making fonts bold

[Patricia Grant]

I have successfully created my font but can't seem to make it bold.
Note my font was created as symbol.

As per the help key, I've done the following:
- changed the font subfamily name
- changed the classification weight under general
- changed the weight under classification (although I did not see a panose weight selection)
- changed the mac style under header
- changed the font desing under windows

Thank you for your assistance.

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

As I understand it, bold is never used for symbol fonts. Opening a few on my system shows that none of them are.

If your font is pictograms rather than letters, why do you want to make it bold? If it is letters, and you want to make bold and regular versions, you can change it to a Unicode font. See help index "Unicode versus Symbol."

Even some very bold fonts like Bodoni Ultra are regular, not bold fonts, as they don't have a bold version. Bodoni Ultra does, however, have an italic version.

[Patricia Grant]

I have converted the font to unicode from symbol.

I then changed the settings as per the help screen on font type, changing to bold. Unfortnately the font itself does not change.

Note the font I am working on is like sign language finger spelling but used for people that are low-vision. It is the print equivalent so I need to have thicker lines and was hoping to change the font settings to bold or black so that only one font exists - in a thicker format.

Do I have to change every letter or can it be done with a few key strokes.

Thank you for your assistance.
I really do appreciate it!

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

See this previous thread on inflating and eroding glyphs. That means making bold from regular, or making regular from bold fonts.

viewtopic.php?t=34

Try using the Transformation toolbar to scale glyphs.

Use guidelines extensively to check alignment/position.

First, modify elements that are repeated in other letters.

Cut and paste edited letters to use as templates for others.

Use composite characters wherever possible. A composite is a letter like ç composed of c + ¸