Design & edit OpenType, variable, web & color fonts
FontLab 8 brings the possibilities of type design to your fingertips, providing an integrated font editor for Mac and Windows that helps you turn simple sketches into intricate typefaces, and brings a spark of magic into type design.
Make world-class fonts with FontLab 8
Turn letters into art
Express your imagination, prototype and experiment. Draft glyphs with bitmap autotracing and live calligraphic strokes.
Draw and edit beautiful, smooth, consistent glyphs in fractional or integer precision, with the help of intelligent snapping and live numeric and visual measurements.
Refine your drawings: create overlaps, simplify paths, equalize stems. Scale while keeping stroke thickness, globally adjust weight and width, find & fix imperfections.
Make words look good
Build and assemble glyphs from variable components or from self-adjusting segment or corner skins. Add accented glyphs with a simple double-click.
Space and kern in multi-line tabs or windows that feel like a text editor.
Add typographic smartness like ligatures, small caps, old-style numerals with automatically-generated OpenType features, and test them in the integrated state-of-the-art complex-script text engine.
Give text a voice
Explore new directions with color and variation. Extend and complete any font in FontLab, or in mix with other font editors.
Create, open, extend, test and export font families, variable OpenType fonts, color fonts and web fonts for any Unicode writing system.
Interchange with other font editing apps like FontForge, RoboFont or Glyphs. Supercharge your workflow with powerful add-ins and Python 3 scripts.
The boldest upgrade
FontLab has been the go-to app for professional typeface designers to make smooth and consistent curves, comfortably tweak, space and kern a typeface, and then export technically solid fonts in any format. With FontLab 8, we’ve thoroughly revised and modernized every aspect of our powerful, versatile font editor. FontLab 8 has over 500 improvements: it’s easier to learn and use, it’s better, and it’s faster.
Discover the new dark UI theme, adjustable Stroke and Brush sketching, polished drawing and editing, non-destructive transformations with Delta, visual and numeric measurement, glyph building with Skin and variable components, spacing and kerning with mouse and trackpad, batch font export and Actions sets, revamped color and gradients, plus support for .glyphs 3, FontForge, COLRv1, and Python 3.
EXPLORE & PREPARE NEW
Relax your eyes with the new dark or refined light interface theme. Group panels into a vertical infinite, scrollable panel dock, and intuitively navigate between the panels.
Adjust numeric values with sliders and calculations. Boost your productivity with up to 8× improved performance.
DRAFT & DRAW NEW
Draw calligraphic letterforms with new Power Stroke or improved Power Brush. Modulate thickness visually with Thickness tool.
Draw fluently with Pen and Rapid toolbox sub-tools. Draw polygons and stars with Rectangle tool.
EDIT & REFINE NEW
Make slanted selections, keep selections as you switch masters, and store them in Selections panel. Use toolbox for hands-free Power Nudge, handle Nudge and Lever precision dragging, and for easier curve cleanup with Eraser.
Adjust curve tension numerically. Align and collapse points. Reverse contours with Fill tool. Sort contours. Paste to replace selection. Fine-tune individual ink traps and smart corners.
CONSISTENCY & PRECISION NEW
Study the numeric values of your stem widths, segment lengths, curve tensions and corner angles with Auto-meter, or hold G to temporarily view these in Guides tool along with quick measurement and master relations.
View relative node offsets. Snap to continuation lines, perpendicular lines and centerlines. See coordinates for key nodes only. Edit visual TrueType Hinting like never before.
BUILD & ASSEMBLE NEW
Convert selections to components or elements. Add decoration and attach shapes to nodes or segments with updated Glue filter, or with .glyphs-compatible Skin filter in segment, dash, corner and cap modes.
Use clipping groups to mask out areas. Use text shapes to re-use scaled words or phrases from your font in existing glyphs.
METRICS & KERNING NEW
Use your mouse or trackpad to adjust metrics and kerning with high-precision Lever dragging.
Hide or reduce the visibility of spacing controls for distraction-free spacing and kerning.
Auto-space and auto-kern with one click or tap.
FAMILIES & VARIATION NEW
Quickly make variable fonts from static fonts. Define custom per-glyph variation axes. Re-use live interpolated instances to build glyphs with smart variable components.
