You may not think so, but I am telling you that it was.
You asked:
I am wondering if FontCreator would be ideal for my use in creating symbology for mapping purposes. We use ArcGIS software developed by ESRI (> www.esri.com> ). Images are .bmp and fonts are TrueType.
Although we know what FontCreator can do, and what it cannot do, how can we know what you mean by “ideal.” You haven’t told us anything about what your needs are other than that you need to make Truetype fonts.
FontCreator makes Truetype fonts. Does that make it ideal for your purposes? Perhaps, as it is a lot cheaper than either FontLab or Fontographer, and easeir to use.
However, without any knowledge of your preferred working methods or any experience in using GIS software, we cannot guess what you mean by “ideal.” Is ease of use more important than Postscript support? Can your staff adjust to working with quadratic bezier curves (on-curve/off-curve points) instead of the more familiar bezier curves of drawing programs?
How will you be creating your symbols? Have you already drawn them in a graphics program, or will you be drawing them directly in FontCreator. Will you be importing scanned bitmaps into FontCreator?
You can download the 30-day free trial and see what it can do, but of course it will take considerable time to find out its strengths and weaknesses, which I suppose is the reason for your post, but as all you ask is “Does it make Truetype fonts,” all we can say is, “Yes, it makes Truetype fonts.”
You can read my review to learn more.