want to know how your font is going to look you can test it any time
during the development process. Choose Test TTF/OTF... from the Font menu
or use the shortcut F5

You can enter your own text into the Test window. FontCreator will remember
this text so you can always test your fonts with your preferred text.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Editing Fonts 139

If you want to test how your font will look when it's printed you press the Print
button.

5.8.3.2 Test Font - Edit Text Samples

You can edit the text samples used on the test TrueType/OpenType dialog by
right-clicking on the test area and select Edit Text Samples.

Here you can add, delete and change the order of the text-samples.

5.8.3.3 Test Web font

You can also test your font and OpenType Layout Features as a web font on
a locally generated web page. Choose Test WOFF from the Font menu or use
the shortcut CTRL+F5

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 140 FontCreator Help

If OpenType Layout Features are present, you can toggle them using the
checkboxes on the right.

5.8.4 Installing Fonts

Although it is possible to install a font through Windows fonts folder, FontCreator
has its own Font Installation wizard. To make your font available to other
applications select Install in the Font menu.

The Font Installation wizard will guide you through the installation process. At
the end of the installation process you will be informed that the font is installed
successfully. Now you will be able to select the font in any program that supports
TrueType fonts.

Note: To install a modified font, the font must be exported to file.

Note: It is not recommended to export font files directly into Windows Fonts
folder.

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 Editing Fonts 141

Note: If you are reinstalling the font, it is recommended you delete the font
BEFORE installing the new version.
Note: Don't just drop the font into the Windows Fonts folder!

5.8.5 Character Map

With Windows Character Map you can insert special characters into documents
and the Test window.
From your Start menu mouse over Programs, Accessories, and System Tools,
and then click on Character Map.
In the Character Map select the appropriate font. Click the letter or symbol you
need and click the Select button. Add more characters if needed and finally click
the Copy button. Now go to your document and select Paste from the Edit menu
or use the shortcut Ctrl-V.

Note: To type special characters (like the copyright sign) of the font in your word
processor or page layout program, hold down the Alt key, and then, by using the
numeric keypad, type 0 (zero) followed by the corresponding decimal character
code. Make sure NUM LOCK is on.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

142 FontCreator Help

Another way to input Unicode characters is the hexadecimal entry method that
works with WordPad and Microsoft Word. Probably more applications will follow
soon. Basically you type a character's hexadecimal code (in ASCII), making
corrections if needed, and then type Alt+X. This will replace the hexadecimal code
by the corresponding Unicode character. The same key combination ALT-X can
be used to reveal a characters code. If the hexadecimal code is preceded by one
or more hexadecimal digits, you need to "select" the code so that the preceding
hexadecimal characters aren't included in the code. The code can range up to the
value 0x10FFFF, which is the highest character in the 17 planes of Unicode.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

Part

VI
 144 FontCreator Help

6 Toolbars

6.1 Overview

The toolbars give you one-click access to many of the commands on the
menus. Some menu items have toolbar icons next to them so that you
can quickly associate the command with that icon.

FontCreator's toolbars can be shown or hidden as needed. By default the

Standard, Drawing, Grid, Glyph, Font Overview and the Align or Distribute
toolbars are docked below the menu bar. Choose Toolbars from the View
menu to select toolbars to display or hide, or right-click on any toolbar to get the
same submenu.
The window tab bar cannot be moved or undocked. You can however close it
through the Toolbars item from the View menu.
Tips: Toolbars can be rearranged by dragging, docked on the left, right, top, or
bottom of the FontCreator window, or made floating. In the Glyph Edit Window,
to quickly close a floating toolbar, click the Close button on that toolbar, or use
its shortcut key.

To undock a docked toolbar, double-click its grab handle where the four-arrow
cursor is displayed. To dock it again, double-click the floating toolbar's title bar.
The Transform, Validation, Preview, Background Image and Comparison
toolbars cannot be docked, but they can be toggled on/off with shortcut keys
F6, F7, F8, F9, and F11 respectively.

6.2 User Notes

The User Notes toolbar can be used to write down some text that will be saved
with your project. The User notes will not be exported to your fonts.