Set start points and reverse contours in all masters. Make contours compatible with improved Matchmaker. Group layers visually.
TEST & ADJUST NEW
Print waterfalls or interpolations from Preview panel. Batch-run selected FontAudit fixes in glyphs and masters. Create, save and run action sets that combine multiple actions.
Batch-adjust stem widths in a master. Adjust by variation to replace contours with a different dynamic instance. Perform complex non-destructive contour transformations with new Delta filter.
COLOR NEW
Fill elements with gradients or solid colors. Copy-paste color fill and stroke between glyphs. Import drawings with gradients. Open and export better OpenType+SVG and new OpenType+COLRv1 fonts.
Export an automatic dark-mode color palette. Overlay multiple layers into color fonts.
GLYPHS & FONTS NEW
Quickly create new glyphs with common suffixes. Clean up classes when removing glyphs.
Copy-paste classes between fonts or masters. Exclude glyphs from export into final formats.
FORMATS NEW
Batch-export many fonts into many formats. Open and export the .glyphs format in version 2 or 3. Open FontForge SFD files, bitmap BDF fonts and multi-flavor color fonts.
Use improved VFJ, UFO, VF support. Export WOFF2 color web fonts.
SCRIPTS & INTEGRATIONS NEW
Write and use Python 3 scripts. Seamlessly interchange with other font editing apps like Glyphs or RoboFont.
Perform global transformations with the powerful TypeRig library. Create fonts for the entire Unicode 14 standard.
Love type design and font making? FontLab 8 has you covered!
Explore & Prepare
Work with blazing speed with even most complex contours thanks to FontLab’s optimized architecture.
Customize FontLab’s interface to your needs, and easily navigate it with the intuitive Quick Help system: hover and hold F1.
Draft & Draw
Draw outline-based glyphs using the Brush, Pencil, Rapid, Pen, Ellipse / Oval, Rectangle / Polygon / Star tools, in a purely-integer or fractional coordinate space.
Draw calligraphic letterforms with live, adjustable Power Stroke and Power Brush tools. Modulate thickness visually with new Thickness tool. Assign and expand strokes.
Paste and import PDF, EPS & SVG vector artwork with monochrome, color or gradient fills and strokes, as well as scanned character sets or color bitmap glyphs. Turn them into monochrome fonts via customizable autotracing, or into color OpenType fonts.
Edit & Refine
Natively edit cubic PostScript Bézier curves and quadratic TrueType curves, including overlapping open paths, using the Contour, Knife, Scissors and Fill tools.
Drag some nodes and have other nodes or handles follow intelligently with Power Nudge and handle Nudge. Drag without zooming in for small adjustments with Lever precision dragging.
Convert between the curve types with adjustable precision.
Consistency & Precision
Use upright and slanted grids, flexible guidelines, snapping suggestions and live measurement tools for consistent and precise vector drawing.
Dynamically snap to nodes, angles, stem distances, continuation lines, perpendicular lines and centerlines as you draw.
See lengths, angles, curve tension, stem thickness, whitespace distance — measured numerically and visually as you draw.
Work on a purely integer grid, or scale, rotate and slant losslessly thanks to FontLab’s fractional drawing precision and live integer rounding, apply the rounding to bake in the integers.
Build & Assemble
Build glyphs from Components that point to other glyphs, or from Element References that cross-reference each other and can be edited anywhere they appear.
Decompose a component and unlink a reference to make local changes only.
Use Auto layers to build predefined glyphs and keep them automatically updated.
Metrics & Kerning
Space entire phrases and kern according to planned pair lists. Apply tracking, modify widths, sidebearings and kerning globally or for selected glyphs.
Automatically or manually build kerning classes and link metrics between glyphs using complex expressions. Automatically calculate metrics and kerning, or use autokerning suggestions as you kern manually.
Kern between classes and glyphs in a UFO- and OpenType-compatible way, with exceptions. Audit kerning to find combinations that produce visual conflicts.
Families & Variation
Blend, interpolate and extrapolate fonts, create intermediate weights and styles, build extensive font families and variable OpenType PS & TT fonts with intermediate font and glyph masters, conditional glyph substitutions, and automatic masters matching for point-compatible outlines.
