#Fontlab typetool 3 review crack

Lowercase letters are generally spaced slightly closer than their cap brethren.īad spacing above passable spacing below. Something like a T or a V might have sidebearings at or close to zero. In a typical sans serif font, a letter like O only needs 50–60% as much in the way of sidebearings as an H. So the left sidebearings of OCGQ and the right sidebearing of D are all usually either the same or very close.ĭesigning even spacing is about keeping a relatively consistent amount of white space between letters. Decent spacing considers shapes and is consistent, meaning the “same” elements are given the same space across different glyphs, and similar elements are spaced similarly. But many junk fonts don’t even get the basics right, and that is easily detected.

The total horizontal space allocated to a glyph is its “advance width.” The distances between the furthest extent of each side of the glyph and the ends of the allocated space are the “sidebearings”-which can even be negative numbers, if part of a glyph sticks into a neighboring space.Īt the high end of type design, spacing is an especially complex art and craft. SPACING In fonts, each glyph is placed in a slot with a certain amount of space allocated to it, which generally includes white space on either side. Some errors are subtle to detect, such as the topmost and leftmost points.Ģ. Left is correct on the right, red arrows point to the actual extremes, where there should be an on-curve point. This “rule” isn’t necessary to make the font work, but it is needed for optimal rendering on screen. Any related off-curve points must line up perpendicularly to these on-curve points to create a smooth curve at these extremes. The details are a little different between TrueType and PostScript outlines, but these features are shared between them.Īlso shared between outline formats is the idea that every time a major curve changes direction relative to the X or Y axis, known as the local “extreme” of the curve, it should be described by an on-curve point. The lines are described by points on the grid, and curved lines are additionally described by points around the curve that define its shape. Don’t worry if you don’t know what that means-there won’t be a quiz later.

POINTS, POINT PLACEMENT AND EXTREMA Fonts are designed as vector outlines in a Cartesian grid space. Here are twelve things to look for to help you judge font quality, so you can avoid choosing-or creating-fonts that suck, even though they might look interesting at first blush.ġ.

#Fontlab typetool 3 review crack

But how can you tell? Crack it open with a font editor and take a closer look. Sometimes, though, even if the concept of a typeface is perfect, the execution is off. Evaluating type is often a matter of taste and opinion, but there is an art and science to picking typefaces whose design is well-suited to a given project.