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 Toolbars 145

6.3 Transform
The Transform toolbar contains powerful tools for editing simple glyphs. Contours
can be precisely repositioned, resized, moved, skewed, scaled, rotated, or
mirrored. Nodes can be repositioned or moved by precise increments. The
glyph's bearings can also be set.

The Transform toolbar can be toggled on and off using the F6 shortcut key, but
is only available in the Glyph Edit Window.

6.4 Glyph Properties

6.4.1 Glyph Properties
The Glyph Properties toolbar provides a quick way to view and edit some of
the most common glyph properties.

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146 FontCreator Help

Glyph Name
The Glyph Name of the glyph. Press the Generate Name button to let
FontCreator fill in the field.

Codepoints
The codepoints assigned to this glyph. Press the Select Unicode Character
button to select a character from the Unicode Character list. Press the
Generate Codepoint button to let FontCreator fill in the field automatically.
It is possible to enter multiple code points by separating them by commas, but
it's common to have only one character mapped to each glyph.

Unicode name
The Unicode name of the first code-point

Left Side Bearing (LSB)

The (horizontal) start position of the glyph.

Right Side Bearing (RSB)

The (horizontal) end position of the glyph.

Offset
The horizontal offset between x=0 and the Left Side Bearing.

Advance Width (AW)

The width of the glyph and its surrounding space.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Toolbars 147

More/Less
This button allows you to collapse or expand the toolbar, showing only the most
common information.

Extra Info:
Type: Shows the glyph outline type which can be empty, simple or composite.
OpenType Type Combo box: Shows the Glyph OpenType Type, which is
important for the OpenType Layout Features. It can be set to Automatic (so
FontCreator determines the actual type), Unassigned, Simple, Ligature, Mark, or
Component. With Ligatures an additional edit box allows you to specifiy the
number of components. This defines the number of anchor values used with
MarkToLigature lookups.

Tip: You could also adjust the Left Side Bearing and Advance Width in the
Glyph Edit window, by changing the vertical bearings.

6.4.2 Select Character

The Select Character dialog provides a quick way to change a character
mapping. This dialog is available through the Glyph Properties tool window by

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 148 FontCreator Help

clicking the Select Character button .

6.5 Validation
Use the Validation toolbar to locate and solve common glyph problems. It can
be toggled on and off using the F7 shortcut key (or Show glyph validation
report button on the Glyph toolbar), but is only available in the Glyph Edit
window.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Toolbars 149

Note: Because validation can be very time-consuming, real-time glyph problem

detection will be disabled for too complex glyphs. The limits for real-time glyph
validation are set on the Validation tab of the Options dialog.

Red marks in the Glyph Edit window will show the position of the located
problems.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

150 FontCreator Help

Not every problem should be classified as an error, it is the designer's decision to

correct or ignore potential problems. Double-click on a reported problem to
focus the problematic point or contour. There are several buttons on the
Validation toolbar that will perform actions that will automatically solve some
specific problems.

Enable real-time glyph problem detection

Use this button to enable and disable real-time glyph problem detection.

Refresh
When real-time validation is not enabled, use this button to revalidate the glyph.

Save report
Use this button to save the report to file.

Show intersecting components and contours

Intersections will be shown when this button is enabled and is down. Red crosses
in the Glyph Edit window will show the position of the intersections.

Show warning points

Warning points will be shown when this button is enabled and is down. Red
bullets in the Glyph Edit window will show the position of the located problems.

Correct contour directions

Use this button to correct the direction of all misoriented contours in a simple
glyph. This button is only enabled when contour direction problems are detected.
Note: This test will not be performed when Duplicate contours or Intersecting
coordinates have been reported.
Remove duplicate components and contours
This button will remove duplicate components from a composite glyph and will
remove duplicate contours from a simple glyph.

Remove empty components and contours with one and two points
This button will remove empty components from a composite glyph and will
remove contours with one and two points from a simple glyph.

