Auto Metrics

[rschmit88]

I set the Auto Metrics and all the letters/numbers have the spacing required except for the left side bearing of the T when next to a preceding character such as a U. For example, when I type UTL, the spacing between the U and T is different than between the T and L or any subsequent letters/numbers. Any ideas how to correct?

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

Which edition and version of FontCreator are you using and how are you setting Autometrics?

The Home Edition can only apply equal bearings to all glyphs, so the spacing won't be ideal for most fonts. It is, at best, a quick fix first step before manually adjusting the bearings for each glyph. The Professional Edition has Optical Metrics, which will calculate the side-bearings based on the shape of the glyphs.

Look at any standard font, and you will see that the side-bearings are different for letters like O N, A or W, and letters like L will have different left and right side-bearings.

This is the kind of result that you would expect with Autometrics, setting all bearings to 100.

Autometrics.png (14.43 KiB) Viewed 2684 times

This is how a normal font will look with different left and right side-bearings for the L.

Uneven Bearings.png (14.08 KiB) Viewed 2684 times

After manually (or automatically) adjusting the side-bearings to get spacing that looks even visually, e.g. in the Preview Toolbar (F8) or Font Test Window (F5), you will then need to generate kerning values so that pairs like LT or AV move closer together, but pairs like TL or VW do not.

Kerning.png (34.37 KiB) Viewed 2676 times

[rschmit88]

I am using Professional Edition 9.1 ... The problem I am having, although not visually correct, is to gain a customers business, I need to create this font whereas I have equal distance between each character/number regarding of what it may be. For example, if my number/character is 4" tall, I need .75" between all characters/numbers. I set the Auto Metrics to 98 on both, and it is 99% accurate for what I need. If I type TT, it works, If I type UTX, the distance between the U and T is closer and incorrect than the distance between the T and X. I need to understand how to fix that.

BTW- Under Auto Metrics, the fixed bearings are both set at 98, which works except for the pairing of UT discussed.

Thanks

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

Does your font have any kerning pairs?