FontLab
Encyclopedia
FontLab is both the name of a company, FontLab Ltd, and the former name of their flagship font editor
product, now called FontLab Studio. Since the early 2000s, FontLab Studio has been the dominant software tool for commercial/retail digital font development. This is partly because the once-dominant Fontographer
by Altsys
ceased development after its acquisition by Macromedia
. During Macromedia's merger/acquisition by Adobe Systems
in 2005, Macromedia sold Fontographer's rights and code to FontLab Ltd, so FontLab now owns and maintains both of the most popular font editing/development tools.
version at the time). Eventually Pyrus bought all the rights to FontLab; hired Mr. Yarmola; and renamed the company. Today they have a wide range of font editing and conversion tools. Programming is still done by a Russian team in St. Petersburg, and management is mainly in Panama, where the company is incorporated.
FontLab's first Mac OS product was FontLab 3 for Mac, in 1998. Since then, FontLab (now FontLab Studio) has been issued for both Mac and Windows, but the Windows versions usually come out first, by six months to a year. In addition, Fontlab has developed spinoff font editors for specific markets. TypeTool, a stripped down version of FontLab Studio, is quite inexpensive and serves as an entry level typeface editor which is popular with students, hobbyists, and those whose typographic needs are relatively simple. AsiaFont Studio, on the other hand, is probably the most sophisticated font editor in the world and can create and edit fonts with up to 64,000 characters. It has special features for editing Chinese, Japanese and Korean fonts.
Back when fonts came in different formats and were platform specific, Fontlab also began to create a line of font conversion utilities. ScanFont, a tool for converting scans/bitmaps of glyphs into vector glyphs/fonts was part of FontLab 2. But in the next version it was split off, and became its own more complete and powerful application. Next came TransType, a font converter for moving fonts between TrueType
, OpenType
and Type 1 formats and between Macintosh and Windows platforms. A few more specialized font converters followed: FONmaker, for converting vector fonts into bitmaps; FontFlasher, for converting vector fonts into pixelated fonts for lo-res display; and FogLamp, for converting native Fontographer files into modern formats.
Font editor
A font editor is a class of application software specifically designed to create or modify computer font files.Font editors differ greatly depending if they are designed to edit bitmap fonts or outline fonts. Modern font editors mostly deal with the outline fonts, because bitmap fonts are an older...
product, now called FontLab Studio. Since the early 2000s, FontLab Studio has been the dominant software tool for commercial/retail digital font development. This is partly because the once-dominant Fontographer
Fontographer
Fontographer , is a software application used to create digital fonts, available for both Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh platforms. It was originally developed by Altsys but is now owned by FontLab Ltd.-Fontastic:...
by Altsys
Altsys
Altsys Corporation was a Texas-based software company founded by James R Von Ehr II. It was an early Apple Macintosh developer and publisher.Three major products from Altsys for PC / Macintosh and NeXT were:*Fontographer for Windows and Mac OS - font editor...
ceased development after its acquisition by Macromedia
Macromedia
Macromedia was an American graphics and web development software company headquartered in San Francisco, California that produced such products as Flash and Dreamweaver. Its rival, Adobe Systems, acquired Macromedia on December 3, 2005 and controls the line of Macromedia...
. During Macromedia's merger/acquisition by Adobe Systems
Adobe Systems
Adobe Systems Incorporated is an American computer software company founded in 1982 and headquartered in San Jose, California, United States...
in 2005, Macromedia sold Fontographer's rights and code to FontLab Ltd, so FontLab now owns and maintains both of the most popular font editing/development tools.
History
Originally, there were two separate companies. SoftUnion Ltd of St. Petersburg, Russia made the software, under lead programmer Yuri Yarmola. Pyrus North America Ltd, of the USA was formed in 1992 to distribute and market FontLab 2.0 for Microsoft Windows, which came out in 1993 (there was no Mac OSMac OS
Mac OS is a series of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Inc. for their Macintosh line of computer systems. The Macintosh user experience is credited with popularizing the graphical user interface...
version at the time). Eventually Pyrus bought all the rights to FontLab; hired Mr. Yarmola; and renamed the company. Today they have a wide range of font editing and conversion tools. Programming is still done by a Russian team in St. Petersburg, and management is mainly in Panama, where the company is incorporated.
