Fontographer - FAQ (for use with Avrella)
A number of FAQ have arisen with using Fontographer for creating new fonts for Avrella. The most common questions are answered below.
More comprehensive support for Fontographer may be found at Fontlab
Note: In May 2005 FontLab acquired the Fontographer product line from Macromedia. Along with this announcement was the commitment to work on fixing bugs and continue development of Fontographer.
Fontlab have since released an upgraded version 5.0 (summer 2010). The current version of Fontographer is 5.2 (as at summer 2017).
Fontographer Support - FAQ
1. All of the characters are shown as rectangles.
2. Delete Font and reinstall - receive error message "Font In Use"
3. Characters in my generated font file are weird symbols.
4. The ttf filename generated is always 8 characters before ".ttf"
5. I've updated my Fog file, created a ttf file and reinstalled the font - no change!
6. The font that I've created and installed does not show up in the Avrella Document Setup Dialog!
7. Cannot draw or move points in Fontographer 5.2.1 on Windows 8.1.
1. All of the characters are shown as rectangles.
This is probably due to the character mapping table getting corrupted. To correct this:
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Note down the Fontographer database attributes Family name etc. (Menu select: Element -> Font Info. -> General).
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Create a new font (fog file) and give it the same attributes.
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Old File: Set view by Unicode. Enlarge the window so that you can drag the mouse over all the characters from 0020 to 00AF for the existing Fontographer fog file. Select and copy.
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New File. Highlight 0020 and select Paste. All the characters from the old (corrupt) fog file will be copied to the new fog file.
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Save and regenerate the ttf file.
Further information: Fontographer 4.1.5 TechNotes pdf (Technote #12364)
2. Delete Font and reinstall - receive error message "Font In Use"
Often when working on a font you want to test it frequently to see how it shows up in the application. Sometimes on selecting Control Panel -> Fonts -> Delete Font - (to delete the Font that you have been updating so that you may reinstall the modified version), you receive the error message "Font In Use" - when clearly it is not - Fontographer closed, Avrella closed. This has happened too often during the creation and testing of Fonts for this to be an occasional quirk. Unfortunately the only solution found for this problem is to restart the PC.
3. Characters in my generated font file are weird symbols - like this:
This is probably because Symbol Encoding has not been selected when generating the font.
To set Symbol Encoding:
- Select the Generate Font Dialog Box.
- Select the Advanced radio button.
- Select the following: Computer: PC; Encoding: Custom; Format: TrueType.
- Select the TrueType options dialog.
- Mandatory / recommended settings for this dialog:
| Checkbox label | Checkbox |
| Include vertical and horizontal hints | Set (x) |
| Include diagonal hints | Set (x) |
| Confine screen characters to em square | |
| Use Symbol encoding (PC only) | Set (x) |
| Include extra TrueType tables | |
| Combo box | Select |
| Character mapping | Sequential |
| Dropout prevention | Standard |
4. The ttf filename generated is always 8 characters before ".ttf"
The following conventions apply to naming the ttf font file:
- Filename 8 characters followed by ".ttf"
- A shorter name than 8 characters will be padded with underscores - e.g. "Able" would become "ABLE____.TTF"
Once you have completed your font, you may of course give it a more descriptive filename.
E.g. AVRESTRG.TTF was renamed AvrellaStdType1.ttf and AVREFTRG.TTF was renamed AvrellaFSType1.ttf
Further information: Fontographer 4.1.5 TechNotes pdf (Technote #3723)
5. I've updated my Fog file, created a ttf file and reinstalled the font - no change!
A common mistake on working with fonts is to maybe create other working fog file copies in the same directory which can lead to inadvertently installing an older copy of a ttf file.
For example you create MyFontFileOne.fog with a family name Avrella MyType 2. You then make a duplicate Fog file MyFontFileTwo.fog (keeping the family name Avrella MyType 2) so that you can now work on this file retaining MyFontFileOne.fog as a backup. On having made modifications to MyFontFileTwo.fog you generate a ttf file. However on selecting the Generate Font Dialog Box in this case the Overwrite Existing Files checkbox is not set. Consequently the ttf file will be written with a ."TTF$" extension to prevent overwriting the already existing ttf file generate previously using MyFontFileOne.fog. Thus when you reinstall the font you are not reinstalling the updated ttf file generated by MyFontFileTwo.fog (which has a ".TTF$" extension, but installing the older ".TTF" file generated by MyFontFileOne.fog.
6. The font that I've created and installed does not show up in the Avrella Document Setup Dialog!
The font family name must commence with the word Avr - this is very important as Avr is used as a filter when selecting the fonts to display in the Document Setup dialog box - (to prevent other inappropriate fonts for the Avrella program being displayed). E.g. Family name "Avr MyFont Type 1" is okay. "My Avrella Type 1" is not.
7. Cannot draw or move points in Fontographer 5.2.1 on Windows 8.1. How to fix.
In order to make Fontographer 5.2.1 operate correctly on Windows 8.1 / 10, you need to make a small change in the applications properties. (This needs to be done only once.):
- In the Windows 8.1 start screen, type fontographer to reveal the search results.
- Right-click the entry Fontographer 5.
- Click Open file location.
- Right-click the Fontographer 5 program icon in the Explorer.
- Click Properties.
- Click the Compatibility tab.
- Enable Run this program in compatibility mode for.
- From the dropdown list below choose Windows XP (Service Pack 3).
- Click OK.
- From now on, you should be able to work without problems with Fontographer.