Practical Font DesignThis is a small independent publishing house for the kingdom and its inhabitants. All content is the responsibility of the publisher.
Subscribe: A Skilled Workman
A rewritten, expanded edition updated to FontLab 5 giving a practical walk through the process of designing a font. This is not about artistic considerations, but the practicalities of putting a font together.
The basic procedure we use for font design is found in this book. It is a step by step following of a new font design with tips and comments along the way. This is the book we use for training our new apprentices.
It's available at Amazon, but Lulu's version is better printing.
The ebook formats are stripped down to html standards for the current level of ebook design. They might not be quite as pretty but they'll read correctly. The PDF version is identical to the printed book.
Here at the foundry we use FontLab 5 in the production of our fonts. Over the years we have developed over a hundred fonts. In the process we have picked up a lot of experience in the process of designing a font efficiently.
This is not a book for programmers and scripters. This is a book for graphic designers and typographers who love type and want to make their own fonts—either for themselves or to sell.
In the process of writing this book several things were developed that you might find useful in your design process. In general these are pieces of copy or FontLab files that will save you the time required to make your own. There are lists of composite glyphs to generate, and OpenType features file, and a text file to use when generating metrics and kerning tables. You can find them on this page.
Defining typography 2
Some terminology 5
A Practical Approach
To Classifying Fonts 9
A step by step procedure 47
Starting to draw 67
There are many ways to start a glyph: 67
Scan & trace 67
Vector Paint 79
Some definitions 109
Basic methodology 110
FontLab’s Metrics panel 111
Using classes 136
The Metrics window 151
What do you need in a font family? 182
Readability 184
Keeping the family consistent 237
Design for designers 259