I’m somewhat new to using Font Creator (as a disclaimer), and I’m having a problem with kerning pairs. When I create them, they don’t save. I go into Font —> Open Type Designer, and create my kerning pairs. I click Apply, then OK. When I reinstall the font, it does not register those changes.
This font is being designed to use with a pen tool on a cutting machine; much like a plotter for engraving would be. I’ve created over 30 single stroke font files for a plotter software program, but they aren’t .ttf or .otf files. I don’t think there is a way to make a true single stroke font (right?), so I am creating super narrow outlines within an external program, exporting each letter as an SVG, then importing them into the font file. I need these to be able to weld together, so they have to join with one another just right.
When that option is enabled, you can select single or double stroke fonts in the Export Settings dialogue.
Before trying kerning, try adjusting the side-bearings, e.g. for the c in your screenshot, reduce the right side-bearing by 7 funits, which will reduce the advance width to 358. This will, of course, affect the joining of c to all other glyphs.
Fantastic information, thanks so much! I’d like my pen to make one solid pass (and then it would have to go back over itself of course) for each word; like cursive is normally. On some fonts. I’ll be using the pen tool to make wedding items such as place cards, so that element of the lettering would be ideal. The single lines will be amazing to use in fonts that won’t have adjoining letters; and I have quite a few of those I’ve previously created as well.
Thanks again for taking the time to help me with this!
You’re apparently using an older version of Font Creator. If you go to your User Control Panel and Edit Your Forum Signature it will save you reminding us in future, which OS and FontCreator version you are using.
Getting there. I’m working with single lines now and it’s amazing. I’m having an issue with getting the joins to be precise. The preview pane is not showing them correctly as I get them closer together. Any advice on this? Also, is there any software program or website such as wordmark.it that will show me a live preview of just one font without having to open and close the program? Wordmark may have it in their pro version, not sure. And that would also show the stick font (it’s too thin for most programs or web apps)? Thanks again, you’ve been so very helpful.
Yes I tried the F5 feature but it does not show correctly either. Also, for some reason the single line option does not export in single line. i have to use double line to get this effect i need.
.. in my photos, note that I was working with one font when I wrote to you first, then I’ve changed to a different one in which it is easier to get the kerning right.
It looks just fine here.
Better share the actual font project, so we know your specific font project settings. To keep it private, do send it through our ticket system.
I found a way to get the program to display them in stick form on that preview because I can’t tell enough with the thick lines like in your photo. Then, when I got it to show the thin lines, the problem happened with the ends shrinking down as I altered the right and left sides. Does that make sense?
It seems you’ve been able to change the way the software is intended to work. If that is true, then it would have been really helpful if you told us this before we took the time to look into the issue.
If you see room for improvements, then do post such request in the appropriate forum.
FontCreator has a comparison feature which allows you to preview text with the Glyph Edit window. It allows you to refine metrics while you see how characters join. It even supports OpenType layout features, so kerning can also be enabled.
I don’t want to change your software and have no idea what I did to make you think that. I clicked around and found whatever way that was built into this software to get the preview to show up like you have in your photo. Didn’t mean to waste your time.
I didn’t mean to offend you. I’m sorry about that.
For us to help, we just need the right information, so we can reproduce and understand reported issues.
That’s too bad, as you might have spotted a bug that we would really like to fix. Maybe it happens again if you reopen the font project. If so, do send it to us, so we can look into the problem.
As you can see from my last posts, we are doing our best to help you with suggestions, so please continue to post your questions here.
