User Guide

moving it around on your desk or mouse pad to
draw a character.
9. Press the right and left arrow keys while you move
the mouse button to see the different effects you
can create.
The left arrow key (or the number “1”) reduces the
stroke width (down to the minimum stroke width you
specified in the Freehand Tool Setup). The right arrow key
(or the number “2”) increases the stroke size (up to the
maximum stroke width you specified in the Freehand Tool
Setup dialog).
Blend Fonts to create new fonts
Experimentation is at the heart of creating fonts. And
Fontographer’s Blend Fonts option is the ultimate vehicle
for creativity. Font Blend is going to let us create as new
fonts as we like, without drawing a thing.
Well... not exactly. Blend Fonts is very much like our own
Macromedia FreeHand’s blending of one object to another.
It helps if your fonts are similar in characteristics. Imagine
that your fonts are at opposite ends of a one-dimensional
line segment and that you are creating a new font that is
some percentage of the way between them (or beyond
them). You can edit those intermediate versions as you like,
and quickly produce a family of weights, say, from just two
master designs like Extra Light and Extra Bold.
To blend fonts:
1. Open a font.
Font blending needs the least amount of attention when
you blend between similar fonts. In this exercise, we use
two from the same family: TimesRoman and TimesBold.
2. Choose “Blend Fonts” from the Element menu.
The Font Blend panel appears.
Fontographer User's Manual
2: Creating New Fonts Page #33