FontLab - From Illustrator To FontLab

[PierreGoep]

Thanks for this tutoriel, very helpful.

[0kld]

See updated notes at forum.fontlab.com.

Navigata to FontLab Forum > FontLab products > FontLab Studio > FontLab Studio Tips and Tricks > Working with Illustrator and FontLab Studio (updated for Illustrator CS5)

[0kld]

For those who see only paths with no fill after pasting from Illustrator: When in the glyph editing window, select Window>Panels>Editing Layers. At the top of the Editing Layers toolbox, make sure the button is selected just left of the yin-yang button.

[magnoliika]

Great and really useful.. thank you :) Illustrator is times and times more intuitive and powerful for the designing process...

[pavotdesign]

Wow, you made my life easier!

[LexLiebert]

Very useful, thank you!

[Feulotte]

thanks Man! it's super clear and really useful!

[malocadedomhelder]

How can set up baseline = 0 and calculate the rest of the lengths from there in illustrator?

[gipbon]

Really thanks.,it's really helpful for me:))

[apalsenberg]

THANK YOU !!!

[janbartdb]

Hello, great tutorial.

About expanding: I want the opposite effect.

I've created a font existing of outlines that are not filled.

When i paste the outline shapes in FontLab they become filled shapes automatically.

Do you maybe know what's the cause?

[deceptordave]

Hey everyone. I was having the same problem with it just showing the outlines after i copied and pasted. Think i worked it out. In FL just go "View" > "Show Layers" > select "Fill Outline". That seemed to work for me.

Thanks for the upload mate, very handy!

[misionerish]

@deceptordave

Yes, it does. Thank you!!!

[kreme228]

If you have illustrator and not fontlab, this is a great file to look at to start working with fonts before getting the other software..

[kreme228]

thanks for sharing this file

[bishopdante]

Very handy and sweet looking template, you're a dude!!!!

[Giraffasus]

Well, I just found this tutorial. Really helpful in getting the glyphs to align properly, but I am have the same issue as others with my object appearing as only an outline when pasted into Fontlab. When I go to object and click expand it still is an outline, and I don't have the option to click expand appearance. I am not working on a mac, so I'm not sure if that affects anything. Thanks again.

[tabithamoniq]

JoKKeSvin, Thank you SO much for this tutorial. I need to have a font completed by tomorrow. I've created all of the glyphs but, for some reason, when I paste into FL, they're just an outline. They're all expanded and filled. Any clue why?

[PkJeroen2]

Hey, I can't draw anything in your file... Help???

[MTS0815]

Thank you very much!!!

[stophl007]

thank you thank you thank you soooo much! really useful tutorial.

[fourcolourblack]

Thank you so much for posting this. I've been using Illustrator since version 8, so like to think I know what I'm doing. But I'm really new to FontLab, and the pen tool just seemed alien. This setup was great, reminds me much the same of designing wesites in Illustrator… get it right in the beginning and you're laughing.

[mindfreakqst]

Hi JoKKeSvin,

My FontLab is a Demo Version, and when I click "Generate Font" it appears a window saying that my font will be modified. If I install it, some types has a "FL"

I'm looking for a Activacion Code Serial, but I dont find it. If you can send me a link where I could got the Serial Number, or better a .rar or .zip with your installer and serial, crack, or patch. Please.

[MaribelFrancoArana]

really useful, thanks

[bowbe]

I could really use the link but I cant seems to find it?

[sisushka]

Awesome tutorial, I've been looking for this :)

[dainsane]

Thanx a lot, dude! Very good tutorial! :)

[NuiNight]

Hey Jo,

where can I find your *.ai file?

thanx

[NuiNight]

Hey Jo,

looking for the *.ai Link , where can i find it?

thx

[behnazb]

Your illustrator guide link is not working :(

[mawns]

Knew the most of the tutorial, but i really appreciate the ai-file!

Thank you Jokke!

