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26

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: YourFonts - Generate a font based on your handwriting

« Last post by erwind on August 03, 2008, 01:14 PM »

Are all of the characters that are printed on a standard USA keyboard included?

Call me ethnocentric if you will, but those are the only ones I care about.

-Deozaan (August 02, 2008, 07:44 AM)

They are all included, but with the single page template you won't be able to write this sentence:
It's a naïve façade to ask for a piña colada with crème in a déjà vu café.

27

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: YourFonts - Generate a font based on your handwriting

« Last post by erwind on August 02, 2008, 02:55 AM »

The characters that can be included in the font are all predefined. If you want more characters, or if you want to modify your font(s), then you should give FontCreator a try.

28

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: YourFonts - Generate a font based on your handwriting

« Last post by erwind on August 01, 2008, 12:35 PM »

I'd not realised that the empty cells could be used; it's really good. (again)

-Dormouse (August 01, 2008, 11:53 AM)

I'm not sure if we both understand each other. Can you please clarify your last post?

29

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: YourFonts - Generate a font based on your handwriting

« Last post by erwind on August 01, 2008, 10:45 AM »

I can imagine such huge amount of empty cells may scare people off. But no worries, only characters that are written down on the template(s) are added to the font, so if you only need a few characters, then only write those down.

30

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: YourFonts - Generate a font based on your handwriting

« Last post by erwind on August 01, 2008, 09:37 AM »

Thanks mouser and Deozaan!

I've made up my mind and will go for the additional template.

Here are the additional characters:
ÀÁÂÃÄÅÇĈÈÉÊËĜĤÌÍÎÏĴŁÑÒÓÔÕÖØŜŠÙÚÛÜÝŸŽàáâãäåçĉèéêëƒĝĥıìíîïĵłñòóôõöøŝšùúûüýÿžÆŒÐÞßæœðþµ¥¦¿¡×÷ºª¹²³¼½¾«»¬­¯¨´·¸

For my own convenience I've temporarily added the corresponding code points into the cells.



Then there are still 3 cells empty, so there is room for a couple more characters.

31

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: YourFonts - Generate a font based on your handwriting

« Last post by erwind on July 31, 2008, 03:26 PM »

I'm not sure if it's Ok to ask for help in this forum, so feel free to split this topic or ask me to take action.

I would like to allow people to also include other (mostly accented) characters. That would make a lot of people happy, especially non-English (read European) people. I've thought about it over the past couple of months, but to no avail...

It could be done by adding an additional template. So a font is then generated based on two completed templates. One as is right now (basic Latin characters like 0..9, a..z and A..Z), and the other one containing additional characters like:
ÀÁÂÃÄÅÆÇÈÉÊËÌÍÎÏÐÑÒÓÔÕÖØÙÚÛÜÝÞßàáâãäåæçèéêëìíîïðñòóôõöøÿŒœŠšŸŽž¡¥¦¨ª«¬­¯²³´µ·¸¹º»¼½¾¿ıŁłƒ×÷

Another approach is to let the user just draw the diacritical marks, and let the generation process build the accented characters by combining a (base) letter and a diacritical mark. I'm afraid most people will fail to draw the accents correctly. Besides it takes too much time to develop.

I'm curious about your opinions. I don't want to spent too much time on the additional feature, so if it proofs to be too complex them I'll just drop the whole idea. But honestly I hope one or more DC's are able to help me out 

32

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: YourFonts - Generate a font based on your handwriting

« Last post by erwind on July 30, 2008, 07:03 AM »

Thanks for the idea.

I've added this sentence to step 1:

"Before you grab a pen, please first go to step 2 and read the instructions about how to fill out the template."

Hopefully that will help.

33

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: YourFonts - Generate a font based on your handwriting

« Last post by erwind on July 30, 2008, 04:34 AM »

Hi Dormouse,

Thanks for your feedback.

Had to resize because scanning was to PDF & I found it needed to be an image format, so I converted & then had to resize because the prog would not take the original size. Next time, I'll change the settings and scan to jpg.

-Dormouse (July 30, 2008, 04:09 AM)

 

That guidance is fine - except I didn't see it when I tried it. Don't know how/why I missed it.

-Dormouse (July 30, 2008, 04:09 AM)

I'm sure you're not the only one ;-) I sometimes miss the most obvious things...

34

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: YourFonts - Generate a font based on your handwriting

« Last post by erwind on July 30, 2008, 02:54 AM »

And the last time I tried, I had to do a lot of tweaking to get it to the right pixel size.

