Just started using TypeTool. I have one problem that I can't seem to work out.

When I create a font, the Font Window displays only the standard 256 chars. How do I add further ranges of characters?
I've added some Supported CodePages to Font Info, but they don't appear in the Font Window.
I'm guessing that changing the Codepage might let me do it, by displaying a different range of characters, but I can open existing fonts and display more than 256 characters at once. So how do I add these slots and display them all?

Thanks

In TypeTool's Font Window, you can choose any encoding in the "Names" mode. An encoding is a plain-text file with the .enc file extension, where the first two lines have the format:

%%FONTLAB ENCODING: {NUMBER}; {NAME}
%%GROUP:{GROUPNAME}

Where {NUMBER} is any random number, e.g. 384782 (must be unique), {NAME} is the name of the encoding as it should appear in the dropdown list of encodings, and {GROUPNAME} is an optional grouping name which is used to group encodings if the Font Window menu bar is in the bottom position.

After these two lines, you just enter one glyph name per line, e.g.

a.smcp
aacute.smcp
agrave.smcp
b.smcp
c.smcp
d.smcp

The glyph names should be compatible with the FontLab Glyph Naming conventions. More information can be found on pages 89-101 of the TypeTool manual. However, I recommend downloading the FontLab Studio 5 manual for Mac or Windows:

http://www.font.to/downloads/manuals/FLS5MacManual.zip
http://www.font.to/downloads/manuals/FLS5WinManual.zip

and reading the section "Advanced Glyph Naming and Encoding" (pages 145-153 in the Mac manual). That section is omitted from the TypeTool manual, but does apply to TypeTool as well. That should give you more general insight.

Regards,
Adam

Thanks, I will RTFM. However, I've tried selecting different encodings, but they just show me the same (or different) set of 255 characters.

When I open existing fonts, they show me many more characters at once than any codepage does. How do I do that in my new font?

Note that TypeTool includes a "codepage mode" and an "names mode". Codepages will only give you 256 characters (that's their nature, they're 8-bit). In names mode, encodings will give you any number of glyphs as they're keyed by the glyph name, not by a 8-bit codepoint.

Below is a screenshot of TypeTool 3.1 in Names mode showing the "OpenType LatPro" encoding which has 433 glyphs. You'll get the OpenType LatPro encoding if you install TypeTool 3.1 for Mac OS X. If you're on Windows and still using TypeTool 3.0, you can install the demo version of FontLab Studio 5.2 Public Preview, which will also install the new encodings, and they'll become visible in your TypeTool. (You can uninstall the FontLab Studio demo after that.)

Bingo. Think I've got it now. I suspect the font I was looking at wasn't the best example to work with, as it seems to have the same characters listed twice -- e.g. The Names and Glyphs at Number 262 onwards are the same as those at 32 to 254!!

Not sure how that works.