Moving fonts back in from Illustrator

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outofstepfontco
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Moving fonts back in from Illustrator

Post by outofstepfontco »

Hi everyone
I have been using Illustrator to achieve text effects that aren't available through the Glyph Transformer (for example, Roughen). I have been finding it very challenging to move fonts in and out of Illustrator without losing characters / bearings / character position, while matching heights, etc.

What is the best way to move your fonts back and forth to and from Illustrator without losing important information or having to use mathematics to re-scale the characters? Is there an open-source repository for advanced Glyph Transformer scripts that would allow us to apply Illustrator effects inside FontCreator?

Much appreciated!
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Bhikkhu Pesala
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Re: Moving fonts back in from Illustrator

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

I suspect that copy and paste will be the easiest method. Vector scaling can be adjusted in Tools, Options, Import.

If anyone has any Transform scripts to share, they can add them to this thread. So far, no one did apart from me.

I don't think you will find anything as good as the effects available in Illustrator.
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Erwin Denissen
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Re: Moving fonts back in from Illustrator

Post by Erwin Denissen »

outofstepfontco wrote: Thu Nov 02, 2017 1:33 pmWhat is the best way to move your fonts back and forth to and from Illustrator without losing important information or having to use mathematics to re-scale the characters?
First of all, make sure you are running FontCreator 11.

Design your font as an OpenType font with CFF based outlines, as those use cubic curves which are also what is used in most vector drawing software.

To copy and paste back and forth to and from most vector editing software without conversion to TrueType based outlines (quadratic bezier curves), you need to set the Outline Format to CFF (PostScript) in the TrueType/OpenType Font Export Settings.
cubic.png
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Re: Moving fonts back in from Illustrator

Post by outofstepfontco »

Erwin Denissen wrote: Thu Nov 02, 2017 2:21 pm First of all, make sure you are running FontCreator 11.

Design your font as an OpenType font with CFF based outlines, as those use cubic curves which are also what is used in most vector drawing software.

To copy and paste back and forth to and from most vector editing software without conversion to TrueType based outlines (quadratic bezier curves), you need to set the Outline Format to CFF (PostScript) in the TrueType/OpenType Font Export Settings.

cubic.png
To be honest, I don't think I'd even be at a point where I'm worrying about that if all my punctuation, spacing modifiers, and combining diacriticals are all out of alignment. The amount of effort involved in getting them back into place isn't worth the benefit of having a "rough" version of an existing font, for example.

I'm seeing FontSelf may have ability to apply Illustrator effects font-wide, but I will have to do more investigation.

Looking for input from others that generate "rough" fonts, for example. A Glyph Transformer script would rule.
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Re: Moving fonts back in from Illustrator

Post by Erwin Denissen »

They won’t be out of alignment with version 11. Just make sure you have set your import vector settings correctly.
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Re: Moving fonts back in from Illustrator

Post by outofstepfontco »

Erwin Denissen wrote: Wed Nov 08, 2017 11:16 am They won’t be out of alignment with version 11. Just make sure you have set your import vector settings correctly.
I think there's a miscommunication.

If Illustrator doesn't store bearing, x-height, or cap height data, how could the Import Vector tool possibly load a vector into the same place inside a glyph as the source font project? Are you assuming I'm saving each individual vector in Illustrator as a new file? Because for fonts with 300 glyphs that exceeds a reasonable workload threshold.
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Re: Moving fonts back in from Illustrator

Post by Erwin Denissen »

That moght be an issue, but it is still easy to copyand paste from Fontcreator to AI and back. That should preserve size and position.
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