Create a font using Illustrator and FontLab - tutorial part 1

[blackcatclothing]

Hmm, I am really new to this & I my lettering is hand drawn then tidied up in photoshop...I have illustartor & fontlab 5 but whenever I go to open the lettering from photoshop into illustraro the box that surrounds it when i select is red & I can't bring up the same options & can't seem to import it into fontlab, where am I going wrong??

[redwinggraphic]

@blackcatclothing sounds like you are not working with a vector in Illustrator? Suggest you use Live Trace, or Pen Tool in Illustrator to create vectors. FontLab and Illus both use vector, whereas if you scan a drawing into Photoshop it will be raster. Send me a msg if you can't get it to work, or take video of your screen and send me link to show me exactly what's happening.

[MixMashCom]

Thanks for this neat tute. I made a few fonts in the past but I actually did the stupid thing of exporting each individual letter as a separate file then going through importing them and aligning them. There were some useful tips here. Anyway, I no longer make fonts but its nice to have that useful info. Oh, and did you know that in Illustrator you can create a layer/s just for the guides? It's more useful this way instead of having something always on the layer that might impede your work.

[readerwriter]

Awesome tutorial, efficient and relaxed. Thanks for posting :-)

[serbanalex1]

great job, thank you for the tutorial :)

[Debbievps]

Hi, I had a problem with illustrator's rulers, I don't know why, but my descender guide line is with positive value and my ascender is with negative value, can you help me with that?

[redwinggraphic]

@Debbievps Possibly: have you checked what sort of rulers you are using? In CS5 Adobe changed the way the rulers are setup, so the numbers come out in reverse. To change this, in Illustrator, hover your mouse cursor above the rule (where the measurements are) and right click, select Change to Global Rulers. If this doesn't work for you, then just swap the numbers around. If you are given a value of -79pt but you know it's a postive number above the baseline, just remove the - (minus) symbol.

[Debbievps]

Yes, i've tried it before, but i see, illustrator doesn't like me, anyway, thanks ;)

[redwinggraphic]

@Debbievps Nah, it's not you, it's Adobe. I found the article where it explains how the coordinate system has been changed from first quadrant to fourth quadrant. Annoying, but unfortunately there doesn't seem to be anyway to change it. "The coordinate system has now been switched to fourth quadrant, which was previously the first quadrant. In Illustrator CS5, when you move downwards, the value of y-axis increases and if you move toward right, the value of x-axis increases."

[Debbievps]

@redwinggraphic Hey, thanks for save my life this time, it really works ;)