Can I export an Inkscape SVG to a TTF file?

I have tried my hand at designing a font, and have made the individual SVG files for each character on Inkscape. Looking at other things about this topic, the answer always seems to be something along the lines of “You should make the font in an actual font application”. I know this, but is there any way of converting an/many Inkscape files into a .ttf format? I could put each character in the one file if need be.

Answer

Short answer – no. There is a lot more to designing a font than just designing the glyphs and doing a “Save As”. There are a number of things Illustrator or Inkscape can’t do with regards to your new font – Spacing, kerning, hinting, metadata etc. That is why you need a font editor.

Most type designers will draw the shapes directly in the font editor as their drawing tools are designed and optimised specifically for creating letterforms. Most font editors will however allow you to import paths from Illustrator or Inkscape, there are some things you need to take in to consideration first though.

  • Your paths in the font editor will normally snap to a UPM grid (typically 1000×1000 for PostScript fonts and 1024×1024 or 2048×2048 for TruType fonts) so you will need to set up a corresponding grid in Illustrator/Inkscape first and snap everything to that grid or you could end up with distorted paths.

  • Paths will need to be the correct size too, I usually set up an artboard 1000pt × 1000pt then import with the settings set to import 1pt = 1UPM (assuming I’m working with a UPM of 1000).

  • You may need to move the zero point on your ruler too, so that the paths import in the correct position. This may vary depending on what programs you use though.

Here are some posts about exporting paths from Illustrator to FontLab – but the idea should translate to whatever programs you are using.

Once you have your paths in your font editor, then you can start worrying about things like spacing and kerning.

Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : Ethan , Answer Author : Cai

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