This is the first time I have ever had to do anything like this in my life, so, please forgive me if I sound totally ignorant and stupid!!
1- 
I created my first font after several hours of struggle!!: q with a caron (on top), and Q with caron (on top) and LOOKS BEAUTIFUL! , BUT canât seem to go any further! I should explain that I need to add them to the Arial font in the Finale/Baltic (Windows XP). Will be using them (and several similiar composite letters already existing in Arial Baltic Script, in Font Creator and Word Latin Extended-A,) to input Persian lyrics in musical scores. They have to appear in the lower 255 characters of Arial to be recognized by Finale.
1- Finale does not support Unicode. I assume I have to use a Microsoft Platform to be able to use them in Finale. But which one?
2- I would like to name Q: Capital Letter Farsi Ein with Caron, and q Small Letter Farsi ein with Caron. But in Glyph Edit Window they both appear with the same name! Capital Letter Farsi Ein with Caron.ttf or Small Letter Farsi Ein with Caron.ttf! Shouldnât they be called differently? The same thing happens in the Arial font window. They are both called Arial qcaron! Eventhough their names in the individual Glyph is correct! 
3- In Naming window, Microsoft Unicode was automatically filled in by the program, I added Microsoft Symbol and typed in the same info as in the Unicode. Thought perhaps that might help. Since in the Help it says Microsoft requires the same info. But still couldnât test (It says: Font not valid, make sure all required Microsoft Naming Fields are available! I tried to name the font Arial Farsi to make it different from Arial. That didnât help either.
4- Tried to install, it says: In order to install the font you must first save the font. Do you want to save the file C:\Program Files\High-Logic\Font Creater Program\Capital Letter Farsi Ein.ttf?) In the case of both the small letter and the Capital letter!! Well, I did that with the Capital letter Q, I get a message: The font is already installed, you should remove the old version through Windows Font Folder. I thought Iâm just adding couple of missing composite letters to Arial! I probably have misunderstood something essential about this process all together!
5- I tried to print the fonts. Appeared huge on the page and not filled in (unlike its image in the Edit Window)!
6- Character to Glyph index Mappings, again the program, in Glyph and Mapping windows, automatically called: Q $0000 (NULL) and q $0001 (START OF HEADING). Is this supposed to be? What does it mean?
7- Once this is all done, could I just have all the composite letters gathered in the first 255 letters of Arial Western, so I donât have to jump around to Baltic?
Sorry for being so wordy! Please help me so far! Iâm sure Iâll be back with more questions!! Thanks a million!
WOW! Your starting point is MILES ahead of mine! I got to start in the âbaby crawlingâ part of the race.
I can see your need. Is this part of your job? It sounds like an interesting project.
There are some very knowledgeable people in this forum [sorry Iâm not one of them 
But] they will be stopping by. Best of Luck!!
Hi Dave, Thanks for the reply. Itâs very encouraging. I have been feeling very inadequate and frusterated. In response to your question: I am preparing 3 volumes of piano music for publication, written based on Persian classical and folk music. One of them is mostly arrangement of children songs (similiar to the American nursery rhymes). Itâs for this one that I need to include lyrics. As you probably know, Persian is written from right to left, so, we need to use the Western alphabet to input lyrics. And we do have some letters that do not exist in the English language, for which we have developed certain composite letters. Hence, my interest in Font Creater. Hope I get some help. Have a good day!
Your explanation is too long and complex to follow. It does sound as if you are making the job far harder than it needs to be. I donât know Farsi, so have used the Latin letters Q and q with caron accent. I hope it will be enough to illustrate.
First I deleted a whole lot of glyphs from Arial, just to make the file smaller.
Then I edited the Capital Letter Thorn and Lower case letter Thorn, which are both in the first 256 ANSI character set and so should be recognised by Finale. To type them I had to use Alter 222, and Alter 254. You may choose to remap different unwanted characters that are easy to type in Finale.
In each glyph edit window for thorn, I deleted the existing character with the âmake emptyâ eraser button and inserted glyph Q and glyph Ë (Caron) to make a composite character. Similarly for q and Ë.
