League Gothic Open Source font available from: http://www.theleagueofmoveabletype.com/
As you can see, I am finally killing the old typeforge website and updating it to the blog format which is simpler to maintain. One of the reasons is that I’ve recently acquired a MacBook Pro with Snow Leopard (Mac OSX 10.6.2) and I am trying to get back into Type Design…
Which brings us to this topic, installing Fontforge correctly on Snow Leopard. The old mac step-by-step on typeforge is very incomplete… although it’s still very simple to get fontforge running (just download and install), one of the tricky things I’ve ran into in the past is getting the libray dependencies to work correctly (specially the SVG and PNG to import images and vectors).
Before continue reading you might want to check this post: http://www.typeforge.net/blog/2011/05/23/fontforge-binaries/
Wait, library what?… that’s the usual question Mac owner students ask. These are necessary files that fontforge needs in order to handle background image import, vector import from illustrator, etc…
The thing is, when installing in Cygwin/Windows, the installer took care of it, but on the Mac, these libraries have to be installed manually. There goes the theory of Macintosh being simpler… So, if you have a Mac and you want to have Fontforge up-and-running smoothly, this is my attempt to shed some light into George Williams (very complete) install tutorial:
- Make sure you have the latest X11 and XCode installed – pick up your install DVDs and check the packages;
- Point your browser to http://www.macports.org/. Download and install it;
- Then browse Fontforge’s dependencies page: http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/source-build.html#Dependencies. Choose the ones you need (I’ve actually installed more than I needed). But how? (Continue reading);
- Start X11. Xterm should start automatically (that white command line window).
- Type the following command for each library you need – “port search potrace” – (to search for potrace, for example). Caution: not all libraries have the same name as in the fontforge dependencies page… So, try the following – libpng, tiff, libungif, jpeg, libxml2, freetype, cairo and pango;
- If the search command returns the desired results, then, for each one, run the following command – “sudo port install potrace” – for Potrace for example. Repeat for each library package… freetype, pango and cairo took a while…
- And that’s it. Now run Fontforge from the applications menu, or type the command “fontforge” in the Xterm command line window. Alternatively you can customize the X11 Applications menu under “customize”.
Hope this works for you as it is working for me…
Open Font Library (OFLB) also has a great tutorial (Mac and Linux) on How to Install Fontforge: http://openfontlibrary.org/wiki/How_to_install_FontForge
They don’t use MacPorts. They are using the needed libraries by installing them directly in X11: http://downloads.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/fontforge/FFLibs-intelmac-20081207.pkg.zip
I don’t suppose that you just may well have the ability to turn this post into a video post? I’ve a tough time reading on my computer along with a video will be a lot better for me.
Hey Celtic:
Currently I don’t have the software to do so, but the process is rather simple. Don’t be afraid to try it (it won’t “break” your computer).
Alternatively you can download a virtualization software like VMWare Player + Linux Apliance, or VirtualBox + Ubuntu Linux and run fontforge natively in Linux on your OS…
Have you ever thought about adding a little bit more than just your articles? I mean, what you say is fundamental and everything. But imagine if you added some great graphics or videos to give your posts more, “pop”! Your content is excellent but with images and clips, this blog could certainly be one of the greatest in its niche. Fantastic blog!
Thanks Noah… Well, I’ve definitely thought about it before. Will do someday!
Pingback: Fontforge binaries… « Typeforge
Pedamado, “noah” and “celtic” are automated spam scripts … So you know…
Oops… silly of me! ;) Thanks for the heads up!
Cannot install FontForge because don’t have MacPorts. So, install MacPorts. Oh, cannot install MacPorts because installed Xcode is 10.5 and MacPorts insists on 10.4. So, no MacPorts, and consequently no FontForge. I am not a developer, I am a user. Many computer users are not developers. Why should users have to build install packages? That is the job of the developer.
Hi Mike!
You can install directly from my binary package and run only with X11 / XQuartz: http://www.typeforge.net/blog/2011/05/23/fontforge-binaries/
But, if you still want to compile the program in an easy way, you can also use Fink and Homebrew, or do it all by yourself from the terminal ;)
On the other hand, maybe you should just use a proprietary, easy to install and use solution, like FontLab, or RoboFont.
Hope this helps. Cheers,
P
Hi Pedamado, I’ve installed Fontforge and Potrace via Fink. (On a Mac with OS 10.6).
Fontforge works fine, except it doesn’t seem to find Potrace. Any suggestions?
Sorry to ask you these installation questions but it seems hard to find practical info understandable for artists/designers :)
Activate “PreferPotrace” in fontforge’s preferences: