newbie: need help in creating font

[Chandan]

Hi,

I am trying to develop a new font, and am following the tutorial given along with this software. Based on that, I have got the following questions.

1. My font does not need the english alphabet. So, how can I make substitution rules so that for e.g. A is mapped to one of my characters, B to another and so on. Can I just simply superimpose my glyphs on the slots reserved for A, B, C ...

2. I tried File -> New -> to open a new font. Then created one symbol, superimposed it on the glyph that apparently had a 'A', and tested it on Word. However, the size of the character was coming out to be very small at font size of 12. It looks ok at font size 20 & above. So, is there any way I can increase it's size to be discernable at font 12 ?

Thanks,
Chandan

[Dave Crosby]

Hi Chandan,

1. If you do not wish to use Latin forms, place your mouse on the Space (before A). It will turn blue. Click << >> on the tool bar to create as many new edit windows as you wish. Do them one at a time if you wish.
Next you will need to MAP each new glyph. Right click on the glyph, and select Properties at the bottom of the Popup list.
In the General tab, type in the accepted PostScript Name of your new character. If you don’t know it, you can find it in the next step.
In the Mapping Tab, click on Select in the lower right hand corner. A new popup will present you with a list of Unicode Blocks. Select the block pertaining to the language you wish to use.
Scan down the list in the lower pane until you find the one you want. When you have selected it, it will turn blue. Click on OK, Make sure you have entered the proper Postscript name, and click on OK again.

Open the editing window and place your glyph, then move on to the next one.

2. This is far simpler. Place anything in the A editing window, and pressing the A key will use that glyph.
It sounds like your glyph was made at too low a dpi (dots per inch). 600 dpi works well. However, you can go to contour mode, grab the upper right hand corner and stretch it as large as you wish. For a 2048em glyph, a height from 0 up to 1400 or 1600 is about right.

Have fun!

[Chandan]

Hello Dave,

Thanks for your reply. First, wishing everyone in this forum a very Happy and prosperous new year. I followed your steps, and have the following queries wrt them. Could you please clarify.

1. I am able to create new glyphs as per your suggested option 1. But, I don't have any PostScript names for my characters. They are symbols used in a particular field of medicine, which till now, was done by hand. So, what can I do to introduce new PostScript names. Also, if in case there are similar looking symbols that have already been encoded, how do I verify that. Does there exist any database where I can go and check ?

2. Your suggested option 2 looks much simpler for me as a beginner. But, will there be any problem if I simply overwrite the glyph meant for A,B,C etc with my symbols. Eg. when I install the test font, pressing A would print the character that I have overwritten on glyph A. But that glyph would still have the PostScript name as 'A'. Am I correct ? Would that be the correct way to develop a new font ?

3. Regarding the size of my glyph, it has a height of about 1500. But, still it appears small at font size 12. I can stretch the glyph sidebars horizontally. Is there any way to stretch them vertically as well ?

Thanks,
--Chandan

[Dave Crosby]

Hi Chandan,

And a wonderful New Year to you!

1. I am able to create new glyphs as per your suggested option 1. But, I don't have any PostScript names for my characters. They are symbols used in a particular field of medicine, which till now, was done by hand. So, what can I do to introduce new PostScript names. Also, if in case there are similar looking symbols that have already been encoded, how do I verify that. Does there exist any database where I can go and check ?

Bhikkhu Pesala is by far my superior in this field. You might check with him.

In the meantime, see if you can find your field in this topic:
viewtopic.php?t=386

2. Your suggested option 2 looks much simpler for me as a beginner. But, will there be any problem if I simply overwrite the glyph meant for A,B,C etc with my symbols. Eg. when I install the test font, pressing A would print the character that I have overwritten on glyph A. But that glyph would still have the PostScript name as 'A'. Am I correct ? Would that be the correct way to develop a new font ?

You can change the post script name to anything you wish, and that name will show in FC or MainType, but as long as it is mapped to A or B, when your document is opened with another font, A and B will show up where your glyph was. If that does not bother you, then it works fine.
Option 1 is best if you want a permanent font usable by others.

3. Regarding the size of my glyph, it has a height of about 1500. But, still it appears small at font size 12. I can stretch the glyph sidebars horizontally. Is there any way to stretch them vertically as well ?

Go to Contour Mode and use the mouse to select all contours. They will turn red, and there will be a box around them. grabbing any side OR corner allows you to squeeze or stretch in that direction. You may have to re-select to change to an opposite side or corner.

Why not stretch it as high and wide as you need to for it to look the way you want at 12?

You must stay within the solid black lines at the top and bottom of your glyphs. They indicate Win Ascent and Win Descent. Anything extending beyond them will be clipped off.

[William]

1. .... Does there exist any database where I can go and check ?

The following page has many pdf documents showing symbols of various kinds.

http://www.unicode.org/charts/symbols.html

The start of the webspace is at the following address.

http://www.unicode.org

2. ... But, will there be any problem if I simply overwrite the glyph meant for A,B,C etc with my symbols. Eg. when I install the test font, pressing A would print the character that I have overwritten on glyph A. But that glyph would still have the PostScript name as 'A'. Am I correct ? Would that be the correct way to develop a new font ?

> Am I correct ?

As far as I know, you are correct.

> Would that be the correct way to develop a new font ?

It depends what one means by correct. It would not be a Unicode font, yet if you are trying to produce some printed sheets using a PC then it need not bother anyone that you are doing it. As long as it is made clear what you are publishing, it need not particularly bother anyone if you publish such a font.

However, the correct Unicode way to do the job is to produce a font and place your new symbols in the Private Use Area.

The following page has pdf versions of the Unicode specification.

http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode4.1.0/

For the Private Use Area, please read the section on the Private Use Area in the following.

http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode4.0.0/ch15.pdf

However, placing the symbols in the Private Use Area is only a suitable way to proceed if someone can use the Private Use Area in the applications which you have available to use. For example, some desktop publishing programs can only use 256 characters with no Private Use Area characters within those 256 characters.

If you would like to study and to try out a font which has many symbols in the Private Use Area, then my Quest text font is available as a free download.

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo/QUESTTXT.TTF

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo/fonts.htm

The symbols which I have added into the Private Use Area are for various projects, including some in relation to research in interactive broadcasting. However, perhaps the easiest special symbols to try are those relating to simple percussion music.

William Overington

[Chandan]

Hello Dave and William,

Thanks to your meticulous replies, I am starting to get a nice understanding of this field.

My requirement is to develop a font that will be used by professors in various universities to exchange data (manuscripts, which are being written by hand and scanned now). So, based on your information, I guess that using the private space will be my best bet.

I went through the character database that William had provided, and got two of the symbols that I need namely

1. 1D54 (MODIFIER LETTER SMALL TOP HALF O)
2. 1D55 (MODIFIER LETTER SMALL BOTTOM HALF O)

Both are from the phonetic extension list (1D00 - 1D75)

1. Now, where is the postscript name in each case ? I don't seem to get that information in the pdf file.

2. Also, does there exist a way wherein I can import these glyphs instead of drawing them from scratch ?

3. How can I create a keyboard mapping such that pressing 'A' on the keyboard prints 1D54 (MODIFIER LETTER SMALL TOP HALF O). I have seen this facility in Indic fonts such as Vrinda. For eg. pressing 'H' prints 'bn_pa' and so on. Is that something that can be done within the framework of Font Creator ?

Thanks & Regards,
--Chandan

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

1. Now, where is the postscript name in each case ? I don't seem to get that information in the pdf file.

The postscript name will be generated by Font Creator (Format, Post, Generate Names). It will just be uni1D54 and uni1D55 in this case).

2. Also, does there exist a way wherein I can import these glyphs instead of drawing them from scratch ?

Yes. The way I recommend is to scan the whole set of symbols at a resolution such that each one is about 400-500 pixels high. (12 point = 1/6" so 2400 dpi would be about right if the sample is that small). Open the scanned page in Irfan View (the best graphics program for such tasks, but most others will do). Select around the character you wish to import, copy it to the clipboard, and post into the appropriate glyph in the Font Creator overview window. Repeat for each character.

3. How can I create a keyboard mapping such that pressing 'A' on the keyboard prints 1D54 (MODIFIER LETTER SMALL TOP HALF O). I have seen this facility in Indic fonts such as Vrinda. For eg. pressing 'H' prints 'bn_pa' and so on. Is that something that can be done within the framework of Font Creator ?

Keyboard mapping depends on the application you will be using the fonts in. Word, Open Office, or Opera browser allow assignment of shortcuts to any Unicode character. For other applications use a Windows macro recorder.

There are also tools for creating keyboard drivers, but that is unnecessary unless you wish to use the font in all Windows applications. A macro recorder will do the same anyway.

Another approach is to design the font as symbol font, then the normal keys will be assigned like typing with WingDings. The disadvantage is that you have to switch fonts to type English or to type your symbols. I prefer to add all the symbols and accents I need to each base font that I use. Unicode may already have code points for your symbols. You might be looking in the wrong place. post a 100 dpi scan of the symbols in use and we might be able to help.

To post an image, click on the Upload attachment tab below the message box, choose a file on your hard drive, click on “Add the file”, and then place it inline if you wish.