Font Forum

Whereas ...

1. The smoothing filters of the Tools Import Image... facility are very effective when importing individual images from a graphics file.

2. The FontStruct facility at the http://fontstruct.fontshop.com webspace is very effective for entering artwork ideas into a font.

Could you please consider adding access to the smoothing filters of the Tools Import Image... facility to the Tools Glyph Transformer... facility?

This would mean that a font made using FontStruct could be processed using FontCreator using the smoothing filters using the Glyph Transformer, one glyph at a time or many glyphs at a time or all glyphs at once as desired.

William Overington

5 September 2008

The smooth filter works with images, so I'm afraid I don't understand your suggestion.

To smooth glyph outlines, we need to implement a different algorithm. A optimize contour feature is already on the to-do list, but I'm not sure if it will be included in the next upcoming release.

Erwin Denissen wrote:The smooth filter works with images, so I'm afraid I don't understand your suggestion.

Suppose that I tried to make a script font using FontStruct. Adobe has Bickham Script and I am not saying as a FontStruct-constructed competitor to Bickham Script, but as a hobbyist dream of it being my own script font which I could use in making pdfs using my own script font. Well, I could make it have a top-height of 32 cells and draw some lines 2 cells wide and some lines 1 cell wide, using solid cells mostly, though some of the other cells too, with the effect that the long thin ornate curves would be very pixelated and chunky. Yet I could probably produce something that is a script font, yet not very good.

In theory I could install that on a computer and use the font in Microsoft WordPad and display one character, then enlarge the size to 144 point, or larger. I could then use Print Screen and then paste into Microsoft Paint and then save as a bmp file. I could then start FontCreator and import that image from the bmp file into one glyph of FontCreator using the smoothing filters to try to have the script font have smooth ornate curves rather than the pixelated and chunky ornate curves of the font made using FontStruct.

I could then display another character in WordPad and repeat the process in order to import another smoothed glyph into FontCreator.

I could then spend a long time importing all of the other smoothed glyphs into FontCreator.

So, I wondered whether the process of getting bitmap images from each glyph of the original font and passing it through the existing smoothing filter could be done without needing to involve WordPad and Paint and the tedious manual processing.

Erwin Denissen wrote:To smooth glyph outlines, we need to implement a different algorithm. A optimize contour feature is already on the to-do list, but I'm not sure if it will be included in the next upcoming release.

Ah. I was not thinking of such a feature. I was thinking of FontCreator producing, for temporary internal use, for each glyph in turn, a black and white raster graphic from the original glyph and then processing that black and white graphic through its smoothing filters.

William Overington

5 September 2008

I don't think a lot of users are waiting for your requested enhancement, so I prefer to add features that benefit more users.

Why not just change the names in the font and call it your own? Lotta precedent for that in the industry. Whole lot faster and get better results.

Dick Pape wrote:Why not just change the names in the font and call it your own? Lotta precedent for that in the industry. Whole lot faster and get better results

Maybe the license agreement does not allow you to do this?

If William's goal is to make a "letter perfect" copy to sell, or give away he's in trouble probably regardless what the license suggests?

If his goal is to produce a "letter perfect" copy of the original font which he is to use for himself, forget what the license says!?

From our FontCreator - Frequently Asked Questions:

Q: Is it legal to modify a commercial font?

A: Several font vendors do allow this, as long as the modified font is only used on machines for which you have licensed the original font. If you have questions about what can or can't be done with a font, you should contact the font's manufacturer.