Fontographer Tips & Tricks for Faster Typeface Design

How to Use Fontographer to Create Custom FontsFontographer is a classic, user-friendly font editor that has helped designers and hobbyists create and refine typefaces for decades. Although newer tools exist, Fontographer’s straightforward interface and essential feature set make it a solid choice for anyone learning the basics of font design or needing a quick, reliable way to produce custom fonts. This guide walks you through the full process of creating a font in Fontographer — from project setup and glyph drawing to spacing, kerning, and exporting a finished OpenType or TrueType font.

What You’ll Need

A licensed copy of Fontographer installed on your computer (Windows or macOS).
A graphics tablet (optional) or mouse.
Example sketches or concept art for your typeface (paper scans, vector artwork, or digital sketches).
Patience and willingness to iterate.

1. Planning Your Typeface

Before opening Fontographer, define the goals for your typeface:

Intended use: display, body text, logo, or signage.
Style: serif, sans-serif, script, display, or decorative.
Character set: ASCII/basic Latin, extended Latin, Cyrillic, Greek, punctuation, numerals, diacritics.
Weight and contrast: light, regular, bold; high or low stroke contrast.

Sketch letterforms on paper or in a vector program (Illustrator, Affinity Designer). Focus on key glyphs that define the look: A, H, O, n, o, e, g, and numbers like 0 and 1.

2. Starting a New Font Project

Open Fontographer and create a new font file.
Set font metrics: baseline, x‑height, cap height, ascender, and descender. These values control proportions across glyphs. Typical starting metrics for a Latin font might be:
- Ascender: 800
- Descender: -200
- x‑height: 480
- Cap height: 700

These can be adjusted later, but having consistent metrics from the start speeds up design.

3. Importing or Creating Guides and Templates

If you have vector sketches, export them as SVG or PDF and import them into the glyph editing window as background templates.
Set guides for alignment — vertical stems, centerlines, and baseline — to ensure consistency across glyphs.

4. Drawing Glyphs

Open a glyph slot (for example, “A”) and begin drawing with the pen tool. Fontographer uses Bézier curves; practice with handles to create smooth strokes.
Start with simple shapes: block out the basic outlines, then refine curves and terminals.
Use the node tools to add, remove, or convert points (corner, smooth). Keep point counts minimal for cleaner interpolation and hinting later.
For strokes that should be consistent (like stem thickness), use guides or create components to reuse parts across glyphs.

Tips:

Zoom in while editing curves; small handle adjustments can fix awkward joins.
Use the Boolean operations (union, subtract) to combine or cut shapes when constructing complex glyphs.
Frequently switch between outline view and filled preview to check rhythm and color (visual weight).

5. Using Components and Reuse

Create components for repeated elements: serifs, stems, bowls, or diacritics. Components let you edit one master shape that updates across multiple glyphs.
For italic or oblique styles, consider designing a master roman and creating slanted components rather than redrawing every glyph.

6. Spacing and Sidebearings

Set left and right sidebearings for each glyph to control space around characters. Good spacing is as important as the shape.
Use metrics windows to preview words and sentences while adjusting. Aim for optical balance: space should look consistent even if numeric values differ.
Compare pairs like “AV”, “To”, “ee” to understand how shapes interact.

7. Kerning

Kerning refines spacing for specific letter pairs. Start by creating kerning groups for similar glyph shapes (e.g., uppercase A, V, W; lowercase o, c, e).
Use Fontographer’s kerning tools to adjust problematic pairs. Focus on common letter combinations in your language and those that visually clash.
Test kerned pairs in words and sentences, not just in isolation.

8. Diacritics and Extended Characters

Add diacritic marks as components and build precomposed glyphs (e.g., “Á”, “ö”) by combining base glyphs with marks.
Ensure anchors are defined for consistent positioning of accents across multiple bases.

9. Hinting and TrueType Instructions (Optional)

Hinting improves legibility at small sizes by aligning strokes to pixel grids. Fontographer provides basic hinting tools; for advanced hinting, specialized tools (FontLab, Glyphs, or autohinting with ttfautohint) may be used.
Keep hinting consistent across weights and styles.

10. Naming, Metadata, and OpenType Features

Set font names, family name, style name, designer, and license metadata in the font info dialog. These fields show up in operating systems and applications.
Define OpenType features if needed (ligatures, alternates, oldstyle figures). Fontographer supports basic OpenType feature creation — for complex features, consider exporting to a more feature-focused editor or using a feature compiler.

11. Generating and Testing the Font

Export your font as TrueType (.ttf) or OpenType (.otf). Choose formats based on target platforms (OTF/CFF for high-quality outlines, TTF for broad compatibility).
Install the generated font on your system and test it in multiple applications (word processors, design apps, web browsers). Check at various sizes and in different renderers (Windows ClearType, macOS Quartz, Linux FreeType).
Collect feedback from peers or users, note issues (spacing, rendering artifacts), and iterate.

12. Troubleshooting Common Issues

Jagged small-size rendering: add or refine hints; reduce fine details that don’t render well.
Inconsistent weight: compare stems with measurement tools and use guides; components help maintain uniformity.
Bad kerning in certain apps: ensure kerning pairs are saved properly and that the target app supports the font’s kerning tables/features.

13. Tips for Faster Workflow

Build a set of starter templates: standard metrics, guides, and common components.
Work in stages: master key glyphs first (H, n, o, e, g) then expand.
Use keyboard shortcuts for common actions and keep file backups and versioned saves.

14. Alternatives and Complementary Tools

For modern feature-rich workflows consider Glyphs, FontLab, or RoboFont for advanced OpenType features, multiple master support, and better UI for large families.
Use vector editors (Illustrator, Affinity Designer, Inkscape) for initial sketching and components creation.
Autohinting tools like ttfautohint can improve small-size rendering after export.

Closing Notes

Fontographer remains a practical tool for straightforward font creation and quick edits. Its simplicity helps beginners learn the fundamentals of type design without overwhelming features. For complex families, advanced OpenType behaviors, or production-grade hinting, pair Fontographer with more modern tools in your workflow.