How do I change the font weight (create bold&italic vers

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1

Hello, please can anyone help?!

I have a font which I only have in one font type and it’s quite a light weight. Normally I have to make it bold when I am using the font in Word, etc so that I can make the font look like a normal weight.

I’d like to increase the weight, make bold and italic verison as well but Idon’t know how to do this.

I’ve read the user manual and the forum but none what it says doesn’t make any difference to the font type, it just looks exactly the same. Both say:
_"Converting Regular Fonts to Bold or Italic
(from the online manual)

To change the font type (for example from Regular to Bold) you need to change a few settings:

Things that need to be done in order to change an existing regular font to italic, bold or bold italic are:
\

  • Mac Style fields - on the Format menu, click Settings and then click the Metrics tab.
  • Font Design - on the Format menu, click Settings and then click on the Metrics tab.
  • All font subfamily name fields in the Naming window. This can be done through the AutoNaming feature.
  • For a bold or bold italic version:
  • Set Classification Weight to Bold - on the Format menu, click Settings and then click on the General tab.
  • Set PANOSE Weight to Bold - on the Format menu, click Settings and then click on the Classification tab.
    \
  • For an italic or bold italic version:
  • Set Italic Angle to a negative value (e.g. -16.33) - on the Format menu, click Settings and then click on the Post tab.
  • Set Caret Slope values through Calculate Rise and Run - on the Format menu, click Settings and then click on the General tab."_

I have done everything metioned above; yet nothing changes with the appearance of the font, even when I’ve set the changes for the heaviest weight. And like I said - the font’s a light weight.

Nor does anything change when I do the above with any of the other fonts on my system. I tested this just to make sure it wasn’t the font I want to change that has a problem with it.

I am using FontCreator 5.5 (build 5.5.0.0.63) on a thirty day trial evaulation which was downloaded for their website (I’m on day 2 at the moment). I don’t know if the fact that it’s an evaluation version that’s causing this?

I’d be so grateful if anyone can help. I’ve been really scratching my head over this and I’m started to feel a bit stupid now. So please, if you have any ideas or solutions, they’d be much appreciated!

Thanks a lot :slight_smile:

2

There are no limitations in the Trial Version. It is the fully featured Professional Edition.

Did you edit the glyphs to make them bolder?

The metric settings just tell Windows applications whether a font is to be treated as regular, bold, italic, or bold italic. A typeface like Times New Roman will have four Truetype Font Files. Changing the character attributes in Word to bold will tell word to use the bold font file. (Open all four typestyles of Times and compare the settings on the Metrics, Classification, and Post tabs.)

Your font is presumably Regular. So you would need to save it as a new TTF file, change the metrics as described in the manual, then use the Glyph Transformer Wizard to modify the glyph outlines to make them bolder. See my Tutorial on Working with Transformations

Depending on the design of the font it may be very easy or very difficult to create a satisfactory bold version. Sans Serif fonts tend to be the easiest to transform, whilst scripts tend to be the hardest. To get a good result with Serif fonts also takes a bit more than two clicks.

Making a true italic from a regular font requires drawing completely new glyphs, especially for lowercase letters, but FontCreator can Skew the glyphs to the desired angle to make an oblique typestyle.