IndyFont Manual

iF

IndyFont 1.1

Create Pure OpenType Fonts with InDesign CS4 / CS5 / CS6 / CC

A Jongware & Indiscripts Tool

U S E R M A N U A L

Overview

1 .

Description

IndyFont is a tool for Adobe InDesign® with which you can create your very own font in the familiar environment of

InDesign itself, and use this new font straight away in your own documents.

With IndyFont you can create a new font from scratch, based on your very own character designs. The file it produces is a valid, cross-platform, OpenType font, which can be used in any software that supports OpenType fonts.

OOTE

IndyFont is not a font editor in the traditional sense. You cannot edit an existing font other than the fonts you create yourself. (However, as we shall see, you can do great things from existing fonts!)

2 .

System requirements

•

Mac OS X 10.6 or later,

or Windows XP / Vista / 7 / 8 (x86 or x64 editions).

•

800×600 pixel screen-resolution or greater.

•

Adobe InDesign CS4, CS5, CS5.5, CS6, or CC.

IndyFont both supports

CC 9.x and CC 2014

GENERAL

Font name:

Figure style:

Characters:

○ 0030 zero [2]

● 0031 one [3]

○ 0032 two [4]

● 0033 three [5]

● 0061 a

● 0061 a.sc

● 0062 b

● 0062 b.sc

● 0063 c

● 0063 c.sc

+ 0066 f

+ 0066 0069 f_i

+ 0069 i

My font

Tabular Lining

swsh smcp titl sups subs onum lnum pnum tnum init fina isol medi

IDENTIFICATION

Version:

Copyright:

Description:

Designer:

Designer URL:

License info:

001.000

(c) MyCompany

Adrian Frutiger

<Enter an URL here>

For information on the license of this font, please contact its manufacturer.

License URL:

TEMPLATE

Sample font:

Apply effects


Arial Unicode MS

Regular

OTF Export Update Close iF

IndyFont PRO 1.135

Licensed to: [email protected]

3 .

TRY vs. PRO version

You can download a free tryout version of IndyFont at: http://www.indiscripts.com/blog/public/scripts/IndyFontTry.zip

.

It offers most of the features of the PRO release, except it will only export a single character per font.

OOTE

We strongly encourage you to install and test the TRY version before you purchase the PRO license of the product. Always make sure that your system meets the requirements.

The main dialog of IndyFont has a very similar lookand-feel in both

Mac OS and Windows environments.

The following languages are available

(depending on your

InDesign locale):

▶

English (default)

▶

French

▶

German

I N D Y F O N T 1 . 1 M A N U A L ( U P D A T E : N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 4 ) 1

iF

Getting started

1 .

Before you install

IndyFont resides in a single file:

IndyFontPro.jsx

. When you download the file from your private link, however, it is originally zipped.

The first step is to unzip the .zip file so you can place

IndyFontPro.jsx

at the desired location (see below).

As a precaution before you go on, save your working files and restart InDesign in a clean session.

2 .

Installing in Mac OS X

1 ) In InDesign, open the Scripts panel as follows:

•

CS4: Window ▶ Automation ▶ Scripts.

•

CS5, CS5.5, CS6, and CC: Window ▶ Utilities ▶ Scripts.

2 ) You see there two main folders: Application and User. Rightclick the User folder and pick “Reveal in Finder.”

3 ) You should now see a Scripts Panel folder. Drag

IndyFontPro.jsx

into there. Congratulations, IndyFont is now installed!

3 .

Installing in Windows

1 ) In InDesign, open the Scripts panel as follows:

•

CS4: Window ▶ Automation ▶ Scripts.

•

CS5, CS5.5, CS6, and CC: Window ▶ Utilities ▶ Scripts.

2 ) You see there two main folders: Application and User. Rightclick the User folder and pick “Reveal in Explorer.”

3 ) You should now see a Scripts Panel folder. Drag

IndyFontPro.jsx

into there. Congratulations, IndyFont is now installed!

MAC OS X

WINDOWS

DRAG INTO DRAG INTO

RIGHT-CLICK

CLICK

RIGHT-CLICK CLICK


iF

GENERAL

Font name:

Figure style:

My Font

Tabular Lining

Characters:

4 .

○ 0030 zero [2]

GENERAL

Installing an update

○ 0032 two [4]

● 0033 three [5]

+ 0066 f My Font

+ 0066 0069 f_i

If you are notified that an update of the product is available, simply download the new package from your private link, then unzip and install the file i.e. at the same location.

The new version is instantly functional, and your global settings are all preserved.

IndyFontPro.jsx

○ 0032 two [4]

Sample font: over the previous one,

● 0033 three [5]

+ 0066 f

+ 0066 0069 f_i

Regular

+ 0069 i

IDENTIFICATION

Version:

Getting started

Description:

001.000

Designer:

Adrian Frutiger


6 .

Running IndyFont from the Indiscripts menu

Copyright:

For information on the license of this font, please contact its

To have IndyFont available in the InDesign’s menu bar, simply click the Indiscripts-menu button as shown in the screenshot, below, then close the dialog box.

You can now run IndyFont going into:

Indiscripts ▶ IndyFont PRO

License info:


OTF Export Update Close

License URL:


5 .

Running IndyFont from the Scripts panel

iF

run IndyFont from the Scripts panel as follows:

1 ) In InDesign, display the Scripts panel via:

•

Window ▶ Automation ▶ Scripts (CS4), or

•

Window ▶ Utilities ▶ Scripts (CS5, CS5.5, CS6, or CC).


2 ) Look for

iF

then double-click on it.

in the User folder,

Tired of continually digging into the

Scripts panel?

Make IndyFont available in a dedicated menu!

Update

CLICK

Close

INDISCRIPTS MENU

TURNED OFF

INDISCRIPTS MENU

TURNED ON

iF


GENERAL

Getting started

IDENTIFICATION iF

7 .

Create your first font

1 ) Run IndyFont, and the main dialog pops up.

GENERAL

Font name:

Figure style:

My font

Tabular Lining

Characters:

A..Z

< The list is empty > iF

After installing the script, you are ready to create your first font!




IDENTIFICATION

Version:

Copyright:

Description:

Designer:

Designer URL:

License info:

License URL:

TEMPLATE

Sample font:

Apply effects

001.000

(c) MyCompany

Adrian Frutiger





Regular

Create Close

2 ) The default font name is “My Font”, and you can leave that like that for your first experiment, or change it to anything you like.

In this example we will use the name “Tip”.

3 ) The only character in this font is going to be a custom bullet.

Delete the default text A..Z and type /bullet in the Characters field.

GENERAL

Font name:

Figure style:

Characters:

Font name:

Figure style:

Characters:

My font

Tabular Lining

/bullet

Tabular Lining

4 ) Click the icon. The bullet character is now declared in the Glyph list (as shown in the screenshot).

5 ) Click the Create button, and a template document is created. This

iF

the first page.


Version:

001.000

GENERAL IDENTIFICATION

Copyright:

(c) MyCompany

Font name:

Figure style:

Copyright:

Description: smcp

Designer:

CLICK

Designer:

001.000

Designer URL:

License info:

Adrian Frutiger


(c) MyCompany of this font, please contact its manufacturer.

Adrian Frutiger

Version:

Copyright:

Description:

Designer:

Designer URL:

Designer URL:


License URL: onum lnum

License info: tnum


TEMPLATE

init

License URL: isol medi

TEMPLATE

Sample font:

GLYPH LIST

Sample font:

Apply effects


onum lnum pnum tnum


The glyph has been successfully added.

Create

swsh smcp titl sups subs init fina isol medi

Close

License info:

License URL:

TEMPLATE

Sample font:

Apply effects

Apply effects

001.000

(c) MyCompany

Adrian Frutiger





Regular

Create Close iF


Close


CLICK

iF

You can see the information from the main dialog is repeated in here: the font name, and the default version number, copyright, designer and license strings. All of these could be changed later in the main dialog of IndyFont.

Name:

Version:

Description:

Copyright:

Designer:

License:

Tip

001.000

Testing a custom bullet

© Jongware

Theunis de Jong

For information on the license of this font, please contact its manufacturer.

INFORMATION PAGE


6 ) The second page contains a huge sample character at 1000 points.

This is the scale at which you must work! Character outlines are stored inside a font at this size, and only when drawing an actual character on the screen (or anywhere else), it is scaled to the appropriate size.

The light gray sample character is just that: a reminder of what character you should be drawing, and at what size. It’s in a layer of its own (“Sample”), and this layer is locked, so you cannot accidentally select it.

7 ) Let’s draw a bullet. Make sure that:

•

you have the layer “Outline” selected;

•

you are drawing with no stroke; and

•

you are drawing with a [Black] fill.

OOTE

Only [Black] and [Paper] filled vector drawings on the layer

“Outline” are considered “something”. Strokes (outlines) are ignored, and we recommend that you leave this at 0 points so you don’t get a skewed view of how your glyph is going to look.

8 ) Draw something like this shape. Make sure it is at least as large as the example bullet. The blue outlines are to show the construction of this bullet only: two thin rectangles filled with a [Paper] color, on top of a simple oval filled with [Black].

You can combine basic shapes or use any of InDesign’s other vector tools, such as the Pathfinder, to get exactly what you want, as long as you only use Fill, not Stroke.

I N D Y F O N T 1 . 1 M A N U A L ( U P D A T E : N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 4 )

/bullet (U+2022)

•

SAMPLE CHARACTER

Getting started

Let’s design a custom bullet on the layer

“Outline”. Remember that only [Black] and [Paper] filled shapes are “seen” by IndyFont.

5

iF

Getting started

OIIP

You can disable the “Sample” layer’s visibility to get a better preview.

•

You can save your font anywhere you want. For this example, save it into InDesign’s Fonts folder.

9 ) The vertical green guide indicates the width of your new character. Make sure there is a bit of white space at both the left and right side of your design. Drag the entire image to the right if it extends beyond the left side of the template, and drag the green guide to change the space on the right hand side.

OOTE

InDesign continuously scans your system to see if the font list was changed, and it usually picks up your new font right away. If it does not, switch to another application, wait a moment, and switch back to InDesign; that should be enough to trigger InDesign into re-building the font list.

