Enhancing an existing font by the german umlauts

Klaus · Post by **Klaus** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 12:17 pm

Hi, font creators,
as a brand new beginner in creating fonts I've got a problem, that might push a smile upon the faces of you well experienced designers.
I've got a freeware-font with just enough glyphs to hold the most important signs and the letters from a to z and A to Z.
How to carry on? Of Course "Insert Glyph" but how to continue? I think, my problems are situated in the character mappings. I inserted a new glyph, placed on the position x80, copied the contour from "u" to my new "ue", produced two dots over the "u". When I now insert a "ue" (u-uml) in the preview-window, my "ue" appears in the input-field, but not in the preview area, there to be seen nothing but this wellknown square.

Can anybody help?

Best regards
Klaus

Bhikkhu Pesala · Post by **Bhikkhu Pesala** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 10:45 pm

It sounds like a mapping problem, it often is. One needs to define the character and then map it to the right code for typing (ANSI 252 ü) is the right one.

With accents (diacritics) the best method is to create one new glyph for the diaresis accent (ANSI 168) and use composites to create ü Ü ï ä Ä etc. It is more efficient and hinting information will not be lost.

To create a composite. First create an empty new glyph, then double-click to open the glyph edit window. Insert glyph to insert the u, then repeat to insert the ¨ accent. Position carefully using guidelines, and map to the right character code - Latin small letter u with diaresis = 252 (decimal)

Klaus · Post by **Klaus** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 11:34 am

Thank you very much, that's exactly the hint I needed.
Best regards
Klaus