FontLab Changelog

What's new in FontLab 8.3.0 Build 8746 Beta

Dec 29, 2023

Highlights:
Widgets: Simplified Glyph window UI for easy access to properties of glyphs, components, and selections.
Match Moves: Move nodes and handles across all visible matching masters.
Italic angle: Centering and alignment respect the current master’s italic angle.
Unit grid: Integer-coordinate gridlines appear as you zoom in.
Snapping suggestions: Choose if snapping is instant or relaxed.
Glance on hover: Quick preview of a contour, element, or layer.
Export post-processing: Run your custom Python script on every export, for better file organization, quality checks and Git integration.
Format support: Open and export sources in Git-friendly .glyphspackage format for better interchange with other font creation apps & tools.
Variable mark attachment: Preview true anchor-based mark attachment across masters.
Glyph window text: See the current glyph in multiple places with the @ glyph repeater. Intermix each glyph from your text with pre-glyph and post-glyph strings.
MacOS: Needs at least macOS 10.15 Catalina, to 14 Sonoma. Runs natively on Apple Silicon (M1 or newer, up to 2× faster) and on Intel Macs.
Windows: Runs on Windows 8.1 to 11.
Over 80 features, improvements and fixes.

New in FontLab 8.3.0 Build 8638 Beta (Dec 23, 2023)

New in FontLab 8.2.0 Build 8620 (Aug 31, 2023)

In FontLab 8.2, we’ve supercharged the spacing & kerning workflow, added right-to-left kerning support, polished the user interface, and streamlined Undo & contour editing. We have improved our modulated Stroke, added exciting creative actions, and improved the variable design process. Plus you can import and export variable color fonts, and seamlessly convert right-to-left kerning between OpenType fonts, .glyphs files and UFO! More highlights:
Kerning for right-to-left scripts like Arabic or Hebrew. Easy manual and automatic creation of kerning exceptions. Automatic kerning to distance. Easy adding of glyphs to kerning classes. Easy copying of kerning classes across masters. Import & export of RTL kerning from/to OpenType, .vfb, .glyphs, .ufo.
Harmonize nodes or handles to G2 smoothness. Node sliding with arrow keys. Easier conversion between corner and smooth nodes.
FontAudit detection and fixing of short segments. New Warp and Scribble & Strokes actions for playful creativity. Better grid snapping and power guides. Easy copying of Delta filter to other masters. Redesigned Preview panel.
New drag-to-zoom experience. Undo retains selection. Separate undo of (de)selection. Knife slicing of contours on nodes. Easy selection of all Tunni lines.
Smoother Stroke modulation. Snapping of Stroke and Brush thickness to distances, stems or guides. Segment & handle lengths and angles on Sketchboard.
Fusion filter for live Boolean “pathfinding” operations between elements and components.
One-click copying of auto layer recipes and dimensions to other masters. Smoother element switching. Case conversion in Font window and title case conversion in Glyph window.
Dynamic numeric measurements for guides and anchors. Easy aligning of points to Mask, guides or grid.
More uniform and streamlined user interface and menus in dark and light mode. Faster operation with large fonts.
Refined spacing experience with Metrics line. Customizable one-tap auto-spacing. Optical bounds for better text line edge alignment.
Fast adding of simple variation. Conditional glyph substitution with features other than rvrn.
Import and export of variable color fonts with gradients.
Easier stem adding. Easier autohinting range control. Easy comparison of glyph metrics and other glyph properties across fonts.
Font installation on export. Export and import glyphs from/to a PDF, SVG or PNG file collection. Saving, importing, and exporting of Sketchboard content as SVG or PDF. Better feature decompilation and editing. 4–5× faster WOFF2 export.
Bundled Python 3.11. Newest fontTools for exporting variable fonts. New Python API for actions.
FontLab 8.2 has 700 improvements over FontLab 7, and more than 1,200 improvements over FontLab VI. It’s available as a discounted upgrade for all users of FontLab 7, FontLab VI, FontLab Studio 5, Fontographer 5, TypeTool 3, RoboFont and Glyphs. If you need an extended trial, or a tool for a single project: the FontLab 8 3-months starter license is just US$97!