Preview interpolation live with sliders, variations map and play/pause buttons.
Test & Adjust
Use Preview panel to view current and custom text in current, all or visible masters, waterfalls, composites and anchor groups.
Print a glyph map from the Font window; words, phrases and texts from the Glyph window; waterfalls and masters from the Preview panel.
Preview Windows screen rendering with built-in genuine Microsoft ClearType, even on the Mac.
Preview complex-script shaping and OpenType features with the genuine HarfBuzz world-ready shaper.
Find and fix outline problems with FontAudit. Automatically clean up and optimize outline drawings, balance segments and modify curve tension, harmonize G2 curvature, create and remove overlapping paths, apply non-destructive ink traps and rounded corners.
Run automatic action sets to make changes to multiple glyphs and layers, to change weight, create contour versions, apply effects to outline and bitmap glyphs.
Color
Paste and import PDF & SVG vector artwork with color or gradient fills and strokes, and color images in a variety of formats.
Apply solid colors or gradients to fill and stroke, edit gradients visually.
Space and kern vector-based or bitmap-based color glyphs, automatically build OpenType features.
Overlay monochrome fonts or layers into multi-color fonts.
Export into OpenType+SVG, +COLRv0/v1, +sbix and +CBDT color font formats.
Glyphs & Fonts
Create, open, edit and export monochrome outline fonts with single masters (desktop and web) and multiple masters (variable), color fonts (with multi-layer editable glyphs, SVG glyphs or bitmap glyphs).
Compare fonts, merge and split font glyph sets and variations. Modify fonts, glyphs, metrics, kerning and technical font information. Convert between font formats, improve screen appearance with automatic and manual hinting. Exchange font source with other font creation apps.
Unicode 14 support.
Automatic and manual OpenType Layout features creation with FEA format and Adobe FDK for OpenType.
Formats
Open and export OpenType-PS/CFF (OTF), OpenType TT / TrueType (TTF), Variable OpenType TT (TTF+gvar), Variable OpenType PS (OTF+CFF2), Color OpenType (TTF+SVG, +COLRv0/v1, +CBDT, +sbix), PostScript Type 1 (PFB/PFA), Web fonts (WOFF2, WOFF, EOT), FontLab (VFB, VFC, VFJ), UFO 2 & 3, designSpace, Glyphs.app (glyphs v2 & 3).
Also open BitFonter Photofont (PHF+PNG, +SVG), Fontographer (FOG), Ikarus, FontForge SFD, bitmap BDF, and any of the above in ZIP files.
Scripts & Integrations
Write and use Python 3 scripts.
Seamlessly interchange with other font editing apps like Glyphs, RoboFont, FontForge and Microsoft VOLT.
Perform global transformations with the powerful TypeRig library.
Learn the Tricks
Read or watch the FontLab tutorials, and start your font-making adventure. Learn type design essentials, follow the exercises, master FontLab and benefit from pro tips and techniques!
Download the GetGo Fonts for FontLab and use them as inspiration or templates for your own font. GetGo Fonts is a curated collection of free and opensource designs that range from simple sanserif and serif designs to multi-axis variable font projects and world script fonts.
Join the Pros
FontLab 8 is versatile and battle-proven. Thousands of designers and foundries large and small have been using the FontLab apps to create 10,000s professional fonts: Adobe, Apple, FontFont, Linotype, Microsoft, Monotype, Canada Type, Porchez, Underware, Tiro Typeworks and many more.
Most fonts that are bundled with Microsoft Windows or with the Apple systems (macOS, iOS) were designed in our apps!
Description
FontLab 8 Summary
Drawing & Importing
- Draw outline-based glyphs using the Brush, Pencil, Rapid, Pen, Ellipse, and Rectangle tools, in a fractional coordinate space with live rounding into integer coordinates.
- Use upright and slanted grids, flexible guidelines, snapping suggestions and live measurement tools for consistent and precise vector drawing.
- Paste and import PDF, EPS & SVG vector artwork, scanned character sets or color bitmap glyphs, and turn them into monochrome fonts via customizable autotracing, and into color fonts.