FontLab's first Mac OS product was FontLab 3 for Mac, in 1998. Since then, FontLab (now FontLab Studio) has been issued for both Mac and Windows, but the Windows versions usually come out first, by six months to a year. In addition, Fontlab has developed spinoff font editors for specific markets. TypeTool, a stripped down version of FontLab Studio, is quite inexpensive and serves as an entry level typeface editor which is popular with students, hobbyists, and those whose typographic needs are relatively simple. AsiaFont Studio, on the other hand, is probably the most sophisticated font editor in the world and can create and edit fonts with up to 64,000 characters. It has special features for editing Chinese, Japanese and Korean fonts.
Back when fonts came in different formats and were platform specific, Fontlab also began to create a line of font conversion utilities. ScanFont, a tool for converting scans/bitmaps of glyphs into vector glyphs/fonts was part of FontLab 2. But in the next version it was split off, and became its own more complete and powerful application. Next came TransType, a font converter for moving fonts between TrueType
TrueType
TrueType is an outline font standard originally developed by Apple Computer in the late 1980s as a competitor to Adobe's Type 1 fonts used in PostScript...
, OpenType
OpenType
OpenType is a format for scalable computer fonts. It was built on its predecessor TrueType, retaining TrueType's basic structure and adding many intricate data structures for prescribing typographic behavior...
and Type 1 formats and between Macintosh and Windows platforms. A few more specialized font converters followed: FONmaker, for converting vector fonts into bitmaps; FontFlasher, for converting vector fonts into pixelated fonts for lo-res display; and FogLamp, for converting native Fontographer files into modern formats.
Products
- FontLab Studio (formerly FontLab)http://www.fontlab.com/font-editor/fontlab-studio/ - font editor for professional type designers
- FontographerFontographerFontographer , is a software application used to create digital fonts, available for both Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh platforms. It was originally developed by Altsys but is now owned by FontLab Ltd.-Fontastic:...
http://www.fontlab.com/font-editor/fontographer/ - font editor for graphic designers, artists, publishers - TypeTool http://www.fontlab.com/font-editor/typetool/ - font editor for students, hobbyists, users with minor editing needs
- AsiaFont Studio (formerly FontLab Composer)http://www.fontlab.com/font-editor/asiafont-studio/ - font editor for professional typeface designers of CJKVCJKCJK is a collective term for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, which is used in the field of software and communications internationalization.The term CJKV means CJK plus Vietnamese, which constitute the main East Asian languages.- Characteristics :...
or other Unicode fonts
- PhotofontPhotofontPhotofont is a technology for creating bitmap fonts developed by Fontlab Ltd. It is an open-standard font format that uses bitmap glyphs rather than vector outline glyphs. Photofonts can be created without specialized font design software because they are simply collections of PNG graphics...
http://www.photofont.com/ - a technology/format for creating bitmap fonts with color, texture and transparency and using them in page layout and website design - SigMaker http://www.fontlab.com/font-utility/sigmaker/ - a simple utility for adding a single character to a TrueType font
- TransType http://www.fontlab.com/font-converter/transtype/ - font converter for Macintosh and Windows; OpenType, TrueType and Type 1
- Bitfonter http://www.fontlab.com/font-editor/bitfonter/ - bitmap font editor
- ScanFont http://www.fontlab.com/font-converter/scanfont/ (Mac version is now a plug-in for FontLab Studio rather than a stand-alone application)
- FONmaker http://www.fontlab.com/font-converter/fonmaker/ - a font converter that makes bitmap fonts from TrueType fonts
- FontFlasher http://www.fontlab.com/font-converter/fontflasher/ - a font converter that optimizes fonts for display at small sizes and low resolution
- FogLamp http://www.fontlab.com/font-converter/foglamp/ - a font converter that converts native .fog files into several different modern formats