Size Problem with some Letters

[Grütter]

Hello

I just created my first own font from a existing font by replacing the "sterling" (£) glyth (I never used this key) by the "question" (?) glyth (because sometimes I need the question mark in the name of icons on the desktop, but the regular question mark is not allowed by WindowsXP). All seemed so far to be ok, but if I use this changed font e.g. in MSWord in a very small size (<6 pt), then the new question mark is smaller than the normal question mark (~20%). Also on the desktop the question mark (former sterling sign) is one pixel smaller than for instance the exclamation mark (which is in MSWord as big as the question mark).
So, what did I wrong? Here what I did in details:

- Open the font I like to change
- Copy the question glyth by right clicking the mouse
- Paste it at the position of the sterling glyth. FontLab gives the warning that OpenType tables will be removed. (I also tried only to copy the shape of the glyth avoiding this  warning, but the strange behavior remains the same)
- Menu File->Generate font. FontLab asks "Current font contains both OpenType features definition and imported binary OpenType tables. Which data you want to use while generating OpenType: Binary or compiled?". I tried both, no difference.

Any reply would be appreciated.

Remo

[Der FontMeister]

The easiest and safest way to do this is to open an existing font which works the way you want. Then copy your characters in place of the existing ones. Regenerate the font a new name and test it.

Jimmy G.

[Grütter]

Hello Jimmy

Thank you for your reply. What you said is just what I did...

The strange thing is that the copied characters in the same font often have a different size (by 1-3 pixels) compared with the original characters, although there are exact copies of them (since I use copy-paste). Example: With the same method I described, I replaced the broken line (¦) by the colon (:). If I write in MSWord a original ":" with my font with size 12pt, the two points are 3x2 pixel rectangles with a distance of 7 white pixels. If I write a "¦" (witch should be an exact copy of the ":") the two points are 3x3 pixel squares with a distance of 8 pixels.
If the font size is >20pt, the difference in size of 1-3 pixels isn't a problem, because you don't realise it. But if the font size is e.g. 6 pt, 1 pixel is about 10%! The worst example I found is this: With size 6pt, the height of a backslash is 12 pixel, the copied backslash has only a height of 9 pixel, a difference of 25%! I attached a screenshot to demonstrate the effect. The whole text there is written with my font, in each line I used the same font size.

I've absolutely no idea why in the same font a character and its exact copy have different sizes when displaying or printing them. In the glyth editor they are identical. Anyone a guess? Is this a bug?

Thank you for replying

R. Grütter