Some foundries try to overcome these problems by creating clever Python scripts to automate as much of these steps as possible. So I am never really sure that I generate the new fonts exactly in the same way as when I exported the fonts the last time. And when I am finally done and export the fonts, the creation depends on dozens of checkboxes in the FontLab Studio preferences, which I cannot save as a preset. I then need to clean up these instances, deal with overlaps, check path directions, deal with the hinting, set up the naming for each style, …Īnd I need to repeat this for every style in the font family. I first need to create so-called instances from the multiple master font. But getting from this file to a font that I can test in an application or ship to my customers requires an endless series of steps.

vfb file, where I can edit all these masters.

For example: When I create a type family with several weights and widths, I would have to set up a multiple master font. It requires a lot of expert knowledge to create professional typefaces and it’s a tedious process. That famous checkbox in the FontLab preferences says it all: “Use this option only if you know what you are doing”. Type design is done be a small amount of people in the world and the tools we use are expert tools as well. Unfortunately, such a workflow is hardly possible in the world of type design-until now. And when I am done, I can update-for example-my print PDF with one click, using my export presets in InDesign. So at any time, I can make changes without the need to repeat previous steps. That’s why in apps like Photoshop and InDesign I am a master of smart objects, smart filters, objects styles, nested character styles and the like. I love all these features, but the reason I switched to glyphs is not really a feature per se, its the workflow in general! I love my job as a designer, but I hate to do repetitive work. If you browse the Glyphs website you will find a lot of innovative features-like the combined text and drawing view, the amazing accent cloud view or the automatic creation of OpenType features. After over 10 years of working with FontLab (Studio) I now switched entirely to Glyphs by Georg Seifert.

First there was Fontographer, then FontLab Studio, and now we have Glyphs and RoboFont-two new Mac font editors developed by individual designers/developers.

Fontlab studio mac