So I have scanned through a couple of pages of this forum and didn't see a fairly recent post on this topic. Any recommendations for quality, easy to use font creation software around the $40 range or less? I could Google it but I thought I'd ask the experts here first.

$48

http://old.fontlab.com/font-editor/typetool/

I am going for Claude's favorite font editor at a very affordable $0

https://fontforge.github.io/en-US/

"easy to use" it says. So how about a tedious installation and a very steep learning curve?

There is always some learning to do with new programs. How you adapt to a program is on a person to person basis. Some may take to the program quickly while others will take some more time to learn how to use it. Still there will be those who would give up on a program.

At the price range, I still say FontForge is the best in terms of price and capability.

If ease of use is a primary consideration, no one can beat those free web based font creators. Just draw your font on paper, scan it and feed it to the font generator. No hassle. No learning curve. No installation. You do not learn anything, you won't know anything. The bottom line is you have your own font regardless of quality.

Thanks! I'll check out FontForge and Fontlab.

When money is your primary concern but it does not have to be free also have a look at Type 32 and Type Light.

Will do, thanks Koeiekat!

Not to butt in but since you're here . . . is Fontforge capable of rendering postscript fonts? T1, PS, etc.? see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PostScript_fonts

Type32 -> Type 3.2 software

http://www.cr8software.net/type.html