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Keyboard mapping a font?
Sorry if this is the wrong place, but I couldn't find one more appropriate.
I know someone who needs a font creating.
This will have all the standard stuff, plus a lot of symbols. Some of the symbols would just be modified versions of existing ones. Others have never existed before.
I know that once it's all created by whatever means, the font can then go into something like FontCreator, if it wasn't there already, in order to package it as a font.
As you can tell, I was already a little hazy on that, but where I'm completely stuck is, how can they then map particular key combinations on the keyboard to particular symbols?
Presumably, the key 'a' will produce 'a' in this font, but what about all these others?
The insistence is that the extra symbols MUST be available directly from the keyboard, using some previously unused logical sequence of combinations. But how?
I am completely mystified.
Any help in understanding all this will be VERY much appreciated.
Regards
Staggers.
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Re: Keyboard mapping a font?
Hi Staggers
When I create a font it begins as a drawing in Xara Designer Pro as a single character (glyph) and is exported to an Adobe Illustrator .ai file type. Each letter of the font will be a single drawing and file export.
I use FontLab Studio where I import each file into a specific cell and that assigns it to a specific key for the selected encoding. The attached image shows a portion of FontLab Studio and a blank work area (a new project). What appears to be letters are simply placeholders to show which cell represents the keys on a keyboard.
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Re: Keyboard mapping a font?
[QUOTE=Soquili;436931What appears to be letters are simply placeholders to show which cell represents the keys on a keyboard.[/QUOTE]
Thanks for your reply.
Ah.....so in the case of all the greyed-out letters, take the 'A' for instance, then if I press the keyboard 'A', up on the screen will appear whatever I actually put in that box, if I changed it from an 'A'' for some reason. Is that right?
If so, what about other key combinations that I would have to add, in order to add symbols that have never existed before. (I can't tell from your pic how to cover all other eventualities.)
The problem I would have is that I would be having to replace the entire ordinary font set, and add a load more (~ 26 x2 for U/case L/case).
Ah wait..........does this mean I can put in all the normal stuff (a-z, A-Z, 0-9, punctuation, etc), but there are still places left where I could remove unwanted symbols and replace them with wanted ones, and these places have existing mappings on the keyboard?
Told you I was new at this!
Regards
Staggers.
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Re: Keyboard mapping a font?
Hi Staggers—
The answer is 'yes'. A keyboard, when it comes to mapping an installed typeface, is just an input device, and as Bill mentioned, most typefaces are mapped so that pressing a lowercase 'a' calls the corresponding character within the font one is using.
But consider that there are foreign language mappings in Unicode coded typefaces such as Ariel, and picture fonts don't display characters at all, but instead little pictures.
FontLab or the "daughter" program, Type Tool v3, can help you to do this. Or you might want to engage Bill, or other fairly accomplished font creator on this forum to help you accomplish your goal.
In theory, making a typeface is easy if not straightforward. But typefaces are actually little runtime programs that your operating system loads and runs, so there is some computer code (invisible stuff) that needs to be coded in correctly, or the font won't work.
Oh, and welcome to this area on tg!
:)
My Best,
Gary
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Re: Keyboard mapping a font?
Thanks for the info, and thanks for the welcome. Have been over at WD for a couple of years now, and wouldn't you know it, as soon as I have a font-related question, I get directed over here to a new board. Nice when that happens.
As for engaging someone else, If ONLY! However, can't say much out loud, but this is being done for someone who is a retired academic, world-famous in their field, and has very precise requirements about what is wanted in every little character, as far as I can make out, but can't draw the glyphs as wanted. So this means sitting down with them and round trip editing all the symbols until they are what they want. And in your case, that means a 5000 mile round trip!
So, the symbols will be produced by a graphics guy I know. Once all the symbols have been produced - and this won't be in the next 5 minutes - then they'll need to be introduced to the font creation program we end up using. As for programming, I've been writing programs since 1972, but never anything involving fonts.
My next question was going to be what software you would think suitable for someone who is very computer / programming savvy, but not famous for knowing about the internals of fonts, as I believe I've demonstrated here?
