IndyFont | Build OpenType Fonts from within InDesign!
June 25, 2012 | IndyFont | en | fr
Theunis de Jong—aka Jongware—announces today the most spectacular script I have ever ran. IndyFont (for InDesign CS4, CS5+, and CS6) allows you to save any set of vector arts as a “real, true, valid OpenType font”…
This article is outdated. Check out the new version of the script at IndyFont Main Page.
In an email that introduced that crazy project a few months ago, Jongware wrote to me: “People around me literally drop their jaws when I show them the working demo-version!” No kidding! IndyFont is nothing less than a complete font lab embedded in InDesign.
Create a custom OT Font from scratch
To give you a prior taste of this amazing product, here are the very basic steps involved in getting started:
1. Download the demo and drop the JSXBIN file into your regular Scripts Panel folder.
2. Run IndyFont from the Scripts panel. You'll get the main dialog:
3. Type in a font name and just click OK. A new InDesign document is instantly created. The first page contains system stuff—you can edit the ‘name’, ‘version’ etc. items here.
4. Goto the 2nd page to construct your first glyph. IndyFont kindly provides template characters in a dedicated layer to give you visual landmarks through the process:
5. Then, using the pen tool or any combination of built-in shapes, start drawing/building your own art work. Only black objects on the layer Outlines will be exported—everything else is ignored. (The bottom left is the zero point for characters.)
Note that the demo-version only allows one character to be exported—the first one in your document that validates as a candidate. You are free to create a hundred of characters, but IndyFont will output just the first.
6. When you're done, run IndyFont again. This is the step that actually generates the final OTF font file:
Choose InDesign Fonts (default option) to make the font only available to InDesign. Otherwise you can select a specific folder for output—the OTF will work in any program!
7. IndyFont then displays a very humble confirmation message:
8. If the font does not immediately appear in InDesign, switch to another program and then switch back. Now your custom font should be listed in the related InDesign panels.
Congrats to Jongware! Just another stroke of genius.
• Original IndyFont Demo-Version (2012, ZIP):
www.jongware.com/binaries/indyfont_demo.zip
Comments
Avec ce script, la période des polices dépourvues des diacritiques est désormais révolue pour moi. Toutes mes félicitations à Jongware et merci à Marc pour le partage de cette pépite.
> [L]a période des polices dépourvues des diacritiques est
> désormais révolue […]
Soit dit en passant, la version complète d'IndyFont gère aussi les ligatures OpenType :)
(À cause de la limitation à un caractère, la démo ne permet pas d'apprécier la puissance de ce script dans toutes ses latitudes, mais je ne doute pas que les typographes dont tu fais partie ont déjà pleinement mesuré ses implications pratiques. Bref, il ne nous reste plus qu'à épier le lancement du produit définitif !)
Merci d'être passé.
@+
Marc
Oh ! La moulinette merveilleuse !
Je rajoute une pincée de Font Squirrel et de son générateur de @font-face et voila mon glyphe sur le net. Trop rapide.
Merci pour l'info et merci à ce fameux Jongware
Ho, ben m*** ! Extraordinaire... je vais pouvoir facilement personnaliser mes listes à puces... j'utilisais jusqu'à maintenant une technique de Pierre Labbe, qui fonctionnait à merveille (Merci Pierre!) cf : http://www.wisibility.com/forum/ind...); je vais pouvoir enfin considérer n'importe quel "graphisme" comme un élément de typo pour mes puces personnalisées.
Merci pour le partage Marc...
Salut à vous tous.
Merci pour le partage c'est un SUPERBE script. Comment pourrait-on faire pour acheter la version définitive et totale? Savez vous quand et à quel prix sera-t-il disponible?
J'en bave déjà par avance
@ lemiran
> Comment pourrait-on faire pour acheter la
> version définitive et totale?
Jongware n'a pas encore communiqué la date de sortie du produit, ni son prix. Je peux juste vous promettre que vous serez les premiers informés ;-)
@+
Marc
This script is really great
This is Error Message in step 5
---------
Javascript Error
Error nomber : 511
Invalid style 'Bold'
line : 3255
CS4(6.0)
---------
im korean,
windows XP User
Error-indesign Version CS3, CS4, CS5, CS6(korean Language)
Hi hongart,
Thanks for your bug report. Jongware is investigating that issue.
Have you the possibility to test the following script?
// 1) Create a "test.jsx" file
// 2) Copy-paste the following lines
// 3) Run the script from InDesign
var k, z=0, a = [];
for( k in ScriptUI.FontStyle ) a[z++]=k;
a[z++]="------";
for( k in ScriptUI.applicationFonts ) a[z++]=k;
alert( a.join('\r') );
// End of the script
Please, tell us the result.