GENERAL

Font name:

Figure style:

Characters:

● 2022 bullet [2]

TEMPLATE

Sample font:

Tip

GENERAL

Font name:

Figure style:

Tip

Tabular Lining

Characters:

● 2022 bullet [2]


Version:

Copyright:

Designer URL:

License info:

License URL:

001.000

(c) MyCompany

•

Run IndyFont again. It goes over each template page and

Adrian Frutiger

11 ) Check if InDesign recognizes your new font:

(a) in the Type Font menu;

(b) in a new Paragraph Style;

(c) or using the Glyphs panel.


IDENTIFICATION

For information on the license

Version:

Copyright:

Description: insert a bullet (Option/Alt + 8) at the start of your paragraph.


Designer:

•

OIIP

You can apply your new bullet automatically

Designer URL:

Regular

(a)

iF

OTF Export

CLICK



License URL:

•

If no errors are found, click “OTF Export”. IndyFont pro-

Sample font:


cesses your character(s), and if all is well, it asks you to

Regular

select a destination folder.

OTF Export


Close

13 ) Select the bullet and apply the font “Tip”.

If you are not entirely satisfied with your design, go back to the font template, adjust it, then generate the font again. Second time around, IndyFont will warn you that the file

Update

(b)

(c)

iF

6

iF

Manage your Character Set iF

1 .

Interaction between

Glyph list and template pages

Once IndyFont has built a font template and as long as you have it active in InDesign, a close connection is established between pages and characters.

Apart from the Information page that introduces the font template, each valid template page in the document is intended to identify a distinct character, or glyph, in your font.

OOTE

In most cases we use the terms “glyph” and “character” as loose equivalents. Unicode, however, defines a character as an abstract unit of text for which it provides a unique “code point” (a number). In that sense a character has no visual rendering in itself. By contrast, a glyph is the concrete, visible, specific shape of a character. Thus, you may have a single character rendered by multiple glyphs (referred to as “alternates”), as well as multiple characters mixed in a single glyph (referred to as a “ligature”). Therefore, strictly speaking, each canonical page in your font template does identify a glyph.

Whenever you run IndyFont, it scans the document and updates the Glyph list so that it matches your current character set.

Conversely, any insertion or deletion in the Glyph list is mirrored in the font template when you click the Update button.


2 .

Adding a new character

The easiest way to add a simple character into the Glyph list is to proceed as follows:

1 ) Run IndyFont and go into the Characters field. (To quickly set the focus on it and have any existing input already selected, you can click the “Characters” caption itself.)

2 ) Enter, or paste, the desired character—for example the letter é, as in the screenshot, below.

3 ) Click the icon to the right of the edit box. A new item is then inserted in the Glyph list, e.g. + 00E9 eacute. This formal code

Font name:

My font

is based on both the Unicode value (U+00E9) and the standard glyph name (eacute) of the new character.

IDENTIFICATION

Characters:

IDENTIFICATION

Version:

Copyright:

Description:

001.000

(c) MyCompany

Font name:

Figure style:

Characters:

○ 0030 zero [2]

● 0031 one [3]

○ 0032 two [4]

● 0033 three [5]

+ 0066 f

+ 0066 0069 f_i

+ 0069 i

TEMPLATE

Sample font:

+ 2022 bullet

● 0031 one [3]

Tabular Lining

● 0033 three [5]

é

+ 0066 f

+ 0066 0069 f_i

+ 0069 i

+ 00E9 eacute

TYPE IN A NEW

CHARACTER

CONFIRMATION POPUP

GENERAL



Font name:

Figure style:

Version:

Copyright:

CLICK swsh

Designer:

Characters:

+ 2022 bullet

● 0031 one [3]

Designer URL:

○ 0032 two [4]

● 0033 three [5]

+ 0066 f

+ 0066 0069 f_i

+ 0069 i

+ 00E9 eacute

sups subs onum lnum

License info: init

License URL: medi

License URL:

OTF Export

Adrian Frutiger

Version:

of this font, please contact its

Copyright:

001.000

(c) MyCompany

Description:


TEMPLATE

Designer URL:

GLYPH LIST


Sample font:

Apply effects swsh


titl

Regular

sups subs

License info:

License URL: onum lnum pnum

Create

Adrian Frutiger




OTF Export Update

Sample font:

Arial Unicode MS iF iF





7

Close

fina isol medi

Apply effects

Regular

OTF Export Create Close iF



Manage your Character Set

4 ) Finally, if you want to have this new character immediately added to the template, click the Update button (or, in case no template exists yet, the Create button). A new template page is then added at the end of the document, with all elements required to identify and process the glyph.

3 .

Manually adding a template page

An alternative method to have a new character available is to manually create a template page, subject that you properly fill in the Glyph header frame (at the top left corner of the page).

1 ) Do one of the following:

•

Click the “Create new page” button at the bottom of the

Pages panel;

•

Using the InDesign menu, go into:

Layout ▶ Pages ▶ Add Page (or Insert pages…);

•

Alternatively, you can duplicate an existing glyph page; right-click its thumbnail in the Pages panel, then select

“Duplicate Spread”.

2 ) In any case, make sure that the new page has the “Glyphs” master applied on it. (In the Pages panel, you should see the letter “G” on the page thumbnail.) this header, you have to unlock the

“.notdef” frame from the “Glyphs” master spread. Then, going back to the template page, Cmd-Shift-Click the header to override the master object.

GLYPH HEADER

(Layer “Info”)

GLYPH SAMPLE

(Layer “Sample”)

OOTE

The Glyph header belongs to the “Info” layer, which for some reason might be locked.

Make sure you have unlocked that layer too.

/eacute (U+00E9)

é

4 ) Go into the Glyph header text frame and type in the desired character; for example, the letter à. You can use as well a full

IndyFont header format, such as /agrave (U+00E0), but this is not a requirement. (Unless the leading slash is used, IndyFont will just interpret any character as itself.)

5 ) Run IndyFont. If your template page is successfully parsed, the new character should appear in the Glyph list. Otherwise,

IndyFont will prompt an alert, typically “Page xx has no valid

glyph header and will be ignored.”

3 ) In the case you have added—not duplicated—a page, the Glyph header inherits the string “.notdef” from the master (also, the glyph sample shows a default question mark). In order to modify

Canonical page generated for the letter

é

(U+00E9). For more on template page metrics and layout, see

“Fashion your glyphs”.


iF


OOTE

Any template page which does not have a valid Glyph header is seen as an “extra” page and will be simply ignored. Various factors may lead to such a situation. Some examples: the page has no header text frame at all; the frame is empty or cannot be parsed as having a valid syntax; the glyph has been already specified somewhere else; the specifier is not consistant—e.g.

A (U+E123)— etc.

4 .

Removing characters

If you have template pages for characters, or glyphs, that you no longer need, you can easily remove the underlying page(s) using either the Pages panel, or IndyFont.

▶ Using the Pages panel:

1 ) Select the page(s).

2 ) Click the Trash, or select “Delete Spread” from the context menu.

▶ Using IndyFont:

1 ) Run IndyFont and select the unwanted item(s) in the Glyph list.

(Use Cmd/Ctrl Click to select multiple items.)

2 ) Press Delete or Backspace.

3 ) Click Update.

5 .

Specifying character codes and glyph names

Most characters can be entered on their own, or pasted, into the

Characters field (see Section 2). Sometimes you may prefer to use a syntax that allows to either specify Unicode values or normalized glyph names.

GENERAL

Font name:

My font

1 ) Unicode values. — Enter the character code point with a U+ prefix—for example, U+25B6—then click the icon.

OOTE

Here are the intervals of Unicode values that IndyFont supports:

U+ 0020

▶ U+

085F

U+ 08A0

▶ U+

1AAF

U+ 1B00

▶ U+

1C7F

U+

U+

1CC0

2FF0

▶

▶

2FDF

A9DF

U+ AA00

▶ U+

AB2F

U+ ABC0

▶ U+

D7FF

U+ E000

▶ U+

FFEF

U+ 10000

▶ U+

101FF

U+ 10280

▶ U+

102DF

U+ 10300

▶ U+

1034F

U+ 10380

▶ U+

103DF

U+ 10400

▶ U+

104AF

U+ 10800

▶ U+

1085F

U+ 10900

▶ U+

1093F

U+ 10980

▶ U+

10A7F

U+ 10B00

▶ U+

10B7F

U+ 10C00

▶ U+

10C4F

U+ 10E60

▶ U+

10E7F

U+ 11000

▶ U+

1114F

U+ 11180

▶ U+

111DF

U+ 11680

▶ U+

116CF

U+ 12000

▶ U+

1247F

U+ 13000

▶ U+

1342F

U+ 16800

▶ U+

16A3F

U+ 16F00

▶ U+

16F9F

U+ 1B000

▶ U+

1B0FF

U+ 1D000

▶ U+

1D24F

U+ 1D300

▶ U+

1D37F

U+ 1D400

▶ U+

1D7FF

2 ) Glyph names. — Type the name of a glyph with a / (slash) prefix—for example, /eacute—then click the icon.

Figure style:

Figure style:

Tabular Lining

Characters:

U+25B6

○ 0030 zero [2]

● 0031 one [3]

○ 0032 two [4]

● 0033 three [5]

+ 0066 f

+ 0066 0069 f_i

+ 0069 i

U+ 1EE00

▶ U+

1EEFF

U+ 1F000

▶ U+

1F64F

U+ 1F680

▶ U+

1F77F

U+ 20000

▶ U+

2A6DF

U+

U+

2A700

2F800

▶ U+

▶ U+

2B81F

2FA1F

U+ E0000

▶ U+

E007F

U+ E0100 ▶ U+ E01EF

U+ F0000 ▶ U+ FFFFD

U+ 100000 ▶ U+ 10FFFF

iF

Tabular Lining

OOTE

IndyFont recognizes about 3,700 standard names. They all come from the Adobe Glyph List (AGL) which can be found at http://sourceforge.net/adobe/aglfn/wiki/Home/

In addition, you can specify custom glyph names—for example,

/myLogo—which then are automatically assigned to special Unicode values in the “Private Use Area”.