From the Tools menu, Autonaming, I renamed the Font as Arial Farsi
From the File menu, I saved the Truetype font file in C:\My Fonts as ARIAL2.TTF
I installed the font and tested it in Wordpad
Font test in Wordpad which worked fine.
Arial Farsi is here for you to look at.
Welcome to the wonder world of fonts. I donât know all the answers to your query, but I do know some pieces that may start you off easier.
- You add characters or glyphs to font sets and not individually as I read. Open the font you wish to deal with (Arial here) into FCP. There is a True Type version and an Open Type version. The TT has 220 glyphs while the OT 1320. The OT is probably installed but the TT is easier to work with.
I immediately do a âSave Asâ with a rename so I donât mess up the original. Eventually you would have to change the internal font names (Format/Naming) so as to differentiate from the authorized Arial.
- Insert two new blank glyphs and copy/paste your curves therein.
Since youâre asking for already designed pieces (caron and Qq), it would be trivial and a 2 minute job to build composite glyphs composed of a q, a Q and a caron. This solves the problem of the glyphs being badly sized and slightly wrong. You donât have to change the platform either.
- Naming them via âPropertiesâ is getting to the cusp of my knowledge. Since Qcaron or qcaron or Latin Capital Letter Q with Caron or Latin Small Letter Q with Caron (hacek) donât show in my 15,000 list of characters, I donât have a precedent for names/codes.
What I would do, but I canât prove it entirely works, is assign a postscript name Qcaron/qcaron and then go find some other character you can use for mapping. In my TT Arial trial, I used Acaron/0461/01CD and acaron/0462/01CE which are not in the TT Arial. (See Bhikkhu Pesala message for others). The pairs of numbers are decimal/hexadecimal equivalents. They show on the Preview window. Read the manual on how to insert these to the preview text.
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Save the font (under the new name).
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Go install your new font and test your application.
My understanding of the process ran out a few points above, so I may be wrong about some of this ⌠as excuse, I donât use diacritically-loaded letters so donât know how to access them in applications⌠But just now I put together a TT Arial with qcaron and Qcaron and can see them in FCP.
Others can audit my work and/or give the correct answers (see Bhikkhu Pesala message)!
Dick
I think Bhikkhu Pesala covered the essential points. Dick Papeâs post was almost correct, except for the glyph-naming part.
A postscript name is not essential, but you could use Qcaron and qcaron.
The important thing is the mapping. Donât use something like Acaron. As Bhikkhu suggested, use a standard ANSI mapping (one with a character code below 00FF) which you donât need. The names given to the codes are the Unicode values, which is what you would want if you were making a Unicode-compliant font. However, since (like a lot of software) the program youâre using isnât Unicode-compliant, the character name is meaningless.
I bow to the superior knowledge! Good thing I said I was already at my cusp!! Of course, Postscript names are for us, not the computers.
However: to test out the rest of my answer, I drew the Qcaron glyph and named it. I put the hex character code (01CD) into fcppreview.txt and could see it when I did a Font Test in FCP â so a connection WAS made. I didnât install it or confirm anything.
Why wouldnât that assignment work in any instance where you could enter a hex value? What is the advantage/need of using an existing position lower than 00FF?
Thanks, Dick.
Hello Bhikkhu, Dick and Jehuda and thank you for your help. I sure appreciate your input.
I finally have some time to deal with this issue. I have created the Q (q) with macron, named and saved (C:\My Fonts\Arial2.ttf) and installed them. I can see them in Windows as well as Finaleâs Fonts list and they tested fine in both. Thank you all. I figured out the corresponding nos. in Options/Overview/ Microsoft Mappings. I also changed the name from Thorn to Qcaron (for Caption), but in the Properties/Mappings it still says Latin Capital Letter Thorn. Where do I change it?
- Does it matter which Microsoft Platform I use?
- There are many unneeded characters in Arial. I would like to keep only the ones used for English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Farsi. They need to be in the 1st 255. What is the best way to reposition glyghs? Should I use sorting? I got scared because it sayed itâs undoable!
- What is Macintosh standard order names? (I think the Manual needs a good cross reference index.
