Developing Unicode Fonts with FontLab Applications
Adam Twardoch - FontLab Ltd.
Intended Audience: Type Designers, Font Developers, Software Engineers, Graphic Designers, Linguists, Publishers, Educators
Session Level: Beginner, Intermediate
The session will present a complete font development workflow using Fontlab Ltd. applications: FontLab Studio 5 and ScanFont. Fontlab Ltd. offers a complete environment for type designers and font developers. With FontLab Studio 5, software developers and type designers are able to create professional-quality Unicode-savvy OpenType fonts: either from new artwork or by converting their existing font libraries from legacy formats. The session will start with drawing glyphs directly on-screen, and by digitizing existing paper artwork. We will expand the character set using composite glyphs, and will assign correct glyph naming and codepoints to make the font Unicode 4.0-compatible. We will apply metrics and kerning using the fast class-based approach. We will edit the key font header parameters including font metrics and naming. Further on, we will automatically improve the screen rendering by adding hinting. We will add a digital signature to the font to ensure their authenticity and write some OpenType Layout code that enabled advanced typographic features. The session will conclude by generating a ready-to-ship Unicode-compatible font in the OpenType TT and OpenType PS formats. If you are interested in attending this session, some understanding of font technology issues, in particular the glyph-vs-character model is recommended.