from PC World April 1993 (a review of Type Designer Version 1.0)

Want to make your own typeface? Type Designer lets you edit existing fonts, or use bitmap graphics and fonts as the starting point for new typefaces.

Type editors and designers are mainly the preserve of the professional -- most of us don't want to start mucking about with the often delicate balance of the fonts installed in our systems. But, if you're an adventurous soul, you have several options to choose from in Windows nowadays. The latest is Type Designer from DTP Software of Germany.

DTP Software may not be as huge as Adobe Systems, but that hasn't stopped Type Designer's author Manfred Albracht from producing a very clean and easy to use type editor that gets the job done with a minimum of fuss. You can create your own Postscript Type 1 format fonts with Type Designer's point and click interface or edit an existing typeface -- although the manual warns that Type Designer may ignore or simplify some special commands contained in fonts from Adobe or other type houses which may result in loss of quality. Also, if you are using Adobe Type Manager (ATM) for better display of fonts on your screen, you should be aware that ATM currently doesn't support font editing, although fonts you create from scratch will work fine. Also, Type Designer doesn't support True Type fonts -- an ommission the author says will be remedied in the next version.

On the plus side you can add 'hints' to lowquality font packages that don't have them. Hints are used to get better font output at very small point sizes. A set of 14 tools provide most drawing and transformation functions. You can perform transformations like stretching and mirroring on an entire character, or individual sections of it. Type Designer has some clever features, such as the ability to apply global changes to all the characters within a font, and you can paste in bitmap graphics -- or open bitmap fonts -- as starting points for new typefaces, or to add logos and specialised bul- lets to existing fonts.

The brief manual is concise and doesn't assume you know all the jargon. It also goes through the process of creating a font, so novices aren't left to fend for themselves. Type Designer retails for $250 ex GST.

Bruce Buckman