User Guide

FontLab 4
596
Defining an Axis
If you want to convert a single-master font to a Multiple Master font you
must define a new design axis. Select the Tools > Multiple Master >
Define New Axis command. You will see a dialog box:
To define an axis you must enter an axis name, a short name and select an
axis type.
Select the name of the axis in the Full Name list. You can enter your own
custom name, but we strongly recommend you use only names that are in
the list in order to make the font compatible with font interpreters. When
you are adding a new axis to a Multiple Master font the names of the axes
that are already present in the font will not appear in the list.
The short name of the axis is used when a font interpreter needs to make a
name for an intermediate font. Usually the name looks something like:
MinionMM_245 wt 580 wd
where MinionMM is the name of the MM font, 245 and 580 are design
coordinates of the intermediate font and wt and wd are short names of two
axes, Weight and Width respectively.