Choosing the right software - A Short Evaluation of Font-creating software

It's taken me a while to build up the motivation to actually start this, but if I'm going to do it, I'll do it properly. Which means I should start by researching the software that I'm going to be using for these artefacts. 


FontLab Studio
Here is the product description as taken from the fontlab.com:

"FontLab Studio 5 is our next-generation professional font editor for Mac and Windows. Used by Adobe, Apple, Bitstream, IBM, Linotype, Microsoft, Monotype, Morisawa and almost every other major font foundry in the world, it is the comprehensive solution for font foundries, professional type designers, typographers and graphic design studios, allowing them to design typefaces and create or modify fonts. FontLab Studio 5 supports all major outline font formats, including Type 1, TrueType, Multiple Master and OpenType."

From what I can gather, FontLab Studio is a professional standard font editing/creation software. Currently costing $650 in the US, so around £550 in the UK given current exchange rates. There is however a 30 day trial version that I will probably test first. 

Fontographer 5

Here is the product description as taken from the fontlab.com:

"With Fontographer 5, it’s easy to design new typefaces and to customize existing fonts, and the result will be high-quality fonts that can reliably work across different operating systems.

• Create new fonts
• Customize existing fonts, add extra characters
• Fine-tune spacing and kerning
• Fix problems in bad fonts
• Convert old fonts to a new format"

Given the fact that fontographer is a couple of hundred dollar cheaper, it could be considered the more usable software as it excludes some of the features that FontLab Studio has. Also has a trial version that I will look in to.

Typetool

Here is the product description as taken from the fontlab.com:

"TypeTool is our basic font editor for Mac OS and for Windows. For students, hobby typographers and creative professionals who occasionally need to create or customize fonts."

This sounds like it's more within my skill-range. Since I have an extremely limited knowledge of font-creation, it would be foolish to pick the professional standard software over one that is marketed for students. Costs $99.00, so around £70. 

I have all three demo versions of these pieces of software and will decide which to use which a brief evaluation in my next PRP post.