We looked at Font Creator (Pro version) and I've just looked at Type Tool. Money isn't much of a problem at this price level (Font Lab Studio would be considered over the top), but ease of use for a newbie would be the main criterion. So would FontCreator pro at $200 be easier to use than TypeTool at $100?
Thanks for your time again.
Staggers.
PS, like the cat. Last night I discovered that one of mine has developed a suspicious-looking thickening of the waistline. The hussy.
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Re: Keyboard mapping a font?
Hi Staggers—
One of the areas that the Fonts and Typography section of tg addresses is fixing fonts, and if we stretch our imagination a little, I believe that building fonts falls into the general category. I posted a longish tutorial, a step-by-stepper, for FontLab, which more or less has the same UI as Type Tool >>> here <<< .
If you're good at 1.)tedium and 2.) following steps, I feel that Type Tool 3 might be your ticket, because the I/O between Xara and Type Tool is a good one. I've been using Font Lab since version 1 and can state without fear of contradiction that its drawing tools are harder than Xara's. At the same time, I acknowledge what you stated about you not personally doing the characters—you need Illustrator format for the characters, myfile.AI, and Xara can export to AI as clean as genuine Adobe Illustrator can.
In fact, a $4000 modeling program such as Autodesk Maya doesn't have the drawing tool ease that Xara has.
No, I played with FontCreator Pro, and yI see almost nothing that justifies the extra $100 over Type Tool. Type Tool is just a little gem; if you have the patience, you can generate a near-commercial quality font from it.
My Best,
Gary
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Re: Keyboard mapping a font?
OK, you've made my mind up for me;
instead of getting FontCreator Pro, I'll get Photo & Graphic Designer, and Type Tool 3. So it costs less, and I end up with a vector program.
OK, thanks for all that. Goodbye for now, but I'm fairly sure I'll be back!
Regards,
Staggers.
PS, Friendly round these parts. But then it is a Xara forum, so I should expect no less, I suppose.
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Re: Keyboard mapping a font?
I don't have PG&D in any version. If you need to export EPS, check to make sure it can do this.
Take care, Mike
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Re: Keyboard mapping a font?
It does. From the Photo & Graphic Designer support page at Xara.com:
Attachment 88371
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Re: Keyboard mapping a font?
BTW, I downloaded the Type Tool 3 manual, and it's a fascinating read. The introduction takes you through a bit of history of typefaces, and then gives the description that I first came here looking for about mapping keys to glyphs. Notice how I just dropped that in? So now I walk like a duck......Almost a pro already. Come back in about 10 years or so!
Thank you Gary for drawing my attention to the program. I'm enjoying the manual without even using the program yet. Very informative.
I can see how it's all going to pan out now. It's an area of programming I know nothing about, so I will do battle with it, and have partial success and be very pleased with myself. But at least I'll know a bit more about how it's done than I did before. And I'm one of those guys who likes to go to bed knowing something I didn't know the day before. I will eventually master the interface, and the workflow in general. The thing that will stop me, ultimately, is my complete lack of graphics talent. That's why someone else is going to do the graphics creation. But the weird thing is, I really can't wait to eventually see this font in action, even though I don't see a bright future for it. I've known about it for ages, and what it's intended for. Like I said before, can't say much, but think 'famous Spanish novel' and 'Windmills'.
Shame I can't create a font by playing a guitar at it, then I'd be in with a chance.
Thanks again. May be a while before I'm back, unless there's an emergency question. I'll think of you as a 'big brother' since you're 10 months older than me! And until this morning my hair was about 6" longer than yours in the pic. Oh for the 60s again...
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Re: Keyboard mapping a font?
You're welcome, Staggers, and my personal info is completely fictitious, as are my photos. I do them in a modeling program.
:)
Good luck and do check in. There's more than support at tg; there are experienced professionals who occasionally donate their skills in addition to their opinions and recommendations.
My Best,
Gary
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Re: Keyboard mapping a font?
My mammy always told me never to trust strangers <sniff>.
Now I think of it, the message that pic conveys is more of a sort of 'We do not tolerate failure in this organization' vibe. I feel used and dirty now. <sniff again for emphasis>.