[PatchCornAdams721]

Hey man, I'm not very experienced with Illustrator, and I'm copying my glyphs over to FontLab and when they are pasted in, they only appear as outlines. They are filled in illustrator; solid black, with no stroke, and I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

Thanks again for the superb tutorial.

[JoKKeSvin]

@PatchCornAdams721 Hey Patch, thanks for watching. It's important that all that shapes you want to copy from ILL to FL are expanded — either using pathfinder or object / expand (or expand appearance) from the top menu. Hope it helps.

[jallenmorris1]

@JoKKeSvin I have created an object, filled it, but when I got to expand it so I can Copy and Paste, nothing seems to happen. When I then copy and paste into FL from ILL (after expanding) all I get is an outline. Expand appearance is gray and I cannot select it. Any help? (From anyone?)

[JoKKeSvin]

@jallenmorris1 Hey Jallen. Be sure to check you view settings in FL, to make sure it's set to not show outlines. I think that might be what's causing the problem.

[PatchCornAdams721]

Hey man everything here is beautifully designed and its exactly what I was searching for! Haven't had a chance to use your tutorial yet but i know it will be a big help!

Cheers mate! :D

[mscharf16]

in this tutorial in the red box its says (baseline = 0) but there is not baseline in the Font Info... does this matter... or is the u"underline" the baseline?

[JoKKeSvin]

@mscharf16 It doesn't matter no. Actually I don't think you can adjust the baseline in FontLab.

[viictorin90]

I'd follow the tutorial. Very pedagogical but I do have a problem. Probably quite common problem but when copying from Illustrator to FontLab, my shapes wont be filled in FontLab. I may only see thin borders.

Using black fillcolor ofc. Any idea?

[MaryFaberTv]

My hero.

I designed a very decorative font in illustrator last year, but when I copied into font lab the alternate grid setting adjusted all my points! An excruciating pain...should've have done my research, I know :S

This will be SO useful, thanks for the free education.

[prestonparish]

Thanks!

[SebDubStream]

wow, this quick tutorial is so usefull !

I was looking for the same problem between illustrator and FontLab for a while..a year or more.

Thank for theses tips !

[nippadj]

Brilliant stuff, an invaluable tutorial that will make my first steps into the world of FontLab Studio 5 a lot easier. Thank you very much, it's very generous of you.

[andcustard]

Yo. the link to the illustrator file isn't working for me.

Is there a problem with your site? If so, Could you possibly re-host the file?

Thanks.

[JoKKeSvin]

@andcustard Are you sure? I can download it just fine.

[andcustard]

@JoKKeSvin

ABSOLUTELY TYPICAL.

It was down earlier while I was trying to download it. Now I can download it just fine. In the mean time, i spent a good few hours creating the Ai template myself. How annoying. Its okay though, I know for the future now.

Thanks for a great tutorial.

[Lysidium]

@andcustard - Right Click on the link itself and then click "Save Link As..."

[boozdewinters]

One of the most straightforward and easy to follow tutorial I have ever seen on YouTube. Thanks.

[KellyGaffo]

Hi, great tutorial. I have a question though, is there an easy way that i can ensure that all my characters are the same weight? this a bit of a problem for me?

[samos123]

thanks, this is really useful!

[tomaspajdlhauser]

Excellent tutorial! I do have question, I have type tool 3, which was recommended to make fonts. So i purchased it without getting font lab. Do i need font lab or is there a way to do this with type tool only?

[JoKKeSvin]

@tomaspajdlhauser Hmm, I'm afraid I don't know Type Tool 3.

[WarkozZZ]

Thank you very muchhh !

[BrianCrimCreative]

thanks for the tutorial. Where is the Illustrator file/template? Please dont say the link in the side bar because I have no idea what that means. Thanks again

[JoKKeSvin]

@BrianCrimCreative The link is in the video description. Expand it to view the link.

[mirandansa]

It's shame that a $650 software (more expensive thant Illustrator) doesn't come with a decent set of drawing tools.

[EllieKat]

Sensational, thanks. Great voice :D

[LibertyManiacs]

Very nice! Well done tutorial!

