Thanks for the reply, Van! Um, with the issue you pointed out (along with the example you showed), which font were you using? The first/old font I created I pretty well manually kerned completely, but the second/new one was mainly just auto-kerned.
I still don't understand why the old font (created in Fontographer) kerns just fine in pretty well any program, but the new one (created in FontCreator) only seems to have kerning show up in some (but not all) programs.
ALSO, on a separate -- but somewhat related -- note, I don't quite get what the "Test..." thing is for in FontCreator (i.e. under Font -> Test, or F5). I mean, sure, I can look at my font, but kerning doesn't even seem to show up in there, either! So what is it that I'm supposedly testing for in there?
Kerning Issues
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Bhikkhu Pesala
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Re: Kerning Issues
You put the cart before the horse in trying to fix the spacing problems by using kerning.
I suggest removing all of the kerning pairs, and fixing the spacing first before testing the font in the font test window using some text samples from Kern King
What I did with the attached version, was to strip all of the kerning pairs, then fix the spacing on some letters like: A, F, G, I, J, K, M, N, P, T, V, W, Y, d, f, i, l, p, s, t, u, v, w, y, and apostrophe. It was just a quick and rough job, but the spacing should be better than before.
One trick to use is to use the Comparison toolbar (F11) in the Glyph Edit Window, with the Before and After glyphs both set to capital N. Fix the width of that first, then run through the font using the Alt Left/Right cursor keys to see where the main spacing problems lie.
Move some glyphs to the left or right, and adjust the right side-bearing of other glyphs to reduce the advance width. After adjusting the spacing, the Font Test window will show you some problem areas where glyphs clash.
Only after fixing the spacing, use the Manual Kerning dialogue to fix any remaining problem pairs, like AY or F, etc.
This screen shot shows the capital F, for which I adjusted the right side-bearing.
I suggest removing all of the kerning pairs, and fixing the spacing first before testing the font in the font test window using some text samples from Kern King
What I did with the attached version, was to strip all of the kerning pairs, then fix the spacing on some letters like: A, F, G, I, J, K, M, N, P, T, V, W, Y, d, f, i, l, p, s, t, u, v, w, y, and apostrophe. It was just a quick and rough job, but the spacing should be better than before.
One trick to use is to use the Comparison toolbar (F11) in the Glyph Edit Window, with the Before and After glyphs both set to capital N. Fix the width of that first, then run through the font using the Alt Left/Right cursor keys to see where the main spacing problems lie.
Move some glyphs to the left or right, and adjust the right side-bearing of other glyphs to reduce the advance width. After adjusting the spacing, the Font Test window will show you some problem areas where glyphs clash.
Only after fixing the spacing, use the Manual Kerning dialogue to fix any remaining problem pairs, like AY or F, etc.
This screen shot shows the capital F, for which I adjusted the right side-bearing.
- Falsum F.png (11.12 KiB) Viewed 3804 times
- Attachments
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- Falsum Regular.ttf
- (39.45 KiB) Downloaded 321 times
Re: Kerning Issues
Wow, thank you, Bhikkhu! Looks like I have my work cut out for me. I was new to this using Fontographer a decade ago, and I'm still new to this a decade later (I basically just put aside all font stuff during those intervening years!).
In any case it would seem that I pretty well need to start almost from the beginning again (as far as spacing/kerning goes), but will this somehow resolve that weird issue with regard to the kerning not showing up in various programs? As I mentioned, the kerning in my old Fontographer-designed font works fine in everything, but the new FontCreator-designed font only worked in just one program (Photoshop) and nothing else. Is that issue related, somehow, to my needing to resolve this other issue that you were talking about here?
Thanks again for your help! Might take me a little while to get it done, but I will!
In any case it would seem that I pretty well need to start almost from the beginning again (as far as spacing/kerning goes), but will this somehow resolve that weird issue with regard to the kerning not showing up in various programs? As I mentioned, the kerning in my old Fontographer-designed font works fine in everything, but the new FontCreator-designed font only worked in just one program (Photoshop) and nothing else. Is that issue related, somehow, to my needing to resolve this other issue that you were talking about here?
Thanks again for your help! Might take me a little while to get it done, but I will!
Re: Kerning Issues
I was using Nova, and I don't ever really use the Test (F5) option, other than to get a good feel for color. For kerning, metrics and the like, I use the View:Toolbars:Preview window to see how things work out. And obviously, there are some issues that arose from the auto-kerning, but I really like to use the auto-kern to give me my list of pairs, which I can then fiddle with to get good results. Even though I wouldn't move a comma or period as far under the bar of an "F" as the auto-kerning did with your font, I would still want to give them a little tuck under there.