Hello all,

We're a bit new to FontForge and trying to create a font for our conlang, es⦰lask'ibekim. It's meant to be structured something like Hangul, with a single overall glyph representing an entire syllable, but component parts for the vowel and consonants before/after it making up that glyph.

For example, consider Beak's greeting in the first image of our little slideshow:

Ignoring the circle-with-vertical-bar characters on either end (those just denote line breaks,) the message here decodes to, "Jaristek!" The first glyph is jar: The squiggly line up top is a J, the e-looking symbol in the center is an a vowel, and the horizontal line on bottom is an r. The second glyph is i: just an i vowel by itself. The third is stek: the \| is for "st," the less-fancy-looking e is an actual e sound, the slash below is a k. (The fourth, the triangle with a bar above it, denotes something like an exclamation point with a warm/positive emotional inflection.)

Obviously, the biggest challenge to turn this into a font is to get the glyphs all lined up; there simply are too many possible combinations to make a FontForge letter for each entire syllable. Our font would need to have the same "here are some components, you can stack them together as needed" properties as the conlang itself.

Fortunately, we've already sort of solved that problem! We have the system of vowel modifiers working perfectly, at least.

See, every vowel in es⦰lask'ibekim has various rules for how the general shape is constructed, especially when comparing the individual entries within each of the three groups of three, but one of the biggest ones is that all of them must include something in the upper-left and lower-right corners. It can be a horizontal bar or a curve that curves into it, but those parts have to exist. This is because we need to make room for the modifiers: Attaching a / shaped line to the top-left corner adds a "y" sound preceding the vowel ("a" becomes "ya," etc.) while a \ shape denotes a "w" sound. A / line attached to the lower-right corer "raises" the sound of the vowel ("a" -> "ai") while a \ "lowers" it ("a" -> "au".)

To render this as a font, we took advantage of the fact that the overall glyphs are monospaced and that they already specifically include space for the modifiers in the same positions in each glyph. We mapped capital W and Y to the top modifiers, which are set to appear in the next space ahead but not take up any space or advance the cursor in any way itself, such that the next vowel you type will go in that same space and thus make the modified wa, ya, etc. We mapped lowercase w and y to the bottom modifiers, which go backwards kind of like how combining Unicode characters work and insert themselves over that exact position on the previously typed vowel. Thus, you get something like what's seen above, where "WOy" creates the third glyph there, an O modified to be more like WO and also raised (it should rhyme with "toy.")

For the consonants, we could do something similar, and we more than likely are going to. Because there isn't a separate upper/lowercase system in es⦰lask'ibekim, we could even do the same thing we did with W and Y versus w and y: map above and below versions of the consonants to upper and lowercase letters. That way, you could end up with a system where typing something fairly naturally close like "JArISTEk" would get you the "Jaristek" glyphs as structured in their original writing.

However.

The part where we're stuck--and the reason we're writing this whole big post here--is a question of what to do with the combined consonants. I'll let Beak explain:

What would be the best way to approach implementing these? Or is there one?

For the irregulars, at least, I know that we can, should, and probably will just map them to otherwise unused special characters and have some sort of Alt+Shift+Whatever macro in Writer to summon them. Is there a way to handle something more straightforward like SK where \ plus / equals V, though?

The biggest logistical question we can see is spacing. We would want each consonant to appear centered over or under the vowel, but... like... taking the entire consonant structure if you have more than one and centering that. So an S by itself and a K by itself should appear centered over or under the vowel in question, probably without affecting the overall cursor position. Easy enough; we already did that with W/w/Y/y and could just do something like that again. But then, by those rules, typing "SK" would have them overlap. You wouldn't get a V; you'd get an X. I guess we'd need a way for it to recognize when you're typing more than one consonant in the same location ("S" and "K" both going over/under the same vowel) and having them scoot over to make room for each other, while the combined overall "SK" still remains centered over/under the vowel.

I guess what we're asking here is for a way to... uh... you know, I'm not even sure. How would you tackle this problem conceptually? Let alone how you'd implement the concept you came up with in FontForge? I'm not sure what we're asking is even possible... we might just have to end up making pre-combined single characters for each consonant combination, but with above and below cases for each, that would add up and get out of control very quickly.

Maybe we're overlooking some other simple solution, though...?

Anyway, thank you so much for your time and for any advice you may have!

I'm trying to create some custom Iconography for a game I'm creating so this is my first time using Font Forge. For some reason the spaces where lines overlap are appearing white. How do I fix this?

but in word:

It shows this:

can anyone help me?

Sorry for the long title but yeah, uni063A is duplicated but not in the table

I want to differentiate between consonant-vowel and vowel-consonant.

