TYPE DESIGN INFORMATION PAGE last updated on Mon Apr 15 05:28:48 EDT 2024

FONT RECOGNITION VIA FONT MOOSE

LUC DEVROYE

ABOUT

Fontographer

Font editor first developed at Altsys and later taken over by Macromedia and finally, in 2005, by FontLab. The latest version (5.0, Mac and Windows) was released by FontLab in June 2010 and costs 400 USD. I applaud the fact that it still supports type 1 and in particular, type 1 multiple master format. But it also produces OpenType fonts and TrueType fonts. It is loaded with yummy features.

The original creators included Jim von Ehr, David Spells, James Brasure, Tom Irby, John Ahlquist, Kevin Crowder, Parry Kejriwal, David Fung, and Eon Chang. The pre-FontLab Fontographer was sold by Macromedia, Inc., 600 Townsend Street, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA. Fontographer v4.1 had a list price of $495, but was generally available for under $300. Fontographer used its own format for files, which has the same mathematical basis as Type 1, but could generate .TTF files. A copy of FOG4.1 was recently placed on alt.binaries.fonts. Free copies are floating around on some Russian FTP sites but you'll have to do your own detective work. Description. Technical notes.

In April 2005, Adobe bought Macromedia. John Hudson remarks about this sale: Regarding Fontographer: it is very unlikely indeed that Adobe's purchase of Macromedia will lead to a new version of Fontographer. It is much more likely that the produce will be retired completely, and will simply no longer be available. The history of Fontographer and FontLab has shown very clearly that for a large software company like Macromedia or Adobe a font tool is simply not worth development investment. The potential market is simply too small to interest them. Font tools need to be developed by small companies seeking a niche market, and FontLab has demonstrated that this approach can be very successful. I suggested some years ago that Macromedia should simply give the Fontographer code, including the aborted 5.0 version, to Jim Gallagher. He has spent a good portion of his life nursing this code and providing tech support to Fontographer users, so if there is any future to Fontographer it seems to me that he deserves to guide it and to benefit from it, if possible. Perhaps Adobe might consider this. They have been generously supportive of the makers of FontLab, DTL FontMaster, etc., with their OpenType SDK code, so clearly encourage competition in the font tools business. Giving Fontographer to Jim for a dollar, and letting him do whatever he wants with it -- which might include open sourcing it, I suppose -- seems to me the best thing that could be done with this product. Otherwise, it might as well be withdrawn from the market, because it is never going to be updated by Adobe or any other large software company."

In May 2005, Adobe/Macromedia sold Fontographer to FontLab, where Jim Gallagher (Der Fontmeister) will continue development of the software. In November 2005, Fontographer 4.7 was published--for the first time, it could be used on Mac OS X.

EXTERNAL LINKS
Fontographer
MyFonts search
Monotype search
Fontspring search
Google search

INTERNAL LINKS
Font creation programs ⦿ Font editors (Mac) ⦿ Type scene in California ⦿