They are relatively inexpensive and easy to install, uncomplicated for learning their main tools, and capable of producing functional fonts quickly. These tools offer many advantages to the designer. FontLab, for example, has created TypeTool, a limited version of their flagship product, for a more generalist population, while Glyphs is marketed with ‘Create – Produce – Release Font editing for everyone’. Indeed, the newest generation of font editors are easily accessible – and marketed – to an audience much wider than type designers. This consolidation developed alongside the ubiquity of the computer and the availability of other design software, propagating a higher public awareness of both typography and typeface design. Originally as separate tools for recreating on the computer tasks done by machine, these tools were steadily unified into single applications. The allureįont editing software has come a long way since their first iterations. In becoming aware of these effects, however, designers can work to minimize their influence and retain greater control over their results.

For the non-specialist or student in particular, who may not have experience working with pre-digital tools, the alluring features of font editors and Bézier curves in an all-digital workflow can subtly oversimplify or obstruct design approaches and decisions that form the basis of successful typefaces. They influence our execution in other ways, however, and a uniquely digital workflow involving Bézier curves affects the way we create and think about typeform quality. They are sophisticated tools that empower us to create functionally and aesthetically refined typefaces more quickly and consistently than ever before.

This typically happens in font editors, applications that have evolved greatly over the years.

The Bézier curve is not only the core tool of vector drawing applications like Adobe Illustrator, but is also the default manner of making and working with digital typeforms.

Handwriting into font fontlab studio