Uncompiled open source software

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I am trying to get hold of some software that will create my own font. I have found FontForge via Sourceforge , but the package is uncompiled.

I cant work out how to compile or what to do with it. Or am I better off trying to find a package that is already an executable?

Johanna

Does anyone fancy providing me with a basic tutorial to cover this?

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You might find it easier to give Type light – a freeware OpenType™ font editor from CR8 Software Solutions a go. I haven’t tried it myself, but it’s one of the very few free software offerings around in the font editing/ creating arena.

Alan

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Thanks Alan.

I will have a go with that one.

I have always been puzzled about the process of creating a compiled piece of software. I’ll save that to another day.

Johanna

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The process of compiling from open source can vary from dead easy to near-rewrite, depending on the source. You also need an appropriate language compiler installed on your system. I believe that FontForge needs to use the Cygwin library to run as a Unix program on Windows, but also needs to be compiled with particular peculiarities, with Windows as its target platform. The website mentions a specially modified Cygwin distribution used to compile & run it. I don’t know details but the fact that a pre-compiled Windows version doesn’t already exist tends to make me think that the whole “Windows port” method will be a messy affair.

Alan

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Thanks Alan

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You do understand that no one else will be able to see your custom font unless you send it to them first? Otherwise, it will only be useful for say printing documents off of your system.

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Hi,

Yes I do realise that.

Mr Johbot read an article in a computer magazine that I left lying around (I’ll have to stop doing that) about using a custom font application to create an image of a signature that he could then use in documents.

Personally I am not keen on the whole idea and have tried to avoid doing anything about it, but am now being led towards seeing the value in the proposition (not really, but in the interests of domestic harmony).

Johanna

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If you want to be able to add a signature to a Word document for example, see post 12,531 and post 263,252…

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If you want to be able to add a signature to a Word document for example, see post 12,531 and post 263,252…

Hi Leif

both of those links are broken?

Cheers

Steve

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both of those links are broken?

Yes, due to the way post links work on the new board, some of the old links do not get mapped over correctly. The “quick and dirty” fix is the copy the post number, click Reply, then create a post link to that number — without the comma. Click Preview Post, then click your new link.

Or here, I’ll do them: [post=”263252″]263252[/post] and [post=”12531″]12531[/post]

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Hi jefferson

Thanks for that

Cheers

Steve

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[indent]

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Mr Johbot read an article in a computer magazine that I left lying around (I’ll have to stop doing that) about using a custom font application to create an image of a signature that he could then use in documents.

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[/indent]Was this article from the 1980s? Because this is what we had to do to create signatures on mainframe laser printers and the early ‘HP LaserJet 2’-type printers. The signature was overlaid by a series of squares, (say five columns by two rows) and each square was assigned a letter, so that in that ‘signature’ font

ABCDE
FGHIJ

came out on the paper as the signature, in glorious black-and-white!

Now we have graphics… (Well, we did then, but it was much more messy!)

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

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There’s also the possibility of scanning a written signature, then “tracing” the bitmap image to produce a vector graphic, like .svg or .emf. Such an image is (truly) scalable and can be used at any size, colour etc.

Alan

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Looks to me as if this is a good example of me not conducting a complete analysis of user needs.

The article was in APC July 2008 and suggests that you use Font Forge to import your image into an empty glyph in your font of choice so that you can use the keyboard shortcut from Character Map to insert in your document or spreadsheet.

Thanks for everyone’s help. I now have lots of choices with which to solve his problem (once I work out what it actually is)

Johanna

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And if it’s your husband and you’re a “true” woman, it’s probably not really a problem at all, eh?

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LOL!!

Johanna

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Hi Al,

I am amazed at how much foresight you had in this! Do you know Mr Johbot??

I sat him down and got him to describe how he wanted to use his new glyph. When I described how no-one else would be able to see it in electronic form he started to lose interest. When I started talking about compiling the open source, his eyes really glazed over and he withdrew his Job Sheet.

He even offered me a glass of wine and to cook dinner as compensation – an offer I accepted (and raised my glass in toast to you and to Alan)

Johanna

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Since the beginning of time, that’s the way it goes with you ladies and us husbands! We ALWAYS “weaken” in the face of in-depth wifely scrutiny! Cheers to him for his offer to cook dinner. I was never able to get by with that one since my “skills” in the kitchen are lucky to be: boiling water or frying eggs…

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Jo

You could still suggest (or maybe barter for another meal ) a scanned image of a signature, saved as a .GIF with transparent background. I’ve used this method for years, and it’s very easy to do.

Alan

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Hi Alan,

I mentioned that method, but he’s not interested. (I don’t understand).

He said it was something about the way the article described the ease of inserting the image once it was a glyph. The .gif solution produces the same result … and now he has lost interest

Johanna

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> but he’s not interested. (I don’t understand).

Men! Will we ever understand them!

Alan

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Just one other idea which might appeal… Vector Magic provides an online service for transforming a scanned raster (bitmap) image to a scalable vector image. Might be worth another meal?

Alan

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Hi Alan,

You know, I thought that I could be fickle and have a short attention span … but then ‘they’ say that you like best the people who are most like you!

You guessed it! He’s moved on to something else and is no longer interested in this.

Johanna

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> I now have lots of choices with which to solve his problem (once I work out what it actually is)

Spoken like a seasoned systems analyst!

Alan

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I hope you’re successful with Alan’s suggestion ’cause it’s free! But just as a point of reference (and for others) here’s one that I bought quite some time ago to do some heavy font work for the educational television network I used to work for. It’s current price is $79 USD. High-Logic – Font Editor, Font Manager and Font Generator

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How ’bout you try it, Alan, and see what foxhole I’ve got my head in, please! I installed and tried to open a .TTF font for playing around editing and I can’t get anywhere. I’m sure I’m not using the right command or something, but… See what you think…

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I’ll try to give it a go later, but the pressure’s on at the moment. It’s Melbourne Cup Day here – the “race that stops the nation.” It’s 10:20 AM and I’m on my second glass of champagne, so I’m well behind schedule already! If I catch up, I’ll try to push it up the priority list, but the output glyphs (if any) may come out looking somewhat strange.

Alan

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Sorry boss, I forgot about The Cup! Bubbly at 10 AM, huh? Okey Dokey…

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> Bubbly at 10 AM, huh? Okey Dokey…

… I know it doesn’t sound good but I do like a bit of a sleep in on public holidays… and I am doing my best to catch up!

But just to prove that I get no kick from champagne, here’s a TTF rendition in Word, of a font I created (see next post) using another (maybe better) shareware app that I tracked down. Sizes of glyph vary from 24 to 72 pt.

Alan

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Next post, as promised. I remembered an old (but never equalled IMHO) app called Softy. It’s shareware and I had a copy that still worked! I followed the
Step-by-Step: Create a TrueType font from a logo and came up with the attached TTF. The only “glyph” in it is “your” signature. If you drop the TTF file into your Windows Font folder, it appears as “Test”. The key corresponds to the glyph. You can try it in MS Word etc.

Anyway, back to the bubbly… er… horse racing.

Alan

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See Custom handwriting font for continued discussion of this topic.

Alan

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