-Dormouse (July 30, 2008, 01:47 AM)

No need to resize, just follow the instructions and scan in at 300 dpi.

And some guidance about how to write in the template. I'd think ease of use would be important.

-Dormouse (July 30, 2008, 01:47 AM)

Is this not sufficient?
http://www.yourfonts.com/complete.html

35

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: YourFonts - Generate a font based on your handwriting

« Last post by erwind on July 29, 2008, 01:04 PM »

When you enlarge a too small image, you still lose a lot of the quality, better try again with a 150 or 300 dpi scan.

FYI the width must be between 1000 and 4000 while the height must be between 1000 and 5000.

36

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: YourFonts - Generate a font based on your handwriting

« Last post by erwind on July 29, 2008, 10:06 AM »

And GwynEvans you are right, the characters are too small, and i had to increase the font size to be able to view the text correctly...

-vixay (July 14, 2008, 10:28 PM)

I'm not saying it's easy, even I had to try a couple of times before I was able to follow the instructions mentioned here:
http://www.yourfonts.com/complete.html

Cool nonetheless!

-vixay (July 14, 2008, 10:28 PM)

Thanks 

37

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: YourFonts - Generate a font based on your handwriting

« Last post by erwind on July 29, 2008, 10:01 AM »

Another nice idea would be to have the preview show some formatted text as well (quick brown fox... etc... or some other paragraphs), because in isolation it might look OK, but together it doesn't look that great.

-vixay (July 14, 2008, 03:06 AM)

Thanks for letting me know. I'll see if such feature can be added.

The problem i had was that the bottom alignment was off for me...
writing on lines is a lot easier then writing on imaginary lines. is there a way to actually include the line in the template and then exclude the line in post processing?? Just a thought.

-vixay (July 14, 2008, 03:06 AM)

The Scanahand template with colored guidelines made available by Deozaan can be used.

But it's a great idea, and thanks for the freebie! Btw, how long is the beta on till?

-vixay (July 14, 2008, 03:06 AM)

Probably a couple of weeks, but I'm not sure yet.

38

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: YourFonts - Generate a font based on your handwriting

« Last post by erwind on July 29, 2008, 09:53 AM »

First of all sorry for my late reply. I was away for two weeks and although I had Internet access during that time, I couldn't post here as I forgot to write down my DC password...

It worked well but the 'z' was a bit messed up. Just letting you know since the service is in beta.

-nosh (July 11, 2008, 02:08 PM)

Hi nosh,

Thanks for letting me know. I've further improved the algorithm, so this should no longer happen.

I noticed you used a 96 dpi scan. For best results I recommend you use a 300 dpi scanned in image. In other words, the width should be at least 2000 pixels and the height at least 3000 pixels.

39

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: YourFonts - Generate a font based on your handwriting

« Last post by erwind on July 11, 2008, 04:38 AM »

See also Scanahand, a similar program (not web-based) by the same company and that DC had a discount to. (Not sure if it's still active)

-jgpaiva (July 11, 2008, 03:33 AM)

Yes, the Scanahand discount is still active, but you need to have Windows. People who have a Mac, Linux or any other O.S. can use yourfonts.com as it's an online service 

Congrats on a new program Erwin 

-mouser (July 11, 2008, 03:34 AM)

Thanks!

40

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / YourFonts - Generate a font based on your handwriting

« Last post by erwind on July 11, 2008, 02:27 AM »

Yesterday a new online service was born, it's called YourFonts.

http://www.yourfonts.com/

It will remain in beta for a short period. During the beta period, all generated fonts will be available for free. You just need to fill in this special coupon:
YourFont2008

Then you can instantly download your own font, and use it in word processing, desktop publishing and graphic design programs like Microsoft Word, Adobe Illustrator, etc.



I hope you like it, so give it a try and post your results here. Thanks!

Best regards,
Erwin Denissen

41

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Scanahand RC1 Released

« Last post by erwind on April 23, 2008, 06:22 AM »

We will officially release Scanahand next week, if this version proves to be as stable as RC1.

-erwind (April 18, 2008, 07:48 AM)

Just a short note to let you know we've released Scanahand 1.0 earlier today.
http://www.high-logic.com/news.html

Kind regards,

Erwin Denissen

42

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Scanahand RC1 Released

« Last post by erwind on April 18, 2008, 07:48 AM »

I've just released Release Candidate 2. Only minor changes have been made since RC1 was released:
- A new logo
- More documentation with Vista screenshots
- Minor enhancements

We will officially release Scanahand next week, if this version proves to be as stable as RC1.

