posted
Yes, Coreldraw would be the simplest method. Every version has the same font creating program within so it doesn't matter much which version you use. In addition to what Mike already said, you'll also need to do this. The help file will get you started but remember when exporting as a ttf, make sure you check the box marked "export selected only" each time you save the individual characters, or glyphs(as they are called in typography). Each subsequent glyph will be exported to the same file. Your first exported letter or punc. mark will be the default character used to represent all key spaces which have no set glyph. You'll want to keep this simple - that's why Corel suggests using the period. The toughest part is finding it on the chart. It is the mark between the hyphen (or dash) & the forward slash. (This is where a Unicode chart comes in handy. Although most of that info is unnecessary for simply creating a 1st-time font, the website is www.unicode.org and you probably won't need this kind of info until you start editing what you've created.)
With Coreldraw you can go back and edit glyphs but then it puts them back out of order as they were originally. This doesn't affect their working properly, but in a font editing program, can be quite annoying if everything is all scrambled. Programs like Fontographer and even Font Creating Program have a learning curve greater than Corel's. And if that's the direction you're headed, then some knowledge of Unicode would be desirable.
That aside, when creating characters, try to keep the node count as low as possible. Be aware of their placement. Avoid off-curve extreme control points which give a false size report of the letter. Some font editing programs will try to correct them for you. Other programs just add as many points as they deem necessary, giving truetype a bad rap for having too many nodes.
Some really nice fonts have been created with Coreldraw, some of which are advertised in Signcraft. So take your time and make them nice. If anything, you'll develop an appreciation for the typographers who have created those fancy fonts & are sold for a fraction (if time is money) of what it costs to create. We're not even gonna mention kerning here. But if we did, remember that connected script & italicized fonts are harder to kern than normal fonts.
Well, good luck!
-------------------- Bill Cosharek Bill Cosharek Signs N.Huntingdon,Pa
bcosharek@juno.com Posts: 703 | From: N.Huntingdon, Pa, USA | Registered: Dec 1999
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