Remove redundant points

Press this button to remove all redundant points.
Note: This feature won't remove duplicate knots as this would affect the outline.
Add on-curve extremes
Press this button to add on-curve extremes. This feature will add global or local
extremes, as customized through the Options window.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Toolbars 151

Note: As this feature generates new points, this could lead to new redundant
points.

Note: The Validation features are not available in the Home Edition of
FontCreator.

See also:
Font Validation

6.6 Preview
While editing a font, you can preview the results with the Preview toolbar. You
can choose a standard text sample from the drop-down list or enter your own
text. It can be toggled on and off using the F8 shortcut key and is available in
both the Font Overview window and the Glyph Edit window.
Selected glyphs in the overview window can be displayed in the Preview toolbar
by pressing the "P" shortcut key. You can also use "Shift P" to add the
selected glyphs to the current text.
The preview is not a full blown OpenType text shaping engine, but is still
extremely useful while testing your font, metrics, kerning and other OpenType
layout features it contains. Use the Test TrueType/OpenType to see how your
font behaves in Windows, and use Test Web font to test it in your default Web
browser.

The drop down lists available at the upper left and the first edit control after
these lists are all related to OpenType Layout Features as defined in the
OpenType Designer dialog. To test language specific features, do select the
corresponding script in the first drop down list, and then select the language in
the second drop down list.

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 152 FontCreator Help

The edit control can be used to select which alternates to show.

To test your kerning, select the kern feature in the list of features. You can
select multiple features so you can see how they work together.
On the upper right side there are two fields which allow you to set the size of the
text and the text itself. To force a line-break in the preview area, enter
"/newline" in the preview text.
The Preview toolbar can be resized to show more text.

If you wish to edit a glyph's outline or adjust its metrics, click the specific glyph in
the preview area to jump to it in the Font Overview or Glyph Edit window.

Note: If the Glyph Display Mode (available from the View menu) is set to Auto or
Color, then the foreground and background color come from the Palette toolbar.

6.7 Background Image

You can add a background image on a Glyph Edit window through the
Background toolbar. It can help you with your glyph design. It can be toggled on
and off using the F9 shortcut key, but is available only in the Glyph Edit window.

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 Toolbars 153

Click the Copy from current glyph button to place a copy of the current outline
as background image. To add a background image paste an image from the
clipboard, or click the Load button and select the image you want to use. Use
the position and scale fields to move and scale the image. Check the
Monochrome box, to show the background image in one color.

The convert to contours button converts the raster based image into vector
based contour which will become part of the existing glyph outline.

6.8 Comparison
You can show glyphs (with kerning) before and after the current glyph in a Glyph
Edit window through the Comparison toolbar. It can help you to position
diacritics in composite glyphs or to accurately align flowing scripts.

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 154 FontCreator Help

Since the comparison also shows the active OpenType features as set in the Preview
toolbar, it is also a powerful way to test and adjust glyphs in a specific context.

6.9 Samples
The Samples toolbar provides a powerful way of adding some contours you
may frequently want to use in fonts or in glyphs.

You can use any of these glyphs in your own fonts. The outlines are royalty free.
Credits go to:
Bhikkhu Pesala - http://www.softerviews.org/Fonts.html

With the Samples toolbar you can drag and drop a sample glyph to a cell on the
Font Overview or Glyph Edit window. The toolbar can be docked or floating,
and can be toggled on and off using the F12 shortcut key.
Note: When you drop a sample onto a composite glyph on the Font Overview
window it will be converted to a Simple Glyph first.

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 Toolbars 155

You can change the samples by making a special samples font, which includes
your own samples. From the Tools menu you go to Options and go to the
Samples page. Here you can select the font filename to be used in the Samples
toolbar.