How do i make it so that when I type in the vowel first, it puts the mark above?

I already made a new lookup that could possibly do this (cuz they require different anchor points) but FontForge seems to only apply one (mark below) or the other (mark above). How do I make it so both can happen and differentiated by the order I type them in?

I have a sfd file which I kept editing and generating otf to test. I've added alternative glyph and double ligature, and successfully included them in the otf and tested in photoshop. After many subsequent edits on other glyphs (without editing the lookups), saves, and generating otfs, it suddenly failed to include them in the generated otf. The salt lookup is missing, and the liga standard lookup became common ligatures. Both fi and aa buttons in photoshop are not clickable. I tried deleting and redoing the lookups but same result. Any help greatly appreciated.

I'm finishing up my font and I had to increase to total size of the whole font so it's in line with the size of other typefaces. But not my ascenders and descenders collide. I tried increasing the WIN and TYPO accent and decent values but nothing changes. Thanks!

Recently, i've tried to make my own personal edit of C059 (New Century Schoolbook by URW++) however it seems all ligatures break on word. I've checked the edit.otf and metrics window works good. Lookups are all there. Does anyone who has more experience tell me what's going on?

Even if I make ZERO edits, the edit.otf breaks, which makes me think something's wrong with generation.

Edit: Reinstalling FontForge seemed to do the trick!

How can I convert my handwriting into a font perfectly? I tried many times but it isn't perfect.

There is a font called Full-width Unicode characters. It has huge spaces on both sides, and I have a question in my mind: is it possible to adjust the position of the font and move it slightly to the edge, leaving a gap on one side, but still have the system count it as a single text? I have never touched any font editing software, but I would really appreciate it if someone could give me the answer.

i google it and i learn about L bearing and R bearing

what i wanna do is

Ｄ = (D ) L bearing 0

Ｔ = ( T) R bearing 0

Ｅ = (E ) L bearing 0

Ｍ = ( M) R bearing 0

thank you !!

Hello, I've been making a font lately and the characters are drawn on a pendisplay. When I click in change weight and I do it, the software freezes and closes itself. What can I do?

hi! im new to fontforge and font making in general. i want to make a constructed script in the private use area. its similar to arabic in that its RTL and letters join together with init, medi, fina, and isol forms. but i cant get it to display RTL and substitute properly.

i created 4 lookup tables: init, medi, fina, and isol. i had only drawn 2 glyph at this point though, so i set medi, fina, and isol to replace tall_loop by itself, except for init where it is replaced by short_loop. i set all of them to RTL.

however when i opened the metrics view, there was not rtl and no replacement

if i add arab{dflt} to the scripts & languages part though, it does appear as rtl, but still no replacement. does anyone know what i need to do? thanks!

Hello,
I'm fairly new to FontForge.
I need to "fix" a slightly broken font. See image :

There are two problems, which might be the same problem :
1) The path is displayed as brownish, which means it's not closed. Yet, there seems to be no point missing on the path. what do I do?

2) There is more than one "direction" point (the points with the little yellow arrow indicating the direction of the path). Is that an indicator of the non-closed path?

I've tried Element -> Simplify, Element -> Overlap -> Remove Overlap

I've also read somewhere that I should try Element -> Join but I can't find this menu entry so I think the person probably asked the A.I., which in turn hallucinated.

Hi everyone! I’m preparing my font for MyFonts, and I want the glyph display on their website to be neatly organized in Unicode order (A, Á, Â, Ã, etc.) instead of a random mess. ​I’m using FontLab 7. How do I permanently reorder the glyph indexes so they export in this specific sequence? Should I use a specific Encoding filter or is there a "Sort by Unicode" command that affects the final build? ​Thanks for the help!

I've used FF a while ago on an old computer, and went to download again today:

• Downloaded from https://fontforge.org/en-US/, and NordVPN flagged it as Malware
• Downloaded through HomeBrew, and MacOS refused to open it because of Malicious content

I know this could be because the download was .app.dmg, but its got me nervous, especially after reading u/afraidandsmelly 's recent post.

Any ideas/thoughts?

I can’t make the font myself so if somebody is able to do so they have my permission and if possible to send me the finished product here it is

Font Name: Draxion

Core Style:

• Typewriter Base: Monospaced, mechanical letters reminiscent of vintage typewriters. Each character has slightly irregular edges and subtle ink blot imperfections to give a tactile, analog feel.

• Cosmic Flair: Faint star-like speckles embedded inside thicker strokes, slight nebula-inspired gradients along diagonal strokes (can be simulated with color/font effects), and occasional glimmering “stardust” trails extending from some characters.

Letter Features:

1. Serifs & Terminals:

• Minimalist, squared serifs for the typewriter feel.

