48

Project two Create a typeface

FontLab Studio 5
Create
a text font
in FontLab
Typeface designer
Dan Reynolds goes
behind the scenes of text
fonts Neue Frutiger and
Ysobel to demonstrate
the font creation process 01 FontLab’s interface can display several windows. The Font window shows all the glyphs you have drawn, and is always
open. Double-clicking on one of its squares will open a Glyph window. Here you can draw one of the font’s many individual letters,
Font design is a great tool for your creative arsenal. numbers or other symbols; these glyphs are just simple vector outlines. The top-most window in this image is the Metrics window,
New typefaces are increasingly popular these days, and it seems where the sidebearings of the glyphs – spaces to the left and to the right of each letter – are controlled.
just about every graphic designer is having a crack at making one.
In this project, I’ll unveil the inner workings of two of our
font families, each designed for setting large amounts of text. All
typefaces are intricate systems of interchangeable parts: black
shapes and the white spaces that separate them. Type designers
determine the size, thickness, stress and direction of these shapes.
In text font design, achieving an even colour and steady rhythm is
paramount; any items that get in the way should be removed.
To illustrate the type design process, I have chosen the
new Ysobel and Neue Frutiger fonts. Ysobel is a serif family created
primarily for newspaper setting by Monotype Imaging, while Neue
Frutiger is an improvement on the classic Frutiger sans serif family
from Monotype Imaging’s German subsidiary, Linotype GmbH.

Dan Reynolds On your disc Skills

Berlin-based You’ll find two Learn the
Reynolds designs free font weights, basics of FontLab
typefaces and builds Neue Frutiger Pro Test typefaces
fonts for ITC, Linotype Light and Ysobel Experiment
and Monotype. A Regular – worth £88 with optical sizes
graduate of Reading in total. Monotype Improve legibility
University, his work
has won several
is also giving readers
10% off single weights
02 Deciding on the right letter shapes for your font can be difficult. To experiment with different forms, go to Window>Editing
awards. He teaches of these typefaces, Layers. This will open two different layers: Outline, which will hold the final form of the glyph; and Mask, a background layer (useful
at the Hochschule and 30% off the full for reference). You can only work on one at a time, so switch between the two in the Editing Layer palette. Previous versions of the
Darmstadt. family: see disc for letter – or letters with similar shapes – can be pasted into the Mask layer. Here, you can see the outline of the lowercase ‘a’ from the
www.linotype.com further details original ‘Frutiger 55 Roman’ font in green, with the outline of the lowercase ‘a’ from ‘Neue Frutiger Regular’ underneath.

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 Create a text font in FontLab 49

04 Proper vector drawing

techniques are a must when building
serious fonts. They help the font display
at small sizes on screen, and make it
easier to edit work later. Select the Pen
or Knife tool, then place points at the
most extreme elements of the curves,
as can be seen in Ysobel’s lowercase ‘o’,
above. Curves themselves should be
determined by two ‘handles’ – one from
each point ending the segment. Ensure
that each handle is about a third as long
as the length of the curve.

03 Construct each letter out of individual components. Drawing in this manner

is a useful part of the creative process, and allows you to adjust each element until
the right fit is determined – such as here, with the crossbar of the ‘A’. Once you’re
happy, go to Tools>Action>Contour>Remove Overlaps, to merge all the elements of the
glyph. Be careful though, because once you have merged the elements you can’t get
them back (except via the Edit>Undo command). If you want to save the separate
shapes, paste them into the Mask layer.

FontLab for beginners

Go to File>New. Choose the letter you would like to draw, and double-click the grey cell
in the Font window to activate the glyph. Double-click again to open the Glyph window, where you
draw the vector outline. Think in terms of boxes and edges, rather than individual lines. Click on the
Pen tool, and draw. Each click adds a new point. Remember to close your contours. Press Ctrl/Cmnd+
Shift+P to test your glyph’s appearance, or draw with the Metrics window open at the same time.