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Re: Keyboard mapping a font?
Get a grip, son.
Pictures are only groups of pixels.
Reading into them is lie reading tea leaves.
-g-
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Re: Keyboard mapping a font?
Getting back to fonts :)
I have downloaded a trial version of type tool, and I am hoping to try creating a picture or dingbat font that will have series of images that will be one size for caps and a smaller size for lowercase.
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Re: Keyboard mapping a font?
Frances--you might consider a plainer one for the lowercase and perhaps a fancier version for the uppercase characters. Being a font, they are already re-sizable.
Take care, Mike
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Re: Keyboard mapping a font?
Yes I have thought about that too and you are right probably different designs would be better. I'm still working on the image designs in Xara and depending on how many I decide to do I may only do lowercase anyway.
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Re: Keyboard mapping a font?
Xara seems to be a great all round graphics app and who knows, with that thought in mind, font creation might be one of those things they could add in sometime in the future to round it off a bit more...
P.S hey angelize... ... how you doin...
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Re: Keyboard mapping a font?
Staggers had mentioned on this thread that he has no drawing skills and such.
Let me jump in and talk to anyone who considers themselves “artistically impaired”.
Although Xara is commonly called a “drawing program”, you do not draw in it, not really, and not even in a proxy fashion. I’ve been drawing, actually pushing graphite across a papyrus surface for more than 40 years and this qualifies me to make a comparison here. You do NOT have to go through all the elaborate hand gestures you’ve seen charcoal artists perform while creating a drawing. There is no smudging of charcoal with one’s thumb to create shading.
In a vector drawing program, there exists only a fraction of the eye/hand coordination that a traditional artist uses. Most people use a mouse as an input device, some use a Wacom or other digitizing tablet. Even if you used a touchscreen, an affordable one wouldn’t give you the feedback of physically drawing, and there is no tactile feedback, something a traditional artist uses to guide their strokes.
It took me anywhere from 3 months to half a year of constantly using a computer to adjust my artistic skills to using only an input device. I didn’t do any worthwhile art for a year after adopting a PC as an art tool; the apps were running me, not the other way around. Everything I did looked like the examples in the software.
My point, Staggers, and anyone who wants to design a font, is that traditional artistic skill is not necessary. To design a character for a font, you click a point, you click another point to make a line, and if you’re unhappy later with the line, you use the Selector tool in Xara to select and then move a control point, thus changing the line. If you need a curve, you use the Shape Editor tool to drag on a path segment to make it a curve. Alternatively, you can click+drag with the Pen tool to produce a curve between your current control point and the one you create when you release the left button.
It is NOT rocket science to create shapes in Xara. It’s as difficult as the three steps I outlined above! What might be intimidating or off-putting is the work you see by expert artists. These people have been using the program for centuries :), these people came to the party already understanding shading, perspective and all that dimensional jazz. Your ambitions as a typeface designer are leagues more modest and light years more attainable than, say, one of Ron Duke’s classic car illustrations.
All you’re doing in Xara, to create a character in a typeface, is hitting points on your monitor that correspond to points on inflection, sudden changes in course, along the outline of the font.
Please trust me on this one. I have experience in the relatively undemanding sport of creating typeface characters, and the entirely different and advanced discipline of creating illustrations with Xara.
Unless you have a No. 2 Ticonderoga in your fist, when you sit in front of the computer, you’re not really drawing.
My Best,
Gary
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Re: Keyboard mapping a font?
Gary is absolutely correct and very eloquent in his post.
Many people say thay cannot draw because they cannot create a straight line.
1. Most artist must use a ruler or other straight edge to draw a straight line.
2. A computer can make your line straight for you if it is needed.
Making shapes for a font character (glyph) does not require the skills of Ron Duke, Bob Hahn, or any of the other Artists that use a Xara Application.
Use the Shape Editor Tool, Pen Tool, or Straight Line Tool to make your lines then use the Shape Editor to push, pull, bend, or move things until you have what you want.
Your choice of font creation tool will do the rest for you. Some minor tweaking with the font tool may be needed but nothing to sweat.