[pomod]

wicked.. cheers .

[Explainlater]

Hey cheers for the tutorial has helped loads. My font unfortunately doesn't get exported properly it says there are open contours. Is there any easy way of fixing this? I cant seem to. When i do export the font some characters have strange lines going through them and others don't display properly at all!

[galactacor]

@Explainlater I had a similar problem.  Grab the illustrator file that he has linked up in the corner and there's some preferences that need to be adjusted for copy-pasting paths. As soon as I adjusted those preferences my illustrator shapes copy-pasted from his sample doc into fontlab perfect with no open contours. good luck!

[toorosietohandle]

Wow, just what I was looking for, this is great. My only problem is this: my shapes are filled, not outlined in illustrator, but for some reason they come into fontlab as outlines with no fill....help?

[JoKKeSvin]

@toorosietohandle Did you make sure to expand all shapes before copy/pasting them?

[toorosietohandle]

I did, and I got it figured out...turns out it was just a view setting in FontLab...thanks again for the tutorial! Big help!

[Nowekian]

@toorosietohandle In fontlab, when you open your glyph, go to:

windows>

panels>

editing layers.

expand the box that opens up (square in the upper right corner)

and click the little black and white boxes (next to the yin-yang)

hope it helps (though it was a month ago, you probly figured it out by now) somebody out there! tchuss!

[zimonslot]

@toorosietohandle

or: Window > Panel > editing layers. Click the square next to the yin/yang-sign.

[DivinePonies]

Thank You. Just the thing I was looking for. :)

[mssmasi]

hi, thanks for this tutorial!

is exactly what I was looking for!

i'm drawing my font with the bamboo tablet, but by using illustrator (cs4) brushes (the round one) , when i paste it in fontlab, it copies only the outlines.

:(

what can i do?

thank you!

[JoKKeSvin]

Select the paths you want to copy and then expand them. That should do the trick :)

[nippadj]

Excellent stuff. Just what I've been looking for.

You're a great teacher.

[insiemevuoto]

Yeah!!

[cannoir]

Hell yeaaah !!!

[pieterverm]

Thanks for the info!!!

[ODMDcrew]

thanks for the email back. so a 300+ dpi scan of and drawn font may work huh? sweet i'll try today and shoot you my feed back.. thanks again.

[Drawfactory]

Hi !

thanks for share this in a very easy way,

I've done all steps and everything it's perfect but one thing, when I copy-paste from illustrator, fontlab doesn't recognize the black fill. I have Illustrator cs3 and fontlab 5.0.2 for mac

[JoKKeSvin]

No problem :) Make sure that the shapes you copy-paste from IL to FL don't contain any outlines (that they're all solid color). Also, make sure that you're not using any clipping masks (expand appearance on everything). Hope that helps. If not, make sure that yor setting for Clipboard are correct in both apps.

[ODMDcrew]

so would this work with a scanned hand drawn font as well?

[JoKKeSvin]

Hey. Could you be more specific? If you hand draw a font, scan it in and do a Live Trace on it in Illustrator, then yes, you can copy / paste that Live Traced vector into FontLab :)

[jazminfloresz]

Thankss! you made my work much much easierrr!!

[tunaiam]

Good for you for doing this video. It's great.

I'm trying to learn FontLab and like a million others, I find the technical details overwhelming. More FontLab tutorial vids are sorely needed. I'll keep checking back to see if you've added any thing.

At some point I'll be interested in Open Type features. Do you know anything about Open Type?

[JoKKeSvin]

Thanks for the feedback. Much appreciated :) I'm no font expert and I still have a lot to learn. That's partly why I decided to make these videos - to push myself to learning more and more gradually. I know little about Open Type. All I know is that it's a very nice format to export to, as it's supported by both WIN and MAC and it has nice features that other formats don't have.

[danielfrotadeabreu]

could you please save this link in CS2????

[JoKKeSvin]

Done :) Just download the zip again.