Adding Æ and æ to Fonts

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1

I think all of the fonts that I edited already had the æ symbol, but if any font lacks them, adding them is not difficult with Font Creator. Even easier with Font Creator Professional Edition.

Stage 1
Map a new empty glyph to codepoint 230 (U+00E6 : LATIN SMALL LETTER AE). Select the a and e in the glyph overview and copy them to the clipboard. Open the empty new æ glyph and paste them is as composite glyph members (right).

Stage 2
Right-click on the e, and select “Open in new window.”

Stage 3
Edit the glyph properties (Alter Enter) and make a note of the white space after the character, 24 in this case.

Close the glyph edit window for e, and reopen the one for æ. Make the glyph simple, and use the Transform toolbar to set the left side-bearing so that x=0 and the right side-bearing is 24.

Stage 4
If necessary, move a few points in points mode to make the curves join smoothly, then in contour mode, select all contours (Control A), and select “Get Union of contours” from the toolbar.

The A of Capital Æ can be skewed by dragging with the mouse to select both of its contours, then click again on the contours to get the skew and rotate handles.

Cut the “E” to the clipboard, and trim any excess off the “A” with the knife tool before pasting the “E” back in. Afer merging the contours with “Get Union of Contours” you may have to do a bit of editing in point mode.

You can also combine contours like this in the Home Edition, but you have to use the join contours function which is a bit more difficult. Add a node on each contour at the intersection point, select them both, then right-click and select “Join contours” from the popup menu. TIP: You can also use the context menu key to the left of the Control key on the right of your keyboard.

That leaves a bit of a mess to tidy up. You have delete some nodes, and move a few others.

Font Creator Professional Edition will do this joining process automatically. It is not perfect, but it works well with joining all but the most complex of contours.

2

I think an easier method for italicizing the capital “A” would be to open “View \ Toolbars \ Transformations \ Skew \ Horizontal”, & apply (+) #s and the Skew will go to the right. If you overshoot it, (-) #s will skew back to the left. To test this theory, I 1st selected both contours of the “A”, then with the point-of-origin set to lower-left (on the 9-button option chart), selected the Skew option (as above). After, slanting the “A”, then join with the “E”.

Also, if you happen to be making italics, remember the slant & apply to each glyph (if applicable). But the “Tools \ Glyph Transformation \ Transform Wizard” might be better for multiples (many glyphs). Make sure you select only the glyphs you want skewed; otherwise, ALL will be transformed.

Hope you don’t mind my addition to your tutorial.

3

Yes. It is better to skew the A before joining the contours. Even easier than using the transform toolbar is to select both contours of the A, then click again and skew them with the mouse. No guesswork is necessary. I have updated the tutorial.

4

Thanks, that’s what I tried to find originally, but failed to click again to get the skew & rotate mode. I use those features all the time in Corel. I see there’s also the ‘moveable center of rotation x’ in the middle. That can be dragged elsewhere to change the center of rotation.

Either skew the sides or rotate the corners (in case anyone didn’t know that).

5

Hello Bhikku,

I don’t understand what you mean when you say paste them as a composite glyph members. where are you referring to? which right?

6

(right) refers to the image on the right of this screen shot. That’s what it looks like when you paste a and e, copied from the glyph overview, into an empty glyph edit window. Both composite glyph members (a and e) are pasted in the same place (x = 0, y = 0) and so overlap each other. Move the e composite member to the right until its in the position you want it. Then make simple and combine the glyph outlines.