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Re: Keyboard mapping a font?
I've been reading the TT manual, and getting increasingly interested. You were right, Gary, about what a good program it is.
And by coincidence I had with me today the guy who's going to be creating the original glyphs, and I watched him playing with his own graphics prog. He drew a cartoon person, and then morphed it all over the place. He's read and understood what's required of him in his mission, should he choose to accept it.
A couple of newbie questions....
Q1. Is there any particular character that one should maybe start with (because of its relationship to others)?
Q2. The file will be saved as an .eps file, as that's the only relevant format available in the prog he's using. Is there an ideal format for importing into TT?
Regards
Staggers
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Re: Keyboard mapping a font?
I believe TT exports as version 8 EPS, Xara imports/exports as version 8 iirc. It's a good match. Download and or open the PDF manual for TT and do a search for EPS. There are options in TT for setting the action it does upon importing (the default is what I use). Main info is on page 250 of the PDF.
As for which character to begin with? Nah, just do them as the art guy is producing them.
Take care, Mike
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Re: Keyboard mapping a font?
Hi Staggers—
Q1 A1 (Knight takes pawn): What I usually do is draw all the characters on a page in Xara, at a height of about 650 to 700 pixels, and then set a grid in the font creation software of 1000 units, which gives headroom for accented characters and just a tinch of built-in leading (interline spacing). Somewhere around here in this area I uploaded a template, skip it, I'll attach one here now.
Attachment 88423
This is a guide only. Many, many typefaces have different cap heights and x-heights and such. It's just a decent guide for beginners.
Short answer: no. begin drawing with any character you like. I stagger my work between hard and easy glyphs.
Q2: There is an ambiguity about the content in an EPS file, staggers. Make sure these are Illustrator compatible exports and that they contain only on path (joined subpaths are legit), the path has less than 200 control points (more of a suggestion than a rule), that there is absolutely nothing else on the page you export than a single character (Encapsulated Post Script is a page description language and it wants to describe all elements on your page), and that there are no bitmaps on the page your person exports.
EPS is not AI as far as file formats go. EPS can contain both bitmap and vector information, and early versions of the Illustrator file format were based on EPS, which is sort of a printing specification, a container, rather than a description of vector drawings. If your glyph-designing person has the chance to export to myfile.AI or myfile.EPS, choose Illustrator *.ai, as Xara offers. Because it's less prone to trip you or whomever up in the Type Tool's import process.
My Best,
gary
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Re: Keyboard mapping a font?
Thanks very much for all that.
Slightly to my own surprise I find I'm actually looking forward to all this.
And yesterday I also upgraded to WD MX Premium, so I have a lot to do, but as I say, I'm looking forward to it.
Thanks again all of you for your help.
Regards
Staggers.
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It's not just a good idea: it's the Rule
Before anyone goes any farther with Type Tool, please read this concerning something called The Winding Path Rule, and save yourself some aggravation!
The Winding Path Rule states that the fill to a closed curve must go to the right of the outline. A character that has a hole in it, like the letter "O", has to have that path going in the opposite direction as the outer path. When you draw characters, pay attention to the direction of the curve. Xara DP and CorelDraw don't care about this rule, but Microsoft Expression Graphic Designer (formerly Expression) and Adobe Illustrator both offer path direction tools for "compound paths". And Xara can reverse paths, too, although you can draw correct joined shapes usually without the need to correct anything later. Use a node or path selection tool in combination with the reverse curve direction feature if you have paths going in the wrong way.
Attachment 88439
What happens if characters have paths going in the wrong direction? Most of the time, nothing, but 3D applications such as XARA 3D are very sensitive to path direction. Keep those directions going the proper way in your fonts, and you will be able to sell them for more money!
Right-click over a node in the glyph window in Type Tool and FontLab if the preview has a "counter" in it that looks filled in. Choose "Reverse Contour" and life (and typography) is good.
