Sometimes I do more than just a book cover illustration for a client, tackling the lettering and graphic design/layout of the cover as well. This calls for some different software tools (most of my illustration work is done with an elderly Corel Photo-Paint 8).

Work often gets down to the level of not just kerning type (kerning being the adjustment of spacing between letters), but also altering the letters. Sometimes this can be done in the graphics editor, but if the letters are repeated a lot – like in the text on the back cover – then it’s easier to alter the typeface letter itself (so it will be repeated in its altered form).

I’ve tried a number of different typeface editors and finally settled on the Pro edition of FontCreator from High-Logic. Apparently I’m not alone in my preference, as FontCreator recently became the most downloaded typeface editor in the world. (I should note that I am in no way connected to High-Logic – just a big fan of the company’s software.)

FontCreator offers a lot of nice features for the typographer. In addition to permitting individual points in the vector form of characters to be controlled, the program allows combining elements, cutting, scaling, and a variety of other features you’d expect with a good editor.

For the artist, it also imports a sketch of a letter that’s been scanned or produced digitally (as a bitmap); this also opens up a quick way to produce vector mapping from a drawing, provided the sketch is not too complex. I’ve also found (at least with Corel Photo-Paint) that FontCreator allows a copy and paste from the paint program to the editor, so a graphic designer can directly load a picture into a letter space. (Great care must be taken not to inadvertently create a letter outline directly from a font in the paint program that is then loaded directly into FontCreator because might take an artist into a short of gray area, with some arguing it might infringe on the rights of whoever designed the original electronic typeface.)

FontCreator also allows automatic as well as manual creation and adjustment of kerning pairs, doing some deep naming of fonts, and the generation of italics, bold, and so forth. These latter alterations come through the automated process pretty well, though individual characters may need a bit of tinkering afterward for a quality typeface. But the automated kerning, italics, etc., can save a whole lot of work if a typographer is creating a whole family of type.

Occasionally a nicely shaped typeface that an artist purchases will be poorly kerned or have a letter or two that seem out of whack. Here FontCreator also shines since it can be employed to adjust the kerning, letter style, and so forth in purchased type. That said, alterations should be approached cautiously and such fonts should never be “released into the wild” in their altered state for legal reasons (and it’s wise to check the purchase agreement as some manufacturers dictate no alterations of their typefaces).

If altered typeface is used in an electronic publication or submitted to a press as a PDF, then it’s a good idea to save the altered type as curves rather than type; this can avoid having a publisher use its version of the (unaltered) font, thereby undoing all the graphic designer’s hard work. It will also prevent people from getting a false impression of what a typeface looks like if they check the type list in the PDF’s “properties.”

High-Logic offers a trial version of FontCreator. My advice is not to try it unless you are prepared to purchase it because if you enjoy playing with type, this program is addictive.

Pricing is very reasonable as art programs go these days. The Home Edition goes for $79 (US) and the Professional Edition for $199 (US). I’d recommend going with the Pro edition as it has some very useful additional features.

The company also offers an excellent font manager MainType. This program not only keeps track of the typefaces stored on a hard drive, it can also temporarily load typefaces, install type, and uninstall/unload type – all on the fly. That means you can not only browse through your collection, but also load those you want to use and then just as easily unload them when you’re done using them. This saves having to wade through long lists of fonts in your system and can save on computer memory use as well. I also love that I can see the special characters in a typeface – and can copy a character in MainType and then paste it into an art program that isn’t set up to present alternate characters and such.

Now here’s one more neat thing: High-Logic offers a special package deal that permits buying both MainType with FontCreator at a nice savings.

On the downside for some, these programs only work in the Windows environment (neither is available for Apple systems); fortunately typefaces created with FontCreator will work on both Macs and PCs. (The software available only on the Windows platform, coupled with the great stability of XP, is perhaps one of the reasons many artists now have both PC and Mac computers operating in their studios.)

Bottom line: For those interested in typography, I would not hesitate recommending FontCreator as the program of choice.