Fontographer Has a New Home at Fontlab Ltd.
Fontlab Ltd., 136 E 8th St., Port Angeles WA 98362, USA
FONTOGRAPHER HAS A NEW HOME AT FONTLAB LTD.
Fontlab Ltd. Licenses Legendary Font Editor,
Plans to Continue Development
For Immediate Release
Monday, May 9, 2005
Contact: Ted Harrison
Fontlab Ltd.
Tel: +1 (509) 272-3260
contact@fontlab.com
Port Angeles, WA, USA, May 9, 2005: Fontlab Ltd. is pleased to announce the licensing from Macromedia Inc. of the Fontographer product line. “Fontographer is a respected name in the field of digital typography,” said Ted Harrison, president of Fontlab Ltd. “We are proud to add this legendary font editor to our lineup of products.” As of today, Fontlab will continue to sell the current version of Fontographer while beginning work on fixing bugs and preparing a new version - expected to be released early next year.
“With nearly two decades of presence on the market, Fontographer has gained a reputation as an easy-to-use and reliable tool for creating digital fonts, and continues to boast a strong and dedicated user community among desktop publishers, graphic designers and typographers. We feel that Fontographer will find a secure and comfortable home at Fontlab Ltd. Our team is committed to continuing the development of a brand-new version of the product,” said Harrison.
Harrison continues, “With our TypeTool product we have a font editor for beginners, hobbyists and students. FontLab Studio and AsiaFont Studio are our high-end products with a certain degree of technical complexity, aimed at professional type designers. With Fontographer, we now have a tool that fills the gap between those products - a font editor for graphic designers and desktop publishers, powerful enough for real-world typography but without all the bells and whistles of our high-end products.”
Fontlab Ltd. will offer upgrade paths from TypeTool 2 to Fontographer 4.1 (US$249) and from Fontographer 4.1 to FontLab Studio (US$299) and to AsiaFont Studio (prices to be announced.)
Fontlab will assume support for Fontographer version 4.1+ from Macromedia and will retain the services of Fontographer guru Jim Gallagher, who has nurtured Fontographer for the last ten years, and who will advise the Fontlab development team in their task of updating Fontographer.
About Fontlab Ltd.
Fontlab Ltd. is the world’s leading developer of digital typography solutions. Their full line of products is dedicated to solving typographic issues ranging from the simple to the most complex. These products include: AsiaFont Studio™, BitFonter™, FontLab Studio™, ScanFont™, TypeTool™, TransType™, FontFlasher™, FONmaker™, SigMaker™ CompoCompiler™ and Photofont. More information on all Fontlab products can be seen at www.fontlab.com.
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9.May.2005 5.11am
Who would've thought... Awesome news! :)
9.May.2005 5.35am
OK, now we can talk about it. Post your questions :-)
9.May.2005 5.38am
Breathtakin' news, that may be.. :)
( Still, I am lookin' forward to the final release of FontLab Studio 5 MAC.. :)
9.May.2005 5.47am
Hi there, I don't mean to put this the wrong way, but just wondering what advantage there is in maintaining two platforms over releasing a halfway house between TypeTool and FontLab Studio? I speak from near ignorance having only used TypeTool, but assume TT is a cut-down version of FLS?
9.May.2005 5.59am
This is very cool. I just uprgraded from FOG to FL a few months ag. But, even if I had known that an OSX, FL-friendly FOG was coming to market, I probably still would have made the switch.
I can't imagine going back to FOG now. FL is different, but I like it. Especially what I've seen from Studio 5. Sigh…
I imagine that Bill Troop will be beside himself. Whether he will be beside himself with joy or anger, I cannot predict.
I guess that this means that FL Studio 5 will be able to open FOG databases now?
__
www.typeoff.de
9.May.2005 6.41am
> I guess that this means that FL Studio 5
> will be able to open FOG databases now?
Not now :)
A.
9.May.2005 6.42am
Yes, FLS5 will open Fog4 database files.
9.May.2005 6.48am
Well, it looks that we should coordinate what we are saying :-) Anyway, FLS5 can already open most .fog files with plans to extend it to full support.
There will be more information about Fog future available soon. Generally saying, we will support it as it is now for some time (we have some plans to release OS X compatible version of Fog4) with plans to merge platforms next year. It means that there will be a next Fog which will combine best features of FL and Fog and will be positioned in between FontLab Studio and TypeTool.
9.May.2005 3.06pm
Good news indeed. Loads of Fontographer fans have been pushing for so long for an up-to-date version. As soon as the Adobe/Macromedia merger happened I emailed Adobe to plea for Fog's revival - the inclusion of Jim Gallagher, 'the Fontmeister', is a superb decision, he has been generous with his genius and an inspiration to Fog lovers everywhere! I just hope they don't **** about too much with Fog's easy-to-use drawing tools!
Keith
10.May.2005 2.51am
Nick Cooke
PLEASE keep metrics assistance and kerning assistance as they always were in the new OSX Fog. Do not link them as in Fontlab, as they are 2 separate functions.
AND - keep it simple! super redundancy is all very well, but can be confusing (and unnecessary).
11.May.2005 8.48am
I wholeheartedly agree with Nick and keith on their points.
By the way, there has been a bit more discussion about this wonderful (in my opinion anyway) announcement in the News section.
http://typophile.com/node/12289
12.May.2005 4.57am
At last, it would not be Adobe's fog............
12.May.2005 12.37pm
Adobe has enough to worry about with what to do about the Illustrator/Freehand, Dreamweaver/GoLive and Fireworks/ImageReady overlaps. I'm glad someone, somewhere was smart enough to nab the fog from the fire.
15.May.2005 8.22pm
Yuri, FontLab Gang . . .
First, I just got my Typophile account reset again and upon reading the news of your licensing of Fontographer code I was delighted and puzzled at the same time.
First, I'm certainly looking forward to an updated Fontographer that sits on X comfortably and renders aliased with the same functionality. In fact this application update alone may once and for all allow me to cut all ties with the Classic OS.
Now, that said since you've got the source code in your hot hands, I am puzzled to what level you intend to update/enhance Fontographer. Would a completely updated FOG make FontLab obsolete or will you simply offer a 'reduced' feature set compared to the capabilities of FontLab?
Like I said, I'm delighted but I don't understand the future differences of these two applications? I can do MOST of my fontmaking work still in FOG minus clean hinting and really nice font generation which I use FLAB for. So once you update those things in FOG, why would I need FLAB?
Stuart :D