6.10 Color Glyph Members

The Color Glyph Members toolbar gives you a quick overview of the glyphs used
in a color glyph and allows you to add and remove glyphs. When glyph members
overlap then the order in which they appear becomes important. You can change
the glyph member order by using the Move Up and Move Down buttons.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 156 FontCreator Help

6.11 Palette
The Palette toolbar allows you to edit the palettes and the colors used in your
font.

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 Toolbars 157

The palette drop down list shows the active palette. You can add and/or remove
palettes by clicking the + and - buttons. Note that there must be at least one
palette.
The foreground and background color selectors allow you to set the foreground
and background colors that will be used in FontCreator's Glyph Edit windows,
Preview toolbar and Font Overview. Note that each palette has its own fore- and
background colors.
The Palette entries list the current available colors for the active palette. You can
modify a color by selecting the color and using the sliders, edit fields or the color
chooser. Use the Apply button to process the changes. You can use the + and -
buttons to add or remove colors. Note that only unused colors can be removed.
The Foreground palette color is a special color that depends on the font color
that the user or host application has set as active font color.

6.12 Anchors
The Anchors toolbar gives you a quick overview of the anchors defined for a
glyph. Anchors are used in the following OpenType lookups:
- Mark to Base
- Mark to Mark
- Mark To Ligature
- Cursive Attachments

With the first three lookups the anchors define where glyphs are stacked onto
each other, and with cursive attachments the special Entry and Exit anchors are
used to place two glyphs next to each other.

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158 FontCreator Help

When an anchor is in use by a lookup it cannot be deleted, and a linked icon ( )

will appear in front of it. To edit an anchor you can drag it in the glyph edit
window, click the "Edit" button on the toolwindow toolbar, or double-click on the
entry in the list.
To add an anchor at a specific position, right-click inside the Glyph Edit window,
and select Add Anchor.
Add Anchor
Add a new Anchor
Delete Anchor
Deletes the selected anchor (only available when anchor is not in use)
Edit Anchor
Edit selected anchor position
Anchor Manager
Add/Delete/Modify Anchor classes

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

Part

VII
 160 FontCreator Help

7 Customizing FontCreator

7.1 Options
7.1.1 General
You can customize the way fonts are loaded, saved and shown with the Options
window (Select Options from the Tools menu).

Use the fields on the General page when you want to change the welcome
dialog, the interface settings or the Sample Toolbar font.

7.1.2 View
On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the View tab. Here you can
adjust the Font Overview and Glyph Edit Window settings.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Customizing FontCreator 161

Show sample in empty glyphs

Will show a grey sample glyph for empty glyphs in the font overview. You can
change the font to use by selecting one from the installed fonts list.

Glyph Edit Window

Here you can set the way a Glyph Edit window will show the glyph

7.1.3 Preview
On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Preview tab.

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 162 FontCreator Help

Here you can maintain your preview text, which is used inside the Preview
toolbar.

7.1.4 Naming
On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Naming tab.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Customizing FontCreator 163

Default Naming for New Fonts

These fields are used as initial naming fields when a new font is created. <year>
will be replaced by the current year and <font family> will be replaced by the
actual font family name.

7.1.5 Validation
On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Validation tab.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 164 FontCreator Help

The Real-time glyph validation settings are used to determine whether the real-
time glyph problem detection should be disabled as it would be too time
consuming. These settings are only used by the real-time glyph problem
detection. When disabled, use the Show glyph problem report to open the
Glyph Problem Report window.

Off-curve extreme coordinates detection can be performed globally or

locally.

Note: The Validation features are not available in the Home Edition of
FontCreator.

See also:
Font Validation

7.1.6 Import
On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Import tab.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Customizing FontCreator 165

Here you can set how scalable images are imported.

7.1.7 Advanced
On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Advanced tab.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

166 FontCreator Help

Warn before executing Glyph Transformer script

This indicates and determines if a warning will be issued when the Transform
wizard is finalized. If this is not checked, no warning will be given.

Warn when opening 10 or more fonts

This indicates and determines if a warning will be issued when opening 10 or
more fonts. Opening a lot of fonts at the same time will require a lot of system
resources.

Create backup copy (bck) on saving a font project

Copies the previous version of a font project as a backup copy every time you
save a font project. Each new backup copy replaces the previous backup copy.
FontCreator saves the backup copy (with a file name extension .bck) in the
same folder as the original.

