Fontographer: Type by Design [Paperback]

Stephen Moye (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1995

Fontographer is the premier tool for creatin g and editing digital type fonts. This book helps users unde rstand the aesthetics of type and covers the technical and p ractical considerations that need to be understood. '

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: MIS Press; 1st edition (September 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558284478
• ISBN-13: 978-1558284470
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,649,950 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Supplement to Macromedia's "Using Fontographer", February 22, 1998

By 

William Weller (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fontographer: Type by Design (Paperback)

Stephen Moye's book takes over where the Fontographer manual supplied by Macromedia leaves off. Whereas Macromedia's book is merely a software instruction manual which describes how to use the features of the program Mr. Moye describes in great detail how to effeciently design a font from start to finish. His strategy of using the similarities in the strokes, stems and serifs in a character set will save the font designer a lot of time and frustration. Even though the book was written with a slight bend towards the MacIntosh version of the software, it is equally useful for the Windows fontographer. It is surprising (and fortunate) that such a good-quality book has been written for a software program which is not as well known, and does have the large customer base as many other graphics programs.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This book is wonderfully helpful., October 13, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Fontographer: Type by Design (Paperback)

A close friend of mine has fontographer 4.0 but no user manual and he never learned how to use it. I've tried to learn it just by messing around, but to no avail. The program is not self-explanatory. I found Moye's book at the UW art library and started reading. Three hours later (pg. 100) I remembered I needed to eat some food. I was thoroughly impressed with the "morals?" of type design he presented along with the how to. He stresses the quality of the product, which has been lost in the quantity of typefaces today. Who would imagine a software book could suck a person in. Listen to me, I'm rambling. Anyway, check it out. It's a keeper.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best guide out there for making your own fonts, December 6, 2002

By 

Thomas W. Phinney (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fontographer: Type by Design (Paperback)

In my day job as program manager for western language fonts at Adobe Systems, I'm often asked about books for people wanting to learn how to make their own digital fonts. This is the one I recommend first every time.

Stephen Moye has quite simply written the best and at this time the only complete guide to making your own fonts. Information on how to construct outlines properly, spacing, kerning and more is all here. Importantly, this book is NOT only useful for people using Fontographer (which is a sadly out of date tool now); most of the information is equally useful for those working with FontLab or other modern font creation tools.

Other books worth checking out for the would-be font-maker include Michael Harvey's Creative Lettering Today, Walter Tracy's Letters of Credit, and Alexander Lawson's Anatomy of a Typeface. Of course there's also Robert Bringhurst's classic Elements of Typographic Style, which should be owned and read by anyone who cares about type.

I liked this book so much that I personally hand-bound mine as a hardcover, to make it last. In retrospect, with used softcover copies going for $300 each, it seems like I had the right idea!