Characters:

/eacute

○ 0030 zero [2]

● 0031 one [3]

○ 0032 two [4]

Do not omit the leading slash (

/

) when you specify a glyph name.

The string eacute would instead declare a set of characters

(a, c, e, t, u).

Regular


iF

9


IDENTIFICATION

Version:

Copyright:

Description:

Designer:

Designer URL:

License info:

001.000

(c) MyCompany

Adrian Frutiger



License URL:


OTF Export

IDENTIFICATION

Version:

Copyright:

Description:

Update

001.000

(c) MyCompany

Close

Designer:

Designer URL:

License info:

Adrian Frutiger



License URL:




6 .

Adding a set of characters

You can easily enter a set of characters by just typing them in arbitrary order, then click the icon: aeiouy

OOTE

If you found you made a mistake in entering the characters you want, don’t worry; you can always remove any unwanted entry. See Section 4, above.

You can also copy text from an InDesign document or anywhere else and paste it into the Characters field, then click the icon.

Every single character will be added in the Glyph list.

OOTE

IndyFont automatically discards double entries, because every glyph may only appear once in each font.

If your set needs to include Unicode values and/or glyph names, separate these elements with a space: a /eacute U+2022

7 .

Adding a range of characters

To add an entire range of characters, use the following syntax:

first..last, where first and last refer to any valid specifier. There are 2 periods between the first and last element.

Here are some examples of valid ranges: a..z

GENERAL

GENERAL

Font name:

My font

IDENTIFICATION

Version:

IDENTIFICATION

001.000

Copyright:

Description:

Copyright:

0..9

/eacute../ograve

U+00C0..U+017F

Characters:

+ 0177 ycircumflex

+ 0178 Ydieresis

+ 0179 Zacute

+ 017A zacute

U+2020../bullet

Finally you can declare multiple ranges and/or elements in a single entry, using the space separator:

0..9 /underscore a..z A..Z

+ 017D Zcaron

+ 017E zcaron

+ 017F longs

192 glyphs have been successfully added.

iF


Regular



Regular

Adding a range of Unicode values in a single step.

8 .

Advanced syntax

▶ Alternates

OpenType-enabled variant of a glyph:

iF



Enter an element, followed by a period (.) and a suffix to add an

OTF Export

001.000

(c) MyCompany

Designer URL:


License info:

Designer:

of this font, please contact its manufacturer.

Designer URL:

Adrian Frutiger


License URL:

<Enter an URL here> For information on the license

License info:

of this font, please contact its manufacturer.

Update

License URL:

OTF Export

Close


Update Close

This will also automatically add the character é on its own if not already present in the Glyph list.



▶ Ligatures

To create a custom ligature, separate its characters with an underscore:

P_h_é_n_o_m_!

or

P_h_eacute_n_o_m_exclam

This will also automatically add the underlying characters, P, h,

é, n, o, m, ! if not already present in the Glyph list.

As you can notice, in the specific case of ligatures, the leading slash is not required for glyph names. Alternatively, you can use

Unicode values:

OIIP

The reserved symbols

_ (underscore), . (period), and / (slash) can be “escaped” with a

\ (backslash) prefix: \_ \. \/

▶ Private Use Area

When you enter custom glyph names, such as /myLogo, IndyFont records them in a reserved zone, known as the “Private Use

Area” (PUA). By default, an automatic Unicode value is assigned to any private character you declare. For this purpose, IndyFont uses the range U+E000 ▶ U+EFFF (which is a subset of the full

Unicode PUA). In most cases you won’t need to worry about that, as IndyFont transparently manages these code points. However, you still can provide custom characters with explicit Unicode values, using the following syntax:

/myLogo=U+E123

For more on using alternates, ligatures, and OpenType-based features, see “Add typographic features.”

For more on Unicode and the Private

Use Area, see

“Additional notes.”

9 .

Checking your characters

GENERAL

Various marks are used in the Glyph list so that you can check the current status of any character:

Font name:

Figure style:

+

The plus sign indicates items you have recently added in the Glyph list, but which have not yet a dedicated template page.

○

An empty circle indicates other glyphs you have already declared in the template, but which have no valid outline.

●

A filled circle indicates those glyphs which both have a valid template page and can be processed.

My font

Tabular Lining

Characters:

○ 0030 zero [2]

● 0031 one [3]

○ 0032 two [4]

● 0033 three [5]

+ 0066 f

+ 0066 0069 f_i

+ 0069 i

+ 00E9 eacute

Each entry also indicates associated Unicode value(s), followed by the glyph name. Finally, all glyphs already present in the template have their page number in brackets.


Sample font:

(if any)


Regular


iF



OTF Export

IDENTIFICATION

Version:

Copyright:

Description:

Designer:

Designer URL:

License info:

001.000

(c) MyCompany

Adrian Frutiger



License URL:


Update Close

10 .

Declaring usual alternates for the selection

Manage your Character Set version 1.135 and higher

Suppose that you have a substantial amount of basic characters

(e.g. the Latin lowercase letters) already created, and that you want to append “Small Caps” variants for all of them. Manually declaring those items through the Characters field would be tedious. Fortunately IndyFont now provides a set of special buttons that make it easy to apply usual OpenType features to the selected glyphs:

GENERAL

Font name:

iF iF iF

My font

1 ) Select in the Glyph list the set or the range of items whose alternates have to be added. (Use Cmd/Ctrl or Shift Click to extend the current selection.)

(c) MyCompany ● 0061 a [2]

● 0061 a [2]

● 0062 b [3]

● 0063 c [4]

● 0064 d [5]

● 0063 c [4]

● 0064 d [5]

Tabular Lining






2 ) Click the button having the desired OpenType feature tag: onum sups subs tnum onum lnum pnum tnum init fina isol medi swsh smcp smcp titl sups subs subs onum lnum pnum tnum init fina isol medi onum lnum pnum tnum init fina isol medi onum lnum pnum tnum init fina isol medi init fina isol medi init fina isol medi

→ “Swash” (suffix: .swash),

→ “Small Capitals” (suffix: .sc),

→ “Titling” (suffix: .titling),

→ “Superscript/Superior” (suffix: .sup),

→ “Subscript/Inferior” (suffix: .sub),

→ “Oldstyle Figures” (suffix: .onum),

→ “Lining Figures” (suffix: .lnum),

→ “Proportional Figures” (suffix: .pnum),

→ “Tabular Figures” (suffix: .tnum),

→ “Initial Forms” (suffix: .init),

→ “Terminal Forms” (suffix: .final),

→ “Isolated Forms” (suffix: .isol),

→ “Medial Forms” (suffix: .medial).

OTF Export

OTF Export


Adrian Frutiger of this font, please contact its manufacturer.




Regular

Create

Create

Create

Close

Close

Close


iF iF

IDENTIFICATION iF

IDENTIFICATION

OOTE

OIIP

Version:

Tabular Lining

Tabular Lining

(c) MyCompany

Copyright:

001.000

Figure style:

Figure style:

Characters:

Copyright:

Description:

(c) MyCompany

Characters:

● 0061 a [2]

● 0062 b [3]

● 0063 c [4]

Font name:

● 0065 e [5]

Tabular Lining

Characters:

● 0061 a [2]

+ 0061 a.sc

● 0062 b [3]

+ 0062 b.sc

● 0063 c [4]

+ 0063 c.sc

● 0064 d [5]

+ 0064 d.sc

● 0065 e [5]

+ 0065 e.sc

iF


onum lnum pnum tnum

Registry: http://microsoft.com/typography/otspec/featurelist.htm

init fina isol medi

Most tags can even be combined, as we shall see in the chapter “Add typographic features.”

Designer:

Designer URL: swsh smcp titl sups subs onum lnum pnum tnum

IDENTIFICATION

License info:

Version: swsh smcp titl init fina isol medi titl

RESULT sups subs sups subs onum lnum pnum tnum init fina isol medi

Sample font:

Designer:


Designer URL:

001.000

CLICK

(c) MyCompany

License info:

Adrian Frutiger

License URL:

Adrian Frutiger



<Enter an URL here> of this font, please contact its manufacturer.

TEMPLATE


Regular

Regular

Apply effects

OTF Export Create Close


12

1 .

IndyFont layers

Any IndyFont template is based on three built-in layers,

“Outline”, “Info” and “Sample”. When a new template is produced, both the layers “Info” and “Sample” are locked. Unless you need to manually edit a Glyph header (see “Manage your character set,” Section 3), or to tweak options in a Sample frame, we recommend you leave these layers in their original state.

OOTE

IndyFont will not protest if you change the name of its native layers, provided that it can recognize them as its own creation.

Never delete a native layer with the expectation of replacing it later. Your template will be broken. (“Sample” is the only optional layer—in case you don’t need samples anymore.)

You may create additional layers to your liking. However, the layer “Outline” is the unique place where you will set up artworks to be actually processed. During scanning and calculation, IndyFont only considers what is drawn on that layer.

Fashion your glyphs

On the distinction between “Character” and “Glyph”, see note page 7.

iF

TEMPLATE PAGE

Outline LAYER

YOUR GLYPH

ARTWORK

2 .

Design space and units

IndyFont converts your vector drawing to an OpenType CFF

(PostScript

®

flavor) font. The reason for this choice is that

InDesign paths and PostScript-based types use the same outline format, cubic Bézier splines. The design grid is fixed to

1,000 units; that is, one em-space is 1,000 units wide. IndyFont uses InDesign’s points as its design unit.

Info LAYER

Sample LAYER



The point coordinates of your design are rounded to whole points, including any curve control points. This means that there may be a small difference between your drawing and the generated font—but, typically, this should be on a scale of your font size divided by 1,000.

OOTE

“Type 1 font programs generally use a 1000 to 1 scaling matrix for the definition of the relationship of character space units to user space units. […] This allows character space coordinates to be expressed in integer values without significant loss of precision for most font designs.”—Adobe Type 1 Font Format, page 25.