Check for updates

Set the interval that FontCreator uses to check for updates. An interval of Once
a week will ensure you are always working with the latest version of
FontCreator.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Customizing FontCreator 167

Data Files
FontCreator uses several data files for advanced settings and customizations.
Normally these files are stored in a system folder where they cannot be changed.
If you want to edit these data files they must first be copied to your user data
folder. First click "Copy Data Files to User Data Folder" and then "Open User
Data Folder" to start editing the files. See FontCreator data files for more
information.

7.2 Grid Options

You can adjust the way the grid in the Glyph Edit window is drawn in the Grid
Options window (select Grid Options from the Tools menu).

Here you can change the minimum distance, color and style.

The Snap to Grid function automatically places selected glyphs, contours and
points along the grid. When you release a selection, FontCreator moves it until
the edges are aligned with the nearest grid lines.
You must choose the Show Grid command before you can use the Snap to Grid
function. To activate the Snap to Grid function, click the Snap to Grid button on
the toolbar or choose Snap to Grid from the View menu.

When the Snap to Grid function is active, its button on the menu and toolbar
appears pressed in. Choose the command or click the button again to turn off
the function.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 168 FontCreator Help

Note: Grid options are project specific. This means you can have different grid
settings for each of your projects.

7.3 Metrics Options

To open the Metrics Options window click Metrics Options on the Tools menu.
Here you can specify what metrics and reference lines should be shown in the
Glyph Edit window.

Left side The space on the left side of the glyph that is part of the
bearing advance width

Right side The space on the right side of the glyph that is part of the
bearing advance width

Y-Axis The vertical line where x=0.

Win Ascent The ascender metric for Windows

Typo Ascender The typographic ascender for the font

CapHeight This metric specifies the distance between the baseline and the
approximate height of uppercase letters

x-Height This metric specifies the distance between the baseline and the
approximate height of non-ascending lowercase letters

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Customizing FontCreator 169

Baseline The imaginary line upon which the letters of the font rest. This
is always the X-Axis.

Typo Descender The typographic ascender for the font

Win Descent The descender metric for Windows

You can change the position of several of these font metrics through the Metrics
tab on the Font Settings dialog. From the main menu select the Format menu,
click Settings, and then click the Metrics tab.
Note: Metrics options are project specific. This means you can have different
metrics settings for each of your projects.

See also:
Glyph Metrics

7.4 Guidelines
7.4.1 Options
To open the Guidelines Options window click Guidelines Options on the Tools
menu. The Guidelines Options window is also activated when you double-click
the rulers in the Glyph Edit window.

Here you can show and hide the guidelines, and change the guidelines style and
color.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

170 FontCreator Help

The Snap to Guidelines function automatically places selected glyphs, contours

and points along the guidelines. When you release a selection, the FontCreator
moves it until the edges are aligned with the nearest horizontal or vertical
guidelines. It is also possible to snap points to diagonal guidelines. You must
choose the Show Guidelines command before you can use the Snap to
Guidelines function. To activate the Snap to Guidelines function, select the Snap
check box, click the Snap to Guidelines button on the toolbar or choose Snap to
Guidelines from the View menu. Select the Lock check box, or select the Lock
Guidelines button on the toolbar, to prevent accidental movement of the
guidelines.

Press the New button to define a new guideline. Press the Modify button to
modify an existing guideline. To delete an existing guideline select it from the list
view and click the Delete button. Use the Clear button to remove all guidelines.

If you want to add a horizontal or vertical guideline you can drag one from the
top or left-hand ruler in the Glyph Edit window. Hold down the left mouse
button and release it after you have moved the pointer to the desired position.
To remove a guideline, simply drag it back to the ruler.

In order to rotate a guideline, press and hold down the Shift key before moving
the guideline. Rotating a horizontal or vertical guideline will change the guideline
into a diagonal guideline.

Select one or more contours (or one or more composite glyph members) and
right-click and then select Add Bounding Guidelines to add two horizontal and
two vertical guidelines that correspond to the selection bounding box.

