Why do you want to use Fontographer?For the fun of it!When I received the opportunity to go back to my roots, and see what the new Fontographer was like, I was a little concerned. I had just spent nine years painfully teaching myself to letterspace by hand, to write OpenType features, and to become accustomed to the tool set of FontLab. Don't get me wrong, FontLab is a great program. There are still a few features of FontLab that, as a professional font designer, I cannot do without. But I was taken by surprise.Fontographer brought the fun back!It is still the same marvelous program with which I first learned to design fonts. The drawing interface is still clean, clear, and elegant. It still works the way I have learned to work over the past two decades of digital graphic design. I found pleasure in drawing again. Fontographer is a wonderful drawing experience. It has been a real joy to experience that again. After nearly a decade in FontLab, font design is fun again.

This is the Fontographer version of Practical Font Design. In it I guide you through the process of designing several fonts while discussing the options and decisions you need to make as you do so. It is an effort to let you inside the head of an experienced font designer. The goal is to get you up and running with your own designs as quick as possible with a good solid conceptual understanding of the entire process of font design. Why do you want to use Fontographer? For the fun of it! When I received the opportunity to go back to my roots, and see what the new Fontographer was like, I was a little concerned. I had just spent nine years painfully teaching myself to letterspace by hand, to write OpenType features, and to become accustomed to the tool set of FontLab. Don't get me wrong, FontLab is a great program and I am grateful for what I have learned. There are still a few features of FontLab that, as a professional font designer, I cannot do without. But I was taken by surprise. Fontographer brought the fun back! It is still the same marvelous program with which I first learned to design fonts. The drawing interface is still clean, clear, and elegant. I still works the way I have learned to work over the past two decades of digital graphic design. I found pure joy in drawing again. Fontographer is a wonderful drawing experience. It has been a real joy to experience that fun again. After nearly a decade in FontLab, font design is fun again. To quote from the book: "Fontographer is an application which appeals to experienced graphics designers with a background in PostScript illustration-especially those with FreeHand experience from version 7 and earlier. The majority of designers working in the mid-1990s had a copy of Fontographer. It came free with the FreeHand Graphics Studio first released in 1995-and everyone probably used it [at least a little]. Fontographer had [and still has] a unique and intuitive set of drawing tools that enable amateurs of that era to enter the world of font design. I'm talking amateurs in the sense that John Baskerville considered himself an amateur-as I also consider myself, though I am certainly not in Baskerville's league. For me, font design is a beloved sideline with which I indulge myself. It's become a treasured tool I use in my current trade-book writing, designing, and production." Please help me by emailing me with your comments & typos

Practical Font Design has built a niche for itself among graphic and Web designers who want to build their own fonts: especially with the first book. I learned a lot since I wrote that first book. This radically revised, updated, and expanded third edition combines the first two books. They are rearranged so they make a lot more sense and some brand new material is added. This is a quick introduction showing a workflow to build new fonts using FontLab 5. Fourteen fonts are developed in this book including an 8-font text family and a companion 4-font sans serif for headers. The techniques are simple and easy to understand. The results are completely under your control.

A new font is created every day. Whether you are creating fonts for your own project, for a client, or to sell, this is the first book out there to show you how to create unique fonts, use the most inexpensive software available, and make money doing something you absolutely love to do. Stand out in the crowd! Starting with the creation of fonts, moving to lessons on the software used to create them, and ending with helpful ways of marketing and selling, this is a groundbreaking must-have for digital artists of all kinds. Goes beyond just print and web to also help you transition your skills to new and emerging outlets (such as tablets). Stunning design contains a software key and a rating scale to help you navigate the various difficulty levels and software available.

The now-classic introduction to designing typography, handsomely redesigned and updated for the digital age In this invaluable book, Karen Cheng explains the processes behind creating and designing type, one of the most important tools of graphic design. She addresses issues of structure, optical compensation, and legibility, with special emphasis given to the often-overlooked relationships between letters and shapes in font design. In this second edition, students and professional graphic designers alike will benefit from an expanded discussion of the creative practice of designing type—what designers need to consider, their rationale, and issues of accessibility—in the context of contemporary processes for the digital age. Illustrated with more than 400 diagrams that demonstrate visual principles and letter construction, ranging from informal progress sketches to final type designs and diagrams, this essential guide analyzes a wide range of classic and modern typefaces, including those from many premier type foundries. Cheng’s text covers the history of type, the primary systems of typeface classification, the parts of a letter, and the effects of new technology on design methodology, among many other key topics.

From principle to practice, get it all in the revised edition of the comprehensive introduction to typography. Type Rules: The Designer's Guide to Professional Typography, 3rd Edition is an up-to-date, thorough introduction to the principles and practices of typography. From the fundamentals to cutting-edge applications, this edition has everything today's serious designer needs to use type effectively. Dozens of exercises reinforce authoritative coverage on such topics as how to select the appropriate type for the job, how to set type like a pro, how to avoid common mistakes, and how to design a typeface, as well as how to fully harness the power of major design packages such as InDesign? and QuarkXPress? -- with new coverage of their latest versions. This edition includes: New information on OpenType, font management utilities, font web sites, and interactive typography. An expanded?history of type and an updated glossary of key terms. Exercises throughout to help reinforce the concepts presented in the book. A wealth of tried-and-true as well as recently developed type tips. More in-depth type issues, including scaling logos. "I've purchased and read just about every book on typography written over the last twenty-five years. Ilene Strizver's Type Rules is one of the best. It's a book that will prove its value time and again." -- Allan Haley, Director of Words and Letters, Monotype Imaging "Type Rules is a must-have book for students and professionals alike. I highly recommend it." -- Prof. Ed Benguiat, world-renowned type designer and educator, School of Visual Arts

Type design is often presented in either such detail-obsessed complexity that it is not welcoming to beginners, or it is so simplified with the help of apps and web services that the resulting fonts are virtually useless. This book is different. It shows readers how to design professional fonts - without having to find out all of type design's secrets first. Designing Fonts teaches the basics of type design from sketched letters to finished font, offering an uncomplicated but thorough introduction to type design. With easy-to-follow instructions, many examples and professional tips, readers will learn how to design unique typefaces tailor-made for their own projects or customer orders. This book has two parts. Part 1 explains the theoretical, creative and technical basics of type design and font production. Six chapters then cover everything from alphabet to font, showing readers how to find and develop typeface ideas, design matching letters, produce fonts and expand them with special functions. Part 2 comprises eight workshops that explore how to design and implement different kinds of typefaces, from decorative interlocking display fonts with alternative letters to well-developed headline fonts with multiple cuts and OpenType features.