Can someone please let me know if CorelDraw X5 has the facility of early versions of Corel to create fonts? And if so, are there any instructions on how to do it? There is a YouTube video in Russian and another with no speech and rapid mouse cursor movement that is too fast to follow.
If the font-making facility has disappeared from X5, is it possible to get hold of a version of Corel that does allow font creation, preferably to run in Windows XP? I do have a desktop with Windows 7, 64 bit if necessary.
Gary Bouton is who wrote/writes the CorelDraw Offical Guides. Good guy. On his web site, he has a Bonus Chapter PDF for fonts. You can download it. I don't think anything has changed in regards to font making in CD for a long time.
http://theboutons.com/x6-downloads.html
On the right side is the Font bonus chapter PDF.
I have used most all the font editors going back to the late 1980s. For the last few years I have been using FontCreator by HighLogic. I recommend it.
http://www.high-logic.com
Mike
Thank you, folks. Problem is that I want to be able to get back into pair kerning. The trouble is that as soon as I click on Download in any of the free sites another page come up straight away, telling me that the program I am after is infected. I don't believe it, of course, but however many time I retry the Download button, up comes the interfering program again (I think it was called "Panda").
Maybe if I was prepared to pay for a kerning program it would let me through?
FontForge looked good and downloaded easily, but as soon as I gave it the name and location of the TTF I wanted to work on, the message came up "FontForge" has stopped working. I am using an HP Phoenix desktop with Windows 7, 64 bit.
Regards,
Geoff
Bouton's site has no such issues. Right-click on the PDF link and choose to download it to the place on your computer you want it to go.
FontForge is a piece of crapware. Never has worked on any of the computers I have tried it on.
FontCreator, which isn't a free piece of software, is a professional font creating application that is simply less expensive than FontLab. It is available for a time-limited demo.
Thanks, Mike. I agree: Bouton's piece on creating fonts is absolutely brilliant, except that there is no mention of how to adjust pair kerning after all the individual characters have been created.
Have tried to download a demo of FontCreator, but the annoying Panda page creeps in again, preventing the download from starting.
Correction. Instead of using Firefox I have used Internet Explorer, which hasn't been infiltrated by the dreaded Panda page. Now have the FontCreator trial on board! Thanks.
You mentioned earlier you were getting these warnings when downloading from "free sites".
If you were also trying to download font creator from one of those sites, I suggest you try again from the original source, which seems to be http://www.high-logic.com/font-editor/fontcreator.html
FontCreator looks good, but it would be an expensive way of adjusting half a dozen kerning pairs in my "handwriting" font.
Having paid a fair amount for Corel X5, does anyone know where the kerning facility is hidden in there? Or has it been removed? It was readily available in the much earlier version of Corel that I used to create the font about 20 years ago.
The least expensive, workable font editor I have used is made by FontLab. I have it as well. About $50 USD.
http://www.fontlab.com/font-editor/typetool/
Though it is a little more, I kind of like the quirky nature of Type 3.2:
http://cr8software.net/type.html
I have used others, but I think this works well, if not different, than other editors I use. I used it for a few fonts. I cannot remember if the free version has kerning pairs or not. Do read the manual (a PDF) on the kerning mode function. It's $65 USD.
Both the above have demos.
This is a primer using CD X5 for fonts, has a template, etc. CD is difficult at best to make the kerning and the LSB/RSB work properly. I used it way back once. That was enough for me.
http://coreldesigner.wordpress.com/2009/03/06/create-your-own-custom-fonts-using-coreldraw-part-i/
Hi Mike,
Thank you for your continuing help.
I have read parts 1 & 2 of your third hyperlink. I used pair kerning happily enough in a prehistoric version of CD, but unfortunately in Part 2 of his piece the author seems to give up on pair kerning in current versions. He says:
"After you have successfully created and finalized your symbol or font design and the final TTF file is ready for use, there may be one final step you wish to perform. Although CorelDRAW provides you with [the facility] to create a digital font, it lacks the tools and resources to implement professional-level kerning, metrics, and spacing refinements – often sought after by discerning typographers creating fonts for their livelihood.
This means if you’re considering using CorelDRAW for high-end font creation, you definitely need to consider picking up a robust font manipulation program".
A sad admission!