Shadow Effects in FontCreator

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JJDOWNEY
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Shadow Effects in FontCreator

Post by JJDOWNEY »

I remember from early versions of the software there was a shadow effect option to apply to the font is that available in the last 3 versions as I've never seen it. I know when I tried version 5 I believe it had shadow effect. Like a 2d/3D shadow effect shadow of text. Can or will it be available as an update or downloadable to add to the font effects menu? As its a time save in terms of doing all the characters in shadow form from scratch.

I was also thinking off another effect that could be produced which is if you have a font that wide in style. There could an effect to narrow it. I know there is THIN effect but it makes letters thin. But make the letters NARROW in width not thickness.
MikeW
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Re: Shadow Effects in FontCreator

Post by MikeW »

Any such effect was before my time with FC I think.

As for narrowing a font, you can use the transform dialog to scale horizontally to achieve that I think.
Bhikkhu Pesala
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Re: Shadow Effects in FontCreator

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

There was, and still is, an Outline Effect.
Outline Effect.png
Outline Effect.png (15.47 KiB) Viewed 13036 times
I am not aware of there ever having been a shadow effect.

There is a scale effect in the Glyph Transformer that can be used to scale glyphs, but it will also scale vertical strokes.
Scale Width.png
Scale Width.png (16.03 KiB) Viewed 13036 times
You can design and save your own Glyph Transform scripts in all recent versions of FontCreator as long as you have the Standard or Professional Editions.
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JJDOWNEY
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Re: Shadow Effects in FontCreator

Post by JJDOWNEY »

Thank you to all who have left comments. Can someone who has worked on all the versions please tell me what version had the effect for shadow. As Font Creator is the program is the only program ive used. To generate the shadow effect as far back as version like 2,3,4.
Bhikkhu Pesala
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Re: Shadow Effects in FontCreator

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

Can you attach a font that you created with a shadow effect using an earlier version?

I have used all versions since FontCreator 4.0
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jch02140
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Drop Shadow effect?

Post by jch02140 »

It would be great to have a drop shadow effect like the sample attached available for glyph transform. since creating "Outline" is already available...
af.gif
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Erwin Denissen
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Re: Shadow Effects in FontCreator

Post by Erwin Denissen »

We've added this request to the wish-list. It would be great if other people who would like to see this included in a future version of FontCreator, would let us know here as well.
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Re: Shadow Effects in FontCreator

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

It looks like it ought to be easy to automate, but it's quite laborious to do manually. It's not something that I need personally, but I am sure it would be a useful enhancement.

Here is one that I made by manually moving some nodes after applying a thin outline.
A Shadow.png
A Shadow.png (24.76 KiB) Viewed 12451 times
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MikeW
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Re: Shadow Effects in FontCreator

Post by MikeW »

I think it would be very useful, Erwin.

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Re: Shadow Effects in FontCreator

Post by Erwin Denissen »

Last time we tried to implement it, we failed. Since then we've significantly improved our outline algorithms, so maybe it is easier now.
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jch02140
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Re: Shadow Effects in FontCreator

Post by jch02140 »

It would be nice to have an option to allow us to specify the drop shadows length and angle.
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Re: Shadow Effects in FontCreator

Post by Hafonton »

Yes it would be a great feature!
nabsltd
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Re: Shadow Effects in FontCreator

Post by nabsltd »

Since any shadow effect by FontCreator will be algorithmic in nature, it really won't be much different from shadow effects offered by drawing programs.

I'd rather buy a really well-done font with no shadow and then add whatever kind of shadow I want using my drawing program of choice than try and find a font with a shadow that looks the way I want. Even a 3-D shadow isn't hard to do with a drawing program, like this image I created. The shadow is just a black-filled duplicate of the original text that is offset, then the 3-D effect is done with "Add Depth" that joins the two copies using the black. A little manual tweaking to make the curved edges look right, and it's done.

The drawing program allows me to control the shadow direction, depth, color, and strength, which a font doesn't allow.
clue-5b6ca1b30e8a6.png
clue-5b6ca1b30e8a6.png (44.66 KiB) Viewed 9571 times
outofstepfontco
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Re: Shadow Effects in FontCreator

Post by outofstepfontco »

If anyone is still looking to achieve this effect, it's available in FontForge:
Elements > Style > Shadow

I typically push my fonts to FontForge to apply effects or solve problems before finishing them in FontCreator.
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