- Draw calligraphic letterforms using a live, adjustable PowerBrush tool, assign and expand strokes.
Editing
- Natively edit cubic PostScript Bézier curves and quadratic TrueType curves, including overlapping open paths, using the Contour, Knife, Scissors and Fill tools. Convert between the curve types with adjustable precision.
- Find and fix outline problems with FontAudit. Automatically clean up and optimize outline drawings, balance segments and modify curve tension, harmonize G2 curvature, create and remove overlapping paths, apply non-destructive ink traps and rounded corners.
- Automatically change weight, create contour versions, apply effects to outline and bitmap glyphs.
Components, Elements
- Build glyphs from Components that point to other glyphs, or from Element References that cross-reference each other and can be edited anywhere they appear. Decompose a component and unlink a reference to make local changes only. Use Auto layers to build predefined glyphs and keep them automatically updated.
Variation
- Blend, interpolate and extrapolate fonts, create intermediate weights and styles, build extensive font families and variable OpenType PS & TT fonts with intermediate font and glyph masters, conditional glyph substitutions, and automatic masters matching for point-compatible outlines.
Spacing & Kerning
- Space entire phrases and kern according to planned pair lists. Apply tracking, modify widths, sidebearings and kerning globally or for selected glyphs.
- Automatically or manually link metrics between glyphs using complex expressions.
- Kern between classes and glyphs in a UFO– and OpenType-compatible way, with exceptions.
- Automatically build kerning classes.
- Automatically calculate metrics and kerning, or use autokerning suggestions as you kern manually.
- Audit Kerning to find class kerning combinations that produce visual conflicts, and automatically convert them to exceptions.
FontS
- Create, open, edit and export monochrome outline fonts with single masters (desktop and web) and multiple masters (variable), color fonts (with multi-layer editable glyphs, SVG glyphs or bitmap glyphs).
- Compare fonts, merge and split font glyph sets and variations. Modify fonts, glyphs, metrics, kerning and technical font information. Convert between font formats, improve screen appearance with automatic and manual hinting. Exchange font source with other font creation apps.
Technology
- Full Unicode support.
- Advanced OpenType Layout features creation with FEA format and Adobe FDK for OpenType.
- Kern feature optimization by KLTF.
- Feature preview with the HarfBuzz world-ready engine.
- Windows screen preview with genuine Microsoft ClearType (even on the Mac).
- Variations with MutatorMath and fontTools.varLib.
Formats
- Open and export OpenType-PS/CFF (OTF), OpenType TT / TrueType (TTF), Variable OpenType TT (TTF+gvar), Variable OpenType PS (OTF+CFF2), Color OpenType (TTF+SVG, +COLR, +CBDT, +sbix), PostScript Type 1 (PFB/PFA), Web fonts (WOFF2, WOFF, EOT), FontLab (VFB, VFC, VFJ), UFO 2 & 3, designSpace, Glyphs.app (glyphs).
- Also open BitFonter Photofont (PHF+PNG, +SVG), Fontographer (FOG), Ikarus, and any of the above in ZIP files.
System Requirements
Mac
- Works on macOS 12 Monterey or later, 11 Big Sur, 10.15 Catalina, and 10.14 Mojave (Intel and Apple Silicon). Limited functionality on macOS 10.13 High Sierra.
Windows
- Works on 64-bit versions of Windows 11 or later, Windows 10, and Windows 8.1. Limited functionality on Windows 7.
Change Log
What’s new in v8.0.1.8248
The free FontLab 8.0.1.8248 update brings 40 new or improved features, and over 20 fixes, compared to FontLab 8.0.0.8222. Highlights:
- Sketch smoother curves with new Soft Brush and Soft Pencil sub-tools.
- Sketch even smoother curves and simple geometric shapes with new Smart Pencil sub-tool.
- Choose how the Pen tool works with Preview next segment toolbox toggle.
- Easily Slide nodes and perform Harmonized drag with Contour toolbox.
- Slant contours or elements vertically with Transform panel.
- Specify slant and rotation angles with higher fractional precision.
- Apply Stroke properties to selected elements.
- Round fractional coordinates in selected nodes.
- Replace a segment or the gap between the start and end node with a corner.