By the way, where is the poll? I saw it once somewhere in the Forum, but I canât find it again! Iâd like to vote. This is certainly a great program, and so much fun!! Thanks again, Golnoush
In this same Support category, Dave Crosby references the CNet review site: http://www.download.com/ which allows user comments and ratings about Font Creator.
When you get to that page, use their Search function for Font Creator. It will bring it to the top of a page and show 14 reviews (up from 11!) with 71% favorable!! Good work Dave!!!
Enter good words only and donât forget to vote with 5âs âŚ
Dick
but in the Properties/Mappings it still says Latin Capital Letter Thorn. Where do I change it?
You donât. âLatin Capital Letter Thornâ is the Unicode name for the mapping Hex00DE (or decimal 222). If you want your character mapped to that code, it will show as âLatin Capital Letter Thornâ. This is the consequence of creating a non-Unicode-compliant text font. (I use a Hebrew word processor which uses its own proprietary mapping of characters, so (aside from punctuation and numerals in the lower ASCII range) all the characters have Unicode mapping names which do not reflect what the characters are.)
Does it matter which Microsoft Platform I use?
My understanding is that itâs considered proper to use âMicrosoft Unicodeâ for text fonts and âMicrosoft Symbolâ for non-text. In âMicrosoft Symbolâ fonts, the mappings are F000 hex higher than in text fonts â if you look at a font like the standard Symbol font that comes with Windows youâll see what I mean. If you change the platform to âMicrosoft Symbolâ, the mappings will be changed. Youâre probably better off leaving the font as a âMicrosoft Unicodeâ font (obviously a misnomer in this case).
Finally, to answer a question Dick Pape asked:
What is the advantage/need of using an existing position lower than 00FF?
In the original post, Golnoush said that the program for which this is being created only accepts values up to 00FF (i.e. ANSI, or extended ASCII, values). There are quite a few programs like that out there.
Hello, You are not going to believe this. I am ready to hang myself! This morning I happily continued working on my new font: rempapped all the needed characters, got rid of a lot of unnecessary ones (reduced the size to 117 KB) and was really proud of myself! Alas, I can not install it!! Everytime, it tells me that itâs already installed. It copies it to the Windows fonts folder but none of the programs can see it! There is a little arrow in front of the name. I donât know if it means anything. I try to delete it in the fonts window, it does not delete. It also says that the font name is not valid! I have searched everywhere to delete the older versions. I just donât know whatâs happening. I have followed the same instructions Bhikkhu gave that worked before, but nothing works. Is there some secret place in the registry that the fonts hide themselves and laugh at us? Itâs midnight and Iâve worked all day and Iâm exhausted. Hopefully by tomorrow one of you kind souls will have a solution. Could it be that the file is corrupt? I take back everything good I said before. This is Hell!
Sorry.
I hope you voted before last night âŚ
Hi Dick, Donât just say SORRY! Help Me! I still think itâs a great program and I WILL vote positively. Iâm just frustrated specially since everything was working so well. It must have been beginnerâs luck. My knowledge of computers is limited to programs I have worked with. Iâm no techie by any means. Iâm sure if I were, I would know what to do right away. So, PLEASE help me if you can. Anyone else out there???
Maybe there is a problem with other fonts already installed on your system. Try the Fix Font Folder utility available from our download page.
http://www.high-logic.com/download.html
How to use it:
- Start Fifofo.exe
- Press the Ok button at the bottom of the âRead Meâ Window.
- Press âFix Fonts Folderâ
- wait, wait, waitâŚuntil you see a list of fonts.
- Press âSave ReportâŚâ and select a filename
- As a final step a restart might help
Send this file and the font file to me so I can try and help you with the problem.
Thanks for sending the font file to me.
The font has both Microsoft Unicode and Microsoft Symbol platforms. A font should have only one Microsoft platform. I suggest you remove the Microsoft Symbol platform.
Well, finally, We have crossed one hurdle! The font is installed and tested fine in FCP! Thank you so much. It seems that just deleting the extra platform did it. BUTâŚ
1)Microsoft Word sees the font, I typed it in a blank document and printed it, but the characters in the saved document were changed to the original ones, not the remapped ones! So, it failed to save correctly. It warned me that it would happen and I didnât know what to tell it to do to prevent it.
