User Guide

Now here’s one difference that practicing pen
calligraphers will need to curb at the outset. Fontographer
characters are usually made in one continuous outline. So
make an “O” in one fell swoop, not two separate ones.
Pretend you’re writing on really slick paper and your pen
doesn’t catch. Go all the way around. If you don’t, you’ll
have to patch the two sections together and that’s a drag.
(It’s easy, of course, using the Remove Overlaps command,
but save yourself time by not creating multiple parts in the
first place.)
Since this is spontaneous drawing, you might consider
sketching each letter several times in succession across the
character window and then picking the best one to keep.
This is only the beginning. Unless you are one of the
world’s best calligraphers, you are not going to whip out 26
perfect calligraphic letters on the first try. No problem. Do
the best you can. Decide which ones are the right
proportions, the best style, and then do minor alterations on
the others to bring them in line. Using Fontographer
commands, scale them up or down, rotate when necessary,
etc. If a stroke is too narrow, grab points on one side and
pull to widen it. You can’t do this in ink but you sure can in
Fontographer.
Sometimes when you sketch a letter, the Fontographer
outline that appears will have more points than are
necessary. You want the fewest points possible, so prune
out the excess (using Merge Points, or Clean Up Paths).
Also check to be sure that you have the path direction
correct (clockwise on outer outlines). If your character has
overlapping parts, do a Select All and Remove Overlap. If
that doesn’t work, make a copy of the outline and put it in
the Template layer, then in Outline rework the overlapping
section, following the original calligraphic shape. If there’s
something that doesn’t please you, just grab the points and
adjust. It’s not ink; you can tweak it until you get it right.
Assuming you’ve got a lower case that’s looking good, you
can get a little fancier for your upper case characters.
Maybe you will add a few flourishes. Remember that the
margin and kerning adjustments leave you great leeway in
how you place each lower case letter in combination with
each upper case. Use automatic kerning to make them fit
Fontographer User's Manual
2: Creating New Fonts Page #29