- Equalize handle angles with Suggest handles.
- Enjoy improvements to the Delta filter.
- View height and width of counters with Auto-meter.
- Use components in the Mask layer as live references to existing glyphs.
- Use
#exit/#entryanchors to position the components in a ligature glyph. - Quickly customize the Preview panel.
- Change zoom and preview nodes in Actions.
- Create better shadows and 3D extrusions, improved engraving effects, as well as repeated outlines with redesigned Actions.
- Repeat your search in Features and Scripting panels.
- Rename suffixed alternates or just the current glyph.
- Improved
.glyphsformat support. - Additional improvements.
- Numerous fixes.
EXPLORE & PREPARE NEW
Relax your eyes with the new dark or refined light interface theme. Group panels into a vertical infinite, scrollable panel dock, and intuitively navigate between the panels.
Adjust numeric values with sliders and calculations. Boost your productivity with up to 8× improved performance.
DRAFT & DRAW NEW
Draw calligraphic letterforms with new Power Stroke or improved Power Brush. Modulate thickness visually with Thickness tool.
Draw fluently with Pen and Rapid toolbox sub-tools. Draw polygons and stars with Rectangle tool.
EDIT & REFINE NEW
Make slanted selections, keep selections as you switch masters, and store them in Selections panel. Use toolbox for hands-free Power Nudge, handle Nudge and Lever precision dragging, and for easier curve cleanup with Eraser.
Adjust curve tension numerically. Align and collapse points. Reverse contours with Fill tool. Sort contours. Paste to replace selection. Fine-tune individual ink traps and smart corners.
CONSISTENCY & PRECISION NEW
Study the numeric values of your stem widths, segment lengths, curve tensions and corner angles with Auto-meter, or hold G to temporarily view these in Guides tool along with quick measurement and master relations.
View relative node offsets. Snap to continuation lines, perpendicular lines and centerlines. See coordinates for key nodes only. Edit visual TrueType Hinting like never before.
BUILD & ASSEMBLE NEW
Convert selections to components or elements. Add decoration and attach shapes to nodes or segments with updated Glue filter, or with .glyphs-compatible Skin filter in segment, dash, corner and cap modes.
Use clipping groups to mask out areas. Use text shapes to re-use scaled words or phrases from your font in existing glyphs.
METRICS & KERNING NEW
Use your mouse or trackpad to adjust metrics and kerning with high-precision Lever dragging.
Hide or reduce the visibility of spacing controls for distraction-free spacing and kerning.
Auto-space and auto-kern with one click or tap.
FAMILIES & VARIATION NEW
Quickly make variable fonts from static fonts. Define custom per-glyph variation axes. Re-use live interpolated instances to build glyphs with smart variable components.
Set start points and reverse contours in all masters. Make contours compatible with improved Matchmaker. Group layers visually.
TEST & ADJUST NEW
Print waterfalls or interpolations from Preview panel. Batch-run selected FontAudit fixes in glyphs and masters. Create, save and run action sets that combine multiple actions.
Batch-adjust stem widths in a master. Adjust by variation to replace contours with a different dynamic instance. Perform complex non-destructive contour transformations with new Delta filter.
COLOR NEW
Fill elements with gradients or solid colors. Copy-paste color fill and stroke between glyphs. Import drawings with gradients. Open and export better OpenType+SVG and new OpenType+COLRv1 fonts.
Export an automatic dark-mode color palette. Overlay multiple layers into color fonts.
GLYPHS & FONTS NEW
Quickly create new glyphs with common suffixes. Clean up classes when removing glyphs.
Copy-paste classes between fonts or masters. Exclude glyphs from export into final formats.
FORMATS NEW
Batch-export many fonts into many formats. Open and export the .glyphs format in version 2 or 3. Open FontForge SFD files, bitmap BDF fonts and multi-flavor color fonts.
Use improved VFJ, UFO, VF support. Export WOFF2 color web fonts.
SCRIPTS & INTEGRATIONS NEW
Write and use Python 3 scripts. Seamlessly interchange with other font editing apps like Glyphs or RoboFont.
Perform global transformations with the powerful TypeRig library. Create fonts for the entire Unicode 14 standard.
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