FontLab Studio Mac now in 7 languages
FontLab Studio 5.1.5 Mac is newly localized into French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese and Japanese!
Author Archive
Thomas Phinney
Thomas Phinney was CEO of FontLab until 2019, when he retired from FontLab to pursue his font detective work and type design. Previously he worked at Extensis (web fonts and font management tools) and Adobe (as product manager for global fonts and typography).
Thomas is also a teacher, writer, and consultant on fonts and typography. He has been consulted by Apple, Adobe, Microsoft, Oxford University Press, a “big three” US auto maker, the US Treasury Department, and PBS “History Detectives,” among others. He teaches type design with Crafting Type and has been a repeat guest lecturer for MA Typeface Design at the University of Reading. Since 2004 he has been a board member of ATypI, the international typography association. His typeface Hypatia Sans is an Adobe Original with over 3000 glyphs per font.
FontLab Studio 5 updates: 5.1.5 Mac & 5.2.2 Win
We have officially approved the most recent v5714 builds of FontLab Studio 5 for general release: these will be the official 5.1.5 Mac and 5.2.2 Windows releases. Compared to the previous 5.1.4 / 5.2.1 releases, this fixes 40 bugs, including 24 bugs present on both platforms, 7 Mac-only issues, and 9 Windows-only issues.
"How to Space Your Fonts" free FontLab Phinney webinar redux
It’s webinar time! We hit max capacity of 200 registrants last time we did this webinar, and we want a better recording of it, so we are repeating it! (Already at 90 registrants from email announcement.)
FontLab VI Public Preview Available
We are pleased to announce that preview builds of FontLab VI are now open to the public! No nondisclosure agreement needed.
See the main FontLab VI page to learn all about the app, preview features, and download a pre-release build to try it yourself!
Check the public FontLab VI forum to discuss features, interface and implementation, and report bugs to our eagerly waiting team.
FontLab Studio 5 update candidates 5714
We last night made available new Release Candidate builds for FontLab Studio 5.1.5 (Mac) and 5.2.2 (Win).
We are quite hopeful that these will be versions that we will ship to all customers next week. This free update fixes many bugs and issues in 5.1.4 (Mac) and 5.2.1 (Win) — details in the forum post. Literally dozens of issues have been addressed since 5.1.4 and 5.2.1.
Ted Harrison retires; Thomas Phinney now FontLab President
FontLab announces today the retirement of co-founder and corporate business leader Theodore (Ted) Harrison. Harrison will continue as Chairman, but has stepped down from most day-to-day operations. Thomas Phinney, who joined FontLab in May 2014, replaces Harrison as FontLab President. The rest of the FontLab team is unchanged, but Adam Twardoch has been promoted to Director of Products, reflecting his increasing focus on the software itself.
FontLab New Educational Discounts + Free Posters Offer
At FontLab we have long believed in the value of education. So we have just added to and increased our educational discounts for students and staff, and are additionally adding a time-limited offer for free posters!
FontLab education pricing is now
half off regular retail
for full versions over $50.
80% off for one-year license!
Free posters with academic orders over $100 USD!
Remembering Hermann Zapf
Legendary type designer, calligrapher and gentleman professor Hermann Zapf died on June 4th, 2015. He was 96 years old. He is survived by his wife, Gudrun Zapf-von Hesse, a noted book binder, calligrapher and also a type designer (Diotima).
How to make stroke-only fonts in FontLab Studio 5 (& TypeTool)
People working with engraving machines and vinyl sign-cutting machines sometimes ask for special fonts that are made with single-stroke lines instead of closed shapes. Even though this is not legal in the font formats, it is possible to work around it in FontLab Studio 5 and TypeTool 3. Here’s how, and why you might be fooled into thinking you have failed even when successful.
Free FontLab Webinar: Typerobics Type Design Exercises
Please join us for an exciting new free webinar for beginning type designers!
Typerobics: Type design exercises
with Fábio Duarte Martins
Tuesday 16 June 2015
9:00 am Pacific / noon Eastern / 16.00 GMT / 18.00 CEST
Register now!
The video from the webinar is now available!
Are your letters feeling out of shape? Do you aspire to win the regional kerning championship? Typerobics is a type-making workout regime intended to shape up your Bézier biceps. Every sport requires exercise, and so does type design. Typerobics is your type design fitness plan: pick a word, pick a typographic style, draw that word in under 40 minutes-then repeat at least three times a week.