AFDKO

Adobe Font Developer Kit for OpenType. A suite of tools for generating OpenType fonts.

AGL

Adobe Glyph List. Documents all glyph names used in Adobe’s pre-Unicode fonts.

This includes afii-names for Cyrillic glyphs, etc.

AGLNF

Adobe Glyph List For New Fonts. Adobe’s recommended glyph names for new fonts.

Glyph names which are not included in this list should follow a uniXXXX syntax.

API

Application Programming Interface.

BCP

Short for Bézier Control Point.

DrawBot

An open-source macOS application and code library for generating graphics with Python.

FogQ

A customized version of RoboFog with support for quadratic curves.

Font Bureau

Digital type foundry based in Boston, United States. Founded by David Berlow and Roger Black in 1989.

FontParts

An application-independent font object API for creating and editing fonts.

FontTools

An open-source library for manipulating font files with Python.

Fontographer

A font editor originally developed by Jim von Ehr’s Altsys, later acquired by Macromedia. The source code was acquired by FontLab in 2005 and upgraded to modern standards.

GNFUL

Glyph Name Formatted Unicode List is a system for generating glyph name lists from official Unicode data.

GPOS

Glyph Positioning table, a table in the OpenType font format which provides precise control over glyph placement. Used for sophisticated text layout and rendering using the script and language system definitions in the font.

Git

A version control system for tracking changes in computer files and coordinating work on those files among multiple developers.

GitHub

An online platform for sharing and collaborating on Git projects.

GlyphNameFormatter

A system for generating glyph name lists from official Unicode data.

Just van Rossum

An independent type designer, graphic designer, software developer and teacher. Original creator of FontTools and DrawBot.

Mac Ikarus

A Mac version of the font digitizing software Ikarus. Also known as Ikarus M.

OpenType

An extension to the TrueType sfnt font format that allows for either TrueType or Postscript outlines to be used.

OpenType fonts can include layout tables for advanced typographic features, color font formats, and variations. The format is developed jointly by Microsoft and Adobe.

Petr van Blokland

Dutch designer, programmer and teacher. Petr studied under Gerrit Noordzij at the KABK and created many pioneering design tools including RoboFog and PageBot. He also played a crucial role in the origin and intial development of RoboFont.

PostScript fonts

Font files encoded in outline font specifications for the PostScript digital typesetting system, developed by Adobe.

Prepolator

A tool for checking interpolation compatibility, developed by Tal Leming. Originally a standalone application, now available as a RoboFont extension.

Python Package Index (PyPI)

A repository of software for the Python programming language.

RoboFab

A Python library with objects that deal with data usually associated with fonts and type design. Supports the UFO font format.

Officially retired in March 2018. Replaced by FontParts.

RoboFog

A fork of Fontographer with a built-in Python interpreter.

RoboThon

A conference about Type, Tools and Code presented by the TypeMedia department of the KABK (Royal Academy of Art, The Hague).

TypeMedia

Post-graduate course in typeface design at the Royal Academy of Art (KABK) in The Hague, Holland.

UFO

Unified Font Object. A cross-platform, cross-application, human-readable, future-proof format for storing font data.

VFB

FontLab’s binary format for font sources.

W

A Python wrapper around the native UI layer of Classic MacOS.

WOFF

Web Open Font Format. A container format for webfonts.

callback

A function that is called by another function which takes the first function as a parameter.

character

A unit of written language: something you type in a text editor.

Characters live in digital files. Each character is represented as a number, according to a given encoding scheme.

character set

A list of glyph names, in a particular order.

Used to define which glyphs should be included in a font, and which languages are supported.

dialogKit

A dialog toolkit in Python that worked across different font editing applications. Created by Tal Leming. (deprecated)

encoding

The mapping of characters to numbers or codepoints, according to a particular encoding scheme. Used to store text digitally.

font

The physical embodiment of a typeface for a particular typographic technology.

A font can be a case of metal pieces, a photographic film, a computer file.

glyph

A visual representation of a character: something you draw in a font editor.

Glyphs live inside fonts, and each glyph has a name.

kerning

The local optimization of whitespace between pairs of glyphs by adding/subtracting a certain amount of units from the default spacing.

markdown

A lightweight markup language with plain text formatting syntax. Easily converted into HTML.

pip

A package installer for Python. It can be used to install packages from the Python Package Index (PyPI) and other indexes.

pseudocode

An informal high-level description of the operating principle of a computer program or other algorithm.

pythonic

Idiomatic Python. Code that doesn’t just get the syntax right, but also follows the conventions of the Python community and uses the language in the way it is intended to be used.

spacing

The process of designing the whitespace in a typeface by adjusting the left and right side-bearings of each glyph.

typeface

A collection of shapes representing letters, numbers, punctuation characters, various symbols, etc.

vanilla

A Python library for creating native macOS user interfaces.

Last edited on 01/09/2021