v3.1 FontLab TypeTool

Create your first font

TypeTool is FontLab’s basic font editor for Windows (and for macOS up to 10.14 Mojave).   It is perfect for students, hobby typographers and creative professionals who occasionally need to create or customize fonts.

TypeTool is the little sibling to FontLab Studio 5, so it has most of the same tools, plus the same interface used to create most of the world’s commercial fonts. It is a great option for beginning type designers wanting to get started on designing typefaces and creating or modifying fonts, without a major investment.

TypeTool 3 offers a basic, reliable workflow for font creation, glyph drawing and multilingual glyph design, to spacing and kerning, with automatic hinting.

Note: On macOS 10.15 Catalina and newer, TypeTool 3 offers Windows-like user experience. FontLab 8 is our future-proof font creation and editing tool.

Simple glyph drawing

Draw from scratch or turn your scans into perfect outlines

TypeTool 3 has the same key drawing tools as FontLab Studio 5, which many designers have considered their favorite Bézier drawing tool for more than a decade. The combination of the Pen, Rectangle, Ellipse, Knife and Eraser tools allows you to create precise Bézier curves. With numeric and freeform Transformations, both manual and font-wide, you can quickly adjust your glyphs to match your design.

VectorPaint

TypeTool includes unique VectorPaint technology that simulates bitmap tools in vector-editing environment. This feature gives designers unprecedented freedom in creation of new outlines. All VectorPaint tools may be used in vector mode or in “black” (filled) or “white” (transparent) colors. Black color adds painted strokes to the character’s shape and white color subtracts strokes, working as very powerful eraser. Of course, all paintings are undoable, editable and may be transformed in any way with all editing tools.

Import vectors or bitmaps

Copy-paste vectors from Adobe Illustrator or import AI/EPS outline artwork. Import monochrome images and use them as reference. Clean up and correct your contours in glyph slots, to go from source or inspiration to an actual font!

Easy spacing and kerning

Powerful Metrics Window

The Metrics Window is a multiline text editor that allows you to comfortably test, space and kern your font. Set the left and right sidebearing and the advance width in the Metrics mode, and kern in the Kerning mode. The table on the right, and the panel on the bottom, give you detailed numeric control over your metrics and kerning. Not sure what to do? Auto metrics and auto kerning to the rescue!

Multilingual fonts

No language barriers with Unicode

Rearrange, rename or re-encode glyphs using two encoding modes with an unlimited number of encoding tables and codepages.

With TypeTool you can easily work with huge Unicode fonts that contain up to 65,000 characters. Full support for double-byte codepages common in Chinese, Japan and Korean is provided. The special Font Map panel previews the full Unicode code space and may be used to compare your font to one of the standard codepages.

Components and diacritics

With Components, you can create your base letters and diacritic accents once and assemble accented characters by attaching the components. TypeTool maintains a live link: one change in a base letter or accent is reflected in all the composite characters.

Streamlined font production

Autohinting and more

Excellent screen quality for all generated Type 1 and OpenType fonts due to automatic PostScript and TrueType hinting. Minimal modifications possible: open any existing OpenType font, perform minimal edits and preserve the original OpenType Layout tables, and — as long as you haven’t modified a glyph — the original screen hinting.

Font Info

The Font Info dialog gives you access to various font properties such as menu and family names, supported codepages or linespacing metrics.

Printing

Any font chart can be printed on your printer. TypeTool will print a font table containing samples for all font glyphs, their names and codes according to the current encoding. You can also print any glyph, or a metrics/kerning sample string. If your printer supports color, TypeTool will use it to highlight information in the font table.

TypeTool 3 Summary

CREATE & EDIT

• Drawing tools: Pen, Pencil, Brush, Calligraphic Brush, Ellipse, Rectangle, Line, Polygon
• Editing tools: Knife, Guides, Meter, mirror, rotate, overlap operations
• Components for accented and composite characters
• View: Outline, Mask & Background (bitmap) layers
• Actions: multi-font and multi-glyph outline, metrics and hinting transformations, automatic bold, decorative effects.

METRICS, unicode & OPENTYPE

• Manual glyph spacing and kerning
• Automatic kerning generation
• Automatic spacing generation
• Extensive Unicode support
• Supports both OTF and TTF formats

SYSTEM & FORMATS

• TypeTool 3.1.2.4868 for Windows works on Windows 10, and on Windows XP SP2+ or newer, 32-bit or 64-bit.
• TypeTool 3.1.3.7030 for Mac works on macOS 10.14 Mojave, and on Mac OS X 10.6.8 or newer
• TypeTool 3.1.2.4868 for Mac works on macOS 10.13 High Sierra–macOS 12 Monterey, but offers Windows-like user experience.
• Generates OpenType CFF (OTF), OpenType TT / TrueType (TTF), PostScript Type 1 (PFB/PFA), FontLab VFB. Mac version also generates suitcase-based Mac Type 1 and Mac TrueType.
• Limitations on Demo Version
• Export and save limitations.