User Guide

Editing Fonts

Type 1 Import Options

There are two options in opening Type 1 fonts: Decompose all composite

glyphs and Generate Unicode indexes for all glyphs.

If the first option is on then FontLab will decompose all composite glyphs

in the imported font. Composite glyphs have no unique outline themselves,

but “borrow” outlines from other font glyphs. Good examples of composite

glyphs are accented glyphs, like ‘À’, ‘å’ or ‘ñ’. In each of these the composite

character is composed of a character glyph outline and an accent glyph

outline from elsewhere in the font. FontLab has all the necessary tools and

operations to work with composite glyphs, so it's usually not necessary to

decompose them on import. But if you want to markedly rearrange the

glyphs and do not want to worry about composites you can use this option.

Of course you can always decompose or recompose the glyphs later using

FontLab commands.

When FontLab opens TrueType fonts it always decomposes composite

glyphs that have rotated or slanted components.

The second option is usually on. We strongly recommend keeping it that

way if you plan to convert your Type 1 font to the TrueType format. The

TrueType font format uses Unicode indexes to access characters, so having

the indexes set properly is paramount. However, if you do not plan to make

a TrueType font you may switch this option off. As in the case of the first

option, you can always make Unicode indexes later.

How FontLab Makes Unicode Indexes

In the FontLab directory you will find the file STANDARD.NAM. This file contains a database that

links the PostScript names of characters with Unicode indexes. When you import a Type 1 font and

the option Generate Unicode indexes for all characters is on FontLab takes the name of every

imported character and looks for it in the names database. If it locates the name there it takes the

associated Unicode index and adds it to the character’s list of indexes.

Note 1: The Names' database has more than 4000 records and includes almost all known names for

all European, Cyrillic, Arabic and Hebrew languages and for most symbol and dingbats fonts.

Note 2: The names' database is a text file that can be edited. You can add new records to this file at

any time. Be very careful when you edit this file because incorrect records may make exported fonts

unusable in some environments.

Note 3: It is possible to link more than one Unicode index to a name and more than one name to a

Unicode index. If FontLab finds several indexes linked to the name, it will assign all the indexes to

the character. (Refer to the Encoding Modes section for a description of the multi-Unicode indexing

method.) If more than one name is linked with the Unicode index then FontLab will take the first

one it finds as the name for the known index.