However, if you want to ensure an exact match between your design and the final font:

•

Choose View ▶ Grids & Guides ▶ Show Document Grid, and View ▶ Grids & Guides ▶ Snap to Document Grid.

•

Make sure all of your points are snapped to this grid.

3 .

Glyph metrics

IndyFont defines the origin of a character as the intersection point between the left edge of the template page and the baseline

(red horizontal guide). As you can see in the figure, the bounding box of the glyph is not aligned with the left of the page. This is because types need a little white space at their left and right sides (side bearing). If you put your image at the very left edge, your glyphs will run together when you type them

LIKETHIS

, and

(usually) you do not want that.


ADVANCE WIDTH

ADVANCE

WIDTH

ORIGIN

LEFT SIDE

BEARING

(LSB)

RIGHT SIDE

BEARING

(RSB)

NEXT

CHARACTER

ORIGIN

NEGATIVE

LSB

NEGATIVE

RSB

BASELINE

•

We call left side bearing (LSB) the horizontal distance from the origin to the left edge of the bounding box. IndyFont simply infers the LSB form the horizontal location of your artwork.

•

Symmetrically, the right side bearing (RSB) refers to the horizontal distance from the right edge of the bounding box to the origin of the next character. In other words, this value represents the space you want to have at the right hand side of your character. In IndyFont, the RSB is indicated by a green vertical guide that you can adjust to your needs (see next page).

•

Both the LSB, the bounding box width, and the RSB determine the advance width of the character. Visually, this is just the distance from the left edge to the green guide.

The italic

f

, above, illustrates the case of negative side bearings. Indeed, to avoid

ungrace f ul

letterspacing, we may need to make the advance width significantly lower than the actual width of the glyph bounding box. (Incidentally, note that IndyFont does not object to finding outlines beyond the page boundaries.)

14

iF


•

The red guide line at the bottom indicates the baseline. A character such as a capital “A” should be sitting on top of this, and a lowercase character such as a “g” should descend below it. A bullet typically floats a bit above it.

OOTE

The baseline guide remains on the Glyphs master and is locked, meaning that it equally applies to every template page and is not supposed to be moved. Consider it a visual reference for your typeface.

4 .

Refining the advance width

Whenever IndyFont generates a template page, it seeks to position the green guide (RSB) at the best distance, with respect to the regular spacing of the sample character. If you are not satisfied with the result—or if IndyFont is wrong!—it is up to you to adjust the guide so that it fits the desired width.

1 ) Make sure your glyph is properly positioned relative to the left edge of the page (including the LSB shift).

2 ) Select and drag the green vertical guide to the desired x-location.

A reworked bullet shape, for example, may require a wider space at the right side, as shown below.

OIIP

If you remove the green guide, the space at the left side will be automatically mirrored at the right side. In other words IndyFont will assume RSB = LSB.

5 .

Drawing tools

While InDesign is in no way the prime tool for “vector artists” (!) it provides all the functionality required to make clean and pretty drawings if you are skillful enough.

Since type outlines are made up of points and curves, any of

InDesing’s illustration feature intended to create, transform, or combine shapes—in the sense of “spline items”—can be used to elaborate the building blocks of your typeface.

Whatever method you use, the key rule is to end up with a set of vector artworks formed of fully closed paths.

/bullet (U+2022)

DRAG

/bullet (U+2022)

DELETE

IMPLIED WIDTH


iF


You can either:

•

Use shape tools to create rectangles, ovals, polygons, starbursts, etc.

•

Use the Pen tool—or even the Pencil tool—to draw freeform shapes.

•

Convert existing characters to outlines via Type ▶ Create outlines.

•

Paste vector objects from Illustrator…

And so on!

Then, of course, you can remix and fine-tune these spline items from both the Transform panel, the Align panel, the

Pathfinder, etc.

6 .

About pathpoint complexity

There is an upper limit to the number of single points you can use in a single glyph. This runs into the tens of thousands of points, so it’s not likely you run into it by accident. However, if your design contains extremely complex characters, and these show up as blanks in the Glyphs panel while others work as expected, you may have exceeded the total point limit. In that case you will have to simplify the design of the failing characters.

This is not as limiting as you may think; each of the characters below contain about 100 circles, and each circle in turn is defined by 4 “corner” points and an additional 8 Bézier curve control points, which comes down to about 1,200 points per character.

As you can see, that’s no problem at all.

7 .

The “[Black] & [Paper]” rule

When IndyFont is in the process of scanning outlines to generate your typeface, it only inspects

[Black] and [Paper] filled vector shapes present on the layer “Outline”.

[Black]

1 ) Apply the regular [Black] swatch—not fake, mixed, or any custom black color—to all positive

(inked) regions of the glyph.

2 ) Apply the regular [Paper] swatch—not fake, mixed, or any custom white color—to all nega-

tive (hole) regions that need to be subtracted.

IndyFont takes into consideration how shapes are stacked in your layout. Therefore, [Paper] filled shapes (holes) that do not overlap into any [Black] area will be ignored.


Wrong color

(ignored)

[Paper]

RESULT

16

iF


8 .

The “Path, not Stroke” rule

IndyFont disregards strokes. That is, it simply ignores any

InDesign’s Stroke attribute, color, weight, type, corner options, etc., that might be applied to your shapes.

9 .

Combining shapes

Each template page can contain as many building blocks as you need, and you do not have to group them before you export the font. IndyFont automatically detects all valid spline items

(excluding anchored objects). It analyzes how they stack and/or nest, then produces outline data to be saved in the final font file.

This rule has important consequences:

•

Any straight line—whatever its weight, or type—is ignored.

The reason for this is that the underlying path has no area.

•

Dashed and dotted borders have no effect (as well as any stroke style).

•

Rounded corners are ignored too. IndyFont only considers the actual path points of which the shape is made up:

IndyFont supports individual shapes, groups, as well as “nested shapes”—that is, single shapes pasted into a parent shape. Any shape can be based on either simple or compound paths. Use the

Pathfinder to merge (add), subtract, intersect, or combine paths the way you want.

RESULT

OOTE

IndyFont may ignore complex nesting structures though. To improve quality and performance, we recommend you use finished paths rather than nested shapes. Also, as your font template grows up, you may notice that processing time increases with the number of individual objects and/or groups that are stacked in page templates. You can significantly reduce execution time by pre-converting those elements into single vector shapes.

ACTUAL

PATH POINTS

OIIP

A popular trick can be used to convert rounded corners into true curved paths:

1. Select the object.

2. Choose Object

▶ Path ▶ Open Path.

3. Choose Object

▶ Path ▶ Close Path.

10 .

Preventing overlapping issues

Before your vector shapes are converted into a font, IndyFont has to join all shapes into one, clean up stray points and loose ends, and manage overlapping areas.

In the figure, above, the

[Black] filled triangle has been “pasted into” a [Paper] filled circle.

Although IndyFont can deal with such nested structure, we recommend you use Pathfinder intersection instead:


iF


An important rule in PostScript® font format is, a single closed

outline should not overlap itself. Although InDesign does not have a problem drawing an object such as on the left, font drawing software interprets the overlapping part as a hole (right).

12 .

Changing the default Sample font

One of the most interesting features in IndyFont is font sampling. Any font available in InDesign can be used as a sample font for your template pages. When you create or update your document, light gray sample glyphs are automatically positioned in the background (on the layer “Sample”).

11 .

To avoid this, remove the overlapping region or split the single vector object into two.

Design guidelines (summary)

In summary, keep the following guidelines in mind as you design glyph shapes:

•

•

Always have your final artwork on the “Outline” layer.

Always use [Black] and [Paper] filled shapes.

•

Use the rectangle tool to make filled shapes for straight lines, and remember that strokes are ignored as well as corner options.

•

Close your paths.

•

Use Pathfinder operations rather than nested shapes.

•

Prevent individual shapes from self-overlapping.

GENERAL

The very first time IndyFont starts up the Sample font is set to

“Arial Regular”. If you want another font to be automatically

Figure style:

Copyright:

(c) MyCompany

Characters:

iF

list.

GENERAL

1 ) Close any InDesign document.

Tabular Lining

2 ) Run IndyFont.

● 0064 d [5]

+ 0064 d.sc

● 0065 e [5]

+ 0065 e.sc

list, then select the desired font family.

● 0061 a [2]

+ 0061 a.sc

3 ) In the template panel, click the Sample font dropdown

● 0064 d [5]

+ 0064 d.sc

● 0065 e [5]

+ 0065 e.sc


4 ) If needed, refine the font style from the second dropdown



5 ) Click the Close button.

Description:

Designer:

Designer URL:

License info:

IDENTIFICATION


Changing

manufacturer.

Designer:

001.000

the default

Sample font to

“Dax Medium”…

License URL: swsh onum lnum pnum tnum

OTF Export

init fina isol medi

Designer URL:

License info:

Dax

License URL:

Medium

Sample font:

Create

Apply effects




Dax

Create Close

CLICK

iF


iF

GENERAL

Font name:

Figure style:

iF

Characters:

○ 0030 zero [2]

● 0031 one [3]

○ 0032 two [4]

● 0033 three [5]

● 0061 a

● 0061 a.sc

● 0062 b

● 0062 b.sc

● 0063 c

● 0063 c.sc

+ 0066 f

+ 0066 0069 f_i

+ 0069 i

My font

Tabular Lining


Font name:

Version:

001.000

My font

Figure style:

Copyright:

(c) MyCompany

Tabular Lining

Description:

Characters:

○ 0030 zero [2]

● 0031 one [3]

○ 0032 two [4]

● 0033 three [5]

● 0061 a

● 0061 a.sc

● 0062 b

● 0062 b.sc

● 0063 c

● 0063 c.sc

+ 0066 f

+ 0066 0069 f_i

+ 0069 i

swsh smcp titl onum lnum pnum tnum

13 .

Changing the Sample font

14 .

Generating sample outlines

(for the current template)

001.000

You can also change the Sample font as you are creating, or updating a font template. In this case the new font is affected

Description: only to the current document.