-g-
Attachment 88440
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Re: It's not just a good idea: it's the Rule
I have a question regarding Type tool 3 I am still playing around with the demo, but I am wondering if it has an option to let you set what restrictions you do or do not want, such as if you want to allow embedding
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Re: It's not just a good idea: it's the Rule
I just ran the demo, and then brought an exported typeface into FontLab.
It tells me that it is: Only Previewing and Printing is allowed (read only), which means you can send it out to the web via WD MX if this is what you're asking, but the demo is so crippled I would only do this with a registered copy Frances. The exports have "FontLab", "FL" violations in the center of the glyphs.
-g-
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Re: It's not just a good idea: it's the Rule
Frances,
I do not believe that TT has any options to set restrictions. Therefore, the font can be pretty much used for anything (usual caveats) like most every one of my installed fonts.
Take care, Mike
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Re: It's not just a good idea: it's the Rule
On that note, how does the average person tell what restrictions are coded into a typeface?
I realize that none of the tg members are average, but seriously: FontLab can reassign permissions and tells you the current restrictions on any font one loads, but that sort of begs you getting FontLab.
And I'm not sure the test I ran will hold up if you buy the commercial copy. Mike, is there a page like this is the commercial version or not?
Attachment 88445
BTW, nice, clean avatar, Mike! I like the warm and cold muted colors workin' with and against each other.
-g
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Re: It's not just a good idea: it's the Rule
Hi Gary--not that I can find. And the PDF help file does not shed much light other than to discuss formats that allow/disallow embedding restrictions, etc.
Windows Explorer shows relevant information:
Attachment 88446
MainType (and likely other font managers) show embeddable status.
Here's the relevant (and only) screen from TT for font parameters:
Attachment 88447
Take care, Mike
(thanks)
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Re: It's not just a good idea: it's the Rule
Hi guys, thanks for your responses, I was wondering about being able to embed a font created with TT in a website created with WDMX.
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Re: It's not just a good idea: it's the Rule
The answer is "yes", Frances, but not necessarily, "Yes, you should."
There is literally no difference in coding between a font you create and any other font you want to embed using Web Designer MX. So in practice, it works.
But just as you need a compelling reason to post a 5MB JPEG image on a website, you need a compelling reason to (sometimes marginally) slow down the loading of your website, if it's "glamour factor", and you don't have a solid artistic and/or commercial reason for embedding a typeface.
The way a font destined for the web needs to be crafted takes time, skill, patience, and a little learning. The very first thing you need to know is about unit height and how a typeface displays on a webpage. If, for example, you build a font whose cap height is 627 units, I think you might be able to image how the font will render onscreen at 12 or 14 points. "The math is wrong", and you'll probably get a line of pixels within the font that is unwanted because the web browser can't reconcile the math.
You are also well-advised to pack everything you can imagine into a typeface used on the web. For example, on the Xara Xone, one of the fonts has a complete set of bulleted numbers and other glyphs you see all the time done as GIF bullets. This means that only one fetch needs to be done to get the font and a lot of the re-occuring dings we have on the pages.
And I'm not an expert on this stuff, but I do know how to do web fonts inexpertly and just plain wrong. I'm still working on one of the fonts we use, the hinting isn't quite right, but all website building is a WIP anyhow, isn't it?
My Best,
Gary
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Re: It's not just a good idea: it's the Rule
Thanks for this Gary, right now I'm just looking at options and one thing I was thinking is that if a custom font is done well it could give a website a unique look. Of course if not done well it could be quite the opposite!
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Re: It's not just a good idea: it's the Rule
You are 100% correct in theory!
I mean this sans any sarcasm. :)
-g-
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Re: It's not just a good idea: it's the Rule
Hi again.
I've been asked a question I can't answer about this new font.
I must be thick, but the thing I still don't know is this:
In TT, for example, how do I assign one of the new squiggles to, say key combination Alt+f, for example?
How would I find out which 'box' to put the squiggle in? I can see how it all goes for all the ordinary keys (that is, can't, but I don't have to), but how do I find out all the possible key combinations and which keys they map to? Sorry if this sounds obvious, but at the moment it still isn't to me!
Regards
Staggers
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Re: It's not just a good idea: it's the Rule
Hi Staggers,
Most programs use the Alt keys and a letter to access menu items for example Alt-f accesses the File Menu in most applications.
