Shareware

I use two font products from High-Logic that are Shareware, and a screen capture utility called FastStone Capture. Shareware typically works with limited functionality for 30-days, after which you need to register the product. It is long enough for a thorough investigation of the available tools and features. MainType now has a free version that is available for non-commercial use.

• FontCreator — This is a professional level font editor for creating OpenType Fonts. The Home Edition is not licensed for commercial use, which includes using the fonts created in commercial publications. The Standard and Professional editions have a higher level of automation.
• Scanahand — Creates TrueType fonts quickly from a template of hand-written characters.
• FastStone Capture — Capture screen shots, annotate them, and save them in different formats.

The High-logic forum provides free support for FontCreator, MainType, and Scanahand. Creating and editing TrueType fonts is a complex task, and there are not many TrueType font editors available. The main competitors to FontCreator (FontLab, Fontographer, TypeTool) are either very expensive or difficult to use. FontCreator was developed by Erwin Denissen, who offers direct email support to registered users, though one can find most answers on the forum or in online help.

FastStone produce several excellent freeware graphics products, two of which are reviewed on my Freeware pages. FastStone Image Viewer and FastStone PhotoResizer are both worth checking out.

Page last updated on 14 August 2022