I found that my fonts looked terrible when used in an application control (in MS Access Listbox).
As a test I copied some characters from Tahoma, the default font in MS Access Listboxes, and posted them to a new FC typeface.
With identical Smoothing options the fonts look very different. In an identical font size the Tahoma font shows perfectly, whereas the Tahoma characters saved in the new font look rough. Lines that fall between pixels show double width.
Tahoma shows smoothing options of:
8: Grey
16: Grid
65535: Grid & Grey
(No Cleartype)
I understand the concepts of bitmap fonts, and cleartype (if the user has it enabled) but I was hoping FontCreator would be able to produce fonts with as professional a finish as those I am used to.
I’m sure I just need to tweak some settings. Certainly the application seems very functional in every other respect.
Thanks, and I hope this helps others too.
Regards
MB
It is to be expected if you copy glyphs from one font to another that they will lose all hinting information. FontCreator does not support Truetype hinting. You will need to use a third-party application to add hinting.
Please read the FAQ sticky thread at the top of the Support forum.
Topic split as this has nothing to do with pixel fonts.
Bhikkhu Pesala is right about the lack of hinting being the cause of the bad appearance at low font sizes.
I fully understand the reason for this test, but it is not as easy as it seems. My guess is total development costs of the Tahoma typeface is far more than one million dollar. Hinting being a significant part of it.
There are font designers specialized in manually hinting. Depending on the complexity of your font, and the specific hinting requirements, they charge between $40 - $400 per character. You could ask a quote at Monotype and Ascender:
http://www.monotypeimaging.com/ProductsServices/font_services.aspx
http://www.ascendercorp.com/fonts/on-screen-legibility/