Unite several fonts into one combined font.

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1

Need guidance on combining tables (present is equivalent to 8 fonts) into a single font, possibly analogous to a TrueType Collection (*.ttc format). High Logic supports (via Extract TrueType Fonts from TrueType Collection wizard, from the Tools menu, separating combined fonts into their constituent parts. What I wish to do is to combine the constituent parts into a single combined font.

I have created the copyrighted Maness International Geological (MIG) Font, composed of 8 Tables: Table 00 = Latin Alphabet; Table 01 = Latin Alphabet Extended (Total of 25 Latin alphabets); Table 02 = Greek alphabet; Table 03 = Cyrillic alphabets; Table 04 = Cyrillic alphabets extended (Total of 69 Cyrillic alphabets); Table 05 = Geological Symbols; Table 06 = Geological Letters; Table 07 = Mathematics/Statistics/Logic Symbols; Table 08 = Chinese phonetic Bo-Po-Mo-Fe alphabet (already support both Wade-Giles and Pin-Yin phonetic alphabets in Tables 00-01).

The primary purpose of the alphabets is to enable geologists to directly quote, rather than translate (which can be intentionally or mistakenly biased) documents from a variety of languages into professional reports to enable responsible due-diligence to be conducted, in a transparent fasion.

The primary purpose of the True Type Geological Symbols and Letters is to make available to the geological community usable in documents, on maps & images, etc., all the necessary symbology and lettering to enable GIS and other analyses and publications to be accomplished. These largely new symbols and letters fully support lithostratigraphic and chronostratigraphic labelling for all geological specialties (e.g., oil & gas, mining, geothermal, environmental, degree of metamorphism, …). A tutorial on geological usage of the font is included.

Tables 07 and 08 are self-explanatory.

Thank you,

Lindsey V. Maness, Jr.
Geologist

2

There is plenty of room for all the symbols you want in a single font. You just need to place them in the Supplementary Planes. See:

http://forum.high-logic.com:9080/t/how-to-add-characters-defined-in-the-supplementary-planes/390/1

Your next project is to learn how to access those symbols. This discussion on Keyboards should help.

http://forum.high-logic.com:9080/t/create-a-font-with-diacritical-markings/2665/8

3

Dear Mr. Crosby:

Thank you for the suggestions; however, there are at least two significant problems.

First, with about 800 characters and about 5 minutes per character for input for each separate character, that is 4,000 minutes necessary to devote to combining fonts using this method. Second, at least 1/3 of my letters and symbols do not have an unitype equivalent, none, nada, zilch.

What I need is something like “Extract True Type Fonts from True Type Collection wizard” (tools menu), only operating in reverse. In other words, I need to unite nine (9) fonts [MIG 00-08 Fonts] into one combined font.

Thank you,


Lindsey V. Maness, Jr.
Geologist

4

Could this information from Dick Pape help you?

http://forum.high-logic.com:9080/t/vn-6-0-import-image/2529/8

5

I don’t understand how dividing the font into a collection of several fonts is going to make the slightest difference to the time required for importing the symbols.

If the symbols are currently bitmap images, then just select them all and drag and drop them into the private use area. If they are already fonts, then just use copy and paste from one font to another.

If the symbols are available as vector images such as AI or EPS formats, importing them into FontCreator 6.1 is extremely fast.

6

January 16th, 2,010

Dear Mr. Crosby:

Not really. I’ve been doing this and an equivalent for several months now, to build each individual letter, symbol, etc., in each font. In essence, I scanned either letters I drew or wanted from another source (usually a map [mostly USGS] or a textbook), then imported them more-or-less as shown in your example, then optimally modified them to fit my pre-existing criteria.

There is no problem doing this with the single default starting table provided in the High Logic software. It’s when several individual fonts are combined that I run out of places to put the characters/glyphs/… and encounter other problems, some severe.

If you will look at some of the standard TrueType fonts provided by MicroSoft, you will see that an individual font can contain several “tables” or “panels,” each with a different theme. This combination of several fonts into a single font is a very desirable feature, especially in support of an international font designed for routine use by a specific professional group (in this case, geologists).

By the way, my MIG Font 00 already assigns letters, etc., to correspond to American keyboards, so that a letter “L” on the keyboard will type a letter “L.” The other MIG Fonts, from 01-08, assign positions based alphabetically or by appearance or by another rational grouping methodology. Since my font tables are iterative and Beta Testers have already recommended additions (sometimes I saw them myself) which I placed at the end, even version 1.00 is already diverging from rational grouping. The next versions will be rationalized, except for 00. I expect that most of the desired characters, symbols, etc., will have been integrated by version 3.00 – at least that is my goal. Some professional societies, etc., have pledged to help me by recommending additional letters, symbols, etc.

Thank you,
Lindsey V. Maness, Jr.

7

January 16th, 2,010

Dear Bhikkhu Pesala:

I will try your suggestion.

Thank you,


Lindsey V. Maness, Jr.
Geologist