Font Persona

[Zior]

A few days back I was using Affinity Designer (Windows), designing a logo and modifying a pre-existing font to suit my needs when it hit me. I wanted to design my own font/fonts!

 

I searched the web to find a program that might be good for this, but all the programs on the market didn't look too amazing. The interfaces looked clumsy, unappealing and even though I am sure that they are good, I felt as if they were limited and always needed a separate program to complement them for their lack in one area or another. In most of the videos and tutorials I watched, people tended to use Adobe Illustrator to make the letters and then import the paths into the font editor.

 

So I thought to myself; "What if Affinity Designer would have a font editor built into it, or a stand-alone software that would have the amazing interface of Affinity Designer and its ease of use?".

 

So my suggestion is, that it would be AMAZING to have/buy an extension for Affinity Designer to be able to edit and export fonts! I do know that it is not "just" programming an extension/add-on of that sort to Affinity, but I can't imagine it being too difficult either. I mean you have all the tools that are needed for the job and the extra "specific" tools for font editing could perhaps fit under a new persona in the upper left? A font persona. That would make Affinity even more of a killer software!

 

It would be nice if you guys considered adding this. I mean I really like Affinity Designer and I will most likely buy it on release, but I would also love to buy a font editor from you since I know that you would make it easy and fun to work with!

[Petar Petrenko]

 

So my suggestion is, that it would be AMAZING to have/buy an extension for Affinity Designer to be able to edit and export fonts! I do know that it is not "just" programming an extension/add-on of that sort to Affinity, but I can't imagine it being too difficult either. I mean you have all the tools that are needed for the job and the extra "specific" tools for font editing could perhaps fit under a new persona in the upper left? A font persona. That would make Affinity even more of a killer software!

 

Designer, and other Affinity apps, will become a killer software when they start to draw automatically what is in our mind. We will have to wait until version 2.0!  :rolleyes:

[Zior]

Designer, and other Affinity apps, will become a killer software when they start to draw automatically what is in our mind. We will have to wait until version 2.0!  :rolleyes:

Hehe, I am sorry if the post was formulated in a weird way, English is not my native language. What I meant was that Affinity is an amazing piece of software and if it gets a font editor/persona, it would "kill" the competition on the market. At least for me. :)

[Petar Petrenko]

:)  English is not my native language, either. What I meant was that they can't be a "swiss knife" like vector / bitmap / video / DAM / player / programing language / font editor and manager... in just one program.

 

But... my wish is, and they are absolutelly against, that all three design apps (Designer, Photo and Publisher) to be only one app. Please, don't start any discusion on this theme. It is just my wish based on my experience.  :rolleyes: 

[Zior]

:)  English is not my native language, either. What I meant was that they can't be a "swiss knife" like vector / bitmap / video / DAM / player / programing language / font editor and manager... in just one program.

 

But... my wish is, and they are absolutelly against, that all three design apps (Designer, Photo and Publisher) to be only one app. Please, don't start any discusion on this theme. It is just my wish based on my experience.  :rolleyes: 

Oh, I see. :)  I totally get what you mean. It would be awesome, but maybe not practical/possible.

 

I just thought that implementing a font exporter/editor didn't seem that far away, from what I could gather from the videos/software that I watched/tried. But you're absolutely right. They shouldn't try to fit all the things into one program. It would probably drag down the performance, make the interface all bloated etc.

[Alfred]

I just thought that implementing a font exporter/editor didn't seem that far away, from what I could gather from the videos/software that I watched/tried. But you're absolutely right. They shouldn't try to fit all the things into one program. It would probably drag down the performance, make the interface all bloated etc.

 

What videos have you watched, and what software have you tried? Font editing is very complex.

[Zior]

What videos have you watched, and what software have you tried? Font editing is very complex.

I have only tried "FontForge" and the videos I have watched covered; "FontForge", "FontLab Studio", "Type 3.2", "FontCreator" and "Fontographer".

 

The thing is, as I mentioned before, there doesn't seem to be much that would have to be added. All the tools needed for font creation is already in Affinity Designer. The only things that aren't there are:

1. Guides that show all the info about the font (descender, ascender, x-height etc.)

2. The option to actually export the font to "ttf" (or/and other) format, with all the necessary info "baked" into the exported file (license, designer, name etc.).

[Petar Petrenko]

I have only tried "FontForge" and the videos I have watched covered; "FontForge", "FontLab Studio", "Type 3.2", "FontCreator" and "Fontographer".

