I have always had the ambition to design typefaces, but besides reading several books on the subject and creating one (very rough) font, I’ve not made any progress.

Well, I still haven’t, but I have just installed FontForge. After much digging, it seemed to be the only real option for Linux (not that other Mac and Windows are exactly overflowing with options). I’m know Inkscape has some type-specific features – and I plan to explore these – but I really wanted to try a dedicated program.

My first impression of FontForge was very negative – it looks old and rough around the edges. But I remember thinking the same of Fontographer (back when Macromedia owned it). The second impressions kicked in very quickly though: I really like the feel of the tools, everything is very quick to grasp. You seem to have a lot more contol than you get in a typical vector editor. It feels more precise – like CAD software, but still freeform – like you would expect a creative tool to be.

Should be a fun project!