Fontlab Boobery
Thursday, April 7, 2005I’m trying to unlearn all my bad habits in Fontlab, so I’m reading the book Learn FontLab Fast by Leslie Cabarga. This afternoon I flipped open the book at random, and this what I see staring me in the face on page 57:
Are you seeing what I’m seeing? Let me zoom in a little for you, so you can get a closer view:
The book is filled with technical diagrams of how to draw glyphs and letterforms, but if I’m not mistaken, this is a picture of a boob. I wish I knew what button on my keyboard was the boob key. I don’t even know where in the alphabet the boob is. Is it punctuation? Is there a left and a right boob like brackets? Does it have a lowercase? I’ve taken the liberty to hilight what I think is the key word in the set of instructions.
michelle says:
that’s hilarious.
Michael says:
hehe…
I just orderd my copy.... there is more is’nt it
Ian says:
Hahaha, what a great way to start the day.
Eva says:
Is nothing on the internet safe for work anymore?!
Maybe the boob is from one of those weird fonts like Windings, but with bodyparts. Or maybe even with just different shapes and sizes boobs. Boobdings.
I hope I didn’t just give you an idea…
Mark says:
I was not surprised to see that diagram in the FontLab book. After all, Leslie spent a major chapter of his career drawing Betty Boop.
mom says:
Johnny...I didn’t think you read those kinds of
books!!!
David says:
Dang! I was just going to leave a comment joking that I hope your Mom’s not reading this, but apparently she beat me to the punch.
DH. says:
HA! That reminds me of the Avery Label packaging having Tyler Durden’s (from Fight Club) address on it. Those sneaky designers are always trying to get away with something.
(keep it up, sneaky designers!)
MrBlank says:
Ha!
So, has Fontlab replaced Macromedia’s Fontographer as “the” type creation software? I have a hard time finding information on this stuff. It’s like a big secret, or something. Like you have to part of the type creator’s underground club to find out how to do it.
Robot Johnny says:
It’s become “the” type creation software simply because Fontographer isn’t compatible with Mac OS X. Also, Fontlab can output OpenType fonts, which I’m pretty certain Fontographer can’t do.
beth maher says:
Oh Fontlab. Sigh. Oh how desperately I want you. Seriously, why is it so freakin expensive? It’s basically impossible for an amatuer with an ibook to even think about designing a typeface.
Mark says:
FontLab is not expensive if you make fonts professionally. It’s not the most expensive font editor, either. Check out DTL FontMaster.
However, FontLab has a cheaper introductory sibling called TypeTool. It can do a lot of the things FontLab can do (except, for example, make OpenType fonts).
Macromedia doesn’t seem to have any qualms about continuing to sell Fontographer, even though they barely support it. It hasn’t been updated in nearly ten years.
There are also some free/open source font editors around, but I haven’t tried any of them.
Two places where actual font designers hang out on the internet is Typophile Forums and Typographica.
brian says:
I’ve purchased Mr. Cabarga’s other book, Logo Font & Lettering Bible, after checking & and re-checking it out at the library. Is “Learn Fontlab Fast” as fun and easy to follow? I’ve only seen one review of it, and it was a Fontlab employee so I guess that’s a pretty good endorsement, just wanted your opinion.
Robot Johnny says:
Brian,
It’s a good book. It assumes you’re familiar with computers, graphics software in general, and typography, which I like because there isn’t a lot of crap to sift through. It’s a nice companion to the official manual because it boils everything down into a quick easy read to get you started with the software.
GeeZ says:
i want one of those spiffy books!..looks so neat… like technical porn. oh well.. maybe my dad has some..
Homer Simpson would say says:
Mmm… boobies!
Leslie Cabarga says:
Thanks for mentioning my book on FontLab. I’m glad you all appreciate my joke. When it comes to learning curves, nothing beats the female anatomy! (Hey, by the way, I’ll match the amazon.com price for any who order from me directly instead of them. Mention RobotJohnny.
Thanks,
Leslie
catherine says:
that is hysterical!!!
shockomotive says:
Well, all of you seem to be assuming that Leslie is talking about Bezier Control Points, but I recon he is actually going on about Breast Curvature Points here. A I suppose we all know that quite a lot of tweaking has been going on in that area for quite a while.