I use mostly graphic object from my graphics program and copy/paste it into font software like Fontforge and Fontcreator.
Some suggest me to use svg/image format to import them into font program. But I find it too much work to do them than just copy/paste. Unless, you can automate them. Other thing is I find the size of the object ( Letter ) is treated very different in
both font software. I like FF better which give me nicer looking glyphs. In FC, I need to resize to fit in the x-height. I just installed FC and started learning, so I don't know much about it. I am seeking expert advice on graphic object vs image and ideal size of the object to import into both font programs. Thanks
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• Keep size (1 EPS pt = 1 UPM unit)
• Fit between Ascender and Descender
• Fit between Ascender and Baseline.
You can also create a box of standard size, placed around each EPS object.
That also works (as a “selection”) for importing bitmapped images.
I do recommend getting comfortable creating and editing glyphs directly in the font software, though. You may be more familiar with your graphics tool now, but ultimately you will save a lot of time and unnecessary steps when you use the dedicated glyph design tools.
If you change over to drawing in a font editing program, you will initially be slower. BUT…
1) On average, it might take you something like 4-12 hours to become as fast or faster at drawing in a font editor, than you ever were in your drawing program. Given the number of hours it takes to draw a full font, this is not a large investment.
2) Most font editors have many things about their drawing tools that help you draw better (more “fontified”) glyph outlines than what you would get in your drawing program.
Also, you can do spacing in the font editor, which is something that benefits from being as close as possible to the drawing process. You can also do kerning, but contrariwise, that’s possibly the one real benefit of not working in your font editor: you won’t be tempted to start kerning too early. 😂
Even though >90% of pro font designers started out already knowing other drawing programs, >90% of all pro font designers do their actual glyph drawing right in their font editor. Probably closer to 99%. This is because of the two factors above.
Most of the people who try it, start out feeling like the font editor is unfamiliar and were more comfortable with their old drawing tools. But once they get used to the new app, almost none of them ever go back!
font = fontforge.font()
scaling = 0.673 # your custom scaling
for eps in glob.glob("*.eps"):
glyphname = eps[:-4]
glyph = font.createChar(fontforge.unicodeFromName(glyphname),glyphname)
glyph.importOutlines(eps, ("toobigwarn", "correctdir"))
glyph.transform(psMat.scale(scaling))
font.save("eps2ff-output.sfd")
The other way round also works fine. i.e. creating a frame/box in the font program and copying it into the vector graphics software. Then create the glyph within that box and copy back into the font editor. This approach may not require scaling.
As they further added:
And as Thomas Phinney also added, getting used to the font editing software would be the best approach. Font programs have many functions and tools which are specifically made for type design. Creating a tangent in Illustrator could be quite a work, and still won't get right. Whereas in a font editing software, a tangent is easy to make. Once you get used to the font editing software, you would also like to create logos in it.
That said, once I've made an initial drawing, I move it into Glyphs as quickly as possible for the reasons mentioned here.
For a brief time many years ago I resisted this change, and fumbled through the process of working between applications until making the shift to work directly in a font editor. To this day, for logotype or symbol drawing I much prefer drawing in one of the font editors to save from the limitations and imprecision of using Illustrator.
Even moving between applications such as Fontlab, Robofont, and Glyphs there is a similar learning curve. I've found it best to just commit to these type of transitions as soon as you can and you'll get through the initial transition period without much difficulty.
Lastly, I'll reemphasize the spacing point in that there's no separating the horizontal and vertical spacing (counters, sidebearings, vertical metrics) from drawing letters. They are all one essentially, extending to the larger context of drawing and shaping words (and paragraphs). Although this white space is invisible in a sense, it will benefit you to think of the space surrounding the positive image of letterforms as part of the drawing process and approach it accordingly.