06 Now fine-tune the spaces to the left and right of each letter in the Metrics window, ensuring that
the spacing between letters with similar shapes is consistent. For example, the ‘m’ in the upper left-hand
corner is 1,847 units wide, with 61 units of space to its left and 47 to its right. Compare this with the values for
‘i’, ‘n’ and ‘u’. To change these values, click on the numbers and type a new value. Once you’ve standardised the
spacing between straight-sided letters, concentrate on the letterforms with round sides, such as ‘o’, and then
focus on the spacing between straight and rounded letters, as seen with the ‘a’ here.

07 After you’ve finished fine-

tuning the spacing of your font, start
tackling problem areas with kerning.
Go to the Metrics window, then click on
the A\V button to call up the Kerning
preview. Ideally, both the ‘A’ and ‘T’
glyphs, for instance, should have parts
that overlap into the white space of the
surrounding letters. When kerning, aim
to give the letter pairs the same amount
05 You can control some of your font’s vertical metrics using guidelines in the of spacing that normal pairs would
Glyph window – these are global, and sit in the same position for every glyph in your share, such as ‘OO’ and ‘HH’. Negative
font. FontLab gives you default guidelines based on the average proportions of your spacing values can be introduced
typeface. If you wish to adjust these, go to File>Font Info>Metrics and Dimensions>Key between any pair of letters in the
Dimensions (or click on the Metrics layer of the Editing palette and move the vertical Kerning view. Currently, there is a kern
lines up or down with the mouse). For Ysobel, the cap height guideline sits on top of of -92 units for the ‘TA’ pair in Ysobel.
the ‘H’. For ‘b’ and ‘g’, there is space between the ascenders and descenders and the Add or edit these values for your own
guidelines. These gaps serve to add more room between lines of text. Notice how the font in the fourth line of figures at the
curved section on top of the ‘g’ overshoots the x-height, making it appear as high as top of the window. When a pair has no
lowercase letters that are flat on top (such as ‘x’). kerning, the cells in this row are blank.

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 50 Project two Create a typeface

08 Now proof your text face design. This is the most important step in the
process. Make printouts on a laser printer with a high resolution (at least 1,200 dpi) as 09 Next, use a pencil to mark up any corrections. Here Adrian Frutiger is working on a test print for
often as possible. Your test sheets will highlight the successful and problem areas of some of Neue Frutiger’s accented capitals. Fonts such as Neue Frutiger and Ysobel include the diacritics
your font far better than onscreen viewing ever will. necessary to set dozens of European languages, including English, French, Hungarian, Polish and Turkish.

Get to grips with glyphs

It’s possible to make your vector graphics in an application such as Illustrator, and then paste them into FontLab
(see page 52). However, learning to draw in FontLab saves time. If you prefer to draw out your letters on paper first, FontLab lets
you place a simple pixel image into the background of your glyph cell to use as a reference.

11 It’s the little details – carried out across the whole alphabet – that really
differentiate your design. Neue Frutiger’s unique stroke endings are a device created
by Adrian Frutiger that manage to communicate a lot of emotion. People all over the
world are passionate about his typefaces because of elements like this. Typeface
design is not a race from start to finish, but rather a slow and reflective process. Don’t
forget to take the time out to consider how your design should feel to its readers.

12 Neue Frutiger’s
sheared terminals also help
10 Once you’ve drawn, spaced and proofed the main glyphs, it’s time to begin with OpenType features. to keep the typeface’s
Ysobel’s fonts include many extras that make it a fine typographic tool: ‘f’ ligatures are an example. These counter forms big and open.
remove letter crashes and give your text a more even rhythm. To add these features to your font, dedicated This aids legibility in sizes
ligature glyphs (e.g., ‘ffi’) must first be drawn. Copy the base letters into a new glyph window (to add new large and small, and is part
glyphs to your Font window go to Glyphs>Generate Glyphs, and type in the names you want, such as: ‘f_f’, of the reason why Frutiger’s
‘f_f_i’, ‘f_f_l’ and so on). Then draw your final ligature forms. design functions so well in
Once you’re finished, you’ll need a simple OpenType script to help applications such as Adobe applications as diverse as
InDesign access them. For resources on OpenType programming, check out the forums on the FontLab airport signage (seen left),
website (www.fontlab.com), or the Build thread on Typophile (www.typophile.com). book texts and web graphics.

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