FontLab VI Tutorials?

Mads Davidsen

Hi,

I just recently acquired FontLab VI. The next step is to learn the software. I have been using Glyphs before, and they were kind enough to make tutorials on their website accessible to beginners like me. I was wondering if any of you have found any tutorials on FontLab VI—except for their interesting and motivating manual (incidentally, that is called sarcasm). Thanks!

—Mads

AbiRasheed

Their facebook page has a few videos [link]. I've gone through some of them but I wish there were more and slightly more in-depth and on a somewhat regular basis.

Thomas Phinney

We are starting to work on videos. The first few may be more flashy than how-to tutorials, but we are planning both.

Chris Lozos

How To is always much better than flashy. Flashy is just marketing window dressing.

David Vereschagin

How would I access the videos on the Facebook page since I'm not a member of Facebook?

AbiRasheed

@David Vereschagin the link I mentioned has the videos but for some reason it doesn't list it unless you change it to 'oldest first' or you can click 'videos' listed on the side. I think they should move it to youtube for ease of use.

David Vereschagin

@AbiRasheed Thanks. That sometimes works if I don't get the pop-up asking me to join Facebook that then overlays and blocks the entire page.

AbiRasheed

@David Vereschagin the popup should allow you to click 'not now' at the bottom and it should go away. Worked for me all this time. If it's like an annoying forced popup that won't go away like you see on pinterest, might need adblock or something along those lines.

Igor Freiberger

While we are still working on videos, let me point that the release notes for the just released version 6.0.6 presents numerous instructions about new features and enhancements.

Also, FontLab forum has a thread listing selected topics with learning contents. We are updating that list periodically.

Mads Davidsen

@Thomas Phinney
How's it going with the tutorials? ;-)

Thomas Phinney

I haven’t been with FontLab for most of a year now—@Adam Twardoch would be the one to ask (of the TypeDrawers regulars).

Mads Davidsen

@Thomas Phinney
Ah, OK, sorry.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Thomas Phinney

@Mads Davidsen No worries, just didn’t want you wondering why I was ignoring you!  

@James Montalbano That is VERY true. FontLab 7 is basically the same app, BUT with a few more features, many improvements to workflow, many more bugs fixed, and just more stable.

I think a lot of folks feel it has passed some key point of overall functionality and usability to the point that it changes how they feel about the app—in a good way.

Mads Davidsen

@James Montalbano
I'm not going to upgrade to version 7 when there are no tutorials. I already feel silly for buying version 6. For now, I stick with Glyphs because I know how to use that.

Ray Larabie

I purchased 7 but I'm not even going to run it until I see some tutorials. I was really disappointed with the workflow in 6 and wasted a month to develop a workflow that was barely half the speed of 5.

André Simard

I use the version 7, since it's release and I would never go back to the former versions. To me, FL 7 is stable, fast and get a lots of advantages over 5 or 6. You're right, it would be good to have more tutorials to learn faster how it's work, so I can just encourage you to persist in learning it.

John Hudson

FL7 is definitely better than VI, and I've mostly moved to a combination of FLS5 and FL7. [FLVI is still in use on a couple of projects, though, because of external dependencies.]

If someone has been using FLVI, then I'd thoroughly recommend upgrading to FL7: it is similar to VI, but more stable and with some nice added features (including some things that VI users missed from FLS5).

Vasil Stanev

I just purchased FL7 and it felt really worth it. I feel like an ocean of possibilities are opening.

Ray Larabie

I don't what to turn this into a FontLab 7 helpline but I have one question: is it possible to set it to integers only? From what I can see it's the same setup as FLVI. I know there's a grid snap but I mean all integer mode.

Igor Freiberger

It's the same as FontLab VI: Contour > Coordinates > Round when Editing makes every change use only integers while Contour > Coordinates > Apply Rounding places existing contents at integers. In other words, the "all integer mode" is Round when Editing.

When exporting the font, it is also possible to round all values (which is the default setting).

Documentation is under a complete overhaul and the new user manual will also bring tutorials.

Ray Larabie

Thanks @Igor Freiberger ... I was looking for it in the wrong place.

Vasil Stanev

Ray Larabie said:

I don't what to turn this into a FontLab 7 helpline

 Many questions about FontLab will inevitably pop up on the board over the years, maybe it would be good if there was a dedicated topic? What do the mods think?

@Dyana Weissman  @Ramiro Espinoza  

Thomas Phinney

Eh, that’s what threads are for. I think “Type Design software” is a good enough category.

But if one was going to have separate categories, other apps will need them as well.

Simon Cozens

Also a better place to ask Fontlab (or Glyphs or RoboFont or...) specific questions would be in the user forums for the relevant app.

Thomas Phinney

For people who are interested in FontLab 7 tutorials, what are the top one or two tutorials you most want to see? As specific as reasonably possible.

Ray Larabie

General workflow. I don't mean it has to be a 12 hour tutorial showing everything but a general tour of someone working on an actual font with a short explanation of each part. A quick run through of all the steps required to produce a font.

• setting up metrics
• drawing letters
• setting font info (names, metrics)
• spacing/testing
• diacritical and other component generation
• class creation
• kerning
• setting font info (encoding)
• axes
  
• generating instances
• validation (not sure if that's included in FontLab 7)
• exporting

Thomas Phinney

Thanks!

Can you explain more what you mean by "validation"? I don't think you mean glyph-level tests like FontAudit.

By "generating instances" do you mean as standalone fonts? Or do you mean just specifying which coordinates in a variable font are to be named instances? (I'd guess the former, but it's hard to be certain without asking.)

"Class creation" I assume is kerning classes, as you mention it just before kerning.

"Exporting"—not sure what here is non-obvious, other than when it comes to generating instance-fonts (standalone fonts from variable font instances) which I think is covered above.

Adam Twardoch

I think with regard to exporting, there are a few caveats with profiles — the export profiles include some outline cleanup settings, and also settings for autohinting, which are not entirely obvious. 

Mads Davidsen

@Ray Larabie
I agree. I just want to be able to create a typeface in the software. It's fine if I have to resort to the written manual if I want it more in depth.

Thomas Phinney

@Adam Twardoch Ah yes, export profiles! Good point. Most of the time, users don’t need to edit the existing profiles, but knowing that there are various things “hidden” in the export profiles is important! Just knowing you might need to look there, or check there when encountering an issue, is super important.

I also realized just now that the menu item “Profiles...” is highly ambiguous, really doesn’t give the user any clue as to what it does, or is about. Maybe “Font Export Settings”?