@+
Marc
I was attempt had failed.
could you give me modified the whole script file. sent to my email.
In fact, I am not a programmer, I am designer.
Thank you so much.
hey. i just tried the demo versioin.. following a lynda.com indesign demo.. and even though i have placed the bullet in the outlines i get an error message saying i don't have any artwork in the outlines, and therefore cannot (shouldn't) export.
can you let me know how to fix this?
thx so much!
error in second run of script :(
ID CS6 and MacOS ML
http://cl.ly/image/1P2h08000e0q
hongart: without any further information, it appears to be a problem with your system rather than with my script. The error indicates that the script cannot find the Bold variant of the dialog font, and that's not something that should be happening.
Tamara: artwork -- the stuff you add -- should appear:
1. on the second page, where you can find a template for your new character
2. on the layer named "Outline" (which is selected by default)
3. only consist of black filled contours, as usual for a font (the color [Black] is set by default as well)
Perhaps you didn't flip to the next page before drawing something?
Pecialinda: now that's weird. ... (thinking) ...
Okay, the underlying problem is that your new font name should work under both Windows and under Mac OS X. That means there is a restriction on the characters you can use; and for once it's not a Windows problem but a Mac one!
So IndyFont checks your font name -- and some other text strings on the Identification tab -- for invalid characters, and reports back which one(s) are incompatible. That's what your error line tried to do.
But I cannot replicate your problem! Every single 'weird' character I enter gets reported correctly, and the script allows you to cancel or continue anyway.
You must have entered something *really* unexpected in the Font Name, or in any of the other text fields. If you can tell what font name -- and, if you used those, other "Identification" strings -- you entered, maybe I can find out why the script stops, instead of displaying a sensible error message.
steps
http://cl.ly/image/2p3g0O3g3L3J
http://cl.ly/image/0z3x0u1K2K2Q
And when I run script second time it's the same error
and if I paste artwork from Illustrator I get an error message saying i don't have any artwork in the outlines
Thanks. All now is works :) Pasted artwork was not black color.
I get a fatal error. When the indyfont script is run for the second page, the "Save Font" window appears; however, after clicking OK, I get a Fatal! error window. "Unable to create file C:\Program Files (86\Adobe InDesign CS6\Fonts\IFBullet01-Regular.otf." Is this an Administrator Permission issue?
thx!
i tried to draw a bullet which only has contour and not filled. now that i fixed that, it works. thx for the answer!!
Tamara, nice! Yup--you can't make a lines-only font, everything has to have a *fill*.
JohnnyD: bummer. Save in another location and try to move your font manually into this folder. If that also does not work, then you can't create local, InDesign-only fonts. Fortunately, you can always install it straight into your Windows system. Just right-click the font file and choose "Install". (And if *that* doesn't work either, have a talk with your system admin...)
Saving in another folder did the trick. Must have been an Administrator access thing. Run into this before with Adobe products. Thank you.
Jongware, truly smashing work (again) !
Works great, and one small question. I drew a bullet twice. One same size as default bullet (it's a hand), and second time much larger.
Do you have advice as to getting the glyph larger?
Where/when is the full version available?
Loving the demo, but the application I'm most looking forward to using this script for is altering fonts to use an accented 'a' in Maori language text. There are only a few fonts that support this at the moment, and they're not the most inspiring typefaces...
Seanzah, the full version is coming soon.
But! It's not a font *editor*, you cannot change an existing font in any way, and that includes adding characters.
Great script Jong! It works perfectly, thank you very much.
I'm getting the same error that Tamara got, saying that I don't have any outlines. I have placed the object on the 2nd page in the area specified. It is filled with black. I even tried combining the elements into one object using pathfinder and it still gives me the error saying there are no outlines. What am I doing wrong? I'm using ID CS6 on Mac OSX 10.8.1.
When/were is the full version?
@ dgimeson
Not available yet. We are working hard on it.
@+
Marc
I get a fatal error. When the indyfont script is run for the second page, the "Save Font" window appears; however, after clicking OK, I get a Fatal! error window. "Unable to create file C:\Program Files (86\Adobe InDesign CS6\Fonts\IFBullet01-Regular.otf." i use windows7 64bit adobe indesign cs6 middle eastern version
Hi Marc
This is fantastic and we are starting to use it fairly regularly in publications to create icons and symbols. We're very keen to buy the full version so that we can combine all the icons for a single publication into one font instead of having each individually. Can you let me know when it is available please?
Kir