Font Maker LITE is the entry level version for the dedicated Windows user and supports TrueType and Windows scalable fonts.

• [-] Build your own Fonts easily
• [-] Add Justified Graphics to documents easily
• [-] Security Code your Documents
• [-] Re-Map Fonts
• [-] Create and incorporate New TrueType characters
• [-] Produce Foreign Language Fonts
• [-] Import TrueType fonts
• [-] Export and Import of Windows type Vector fonts
• [-] Use of MiniHinting
• [-] Utilities available

Build your own Fonts easily
Imagine having just one font with everything you need on it, even your company logo for instance. Maybe your company uses some special symbols, perhaps in technical or medical documentation, add these to your favourite font and they are on line directly for use in Windows documents.

For instance this is our Font Maker Logo in TrueType. The basis is Old Italian but each character has been modified to our requirements, and reproduced here as a bitmap.

Using the powerful re-mapping capability of Font Maker Lite you can produce any arrangement of characters in your very own font by picking characters from any number of other fonts you like. You might have seen characters or symbols in other fonts that you would like to use, simply pick them up and add them to your own font.

If you want to change the style of the letters in your font from serif to sanserif, then produce a sanserif version of this font quite easily by swapping serif characters for sanserif. You might also like to continue the sanserif style across to your special characters or symbols. All you have to do is use the Design facilities to redesign these additional characters to mimic the sanserif style.

Add Justified Graphics to documents easily
We have all tried to use graphics characters in documents before. Sometimes you need the graphics character to stays in a particular position on a page. However, if you are using graphics and icons in text you need them to move with the text and be subject to justification, tabs etc. An example is the Bath/Shower icon shown below which was created for a client who was producing a travel brochure.

This icon denotes a chalet or house with four bathrooms or showers. We have customers who have produced their own fonts containing English, Russian and IBM graphics in the same font for example.

Security Code your Documents
Do you have a requirement for security of the written or transmitted word? Large companies can use encryption devices to ensure sensitive material is not intercepted and used to their detriment.

All you need is Font Maker. If you are E-Mailing sensitive material for example you can use Font Maker to create your own encryption code. You can then write your letter using this coded font and send your document securely. What you send might be a mixture of characters, foreign alphabet, symbols etc, totally meaningless and unreadable to the casual reader. The only person who can read this document is someone who has a copy of the same font you used to code it.

Even if you are using paper methods of transmitting messages, such as Fax or letter, you can use the same method to code your documents using an artificially re-mapped keyboard available from Derval to interpret the code. You can easily have a different code for each of your documents or sensitive contacts for even greater security.

Re-Map Fonts
Perhaps you have a font you like but want certain regular use characters Re-Mapped onto another key on your keyboard. The Re-Mapping capability plays a very large part in the general re-modelling and building of your own fonts.

Create and incorporate New TrueType characters
You can produce TrueType characters, perhaps logos for your business or your own personalised characters or icons specific to your organisation and incorporate them into your favourite TrueType font. You do not have to create everything though, Derval has a number of fonts available including symbol, Mapping, Maths, Russian, Greek, Arabic, Bengali, Burmese, Multilingual/Phonetic and a Multilingual Latin Letter and Symbol set you can use to add special characters to your fonts. We can even provide a service to add more complicated items to your font such as signatures, directly into your font. Create New Fonts and characters from Scratch Feeling adventurous? Then create your own complete font. Font Maker has two internal scalable font formats to allow easy incorporation of macro characters and offers very versatile drawing and design capability. You can use either the internal TrueType Style font format or the Vector font format.

The internal TrueType style format gives a more direct route but when creating from scratch the complicated mathematics associated with TrueType fonts can make innovation a little difficult, especially to the novice. A better method in this case is to produce an outline of your designs first using the Vector font format.

Once you have perfected your outline designs convert them to an internal TrueType Style Base Font and fine tune your designs using the On Curve/Off Curve capabilities then convert to TrueType and install into Windows for immediate use.

Produce Foreign Language Fonts
To begin with there are a large number of foreign language fonts available from Derval for use with Font Maker and Windows. These include Russian, Greek, Arabic, Bengali, Burmese, Multilingual/Phonetic, and a Multilingual Latin Letter and Symbol set which can be used to produce a customised latin font for specific requirements including all regular use symbols and all accented letters.

However, you might like to produce your own version, let us say a Russian font with thicker characters, re-mapped to your requirements or even use the Russian font as a basis for producing italic characters for example.

You might also like to create a Latin font (with accented characters) based on a typeface style you like. Use the Derval Latin Symbol and Accent Macro file to add accents and European symbols wherever you like.

Import TrueType fonts
FontMaker Lite is able to import TrueType Fonts and Full also includes Adobe Type 1 fonts to the internal format. Approximations are made if necessary and any hinting will be lost as the internal format does not support hinting. This feature is not intended for use with fonts that have copyright restrictions.

Import and Export of Windows type Vector fonts
Windows comes with a number of Vector fonts. These are also called Stroke fonts and Plotter fonts. They were an early form of scaleable fonts before TrueType became popular. They are simple to draw and simple to use.

A number of systems still use these fonts. Font Maker can Read these fonts into an internal format where the may be used as a basis for other fonts. The internal format may then be Written to a Windows Raster font.

Use of Mini-Hinting
The feature of Mini-Hinting has been introduced to fill a requirement by some users to improve the appearance of certain characters at small sizes. Once added to a character it will be included in any Exported TrueType font.

Utilities available
The Utilities that may be applied to Vector and TrueType fonts are comprehensive.
Vector - Oblique, Fixed Pitch, AlterHMI, Flip, Rotate.
TrueType - Aspect Ratio, Scale, Fixed Pitch, AlterHmi, Flip, Rotate.