Adrian Frutiger

By default, sample glyphs are only placed on the layer “Sample”. These are visual placeholders to help you work on


iF

1 ) In InDesign, activate your template document—if already created—, then run IndyFont.

swsh smcp titl


2 ) In the template panel, click the Sample font dropdown list, then select the desired font family.

subs

License URL:


In addition, IndyFont allows you to get already-generated sample outlines.

This way you can use any sample glyph as a starting point, then transform and/ or re-work it to your needs.

3 ) If needed, refine the font style (using the second dropdown list).

pnum init fina isol medi

TEMPLATE

4 ) Click the Update (or Create) button.

Sample font:

Apply effects


IndyFont attempts to find a suitable sample for all characters declared in the Glyph list (see “Manage your character set”). If it cannot find some in your preferred sample font, it tries to find it in “Arial Unicode MS”. If it cannot find it there either, you will

Update Close

1 ) Run IndyFont.

2 ) Click the gear icon at the bottom right.

3 ) In the global settings panel, turn on the option “Create sample outlines”, then click OK.

init fina isol medi

Designer:

Designer URL:

License info:

TEMPLATE

Sample font:

A (U+0041)

B (U+0042)

A

B

Apply effects

Changing “Dax Medium” into “Minion Pro Regular”.

OTF Export

Adrian Frutiger



<Enter an URL here> iF


Update

CLICK

A (U+0041)

B (U+0042)

A

B

Close

OOTE

By default, as IndyFont applies a new Sample font to an existing pages that do not have artwork yet (so that existing glyphs are preserved). If you want to entirely re-sample the template, including glyphs you have already drawn, enable the option

“Update existing glyphs” in the GLOBAL SETTINGS panel.

GLOBAL SETTINGS

Plain text font:

Arial

Regular

Refresh InDesign’s font list

Update existing glyphs

Create sample outlines

C (U+0043)

C

C (U+0043)

C

Reset

Show detailed tooltips

OK


Reset OK


4 ) Going back to the main dialog, click Update (or Create).

OOTE

As the option “Create sample outlines” is a global preference,

IndyFont will remember that you expect to have sample outlines on any font template being created/updated.

15 .

Organizing template pages

There is no particular requirement about how pages should be ordered in the font template. When you declare new glyphs,

IndyFont always adds the corresponding template pages at the end of the document, but you can rearrange them to your liking.

(Make sure that the Information page remains in first position though.)

OOTE

Glyph order, in the final font, will not reflect template page order. IndyFont automatically sorts GIDs— glyph indices—by increasing Unicode values.

To easily navigate in your font template you can enable “Show

Thumbnails” in the Pages panel’s contextual menu (Pages panel

▶ Panel options…) and choose an appropriate size. In the screenshot, below, we also have disabled “Show vertically” so the Pages panel looks like the regular Glyphs panel!

In InDesign CS5 and later, IndyFont applies green “color labels” to template pages for which a sample glyph has been properly created.

A gray label may be used instead, indicating that the expected glyph has not been found in the Sample font and then has been rendered in Arial Unicode.

Finally, if the desired character is not found in Arial Unicode itself,

IndyFont outputs a quotation mark, and applies a red label.

u2650 (U+2650) C (U+0043)

C

SAMPLE

FONT

IN USE

ARIAL

UNICODE

SUBSTITUTE uE000 (U+E000)

?

NO SAMPLE

GLYPH

AVAILABLE


iF


Font name:

Figure style:

GENERAL

Font name:

Figure style:

Characters:

○ 0030 zero [2]

● 0031 one [3]

○ 0032 two [4]

● 0033 three [5]

● 0061 a

● 0061 a.sc

● 0062 b

● 0062 b.sc

● 0063 c

● 0063 c.sc

+ 0066 f

+ 0066 0069 f_i

+ 0069 i

My font

Characters:

Tabular Lining

○ 0030 zero [2]

● 0031 one [3]

○ 0032 two [4]

● 0033 three [5]

● 0061 a

● 0061 a.sc

● 0062 b

● 0062 b.sc

● 0063 c

● 0063 c.sc

+ 0066 f

+ 0066 0069 f_i

+ 0069 i iF

My font

Tabular Lining

Version:

Copyright:

IDENTIFICATION

Description:

Designer:

001.000

(c) MyCompany

Adrian Frutiger

Version:


16 .

swsh smcp titl sups subs

Copyright: smcp

Description: sups

Designer:

Designer URL:

Applying special “effects” to your template

License info: from the template font.


<Enter an URL here> of this font, please contact its manufacturer.

version 1.135 and higher

The template panel now provides a button which opens an effects window where you specify various transformations and settings to be applied to the glyphs (samples and/or outlines) onum lnum pnum tnum init fina isol medi on, these effects are all processed targeting either new glyphs, or the whole font template if “Updated existing

APPLY THE

EFFECTS

Apply effects

Regular

DEFINE THE

EFFECTS

iF



Update

Skewing:

Width:

Fixed RSB:

Sharp-Edged glyphs

0°

100%

0pt

Close


glyphs” is checked in the GLOBAL SETTINGS panel. (See the section “Global settings” in “Additional notes.”)

▶ Skewing (“ fake italics”)

Enter a skew angle between -20 and

20°. An interesting usage of this feature is generating “faux italics” from a typeface that only offers roman glyphs.

Skewing artworks around 10-12° usually yields good results. (To remove this effect, simply reset the angle to 0°.)

▶ Width (horizontal scaling)

Going into the Width field, enter a value between 50 and 150%.

The corresponding horizontal scaling transformation will be applied to the glyphs, so you can (roughly) sketch condensed or extented typefaces from any font. (To remove this effect, simply reset the value to 100%.)

Skewing:

0°

Width:

Fixed RSB:

150%

0pt

Sharp-Edged glyphs

EFFECTS

Skewing:

Width:

Fixed RSB:

Sharp-Edged glyphs

11°

100%

0pt

Clear OK

11° skewing applied to Symbol (Regular).

From there IndyFont can instantly produce and export a fresh

“Symbol Italic” font!

Clear OK iF

Clear OK

150% width applied to Impact (Regular).



▶ Fixed RSB (right side bearing)

The field “Fixed RSB” lets you control the x-location of the green vertical guide (which indicates the right side bearing). Just fill in a positive value—e.g. 400pt—and the targeted glyph template pages will have that fixed RSB guide, bypassing automatic positioning. This functionality is useful to create a set, or a subset, of “monospaced” glyphs. (To remove this effect, reset the value to 0pt.)

OOTE

Fixed RSB can be filled in using any conventional unit (

Skewing:

0°

in, mm…).

However, the value is automatically converted into integral points.

Width:

100%

Fixed RSB:

400pt

Sharp-Edged glyphs

Clear OK

▶ Sharp-Edged glyphs (outlines only)

The option “Sharp-Edged glyphs” provides an experimental effect which consists in removing any curve from the artworks.

Note that this option only alters outlines (so, make sure that

“Create sample outlines” is checked in the GLOBAL SETTINGS panel). Here is a set of sharp-edged letters based on Adobe

Caslon Pro Semibold Italic:

abcddefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

Note that some glyphs might then contain crossing paths that would benefit from being reworked before exporting the font.

Skewing:

Width:

Fixed RSB:

0°

100%

0pt

Sharp-Edged glyphs

Clear OK

In this font template a fixed RSB has been used for additional

‘tnum’ variants so that the green guide fits the right side bearing of tabular figures.


iF

Add typographic features iF

1 .

IndyFont can automatically generate a number of advanced

OpenType features: swashes, small capitals, titling, number styles, superiors and inferiors, arbitrary alternates, ligatures…

You can only add OpenType features to regular glyphs that also exist in your font. You cannot, for example, add a Small Capital a to your font if you do not have a regular “a” as well. IndyFont automatically checks your font for missing glyphs, and adds these if necessary.

General alternate syntax

An alternate is a variant of some glyph with another design that a font user can manually select. All alternates appear in the

InDesign Glyphs panel under their original character assignment, and are indicated by a small ▶ at the bottom right.

The general syntax to add an OpenType-enabled alternate is


To declare an alternate in IndyFont, simply enter the base.tag code in the

Characters field, then click the icon.

Font name:

Figure style:

GENERAL

My font

Tabular Lining a.sc

OOTE

For more on feeding the Glyph list, see “Manage your character set”.

Font name:

Font name:

Figure style:

Figure style:

Characters:

Characters:

+ 2022 bullet

+ 0061 a

+ 0061 a.sc

My font

My font

Tabular Lining

Tabular Lining

CLICK

2 .

Use the tags described below to add standard features. All other feature names will be added as an arbitrary alternate glyph, and these will only be available in

InDesign through the Glyphs panel.

Swashes (

iF iF iF

2 glyphs have been successfully added.

Sample font:


This OpenType feature replaces default glyphs with corresponding swash variants. A swash is a graphic flourish, usually associated with an italic type, on a glyph.

Regular

The glyph has been

Whenever you add an alternate, e.g. a.sc

, the implied base glyph ( a

) is automatically inserted too, if not already present in the Glyph list.

onum lnum pnum sups subs isol medi pnum tnum init fina isol medi swsh smcp titl sups subs

Version:

Copyright:

IDENTIFICATION

IDENTIFICATION

Copyright:

Designer URL:

License info:

Sample font:

Apply effects

TEMPLATE

OTF Export

Apply effects

OTF Export

001.000

(c) MyCompany

(c) MyCompany







Update Close

Close

Update Close

base.tag

To declare an automatic swash variant, add the suffix .swsh (or

.swash), for example:

A.swsh ; /Eacute.swsh

where base is the character itself or any valid specifier (glyph name, Unicode value, or ligature sequence as detailed in “Manage your character set”, pages 9-11) and tag is a code indicating the alternate, or feature name.

OOTE

The

tag element can only be formed of alphanumeric characters A-Z a-z 0-9.

If you enable “Swashes” from the OpenType ▶ Swash menu, you will see these characters replaced by their variant. Other characters without a swashed alternate will stay unchanged.

A.swsh

and

É.swsh

in Adobe

Caslon Pro Italic.


Add typographic features

3 .