To copy a guideline to a new position, hold down the Ctrl key as you drag the
guideline.
Tip: Select one point in a Glyph Edit window and press the G key on your
keyboard to add a horizontal and vertical guideline that goes through the
selected point.
Tip: Select two points in a Glyph Edit window and press the G key on your
keyboard to add a guideline that goes through the selected points.
Note: User defined guidelines are project specific. This means you can have
different user defined guidelines for each of your projects.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Customizing FontCreator 171

7.4.2 Guideline
Use the Guideline window to create or modify guidelines.

Line Type
Choose between horizontal and vertical lines and two diagonal line types.

Line Position
Both horizontal and vertical lines only need one value.
A diagonal line needs either one point with an angle or two points.

Tip: The Guideline window is activated when you double-click a guideline in the
Glyph Edit window.

7.5 Keyboard Shortcuts

The following keyboard shortcuts can be used to quickly accomplish frequent
tasks:

General Shortcuts
Press To
Ctrl+Tab (or Ctrl+F6) Next Window
Ctrl+Shift+Tab Previous Window
F1 Help

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

172 FontCreator Help

Press To

F2 Show/Hide User notes Toolbar

Shift+F2 Show/Hide Palette Toolbar
F3 Glyph Properties Toolbar
Shift+F3 Show/Hide Color Glyph Member Toolbar
F4 Show/Hide Statusbar

Ctrl+F4 Close Window

F5 Test Font as TTF/OTF
Ctrl+F5 Test Font as WOFF
F6 Show/Hide Transform Toolbar
Ctrl-F6 (or Ctrl+Tab) Next Window
F7 Show/Hide Glyph Validation Toolbar *
F8 Show/Hide Preview Toolbar
Ctrl-F8 Show OpenType Designer/ Edit Lookup in Code
Editor
F9 Show/Hide Background Image Toolbar
F10 Activates the Main Menu
Shift-F10 Shows the context menu
Ctrl-F10 Launch MainType

F11 Show/Hide Comparison Toolbar

Ctrl-F11 Launch Windows Font Folder
F12 Show/Hide Samples Toolbar
Ctrl-F12 Launch Windows Character Map
Delete Delete selection
Ctrl-A Select All
Ctrl-C Copy
Ctrl-E Paste Special
Ctrl-F Displays the Find dialog box

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Customizing FontCreator 173

Press To

Ctrl-H Toggle Fill Outlines

Ctrl-I Open Installed Fonts
Ctrl-J Display values as Hexadecimal
Ctrl-K Display values as Decimal
Ctrl-N New Project

Ctrl-O Opens Font or Font Project

Ctrl-P Print Glyph, Font, or Font Properties
Ctrl-R Repeat last action
Ctrl-S Save Project
Ctrl-T Invert Selection
Ctrl-U Clear Selection
Ctrl-V Paste
Ctrl-X Cut
Ctrl-W Close current window
Ctrl-Y Redo
Ctrl-Z Undo
Ctrl-Shift-E Export font as TrueType/OpenType font
Ctrl-Shift-W Export font as Web Open Font Format (WOFF) font

Ctrl-Shift-A Export font in all formats

Keys for working in the Font Overview window

Press To
Enter Open Glyph Edit window
Backspace Clear selected glyphs
P The first 256 characters mapped to the selected
glyphs will be placed into the preview toolbar
Ctrl + Plus Sign Increase the cell size

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

174 FontCreator Help

Press To

Ctrl + Minus Sign Decrease the cell size

Ctrl + Shift + Plus Sign Increase character size
Ctrl + Shift + Minus Sign Decrease character size
Ctrl + 0 Reset character and cell size to their defaults
CTRL + 1-5 Toggle glyph tag

Ctrl + L Reset category panel to default width

Keys for working in the Glyph Edit window

Press To
Plus Sign or Ctrl+Plus Sign Increase the zoom factor
Minus Sign or Ctrl+Minus Decrease the zoom factor
Sign
Ctrl + 0 Reset zoom factor to default
CTRL + 1-5 Toggle glyph tag
Alt+Left Arrow Go to previous glyph
Alt+Right Arrow Go to next glyph
N Change selected points to on curve
F Change selected points to off curve

