Grayscale-Settings - help needed

[darecki]

I have created my own footnotes-font, therefore i copied some numbers out of another font(that works pretty well on windows) and the rest i created by myself.
now, when i install the font the digits are too much antialiased, so i read in this forum i have to turn greyscale rendering off, but then they look too crappy....
that has nothing to do with the windowsXP font-options, i checked it.
the strange thing is, that the original font works perfectly with this small digits.... but when i copy the digits into new font and install them they are trashed...
please help me out, i have no idea.

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

Probably the digits look good at small sizes in the original font due to hinting information being present. Copying the characters will not copy the hinting information. Anti-aliasing is about the best you can expect.

Font Creator supports existing hints, but it does not enable you to add them. What you should find is that the fonts look fine when printed out as hinting is only relevant on low resolution devices like monitors.

Personally, I don't dislike anti-aliasing, and even thought of removing hinting from my fonts because it reduces the TTF file size considerably, but one person strongly disagreed with this idea. I think hinting is an aweful lot of work for very little return. Just turn on font-aliasing and be happy that it looks a bit grey and fuzzy at small sizes.

[darecki]

hmm... i only want to use them on monitors (for flash, but not embedded), so if understood you right, i have to do add some hinting information. do u know with what i can do that?

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

Then go take a look at the Microsoft Typography Pages.

Since I have never done it, I have no idea which tools are best or cheapest. Fontlab or Fontographer will probably do it. Better wait for some advice from others who have done it.

Links for Typography and Design Standards
viewtopic.php?p=214#214

Also in the Specification Forum, see my email from Ulrich Steilh on Font Hinting and Smoothing.
viewtopic.php?t=228

I have put the notes there to keep information a bit organised on this forum.