Small capitals (

smcp )

This OpenType feature turns lowercase characters into small capitals. It only applieds to scripts with case differences—i.e. bicameral scripts—, such as Latin, Greek, Cyrillic…

To declare OpenType small capitals, add either the suffix .sc,

.smcp, or .smallcap. For example: a.sc ; /eacute.smcp

You may also include small caps for non-letters, such as oldstyle figures (see Section 4, below). For this purpose, you can combine the tags “sc” and “onum” using the following syntax:

2.onumSc or 2.scOnum

OOTE

As a general rule, tags can be combined as you wish, subject that each added tag begins with an uppercase letter

(

Swsh, Sc, etc.). Thus, you could also mix smallcap and swash features this way: a.swshSc, or a.scSwsh.

4 .

Understanding figure styles

You can automatically add the codes for oldstyle and propor-

tional digits to your font. While lining figures are all the same height and sitting on the baseline, oldstyle figures are the equivalent of lowercase letters: their height is based on lowercase text,

I N D Y F O N T 1 . 1 M A N U A L ( U P D A T E : N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 4 ) some digits hang out of the bottom of the baseline, and some digits are higher, as in ascending lowercase letters. These, for example, are the oldstyle numerals of Minion Pro:

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 x p f

Usually all digits in a font have the same width, so they line up nicely when used in a table. Therefore, they are commonly called “tabular figures”. This is a disadvantage: you need to make sure the “1” is as wide as the other digits, and in some fonts that makes the space between two one’s too large. In “proportional” figures, the “1” has less space at its left and right hand side (some other digits may be narrower or wider than usual as well).

Proportional figures look good in plain text, but of course they do not look very well in vertically aligned columns. A designer may therefore want to select proportional figures in body text for better readability, and only use tabular figures in tables.

TABULAR LINING

1 2 3

PROPORTIONAL LINING

1 2 3

In summary, there are four types of digit styles: tabular vs. proportional, and lining vs. oldstyle. This leads to four combinations:

•

Tabular Lining (usually the default)

•

Proportional Lining

•

Tabular Oldstyle

•

Proportional Oldstyle

TABULAR OLDSTYLE

1 2 3

PROPORTIONAL OLDSTYLE

1 2 3

One will be the “default” style for your font.

24

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Add typographic features iF

5 .

Setting figure style and variants

To give your users a choice of figure style, do the following:

1 ) Run IndyFont.

2 ) Make sure the dropdown list “Figure Style” in the main dialog is set to the actual style of your default digits. That is, if your default style is e.g. “Proportional Oldstyle”, select it from the list.

3 ) Add regular digits zero to nine (i.e., the range 0..9) to the

Glyph list. These are the default digits, and will be used if no special number style is selected.

4 ) To add alternate digits—i.e. glyphs that you want to make different from the default style—use the following tags:

•

.pnum (or .fitted) for proportional variants, e.g. 1.pnum or /one.fitted

•

.onum (or .oldstyle) for oldstyle variants, e.g. 2.onum or /two.oldstyle

•

.tnum (or .tab) for tabular variants, e.g. 3.tnum or /three.tab

•

.lnum (or .lining) for lining variants, e.g. 4.lnum or /four.lining

GENERAL

Font name:

My font

Figure style:

Characters:

Tabular Lining

Tabular Lining

Tabular Oldstyle

< The list is empty >

Proportional Oldstyle

IDENTIFICATION

Version:

Copyright:

Description:

Designer:

Designer URL:

001.000

(c) MyCompany

Adrian Frutiger



License info:

•

or any relevant combination, using a leading uppercase letter for the second tag, e.g. 5.pnumOnum

License URL:

The IndyFont

“Figure style” option determines the default style for your digits.

OOTE

Regular

A tag—or a combination of tags—is relevant if it actually leads to a variant relative to the default figure style. For example,

OTF Export

/one.tnum does not make sense by itself if the default style is Tabular Lining. By contrast, both

/one.pnum, /one.onum, and

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Update Close



/zero.zero

0

7 .

Superscript and Subscript


/zero (U+0030)

0

6 .

Slashed zero (

zero )

Drawing a slashed zero in its own template page.

In some circumstances a Slashed zero is preferred over a regular zero; for instance, when it may not be mistaken for a capital “O”.

You can draw your standard zero with a slash; but with this feature you can give your users a choice!

Add the suffix .zero (or .slashed) to the zero character, e.g.

0.zero ; 0.onumZero

▶ Superscript (superior glyphs)

Superior figures, letters, or symbols used in footnotes or abbreviations (S tr

, n o

, M lle

) may need dedicated glyphs for reasons of legibility. Add the suffix .sup (or

.superior) to declare these variants, e.g.

/five.sup

OOTE

5.sup ; $.superior

The OpenType specification is quite vague about the distinction between the sups feature and other related tags ( ordn, numr, dnom) which

IndyFont does not implement. In addition, Unicode provides various superscript elements for digits

(

U+00B9, U+00B2…), letters or ordinal symbols

(

U+207F, U+00BA…), leading to proliferating ways of implementing superior forms.

SUPERIOR

FIGURE

5

▶ Subscript (inferior glyphs)

Add the suffix .sub (or .inferior) to declare subscript/inferior variants, e.g.

a.sub ; /Euro.inferior

and then you can select “Slashed Zero” from the OpenType menu.

OOTE

This feature must only be used for the zero character itself.


SCALED

FIGURE

26

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8 .

Titling (


The titling feature allows to replace default glyphs with corresponding forms specially adjusted for viewing at larger sizes.

Titling alternates are often defined for capitals but can apply to any other character. Add the suffix .titl (or .titling) to declare those glyphs, e.g.

they also have interesting usages in cursive typefaces with connected glyphs.

▶ Initial forms (init)

Replace glyphs at the beginnings of words with alternate forms.

Add the suffix .init to declare those variants, e.g.

É.init ; a.init

s.init

s.medial

s.final

A.titl ; €.titling

9 .

Positional forms


▶ Final forms (fina)

Replace glyphs at the ends of words with alternate forms. Add the suffix .final (or just .fina) to declare those variants, e.g.

s.final ; x.fina

Positional forms work a bit like ligatures

(Section 11), or swashes (Section 2), but they are triggered with respect to the position of the character within words. These features are required in various non-Latin sets—like Arabic—but

▶ Isolated forms (isol)

Replace “the nominal form of glyphs with their isolated forms”

(OpenType Layout tag registry.) Add the suffix .isol to declare those variants, e.g.

e.isol ; I.isol

POSITIONAL FORMS: DEACTIVATED that i s s o me ss y

POSITIONAL FORMS: AUTOMATIC that i s s o me ss y

▶ Medial forms (medi)

Replace glyphs “in the middles” of words with alternate forms. Add the suffix .medial (or just .medi) to declare those variants, e.g.

t.medial ; y.medi


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10 .

Arbitrary alternates

To create an arbitrary alternate—that is, a glyph variant that does not implement a standard OpenType feature—we recommend you use the .alt suffix:

/bullet.alt

will create a single alternate bullet only available, in InDesign, from the Glyphs panel.

11 .

Automatic ligatures

A ligature is a special glyph that should be used for a combination of two or more characters. In most fonts, the combination

“f” and “i”, for example, would make the dot on top of the “i”

(the “tittle”) clash into the top of the “f”. To prevent this, the type designer adds a ligature to the font. If ligatures are enabled,

InDesign—as well as other OpenType aware software—will automatically replace all “f i” occurrences with this single glyph, “fi”.

You can create more than one alternate for each character:

/bullet.alt1

The “fi” ligature of

Adobe Caslon Pro.

adds a second, and so on.

There is nothing special about the .alt suffix itself: the current version of IndyFont automatically creates an alternate form of the base character for all feature codes that it does not understand. However, because the list of supported feature codes may be expanded in future versions, it is safest to use the suffix .alt

(with or without a following number) to guarantee that newer versions will create the same list of alternates.

Although it embeds Unicode characters, a ligature in itself does not have any assigned Unicode value. Instead, to “recognize” the text when you search in a PDF, for example, Acrobat relies on the glyph name.

A ligature glyph needs a special name format to be recognized: the names of its individual characters, separated by the underscore “_”. Thus, the “fi” ligature is internally named f_i.

To create a ligature in IndyFont, proceed as follows:

For more on using advanced syntax for both ligatures and alternates, see “Manage your character set”, Section 8.

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1 ) Enter the full name of your ligature in the Characters field, and insert an underscore “_” between each element, then click the

icon:

I_n_d_y_F_o_n_t

OOTE

You can only add ligatures for glyphs that also appear in your font on their own. IndyFont knows the individual glyphs are needed as well, so it automatically will create templates for each of them.

In this example, templates will be created for “I”, “F”, “d”, “n”, “o”,

“t”, and “y”, as well as a single “I_n_d_y_f_o_n_t” page.

I_n_d_y_F_o_n_t

2 ) Add designs for the individual glyphs, so you can see what you are typing before the ligature itself is applied.

3 ) Draw your custom ligature on the page where its full name appears.

You don’t have to create an entire font if you only need a custom ligature of your company name. You can draw a simple circle or rectangle for the individual characters, then use InDesign’s

GREP Styles to locate the company name and have it automatically change the font to yours.

4 ) Finally, re-run IndyFont and click the OTF Export button to generate the font. The result:

The

I_n_d_y_F_o_n_t

ligature in our freshly generated font.

OOTE

Unicode defines “precomposed” ligature codes for several common sequences, such as “fi” and “ffi”. These are not automatically used by

InDesign with the “Ligatures” option. Also, if you copy – in InDesign, or from an exported PDF – or export your text, they are not automatically translated back to the original separate characters. It is advised to use only the underscored “f_i” format to create these ligatures.

You can see the same “n” gets used twice at the left, but the ligature on the right is a single design and so you can change each any way you like.

Designing wide ligatures will sometimes leads you to draw beyond the page boundaries. This is not a problem for IndyFont.


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12 .

Space width


In version 1.133 and later IndyFont provides a new field, Space width, that allows you to manually edit the width of the regular space character—U+0020—in em units. Here you can enter an integer value between 1 and 750 (the default is 230).

OOTE

The space width is automatically registered as the

advanceWidth of the space character in the related OpenType font file tables (that is, HTMX and CFF glyph list).