More info here:
http://www.high-logic.com/scanahand.html

Scanahand Basic Edition costs $29.00.

DC Supporting Members are encouraged to read this message.

All feedback is welcome, technical, layout, performance, font output quality, etc. Most of all, enjoy the software and don't forget to post your fonts made with Scanahand.

Best regards,

Erwin Denissen

High-Logic Software
http://www.high-logic.com/

43

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Scanahand RC1 Released

« Last post by erwind on March 07, 2008, 12:32 PM »

Why don't you activate the (well hidden) colored guidelines? You can do this through the Template page on the Options dialog.

44

Official Announcements / Re: The site is now back online (March 6th, 2008)

« Last post by erwind on March 07, 2008, 07:36 AM »

Welcome back DC!

45

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Scanahand RC1 Released

« Last post by erwind on February 27, 2008, 12:47 PM »

Does the user have any control over the number of points used?

-Ampa (February 27, 2008, 11:40 AM)

Not directly, but the size of the source image, the threshold value, and the filter setting all affect the result.

The source image of the lower case "a" was scanned at 300 dpi. A 600 dpi scan will most likely result in more points, but in this case I don't think it will benefit the result as that is already very good (if I may say so myself). A 600 dpi scan resolution is useful when your characters contain little details (e.g. thin strokes).

Scanahand needs to find out what pixels belong to the characters. The threshold value is used to make that decision. Usually the Auto value gives best results, but you can also choose between Low, Medium, and High. The Low threshold removes all light colored pixels, while the High threshold includes all light colored pixels. When you use the High threshold you get slightly fatter characters, but you risk inclusion of unwanted pixels.

You can also reduce the number of points by applying either the Smooth or Super filter. Those filters polish the outlines and that usually results in more rounded contours.

Erwin Denissen

High-Logic Software
http://www.high-logic.com/

46

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Scanahand RC1 Released

« Last post by erwind on February 27, 2008, 04:09 AM »

Yes, it detects all contours and then converts them into a vector based format that consists of a series of contours where each contour is composed of straight lines and Bézier curves.

The small letter "a" shown in the image below is converted to 2 contours. The inner contour is made out of 11 points, and the outer contour is made out of 22 points. On the left you see the original source, in the middle you'll see the conversion from bitmap to vector, and on the right you see how the "a" looks like when you use the generated font.

47

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Scanahand RC1 Released

« Last post by erwind on February 15, 2008, 01:14 AM »

Cool! I didn't know about the gallery section on your forum, very nice to see people sharing their work 

That already does what i was suggesting, really, the only thing that would be nice is a way to view the fonts at a glance with a nice page of screenshots for each font.

-mouser (February 14, 2008, 01:08 PM)

Great idea. I'll do it as soon as I've received a couple of fonts.

48

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Scanahand RC1 Released

« Last post by erwind on February 15, 2008, 01:05 AM »

Pretty cute idea.

Does it generate bitmap fonts, or does it go all the way and convert your handwriting to vector fonts?

-f0dder (February 14, 2008, 07:42 PM)

Scanahand creates vector based fonts that you can use in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Notepad, and any Windows application. The fonts are technically speaking OpenType fonts (although they don't contain OpenType Layout Features like Ligatures). Windows "identifies" them as TrueType fonts.

Erwin Denissen

High-Logic Software
http://www.high-logic.com/

49

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Scanahand RC1 Released

« Last post by erwind on February 14, 2008, 04:44 PM »

Hi Ampa,

Good questions.

Could you give some details on the difference between the Standard and Premium editions?

Most Beta testers wanted to have more accented characters. They just don't fit on a single page, so the idea is a multi page template that allows you to generate a font with an extended set of characters. The Premium Edition, that is not available yet (development hasn't even started!), will include multi page template support. FYI a template editor is on the to-do list for a future release of Scanahand Premium Edition.

Release Candidate 1 runs in Basic Edition mode, simply because there is no Premium Edition available. As you will see, it supports a single page template.

In what format(s) is the font saved? I assume it is a vector font, probably TrueType, but I don't think the site specifies this anywhere?!

The fonts are generated as OpenType/TrueType. Technically the fonts are OpenType, but Windows will tell you they are TrueType. 

Erwin Denissen

High-Logic Software
http://www.high-logic.com/

50

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Scanahand RC1 Released

« Last post by erwind on February 14, 2008, 03:54 PM »

Try this one:
[EDIT: removed as the DNS change is completed]