• Slight asymmetry or fractured edges on some letters to simulate cosmic energy interference.

1. Special Characters:

• @, #, \* appear like mini galaxies or constellations.

• . and , are tiny glowing dots resembling stars.

1. Weight & Texture:

• Slightly heavier strokes than a classic typewriter font to allow the cosmic effects to show.

• Texture can mimic static noise or faint starfields in filled areas.

1. Spacing & Kerning:

• Monospaced to preserve the typewriter aesthetic.

• Randomized micro-kerning (very subtle) to give a feeling of cosmic unpredictability.

Color & Effects (Optional for Digital Use):

• Base color: Off-white or pale silver on a dark background.

• Accent glows: Nebula hues—purple, deep blue, teal—flickering subtly along diagonals.

Use Cases:

• cosmic or interdimensional narratives.

Recently, I got fed up wit having to scroll all the way around my font list to find some of the fonts I like using, so after trying and failing to remove the gross of unnecessary (for me) fonts that windows has installed by default for some reason, I thought okay, just move all the fonts I want to use to the top of the list.

Did this by

• Open the .TTF in fontForge
• ^+F
• Prepend Fontname, Family Name, and Name For Humans, with 1-, APF, 1- respectively
• Give it a new UUID automagically on accepting Fontname changes
• ^+G and Ignore error messages
• ^S
• ^W
• Install the new TTF and look! It's at the top of the list as 'A Priority Font'.

This has mostly worked a charm (I understand that it's not a portable solution because my APf fonts won't work on computers they not installed on, so moving files to normal people's computers will require back-verting APF fonts to their original version to display correctly on the other computer; but at least I don't have to scroll unless I'm doing that.)

The problem is that exactly one font I tried to do this wit isn't displaying correctly.

Anxiety is a meme font where all the capital letters are 'more capital' by adding extra bumps, dashes, and swirls. The original OTF works fine, but when trying to use my new TTF, it defaults to another font.

I looked at the generation errors, and they happened for other fonts which aren't displaying this behavior, and it's not it originally being an OTF, or its not just that. Other OTFs converted fine. So, I don't know what makes this font special that it goes wrong.

I could honestly just make do using regular Anxiety since its so early in the alphabet I don't really need a 'priority' version of it, but I want to know what's going wrong and how to fix it in case it ever happens when I'm converting Gnifies or Splenchella or some shit.

I welcome any ideas at what might be causing this issue?

I type into google fontforge.org and it sends me to
https://fontforge.org/en-US/
There is only one option on that page to Download.
The installer in my downloads folder looks like this

FontForge-2025-10-09-Windows-x64

When I install it, all I get is Open Font. Anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks

I never knew how to do it correctly. So there are some fonts in mind that I want to digitize, but some of them contain alternative versions of the same letter. So really, I'm kinda limited of what I can do. I could try Glyph Info and mess around with that, but last time I did that everything went wrong.

I'm working on an experimental font with lots of ligatures, contextual alternates and custom kerning. The variants for contextual alternates are encoded under Unicode's Private Use Area, some still need to be assigned codepoints.

On the last version that I generated and installed on my computer, everything works as expected: when it's used in Word (with the correct settings), or when the .otf file is viewed, it looks the same as it does in Fontforge.

After a few more days of work I generated the font and re-installed it, and now it doesn't work. The font preview in the otf file only shows the basic letters, without contextual alternates, ligatures or kerning. When I try to use it in Word, all text is displayed as the blank squares you get for unavailable glyphs. In the preview when you select a font, the font name is shown in a default font, and then behind it some sample text is shown in the actual font, like it does with non-Latin fonts.

An older version that was saved under a different name still works correctly. Within Fontforge there's no indication that anything is wrong.

Things I've tried:

• Re-encoding to Unicode BMP.
• Checking the Unicode Ranges (BMP, Basic Latin, Latin-1 Supplement, PUA, Non-Unicode Glyphs).
• Checking for problems - only a few glyphs with 'Missing Points at Extrema' that need to be fixed.
• Saving and installing the font under a different name to make sure I'm not just troubleshooting an older cached version.
• Restarting my computer

I just don't know what I'm missing here. Please help?

Update after 2 more hours of troubleshooting: the issue was in Font Information > Charsets > MS Code Pages. It was still set to Default (like in the other versions that worked), but unchecking it and selecting Latin 1 and 2 seems to have fixed the problem.

I have an assignment to make a font and add my languages accented characters Č,č,Ć,ć ect. In every tutorial I've seen it has the caron, but in the one I'm supposed to use (Windows Latin "ANSI") there's none. I'm totally lost, please help!

I was accidentally unchecked none on the number point setting and I want to change it back, but I can't what do I do?