GENERAL

Font name:

Figure style:

My font

Tabular Lining

Space width:

230

Characters:


IDENTIFICATION

Version:

Copyright:

Description:

Designer:

Designer URL:

001.000

(c) MyCompany

Adrian Frutiger



License info:

This feature is especially useful when you design a monospaced typeface. In such case you will set up the same advance width

(vertical green guide) for your whole font template. Then make sure that the space width matches the x-coordinate of the guide.






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Build your font

1 .

Setting the font name

Enter the full name of your font in the Font name field (e.g.

“My font Pro Semibold Condensed”). This is the font family and style as it will appear in InDesign’s Type ▶ Font menu, as well as in any other font related field.

If you want to make a regular font (that is, not bold, italic, condensed or anything), you do not have to add “Regular” or

“Normal” to the name; a “Regular” style is the default.

For an italic, bold, or bold italic style, add this to the name. For example, “Tip Italic” will create a font family named “Tip”, and the style of this particular font will be “Italic”.

You can also use more advanced style names, such as “SuperFont

Bold Extended Oblique”, as described in the next section.

2 .

Style name guidelines

InDesign sorts fonts by their font family name, and inside each family, the font styles by weight, width, and slope (slant).

IndyFont automatically splits a given full font name into the font family name and the font style. For example, a font name “Really

Light Condensed Italic” is split into a family “Really” and a style

“Light Condensed Italic”.

GENERAL

Font name:

Figure style:

My font Pro Semibold Condensed

Tabular Lining

Characters:

○ 0030 zero [2]

● 0031 one [3]

○ 0032 two [4]

● 0033 three [5]

+ 0066 f

+ 0066 0069 f_i

+ 0069 i

TEMPLATE

Sample font:


Regular

IDENTIFICATION

Version:

Copyright:

Description:

Designer:

Designer URL:

License info:

001.000

(c) MyCompany

Adrian Frutiger



License URL:






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Build your font

Words that are considered to be part of a style name are:

•

“Light”, “Ultralight”, “Extralight”, “Thin”,

•

“Regular”, “Normal”,

•

“Bold”, “Demibold”, “Semibold”, “Medium”, “Heavy”,

“Black”, “Extrablack”, “Ultrablack”,

•

“Condensed”, “Narrow”, “Extended”, “Expanded”,

•

“Italic”, “Slant”, “Slanted”, “Oblique”.

Any of these words may appear, with any case (uppercase, lowercase, or mixed), separated by a space or hyphen, and in any order. IndyFont then attempts to make sense of your entry and applies some automatic rules to help you manage your family in a consistant way.

▶ Weight

The following keywords define the weight for your font:

WTEIGHO

AMTE

Ultralight (Thin)

Extralight

Light

<empty string> (Normal, Regular)

Medium

(Book)

Semibold

(Demibold)

Bold

Extrabold

(Heavy)

Black

(Extrablack, Ultrablack)

WTEIGHO

CLASS

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

▶ Width

The following keywords define the width for your font:

▶ Slope

WIDOH

AMTE

UltraCondensed

ExtraCondensed

Condensed

(Narrow)

SemiCondensed

(DemiCondensed)

<empty string> (Normal)

SemiExtended

(SemiExpanded)

Extended

(Expanded)

ExtraExtended

(ExtraExpanded)

UltraExtended

(UltraExpanded)

The following keywords define the slope for your font:

SLOIPTE

AMTE

Italic

(Ital)

<empty string> (Normal, Regular)

Oblique

(Slant, Slanted)

5

6

7

3

4

1

2

8

9

WIDOH

CLASS

SLOIPTE

OYIPTE

ITAL

none

OBL.

Gray words, in the three tables above, are always converted into the related Weight, or Width, or Slope name supported by

IndyFont. Also, any combination you enter in the Font name field is re-arranged in “official” Weight-Width-Slope order.

OOTE

IndyFont’s current version does not allow to bypass these naming rules, which you may consider quite restrictive. On the other hand,


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Build your font

GENERAL

Font name:

MyFont Ital Expanded Bold

IDENTIFICATION

Version:

Copyright:

001.000

2 ) In the Copyright field, you can put any copyright statement you like. The default string is taken from your user license name, but

(c) MyCompany

you may change it to anything you like.

Figure style:

Tabular Lining

3 .

Characters:

○ 0030 zero [2]

● 0031 one [3]

○ 0032 two [4]

● 0033 three [5]

+ 0066 f

+ 0066 0069 f_i

+ 0069 i

Font name:

NORMALIZED

INTO…

MyFont Bold Extended Italic

Figure style:

TEMPLATE

Characters:

Additional identification

iF

Tabular Lining

Description:

Designer:

Designer URL:

IDENTIFICATION

Copyright:

3 ) The Description field is to include a short description of the font,

Adrian Frutiger

possibly with some hints for its usage, a short history, or any special features.

of this font, please contact its

001.000

4 ) Designer says “IndyFont” by default but of course you can put your own name in there!

iF

The IDENTIFICATION panel allows you to add further detail about your font.

OOTE

○ 0030 zero [2]

● 0031 one [3]

○ 0032 two [4]

+ 0066 0069 f_i

+ 0069 i


Regular

● 0033 three [5]

number. If necessary, you have to do so yourself.

Designer: font families will be properly addressed (especially in InDesign).

OTF Export

License info: format “3 digits major version, 3 digits minor version”.

IndyFont does not automatically incre ment the version

Adrian Frutiger

5 ) In Designer URL you can insert a hyperlink (complete with “http://” prefix) where

Update manufacturer.

someone might find out more about the designer.

Characters:

Tabular Lining

Sample font:


License URL:

At the right hand side of the main dialog you can enter further information about your font. Some of this information is shown in InDesign if you choose “Find Font” and press the “More Info”


Update

such as FontBook (on the Mac) and Explorer (on Windows).



6 ) License Info should contain a short text describing how the font might be used legally. Microsoft recommends that “this field should be written in plain language,

Sample font:


1 ) In the Version field you enter a regular version number.

According to the OpenType specifications, this should be in the

7 ) An additional License URL can be specified where more information can be found on the license.

Regular

IDENTIFICATION

Version:

Copyright:

Description:

Designer:

Designer URL:

License info:

License URL:

OTF Export

002.003

(c) Jongware and all.

Latin typeface with full diacritics

Theunis de Jong http://www.jongware.com


http://www.indiscripts.com

Update

These strings are inserted as plain text on the first page in your new font document. None of these are required for your font to operate; you may leave them at their defaults, or even delete them.

Close


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Build your font

OOTE

Identification strings all need to be compatible between Mac

OS X and Microsoft Windows, and this means you cannot insert any and all characters. More on this topic can be found online in the OpenType Specifications by Microsoft:

www.microsoft.com/typography/otspec/name.htm

5 .

Exporting to OTF

1 ) Run IndyFont.

4 .

Before you export

Two main conditions must be met in order to have the “OTF

Export” button enabled:

•

The Glyph list must be in sync with the current state of your template document—no pending entries prefixed with a [+] mark, etc. For more on this subject, see “Manage your character set”.

•

IndyFont needs to have detected at least one exportable

glyph among the template pages.

In both cases you may have to update the template (IndyFont ▶

Update button) before you can export.

2 ) Make sure the final font name and the identification fields are properly set—as described in the previous pages.

3 ) Click the “OTF Export” button. IndyFont processes the glyph outlines, then invites you to…

4 ) Select the destination folder for your font file. You can save your font anywhere you want. However, that alone will not automatically make it available in InDesign.

•

If you save a font into the InDesign Fonts folder, it will only appear inside InDesign itself.

•

You can also save it into the Fonts folder in your local

Adobe Common Files folder (this will enable the font for all of your Adobe software).

•

Lastly, you can install it into your system, so you can use it with all software that supports OpenType fonts.

If IndyFont cannot find any artwork at all, this means that you did not draw anything on the “Outline” layer, or you did not use the [Black] swatch in any object, or you have no filled objects on any of your pages… Go back to “Fashion your glyphs” (in particular section 11, Design guidelines) and check your template.

OOTE

On InDesign CS5 and newer, you can create a folder called

“Document Fonts” in the folder where you save your regular documents. That way, the font is available for those documents only.

Typical confirmation message for a newly generated font file.


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Build your font

6 .

Updating the font file

InDesign does not mind if you change a font behind its back.

Even if it doesn’t “take” the change immediately, it is enough to temporarily switch out of InDesign and back again.

However, it is possible your operating system (Windows or

Mac OS X) sees it as a problem, because it thinks the font file is

“in use” and you get an error while trying to save your font file.

IndyFont cannot solve this problem for you.

GLOBAL SETTINGS

Plain text font:

Arial

Regular




Reset


OK

Reset OK

In addition, the Global settings panel provides an option that automatically checks and refreshes the InDesign font list whenever IndyFont starts up or creates a font file.

IndyFont’s alert and error messages related to updating issues.

Sometimes it’s enough to wait a moment and try again; sometimes, you need to make sure the font is not “in use” by closing the document in which you are using it. And sometimes, you have to exit InDesign and re-start it. If every reasonable action fails, change the name of your font in the main dialog of IndyFont, so a totally new font file will be created.


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Additional notes

1 .

An introduction to Unicode

The Unicode Standard is the universal character encoding scheme for written characters and text. It defines a consistent way of encoding multilingual text that enables the exchange of text data internationally and creates the foundation for global software.

The Unicode Standard, Version 3.0

▶ Characters and “code points”

You’d be very surprised if you change the font of your text and you get a different text. Only its appearance should change, not its content. It is the responsibility of the font designer to ensure that the letter “A” in his font looks, well, like a letter “A” — even if it looks like or or like or or .

. It should definitely not look you can comfortably change between your font and another one without having to worry that something in your text may change as well.

