How do I simplify a font?

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1

Hi
I have a font that I will now be working with every day and its VERY complex making almost every change to textareas using it in Illustrator, Fireworks or Photoshop quite slow.

Is there a way I can import and export the glyphs to and from Illustrator where I can simplify the font using the Object → Path → Simplify method?

Many thanks :slight_smile:

2

FontCreator will import vectors in AI format, so I don’t see why you cannot do this.

  1. Make a copy of the font
  2. Make all of the complex glyphs empty
  3. Export each glyph from Adobe Illustrator after simplifying the path. Name the files in such a way as they appear in the desired glyph order.
  4. Import one glyph to see what the scale factor should be set to in Options, Glyph
  5. Drag and drop the whole folder full of AI images into the first empty glyph in your new font, from Windows Explorer.
  6. Set the Export Settings, and export as a new TTF or OTF.

Alternatively, you could use the method described in this tutorial thread, which lets FontCreator recreate the glyph from a bitmap screenshot of itself. This method will round off sharp corners, which may not be as good as simplifying the curves in Adobe Illustrator. However, it’s pretty quick and simple. Getting the exact 1:1 scale is still an issue.