G Add guideline through two selected nodes, or add

orthogonal guidelines at a single selected node
A Add points after selected points
O Toggle Fill Outline
H While pressed down, hides everything except the
glyph
Q Select previous contour/point index or composite
glyph member. Use SHIFT to add to current
selection.
W Select next contour/point index or composite glyph
member. Use SHIFT to add to current selection.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Customizing FontCreator 175

Press To

P Toggle between point and contour mode

C Toggle between standard and color mode
K Knife (not in color mode)
M Measure
B Paint bucket (only in color mode)

/ Fit to Window
Middle mouse button Pan around the Glyph Edit window
(or space+Left mouse
button)
Double-click While editing an empty or simple glyph, this will
switch contour/point mode
While editing a composite glyph, this will open the
composite glyph member properties window
Double-click on rulers Edit guidelines
Double-click on guideline Adjust guideline
Shift-click on guideline Rotate guideline
Ctrl+Drag guideline Duplicate guideline
Click on selected contour show/hide rotate and skew handles
Shift+Mouse Constrain movement, scaling, skew, and rotation

Ctrl+Mouse Duplicate selected contour

You can reset all toolbar positions and sizes by pressing the Ctrl key while
starting FontCreator.

* Not available in the Home Edition of FontCreator.

7.6 FontCreator Data Files

FontCreator uses several extra data files to read settings and other program
specific information. These should not be edited directly, but copied to the
windows user data folder. This can be easily done through the Settings dialog on
the Advanced tab.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

176 FontCreator Help

Unicode/Blocks.txt Standard Unicode database file containing the

Unicode blocks
Unicode/UnicodeData.txt Standard Unicode database file containing all the
Unicode glyph information
glyphlist.dat The Adobe glyph list
tags.txt Controls the names of the five tags that can be
assigned to each glyph
preview.txt Contains the standard preview texts for the
Preview toolbar
glyphnames.dat Contains the default glyph names when opening
existing fonts and when you generate glyph
names on the Glyph Properties dialog

Note: FontCreator only reads these files at startup. This means that after you
have changed any of the files, you must restart FontCreator for the changes to
take effect.

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Index 177

Commands 144

Index Comparison 153

Complete Composites
Composite Glyph 49
52

Composites 52
-A- Contour 37, 38, 41
Direction 38
Advance Width 117, 145
Insert 8
Advanced 165
Mode 38
Anchors 98, 99, 100, 157
Convert 123, 125
Appearance 79
Composite Glyph 49
Ascent 70
Copy Glyph 30
AutoKern 121
Copyright 14, 162
Autokerning 94
Copyright Notice 61
AutoMetrics 120
Create Font 18
credits 5
-B- Curve 38
Custom naming fields 63
Background Image 152 Customize 160
Backup 165
Baseline 53, 168
Bearings 53 -D-
Bezier 38, 44
Descent 70
Bézier 38, 44
Design languages 73
Bitmap to Outline 123
Designer 61, 162
Bold 32, 116
Direction 8, 148
Duplicate 148
-C-
CapHeight 53, 168 -E-
Caption 25
Ellipsis 34
Character 31
Embedding 33
Character Map 133, 141
Empty Glyph 38
Character Ranges 73
Empty Glyphs 160
Characteristics 78
Euro Sign 31
Characters 27
Exclusion 47
Insert 27
Export
CharMap 133, 141
Settings 19
CJK Fonts 63
Extend Character Set 116
Class Manager 91
External Tools 133
Classes 91
Extreme 148
ClearType 79
Close Font 22
Code page 73
Code Page Character Ranges 76
-F-
Color 13, 53 Family 56
Colorize Features 2
Glyphs 53 File Name 16, 32

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 178 FontCreator Help

Find 24 Hinting 84
Flags 68
Font
Information 81 -I-
Table 84
Image to Outline 123, 125
Font Header Flags 64, 68
Import 164
Font matching 78
Import Image 123, 125
Font Name 32
Install 10
Font overview 25, 160
Installing Fonts 140
Font Style 58
International 138
Font Type 32
Intersection 47, 148
FontCreator
Italic 32, 116
buying 4
Italic Angle 56
editions 4
getting help 4
manual
Fonts
4 -J-
Color 13 Join Contours 47
Fonts folder 133
Freedraw
Full Font Name
7, 48
56 -K-
Kerning