 

The thing is, as I mentioned before, there doesn't seem to be much that would have to be added. All the tools needed for font creation is already in Affinity Designer. The only things that aren't there are:

1. Guides that show all the info about the font (descender, ascender, x-height etc.)

2. The option to actually export the font to "ttf" (or/and other) format, with all the necessary info "baked" into the exported file (license, designer, name etc.).

 

Have you ever scroll through their menus to see how many options there are? Myriad... So, we can say that Designer is "poor" when we talk about font design.

[MikeW]

I have only tried "FontForge" and the videos I have watched covered; "FontForge", "FontLab Studio", "Type 3.2", "FontCreator" and "Fontographer".

 

The thing is, as I mentioned before, there doesn't seem to be much that would have to be added. All the tools needed for font creation is already in Affinity Designer. The only things that aren't there are:

1. Guides that show all the info about the font (descender, ascender, x-height etc.)

2. The option to actually export the font to "ttf" (or/and other) format, with all the necessary info "baked" into the exported file (license, designer, name etc.).

 

So that's all there is to font creation!

 

There is so much more. Heck, just even a compiler to handle the feature scripts is an undertaking.

 

The latest font I am working on (8 family members) has over 5000 lines to the feature script in each font (well, there are fewer lines in the italic variants).

 

However, you mention Type 3.2. Allan's application is quite capable, but adding in OT features is a bit of a pain. It accepts the import of SVG, which AD produces quite well. It wouldn't take much of a trial/error process to create a template in AD that has the various guidelines in it. That's what I do in other applications. High-Logic's Font Creator application also can import SVG files nicely. FontLab really likes an AI/FL workflow as the clipboard format being a PDF, FL imports it nicely.

 

The main thing is simply setting up a template. From there most any font applicatino can work with the output.

[Zior]

Have you ever scroll through their menus to see how many options there are? Myriad... So, we can say that Designer is "poor" when we talk about font design.

Yeah, that's true now that I think about it. :mellow: It's just that the tools needed to make fonts are there in AD, while the options aren't and vice versa.

 

So that's all there is to font creation!

 

There is so much more. Heck, just even a compiler to handle the feature scripts is an undertaking.

 

The latest font I am working on (8 family members) has over 5000 lines to the feature script in each font (well, there are fewer lines in the italic variants).

 

However, you mention Type 3.2. Allan's application is quite capable, but adding in OT features is a bit of a pain. It accepts the import of SVG, which AD produces quite well. It wouldn't take much of a trial/error process to create a template in AD that has the various guidelines in it. That's what I do in other applications. High-Logic's Font Creator application also can import SVG files nicely. FontLab really likes an AI/FL workflow as the clipboard format being a PDF, FL imports it nicely.

 

The main thing is simply setting up a template. From there most any font applicatino can work with the output.

Hehe, I knew that my knowledge about making my suggestion a reality, would be poor and totally out there. I just wanted to throw this idea out there and see if it was a possible thing to do or not. :) My main complaint with other font-software is that the interfaces seem clunky and unappealing, which AD does so well.

 

So just to clarify, I didn't think it would be "just" adding this feature, I just wanted to start a discussion about it and see where it goes. :)

[MikeW]

Well, I would be remiss if I didn't add that as a request it is fully legitimate.

 

Mike

[Zior]

Well, I would be remiss if I didn't add that as a request it is fully legitimate.

 

Mike

:)

[jamessouttar]

“I have only tried "FontForge" and the videos I have watched covered; "FontForge", "FontLab Studio", "Type 3.2", "FontCreator" and "Fontographer".”

Have a look at Glyphs. I’s one of the best designed applications I’ve ever used, and a model for software development across the board (functionality, usability, interface, API etc.) You can download a free one month trial, without any features disabled.

[angelhdz12]

+1 Font Edit/Export Persona

[Zior]

“I have only tried "FontForge" and the videos I have watched covered; "FontForge", "FontLab Studio", "Type 3.2", "FontCreator" and "Fontographer".”

 

Have a look at Glyphs. I’s one of the best designed applications I’ve ever used, and a model for software development across the board (functionality, usability, interface, API etc.) You can download a free one month trial, without any features disabled.

Well, it seems that "Glyphs" is only available on Mac, which I don't have. So I think I will miss out on "Glyphs" as long as they don't make it for Windows. =( Other than that, it looks amazing.