The Unicode Standard defines lots of characters—and new ones are added constantly, in reaction to changing views on font design (an uppercase variant of the German “ß” was included in 2008 with the code U+1E9E), what constitutes an alphabet

(the Takri alphabet, a member of the Brahmic script family, was added in 2012), and determining what a separate character “is” to warrant a code point of its own (emoticons were added in

Unicode version 6.0 in 2011). It may only be a matter of time before the Klingon alphabet gets officially added (the Unicode

Consortium rejected this in 2001), as well as a separate code point for the “Why not Zoidberg” emoticon: (V)(°,,°)(V)

The common convention of writing a Unicode code point is

“U+”, followed by the code point number in hexadecimal.

That is why each character has a unique number assigned to it—a

Unicode code point. The font may change, but this number stays the same, always.

The Unicode Consortium is an international non-profit organization that states which character is assigned what code point

(and some related details, such as “should there be a code for an uppercase version of the German character ‘ß’?”). OpenType fonts follow the Unicode recommendations for character encoding, so as long as you use software that internally uses Unicode,

OOTE

It’s a fair guess the consortium members are all programmers.

In hexadecimal, you do not count up to 10 before adding a digit, you count all the way up to 16. The “single digits” 10 to

15 are represented by the characters

A

to

F

, so

A

has a value of 10,

B

is 11, and the value of

12

is 16 × 1 + 2, or 18. … A good thing is you do not actually need to know this. All you need to remember is that

U+0123

stands for some Unicode character

(this would be a “ ģ ”), and so does

U+221E

(the symbol “∞”).


iF

Additional notes

If you want to add some math symbol or a Greek or Cyrillic character to your font, you do not need to look up the number, as IndyFont knows the Unicode for a lot of characters and is happy to look it up for you. For the “unnamed” ones you have to use its Unicode value.

all codes in your font against a list of known ranges, and it will warn you if it finds something wrong.

OOTE

All Unicode values—i.e. code points—that IndyFont supports are given in “Manage your character set”,

Section 5, Specifying character codes and glyph names.

OOTE

IndyFont recognizes about 3,700 standard names that all come from the Adobe Glyph List: http://sourceforge.net/adobe/aglfn/wiki/Home/

All other characters should be entered as Unicode values.

▶ The “Private Use Area”

▶ Unicode ranges

Unicode values do not run uninterrupted from the very lowest up to the newest additions. The entire range of code points is divided into code ranges, where each block of codes contains a set of characters that belong together (more or less).

What of characters that do not have a Unicode? You may want to draw a character-plus-accent for which there is no code (yet), such as “V˙”, or you added a custom ligature, or perhaps you want to have a single character in the shape of your company logo.

Unicode even allows for this: the code range between U+E000 and U+F8FF is designated as “Private Range”, and you can put anything you like under one of these available 6,400 “free” codes. A drawback, of course, is that these character codes are valid for your font only—changing the font will definitely not show “the same character but in a different font”, whatever other font you select.

There are lots of codes with a “reserved” status; the invisible code that toggles from left-to-right to right-to-left text setting, for example, is a Unicode element as well. The allocated space for several alphabets have been deliberately over-estimated to allow for johnny-come-lately additions. Besides, the Unicode consortium likes to see their range numbers start on round numbers

(round, at least, in their preferred hexadecimal notation).

OOTE

To prevent collisions with standard glyph names regularly registered in the Private Use Area, IndyFont only addresses a subset of the Unicode PUA for your own glyph names, that is, the range

U+E000 ▶ U+EFFF. See “Manage your character set”, Section 5, Specifying character codes and glyph names.

Using a reserved or invalid Unicode in your font is a bad idea in general and may even make it unusable, so IndyFont verifies It is tempting to put all of your designs, whatever they represent, into this Private Range. It is also tempting to go alphabetically


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Additional notes iF

and memorize “A is for alpha, B is for Beta, P is for Pi” for a single font of which you are the only user. However, as soon as you do more than making a single font—perhaps you want a matching

Italic or Bold version —you will find the extra work in making sure the right character goes under the right code pays off.

OOTE

All is well as long as you are using your font inside InDesign itself, but as soon as, for example, you export your file to an e-pub, “P is for pi” no longer holds and you will find a regular “P” end up in your e-book. If you assign your pi character the correct code, it is going to be π in everything you export, from a lowly plain text file up to a PDF.

2 .

Global settings

IndyFont provides some additional options which you can set from the Global settings panel. Being in the main dialog, click the gear icon button to get access to this panel.

All these options are “global”, that is, they affect the behavior of

IndyFont itself, not only the current font template.

•

Click the OK button to register your settings.

•

Click the Reset button to reset the native IndyFont preferences.

Font used in both the

Information page and Glyph headers.

If checked, Update also affects existing glyphs.

Open the destination folder once a font file has been produced.

GLOBAL SETTINGS

Plain text font:

Arial

Regular




Reset


OK

Reset OK

Automatically check and refresh the InDesign font list when IndyFont starts up or creates a font file.

Create glyph outlines based on the sample font.

Allow detailed tooltips to pop up in the main dialog.


3 .

InDesign CC compatibility

IndyFont v. 1.127 and later is compatible with InDesign CC.

Various issues or bugs were gradually fixed in this regard:

1 ) Version 1.127—released on September 12, 2013—has provided a preliminary patch. A number of problems were remaining though.

2 ) Version 1.129—released on November 9, 2013—has mainly fixed a bug specific to Mac OS X 10.9 (Mavericks).

3 ) Version 1.133—released on February 9, 2014—has improved the compatibility at many levels: support of the new Color Theme, enhanced readability of the dialog controls and popups, etc.

The unexpected behavior of the Enter key on Mac OS X was fixed too. Also, InDesign CC 9.2 x32 shouldn’t crash anymore on Win64 platforms.

4 ) Version 1.135—released on November 21, 2014—has minor issues fixed and supports InDesign CC 10.x (2014).

OOTE

IndyFont, of course, remains backwards compatible with

InDesign CS4, CS5, and CS6 (Mac OS X and Windows).

As Adobe is constantly updating InDesign CC, you may still experience issues that we cannot anticipate despite the many tests we perform. Please, feel free to report any new bug at [email protected]

.


Additional notes iF

IndyFont’s main dialog rendered in InDesign CC 10.1 (2014) with dark theme selected from Preferences

▶ Interface ▶ Appearance.

39

iF

IndyFont

1.1

w w w . i n d i s c r i p t s . c o m

A plug-in for Adobe® InDesign® based on Adobe® ExtendScript and ScriptUI. Created by Theunis de Jong. Developed by Theunis de Jong and Marc Autret. Designed by

Dominique Chiron and Marc Autret. User Interface available in English, French, and

German. German localization provided by Birgit Stolte.

“We would like thank our beta-testers, in no special order, Joel Cherney, John Hawkinson, Peter Kahrel,

Dominique Chiron, Marijan Tompa and Peter Spier. They got press-ganged into testing the very first incarnations of IndyFont, but all of them were very willing to do so, and they all urged us to go ahead and make it into a full commercial version. Without their continuous support, IndyFont would probably have

been left as an interesting-yet-unfinished idea, somewhere in a dusty corner of my hard disk.” — Jongware

Main Product Page: http://www.indiscripts.com/category/projects/IndyFont

Tryout version: http://ww.indiscripts.com/blog/public/scripts/IndyFontTry.zip

Technical Support: [email protected]

Purchasing IndyFont: http://www.indiscripts.com/store/IDFT

End User License Agreement: http://www.indiscripts.com/pages/eula

Terms and Conditions of Sale: http://www.indiscripts.com/pages/cgv

Copyright Notice: http://www.indiscripts.com/pages/copyright

Jongware’s website: http://www.jongware.com

This manual, as well as the software documented in it, is released under license and may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of that license. The content of this document is subject to change without notice. Every effort has been made to ensure that the information in this document is accurate. However, Indiscripts assumes no responsibility or liability for any error that may appear in this document. InDesign, the InDesign logos, are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated.

© Jongware, 2012 – © Jongware & Indiscripts, 2013-2014.

All rights reserved. Made in France.

IndyFont Manual

Create Pure OpenType Fonts with InDesign CS4 / CS5 / CS6 / CC

A Jongware & Indiscripts Tool

Description

System requirements

TRY vs. PRO version

Before you install

Installing in Mac OS X

Installing in Windows

Installing an update

Running IndyFont from the Indiscripts menu

Running IndyFont from the Scripts panel

Create your first font

•

Interaction between

Glyph list and template pages

Adding a new character

Manually adding a template page

é

Removing characters

Specifying character codes and glyph names

Adding a set of characters

Adding a range of characters

Advanced syntax

iF

Checking your characters

IndyFont PRO 1.122

Declaring usual alternates for the selection

IndyFont layers

Design space and units

®

Glyph metrics

Refining the advance width

Drawing tools

About pathpoint complexity

The “[Black] & [Paper]” rule

The “Path, not Stroke” rule

Combining shapes

Preventing overlapping issues

Changing the default Sample font

Design guidelines (summary)

Changing the Sample font

Generating sample outlines

(for the current template)

Organizing template pages

Applying special “effects” to your template

IndyFont PRO 1.135

abcddefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

General alternate syntax

Swashes (

Small capitals (

Understanding figure styles

Setting figure style and variants

iF

Superscript and Subscript

Slashed zero (

Titling (

Positional forms

Arbitrary alternates

Automatic ligatures

Space width

Setting the font name

Style name guidelines

Additional identification

Exporting to OTF

Before you export

Updating the font file

An introduction to Unicode

Global settings

InDesign CC compatibility

IndyFont

A plug-in for Adobe® InDesign® based on Adobe® ExtendScript and ScriptUI. Created by Theunis de Jong. Developed by Theunis de Jong and Marc Autret. Designed by

Dominique Chiron and Marc Autret. User Interface available in English, French, and

German. German localization provided by Birgit Stolte.

“We would like thank our beta-testers, in no special order, Joel Cherney, John Hawkinson, Peter Kahrel,

been left as an interesting-yet-unfinished idea, somewhere in a dusty corner of my hard disk.” — Jongware

Main Product Page: http://www.indiscripts.com/category/projects/IndyFont

Tryout version: http://ww.indiscripts.com/blog/public/scripts/IndyFontTry.zip

Technical Support: [email protected]

Purchasing IndyFont: http://www.indiscripts.com/store/IDFT