Beginner's Basic on Font Creation

[jazz_samz]

I thought I should start this thread so that it would be easier for me to trace my queries etc. However if the mod team feel that this should be integrated into an earlier thread, please kindly do not hesitate to do so. Thanks.

Okay, I’ve searched on this forum as well on the WWW and read some relevant articles to gain some fundamentals. To a total beginner, these are good reference links or pages that I feel is helpful
The Bounding Box and Glyph Design Rules
The em square
VERY IMPORTANT FAQ Frequently Asked Questions
TrueType fundamentals

Like to run my thoughts and check with the experts here on the following:
(1) A glyph is drawn within an em. An em is a unit used in typography to define the borders where the glyph should be within its boundaries.

Questions :
A) Regarding the above, in Font Creator s/w, are these boundaries formed by the two vertical lines at 0 and 1000 AND two horizontal lines at WinDescent and WinAscent?

B) IF I am creating purely UPPER CASE characters, then are my EM boundaries defined by he two vertical lines at 0 and 1000 AND two horizontal lines at BASELINE and CAPHEIGHT? (Can I ignore the WinDescent and WinAscent totally like omitting it OR I should just minimise those spaces?

C) When creating a glyph, the boundary box or B-Box of the specific glyph MUST be within the boundaries of an em?

D) In this article, The Bounding Box and Glyph Design Rules, I would like to understand further what are :

• Off curve points
• On curve points
• In Rule#6, are “proper segment spacing” the spacing distant between two immediate glyphs (like the space between ‘A’ and ‘B’ when I print out AB) when displayed / printed out?
  
  
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2. When I scan / import a gif picture (which was scanned in tiff format) how can I scale it up to the CAP Height if it is alot smaller?

3. x-height is the recommended guide for the maximum height of a lower case character correct?

4. It is strongly recommended that I begin my glyph of any characters within a 2048 * 2048 units per em? Does that mean that per blue box I see on the Font Creator glyph editor window is 1 point? or do I look at the top ruler to determine how much is 1 point on the horizontal axis (x-axis)

[Bhikkhu_Pesala]

@jazz_samz

A) Regarding the above, in Font Creator s/w, are these boundaries formed by the two vertical lines at 0 and 1000 AND two horizontal lines at WinDescent and WinAscent?

No. Only the Y axis at x=0 forms the left boundary. The right boundary will be at x = 2048.

@MS Typography

While in the days of metal type, glyphs could not extend beyond the em square, digital typefaces are not so constrained. The em square may be made large enough to completely contain all glyphs, including accented glyphs.

The Caps height will be smaller than 2048 — the default size for a New Font in FontCreator will be 1434 funits. This is an arbitrary, average size, and may be changed. The em square will extend below this to include descenders on p,q,j,y and above it to include accented characters.

@jazz_samz

B) IF I am creating purely UPPER CASE characters, then are my EM boundaries defined by he two vertical lines at 0 and 1000 AND two horizontal lines at BASELINE and CAPHEIGHT? (Can I ignore the WinDescent and WinAscent totally like omitting it OR I should just minimise those spaces?

You will still (presumably) need an underline glyph, comma, semicolon, forward slash, and parentheses, which will extend below the baseline and/or above the caps height.

@jazz_samz

C) When creating a glyph, the boundary box or B-Box of the specific glyph MUST be within the boundaries of an em?

Not necessarily. Italic glyphs like ƒ typically have negative left side-bearings and extend outside the em square. It is not advisable to extend glyphs vertically outside the WinAscent and WinDescent as they will be clipped in many applications, although MS Typography says that it is allowed to design glyphs like this.

@jazz_samz

• Off curve points
• On curve points

On curve points are the square nodes lying on the curve. Off-curve points are like bezier curve handles, although FontCreator uses Truetype curves, not bezier curves.

@jazz_samz

• In Rule#6, are “proper segment spacing” the spacing distant between two immediate glyphs (like the space between ‘A’ and ‘B’ when I print out AB) when displayed / printed out?

The spacing between glyphs is determined by the left and right side-bearings. If they are zero for all glyphs, the glyph outlines will touch, so most fonts will have at least 10 to 50 funits of space on either side. Capital I will need more space than capital W or X. Capital J will need more space on the right than on the left. Capital O will need less spacing. The string HOHOH is a good glyph to use to get letter spacing right for these glyphs first. Then use the Comparison toolbar to adjust spacing for other glyphs. Since you’re designing glyphs on a fixed width (3 mm) then you need to design the width of the glyph to fit the avialble space.