I would recommend you stay away from using Alt and Ctrl key combinations because their use will conflict with the Operating System/Application keyboard shortcuts.
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Re: It's not just a good idea: it's the Rule
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Soquili
Hi Staggers,
Most programs use the Alt keys and a letter to access menu items for example Alt-f accesses the File Menu in most applications.
I would recommend you stay away from using Alt and Ctrl key combinations because their use will conflict with the Operating System/Application keyboard shortcuts.
Yes, I thought that was probably the case. That was just a top of the head example.
But in any event, some combinations will be needed, and are completely unavoidable, in fact, short of an entirely new keyboard being invented with several extra keys!
And, as I say, how on earth do I discover what combinations are possible, and where they are in the font? Or do I literally have to go to a key combination that I may want to use, see if that produces anything on the screen, and then find that in the map, and replace it with the character I do want?
I don't especially care what combinations would need to be used (as long as they're logical to the purpose) but I just can't find that information.
Regards
staggers.
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Re: It's not just a good idea: it's the Rule
Use Google search.
Windows keyboard shortcuts brings up over 2 Million hits. One is this Microsoft location:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/126449
If you know which application the font is to be used you can search for the keyboard shortcuts for that application.
For example a search for Word keyboard shortcuts returns over 3 Million hits. The Microsoft page is at:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290938
Check with the person requesting the font about what applications he will use.
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Re: It's not just a good idea: it's the Rule
Thanks, but Windows keyboard shortcuts to do things in the system or programs isn't what I want, except for elimination purposes (!). Believe me, I've never stopped Googling for what I'm trying to find out, to no avail so far.
Very simply (although I'm starting to think this may not be the case), in the same way that, in the new font, I type letter 'A' and get the new font version of it, I also need to be able to type some new characters that have never existed before. SO somehow they have to be mapped to key combinations. My problem is, how do I find out where on the keyboard (if anywhere) I can map them to?
When creating a font using Type Tool, for example, I can replace the letter A with something else, and I know that if I now hit the letter A key, that this something else will come up instead. But how do I know what other keys and key combinations relate to particular places in the font, so that I can put things in previously empty places and know which key(s) to hit to produce them?
Regards
Staggers.
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Re: It's not just a good idea: it's the Rule
Hi Staggers—
Bill provided some good links there.
As they apply to Type Tool, what you might want to do is assign squiggles to extended keyboard registers.
If you're not familiar with this, some (but not all) typefaces carry the ¼, ½, and ¾ fractions. Obviously, if you can read what I've written, your browser supports a typeface with these extended characters. Other extended characters are daggers, ellipses, guillemots (French quote marks), and about 20 or more neat glyphs.
The point I'm making here is you take your squiggles and assign them to these registers. Set the button at top right on your font to DECIMAL instead of NAME, and you'll clearly see the key codes, for example, the ellipse slot is 133 (you press Alt, tap 0133, release Alt) Then to access the squiggles, you have your client:
1.) Hold Alt.
2.) Type out a four number sequence on the num keypad.
3.) Release the Alt key.
Right now, with the font you're seeing on the forum, try 0162....it will produce a ¢ (cents) symbol.
Then you can charge your client extra for a key guide to the typeface. :)
—Gary
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Re: It's not just a good idea: it's the Rule
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Gare
Hi Staggers——Gary
Great, the long reply I just typed you vanished into the ether. So here's a shorter version. Will sound abrupt but don't mean to, just a bit fed up!
the Alt+Code option is simply not an option to the client. They want the new stuff available on the keyboard in as few strokes as possible. THey will be used permanently and often. There's talk of marking the keys with the extra symbols if usable combinations can be found.
So, it looks as if I can't directly map things that aren't on the kb - either normal key or Shift+key, except if I replace stuff that's already there. The problem is that this is all in addition to everything on the existing keyboard.
So then, is it possible, once a font has been created, to have a program where new combinations can be created (e.g, Ctrl+Alt+Letter produces a squiggle)?
I'm going slightly mad.
Staggers.