2)Finale sees the font but it does not allow me to type it.
3)I noticed that there are many missing glyphs: 127-159, 161-192 and few others. Could I use them to include more characters (such as Persian language letters) from upper nos. in the lower 255 characters?
Thanks again for your help.
Regards
(Iâm not sure I should respond since you didnât like my last msgâŚ)
- Did you see your new characters when you were creating the Word document? That is, did they display on your monitor as you wished? If they were wrong, it would have saved as wrong of course. If they didnât display correctly, you arenât dealing with your new font more than likely.
The warning you got saying â âIt warned me that it would happen (âfailed to save correctlyâ) and I didnât know what to tell it to do to prevent itâ. This is an indication of something else being wrong! Obviously.
You might want to reboot your machine if you havenât. There are some buffers that may hold old stuff.
If they look right yet printed wrong, it suggests the printer has a mind of its own. As mentioned in another recent post, check for font substitution --and select âprint as bitmapsâ or something â very short knowledge here. Someone else surely can lead you.
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To get straight on all this, I would recommend you go back to the original font, or another well-working one, add your two composite glyphs, save it and install it under a new name. When corrections get applied to changes sometimes itâs far better to start over again. Now that you know how to build composites it should go very quickly.
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Your other question about using extra glyphs for private purposes: as mentioned before you can use up to 255.
0-31 and 127-159 are reserved and I donât know if you can use them at all. Some very commercial fonts donât design past 160 so those tend to be generally available.
You will find that you can map a character to an existing glyph where FCP will prompt you for âdo you want to overrule this mapping?â If you answer go ahead, it will keep the curves but unassign the font, so if you need to go back not much is lost as you can remap the original. A lot of flexibility is available.
Good luck
Dick Pape
Hi Dick, I didnât mind your response. I was just desparate for help. You should always feel free to respond and know that I truely appreciate the generosity of all of you who care enough to take the time and jump in to help lost souls like me. Thank you everyone.
By the way, I did vote and, eventhough I have not had an exactly easy ride, I do recommend this program because of the great support system.
Without you guys, I would have definitely given up and gone away long ago.
The problem is that the manual does not address everything. At least I havenât been able to find all my answers. But this Forum does take care of whatâs missing in the manual. Perhaps when Erwin has a chance, he should rethink the manual. Come to think of it, it may not be possible to forsee EVERY situation people might run into and offer a solution for it. I donât know!
Here is where I stand now and I still need help!
Finale sees the font, types it and prints it. HURRAH (I did follow Dickâs suggestion and restarted. It may have helped Finale, but it did not do much good with Word.)
BUT Word sees it but does not type it. I also see the font in Windowâs Character Map. I can insert the characters with âinsertâ, but can not type them with the unicode numbers.
I need to create the same characters in Times New Roman. Is there an easy way or I have to start from scrtach and do what I did in Arial? I need both fonts, Arial for the lyrics and TNR for all other texts in the music. Thanks again and have a good day. Hope to hear from you.
(I did see your vote. Thanks).
Glad you are making progress. Iâll bet you are getting faster and faster creating these shapes: âExperienced Font Fusserâ.
If use of CharMap is acceptable, you could consider adding all the glyphs to a new font you build. You could copy/paste from an Arial or Times New Roman or any other and have the special characters available regardless of the basic font you are using. You can adjust their relative size if they look uneven.
You could add to this special font as a need develops. This would minimize the number of real fonts you have to maintain (âfuss withâ!). You could call it âGolnoush, Vn 4.0â for posterity.
Good luck,
Dick
I have not followed carefully the problems experienced by the person initiating this thread; however, I thought it helpful to point out that the makers of Finale have a discussion about creating custom fonts for their product at the end of Chapter 29 âFontsâ in the documentation to Finale 2004.
I think anyone creating fonts for Finale 2004 would do well to consult it.
My initial experience is that a simple modification (modifying a single glyph by adding more content and changing the Win Ascent) of a TT font which works in Word and Adobeâs InDesign does not work in Finale.
Iâm finding Finale has some pretty complex algorythms for its rendering that are not necessarily bug free, so using custom fonts in Finale may not be as easy a task as it is for Microsoft Word.