ScanFont 4.0 review

With ScanFont, you can turn graphics into fonts.

License: Demo OS: Mac OS X File size: 2377K Developer: Fontlab Ltd. Buy Now Price: $99.00 Updated: 05 May 2006

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With ScanFont, you can turn graphics into fonts. Any bitmap image or outline illustration* can be quickly converted into a fully-workable font.

ScanFont 4 is a tool for creating fonts from pictures. Photos, handwriting, clipart, etc. - anything that is in bitmap format or which can be scanned can be used by ScanFont to make glyphs in a font.

SF4 is a plug-in and requires either TypeTool or FontLab font editors to output TrueType, Type 1 or OpenType fonts.

Here are some key features of "ScanFont":
Import formats: TIFF, BMP, EPS, VFB* (a lot more image formats with version 4 for Macintosh)
Export Formats: VFB*, EPS*, PC Type 1*, PC TrueType*, TIFF, outlines exported to FontLab or TypeTool program on the Macintosh.
Tools: Bitmap editor(select, marquee, freehand, magic wand, scroll, zoom, pen, brush, eraser, fill, line, polygon, rectangle, ellipse, symbol select, scale). Font editor* (Select, erase, draw, ruler). AutoTrace (template, split). Undo/redo, Scan
Filters: Character separation, Fill, Noise reduction, Blur**, Sharpen**, Colorize**, Resize**, Rotate**, Enhance**, custom filters**.
Encoding*: Adobe Standard, ISO Latin 1, Macintosh, Adobe Cyrillic, Macintosh Cyrillic, Symbol, Windows ANSI, Custom.

Limitations:
the ScanFont for Mac demo exports fonts with half the glyphs watermarked.

What's New:
Support for grayscale and color – from simple black-and-white to 32-bit color with smooth transparency
Direct import of EPS graphics – assists you in turning your Adobe Illustrator® drawings into a font
Professional image editing tools, transformations and filters – from Pencil to Gaussian blur
Advanced image-split algorithms - from Table to Book Smart
Direct import of most image formats, including PDF
Works natively in Mac OS X
Convert obsolete format fonts to Adobe Type 1 or TrueType format
Add your signature to a font
Make a font of your (or your significant other's, or your client's) handwriting
Put any line drawing you can scan into a font
Convert old print lettering or letterhead into modern electronic format
Put your company logo into a font
Create clipart fonts.

Requirements:
Mac OS 9.2+ with CarbonLib 1.6+ or Mac OS X (10.3 or higher recommended).(Note: Scanning only works in OS 9.x/Classic mode. Mac OS X users without the Classic environment should scan into a photo editing application such as Photoshop, then save image to a file and open it in ScanFont).