FontCreator 16 is here

High-Logic Announcements
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Hi everyone,

After a long stretch of work, FontCreator 16 is out — the biggest release we’ve shipped in years. A lot of what’s in it came directly from feedback you shared on this forum, so first of all: thank you.

The short list of what’s new:

  • Mask — flag any contour or component as a mask to subtract it from the geometry that precedes it. Compound shapes (rings, donuts) work as you’d expect, the original geometry stays in the project file, and masks are flattened only on export. The subtractive design tool that was missing from the toolbox.
  • Background Layer — every master now has a proper background layer with its own outline, metrics, anchors, and color.
  • Helper Layers — auxiliary layers attached to a master for sketches, references, and comparison overlays. Listed alongside everything else in the new Masters and Layers panel.
  • Smart Components — component references with parameters. Define internal axes on a glyph, carry alternate layers along them, and reuse the same component at different positions in different host glyphs. Round-trips through .glyphs v3 and our own project format.
  • Path Decorations — corner and cap components attached to specific outline points. Survives editing, copy and paste, and round-trip with .glyphs.
  • Reference Artwork — multiple bitmap or vector reference images per master, attached as layers in the Masters and Layers panel.
  • A refreshed editor — new visualisations (Curvature Comb, Contour Direction Indicators, Marquee Zoom), a Shift constraint on the Pen tool, click-to-edit color swatches, and a Masters and Layers panel that’s now consistent across Windows and macOS.

There’s a lot more — the complete changelog has the full list.

A licensing note while I have your attention: with v16 we’ve moved FontCreator to a subscription model. There is now one license that includes every feature; the Home, Standard, and Professional editions are retired. Pricing is on the New Licenses page.

You can grab v16 from the download page. It runs on Windows and macOS.

Please share what you build with it, and let me know if anything misbehaves — bug reports here on the forum get fixed the fastest.

Erwin