@jazz_samz

2. When I scan / import a gif picture (which was scanned in tiff format) how can I scale it up to the CAP Height if it is alot smaller?

Scanned glyphs should be at least 500 pixels high to get a good trace. Increase the scanning resolution if they come in too small. You can increase the multiplier on the Glyph tab of the Import image dialogue, but that won’t improve the detail. You can scale all glyphs by the same amount later using the Glyph Transform wizard or the Transform toolbar, when you have figured out the funit size you need to aim for to get a 4 mm printout.

@jazz_samz

3. x-height is the recommended guide for the maximum height of a lower case character correct?

No. The x-height is y max of the lowercase x. On some fonts, the lowercase x may descend below the baseline, but this won’t increase the x-height. Round letters like lowercase “o” or “c” need to overshoot the x-height and the baseline to give the optical illusion of equal height with flat topped letters like lowercase x, and an even baseline. Uppercase C, G, J, O, Q, S, U, V, W and digits 0 3 5 8 9 will also need to overshoot the Caps height and/or baseline (by about 30 to 40 funits).

@jazz_samz

4. It is strongly recommended that I begin my glyph of any characters within a 2048 * 2048 units per em?

The design size of 2048 funits/em is recommended because computers only do binary maths. Apple fonts use 1000 funits/em which is easier for human beings who have ten fingers.

2048 funits/em is used by the vast majority of Windows fonts. Some use 4096 funits/em. I don’t recall seeing anything bigger than that.

[jazz_samz]

Sorry I have added two more qns when you were answering my lengthy post.

Thanks again Bhikkhu

5. Does that mean that per blue box I see on the Font Creator glyph editor window is 1 point? or do I look at the top ruler to determine how much is 1 point on the horizontal axis (x-axis)

6. On the FC, when I am editing a particular glyph, the horizontal length of the glyph is 524points ( I used the measure length and scale tool), and when I printed out that 1 particular glyph on my printer, it relates to 43mm wide. How do I determine the font size in points in the FC? (am I making sense here?)

7. I don’t know if this make sense. I am trying to figure how many points to define my left and right boundary / limits on the Font Creator to determine my settings horizontally and subsequently vertically…
   If there are 72points per inch, and the required width of my character when printed on paper is 4mm, does that mean the scale I need to correlate with what I draw on font creator as 4mm * 72 points / 1 inch = 4 * 72 / 25.4 = 11.339 ??? Does this mean that to achieve 4mm wide character on the printer, I need to define 11.339points on the font creator?

[Bhikkhu_Pesala]

@jazz_samz

5. Does that mean that per blue box I see on the Font Creator glyph editor window is 1 point? or do I look at the top ruler to determine how much is 1 point on the horizontal axis (x-axis)

FontCreator doesn’t work in points. The ruler units are in funits, which is based on the 2048 funits/em design size discussed earlier. They are like pixels in graphics editing. An on-curve point or off-curve point must sit on the 1 funit grid.

The blue grid lines are a multiple of this, maybe 100 funits or 256 funits (I forget what the default is). This is just a design aid, which I turn off, but you can change the size of the grid in Tools, Grid Options.

@jazz_samz

6. On the FC, when I am editing a particular glyph, the horizontal length of the glyph is 524 points ( I used the measure length and scale tool), and when I printed out that 1 particular glyph on my printer, it relates to 43 mm wide. How do I determine the font size in points in the FC? (am I making sense here?)

It is confusing, but you will figure it out in time.
The more I say, the more confused you will become.

If you want to figure it out mathematically, read Erwin’s post again until you get it. I prefer to do things empirically. If the glyph is 43 mm wide at 524 funits, and I want it to be 40 mm wide, then I need to adjust the size in FontCreator to 524*40/43 = 487 funits (approx). If you’re printing at 300 point then you need to print at 30 points to get 4 mm glyphs.

[Bhikkhu_Pesala]

I hope this will simplify things for you.
GlyphSize.png
I measured the capital H for my Garava Regular font when placed in my DTP application, PagePlus X3, at 72 point. The above table shows how the Cap Height of 1434 translates to points and millimetres.

The Advance width of 1579 includes left and right side-bearings of 48 funits. The actual glyph width is 1483 funits. Your font needs to have an advance width of 3 mm and a Cap Ht of 4 mm, but at what point size?

Are you sure that 4 mm is the Cap Height required, or is that the height of the labels it must fit on? If so, then your Cap Height needs to be more like 3 mm to allow some space above and below the letters on the labels.