Important TypeTool 3 for Windows works on Windows XP, 7, 8, 10 and newer.
TypeTool 3 for macOS is a native Mac app on Mac OS X 10.6.8–macOS 10.14, and is a special build for macOS 10.15, macOS 11 Big Sur, macOS 12 Monterey and newer, which offers Windows-like user experience on the Mac.
TypeTool 3 is our basic font editor for Windows (and for macOS up to 10.14 Mojave). It is the little sibling to FontLab Studio 5, so it has most of the same tools, plus the same interface used to create most of the world’s commercial fonts. It is a great option for beginning type designers wanting to get started on designing typefaces and creating or modifying fonts, without a major investment.
TypeTool 3 offers a basic, reliable workflow for font creation, glyph drawing and multilingual glyph design, to spacing and kerning, with automatic hinting.
Note: On macOS 10.15 Catalina and newer, TypeTool 3 offers Windows-like user experience. FontLab 7 is our future-proof font creation and editing tool.
Download TypeTool 3 demo (with save and export limitations): for macOS 10.6.8–10.14 or Windows XP–10.
We recommend that you download the 30-day free trial of FontLab 7, our modern pro font editor.
Please enter your email address to get the download links for the latest versions of the app.
You need a TT3W serial number to run the app on macOS 10.15 Catalina or newer.
If you only have a TT3M serial number, contact us.
TypeTool 3 has the same key drawing tools as FontLab Studio 5, which many designers have considered their favorite Bézier drawing tool for more than a decade. The combination of the Pen, Rectangle, Ellipse, Knife and Eraser tools allows you to create precise Bézier curves. With numeric and freeform Transformations, both manual and font-wide, you can quickly adjust your glyphs to match your design
TypeTool includes unique VectorPaint technology that simulates bitmap tools in vector-editing environment. This feature gives designers unprecedented freedom in creation of new outlines. All VectorPaint tools may be used in vector mode or in “black” (filled) or “white” (transparent) colors. Black color adds painted strokes to the character’s shape and white color subtracts strokes, working as very powerful eraser. Of course, all paintings are undoable, editable and may be transformed in any way with all editing tools.
Copy-paste vectors from Adobe Illustrator or import AI/EPS outline artwork. Import monochrome images and use them as reference. Clean up and correct your contours in glyph slots, to go from source or inspiration to an actual font!
FontLab 8 lets you turn any images and drawings into fonts, draw with a non-destructive calligraphic PowerBrush and a super-easy Rapid Bézier tool, and edit outlines easier & faster!
The Metrics Window is a multiline text editor that allows you to comfortably test, space and kern your font. Set the left and right sidebearing and the advance width in the Metrics mode, and kern in the Kerning mode. The table on the right, and the panel on the bottom, give you detailed numeric control over your metrics and kerning. Not sure what to do? Auto metrics and auto kerning to the rescue!
In FontLab 8, you can link spacing relationships using expressions, and perform spacing on many glyphs at a time. With class kerning, you can kern all accented letters the same way as the basic glyphs.
Rearrange, rename or re-encode glyphs using two encoding modes with an unlimited number of encoding tables and codepages.
With TypeTool you can easily work with huge Unicode fonts that contain up to 65,000 characters. Full support for double-byte codepages common in Chinese, Japan and Korean is provided. The special Font Map panel previews the full Unicode code space and may be used to compare your font to one of the standard codepages.
With Components, you can create your base letters and diacritic accents once and assemble accented characters by attaching the components. TypeTool maintains a live link: one change in a base letter or accent is reflected in all the composite characters.
In FontLab 8, you can create accented letters faster using anchors and auto layers. You can add small caps, ligatures, alternate glyphs and glyphs for complex scripts such as Arabic using OpenType Layout tables.
Excellent screen quality for all generated Type 1 and OpenType fonts due to automatic PostScript and TrueType hinting. Minimal modifications possible: open any existing OpenType font, perform minimal edits and preserve the original OpenType Layout tables, and — as long as you haven’t modified a glyph — the original screen hinting.
The Font Info dialog gives you access to various font properties such as menu and family names, supported codepages or linespacing metrics.
Any font chart can be printed on your printer. TypeTool will print a font table containing samples for all font glyphs, their names and codes according to the current encoding. You can also print any glyph, or a metrics/kerning sample string. If your printer supports color, TypeTool will use it to highlight information in the font table.
FontLab 8 lets you create OpenType fonts with superb screen quality thanks to advanced autohinting and manual hinting. You can use interpolation to export entire font families and variable fonts. In FontLab 8, you can also design emoji and multicolor alphabets and export them as color fonts.