-G- Automatic
Kerning Pairs
123
96
Gasp 79 Keyboard 138
Generate Glyph Names 132 Keystroke 141
Glyph 37 Knife 47
Composite 37
Empty
Insert
37
29 -L-
Mappings 145 Language 63, 138
Properties 145 Layout 138
Simple 37 Left Side Bearing 53, 117, 145, 168
Type 25, 37 Legal 61
Glyph Member 50, 54 License Agreement 61, 162
Glyph Name 145
Glyph Transformer 116
Grayscale 79 -M-
Grayscale Rendering 81
Mailing List 2
Grid Options 167
Manual
Gridfitting 81
PDF 4
Guideline 171
Mappings 147
Guidelines Options 169
Marks 98
Menu 144
-H- Metrics
Automatic
51, 53
120
Handwriting 7 Metrics Options 168

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.

 Index 179

Monospaced 33

-P-
-N- Palette 53
Naming 162 Colors 156
New Features 3 Panose 78
Paste Glyph 30
Personalize 162
-O- Point 44, 55
Mode 38
Off Curve 44
PostScript Name 56
On Curve 44
Preview 151, 155
Open Font 16
Print
OpenType 13
Font 133
OpenType Designer 87
Glyph 134
Autokerning 94
Project
Settings 93
Close 22
OpenType Features
File 16
Cursive Attachment 99
Open 16
Mark to Base 98
Save 19
Mark to Ligature 98
Proportional 33
Mark to Mark 98
OpenType Layout Features 85, 104
Alternates
Anchor Manager
95
100
-Q-
Basics 106, 112 Quotation Mark 34
Chained Context 101 Quotes 34
Comments 107
Examples 116
Feature 109 -R-
Group 108
Raster Image 123
Language 107
Redo 24
Ligatures 95
Redundant 148
Lookup 111
Register 4
LookupFlags 111
Repeat 24
Multiple substitution 95
Revision 56
Pair Adjustment 96
Right Side Bearing 53, 145, 168
Pos 114
Rotate 41
Script 107
Single Adjustment 95
Single substitution
Sub 112
95 -S-
Substitutions 95 Samples 154, 160
Supported substitutions 85 Samples font 160
Optimize Contours 41 Save Font 19
Options 160 Scanner 9
Search 24
Select 37
Shortcut 171
© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.
 180 FontCreator Help

Simple Glyph 38 User Notes 144

Smooth Curves 44
Smoothing 79, 81
Sort 131 -V-
Split Contours 47
Validation 134, 148, 163
Strikeout 64
Results 137
SubFamily 56
Vector 164
Subscript 64
Vector Image 125
SubTable Manager 92
Vector to Outline 125
SubTables 92
Vendor 61
Support 2
Version 56
Supported languages 73
VOLT 85, 87, 104
Symbol 33, 76

-T- -W-
Warning Points 148
Table 84
Warnings 165
Ordering 84
Web OpenType Font Format 14
Tags 25
Weight 56
Template 18
Width 56
Test 10
Win Ascent 53, 168
Test Fonts 138, 139
Win Descent 53, 168
TextSamples
Wizard
Add 139
AutoMetrics 120
Delete 139
WOFF 14
Edit 139
WWS 58
Toolbars 144
Trademark 61, 162
Transform
TrueType
116, 145
13
-X-
TrueType Collection 132 X-Height 53, 168
TTC 132
Typo Ascender
Typo Descender
53
53 -Z-
Zoom 37, 164

-U-
Underline 64
Undo 24
Unicode 33
Unicode Character Ranges 75
Union 47
Unique Font Identifier 56
Units Per Em 64
Unused Glyphs 25
Updates 165
Used Glyph 27

© 1997 - 2016 by High-Logic B.V. All rights reserved.