Hello everyone,

I am calling on anyone who can help me out here, as I am working on a font (free of charge) for my brother who is attempting to open up a business and wanted his own font. The font was actually designed by him originally on paper; however, I have done the work to make everything into Illustrator files. In attempting to convert these into a font however, I am coming up with multiple issues. First, I can't find software that likes the AI files. Secondly, those that do read the files like to fill in the font - which is an issue due to the nature of the font.

The font is essentially cursive; however, it is designed to look like shoelaces (so on each side of the font there are two connecting points. While I understand that the spacing between letters would have to be adjusted so that these letters matched up, I can not seem to find a program that will work. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. Any help would be greatly appreciated as this is the first font project I have worked on.

Thanks in advance!

http://www.dafont.com/fr/forum/read/88072/need-to-get-a-font-designed?highlight=222474#222474

Thanks, that does assist a little bit; however, my issue at the moment is getting the AI files into a font editor. The one that seems to be working the best is Font Forge although it frequently says that the AI files are too complex (I am using AI 5.5). Any suggestions on how to save the files to allow for a smoother import? Thanks again

Hi Kev, one solution for really smoother import is you export in BMP flies on Fontcreator !
hi explain, open photoshop and create all files letter in BMP after files create go to fontcreator and just past files is ready to export you font in exactly forms .
you lost some point but is not really bad !
hope this solution is good for you !!

ps :sorry for my bad english hope your understand all....

Font Creator directly imports ai.

You loses many of details has the direct export on font creator.

Is that so?

yes, when i start export directly from AI-->FontC i lose lot of details

All glyphs are defined as a series of contours.
All known font formats require contours to be closed.


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Contours can be of two types: black or white. They can also be of two
directions: clockwise or counterclockwise.

Export from AI into FC? One imports into FC. Right click on the character and 'import'. The .ai file needs to have a bounding box to keep the elements in place. When the direction of the bounding box is wrong you will have some clean-up work to do (duplicate glyphs).
As FC does not trace the .ai file but just copies the points you can not really loose detail.

Yea, you loses many of details has the direct export on font creator.

You can can not export from AI. You can only import the actual vector in FC.
Familiar with the subtle difference between throwing someone out of the door and letting someone in

What do you mean by loss of details?

Are you referring to distortions on the imported outlines? If that is so, you can't help it unless the drawing in AI was prepared specifically for a font. Even so, it is not a surefire answer to distortions. It happens in all font editors - FontForge, Fontlab, Fontographer, Glyphs, etc.