New in FontLab 8.0.0 Build 8200 (Jun 30, 2022)

FontLab 8 has over 500 improvements: it’s easier to learn and use, it’s better, it’s faster. After 18 months of focused development, and nine months of extensive testing and production use by dozens of font professionals worldwide, FontLab 8 is the biggest upgrade ever!
Discover the new dark UI theme, adjustable Stroke and Brush sketching, polished drawing and editing, non-destructive transformations with Delta, visual and numeric measurement, glyph building with Skin and variable components, spacing and kerning with mouse and trackpad, batch font export and Actions sets, revamped color and gradients, plus support for .glyphs 3, FontForge, COLRv1, and Python 3.
Explore & prepare
Relax your eyes with the new dark or refined light interface theme. Group panels into a vertical infinite, scrollable panel dock, and intuitively navigate between the panels.
Adjust numeric values with sliders and calculations. Boost your productivity with up to 8× improved performance.
Draft and draw:
Draw calligraphic letterforms with new Power Stroke or improved Power Brush. Modulate thickness visually with new Thickness tool.
Draw fluently with Pen and Rapid toolbox sub-tools. Draw polygons and stars with Rectangle tool.
Edit & refine:
Make slanted selections, keep selections as you switch masters, and store them in Selections panel. Use toolbox for hands-free Power Nudge, handle Nudge and Lever precision dragging, and for easier curve cleanup with Eraser.
Adjust curve tension numerically. Align and collapse points. Reverse contours with Fill tool. Sort contours. Paste to replace selection. Fine-tune individual ink traps and smart corners.
Consistency & precision:
Study the numeric values of your stem widths, segment lengths, curve tensions and corner angles with Auto-meter, or hold G to temporarily view these in Guides tool along with quick measurement and master relations.
View relative node offsets. Snap to continuation lines, perpendicular lines and centerlines. See coordinates for key nodes only. Edit visual TrueType Hinting like never before.
Build & assemble:
Convert selections to components or elements. Add decoration and attach shapes to nodes or segments with updated Glue filter, or with .glyphs-compatible Skin filter in segment, dash, corner and cap modes.
Use clipping groups to mask out areas. Use text shapes to re-use scaled words or phrases from your font in existing glyphs.
Metrics & kerning:
Use your mouse to adjust metrics and kerning with high-precision Lever dragging. Hide or reduce the visibility of spacing controls for distraction-free spacing and kerning.
Auto-space and auto-kern with one click or tap.
Families & variation:
Quickly make variable fonts from static fonts. Define custom per-glyph variation axes. Re-use live interpolated instances to build glyphs with smart variable components.
Set start points and reverse contours in all masters. Make contours compatible with improved Matchmaker. Group layers visually.
Test & adjust:
Print waterfalls or interpolations from Preview panel. Batch-run selected FontAudit fixes in glyphs and masters. Create, save and run action sets that combine multiple actions.
Batch-adjust stem widths in a master. Adjust by variation to replace contours with a different dynamic instance. Perform complex non-destructive contour transformations with new Delta filter.
Color:
Fill elements with gradients or solid colors. Copy-paste color fill and stroke between glyphs. Import drawings with gradients. Open and export better OpenType+SVG and new OpenType+COLRv1 fonts.
Export an automatic dark-mode color palette. Overlay multiple layers into color fonts.
Glyphs & fonts:
Quickly create new glyphs with common suffixes. Clean up classes when removing glyphs.
Copy-paste classes between fonts or masters. Exclude glyphs from export into final formats.
Formats:
Batch-export many fonts into many formats. Open and export the .glyphs format in version 2 or 3. Open FontForge SFD files, bitmap BDF fonts and multi-flavor color fonts.
Use improved VFJ, UFO, VF support. Export WOFF2 color web fonts.
Scripts & integrations:
Write and use Python 3 scripts. Seamlessly interchange with other font editing apps like Glyphs or RoboFont.
Perform global transformations with the powerful TypeRig library. Create fonts for the entire Unicode 14 standard.

New in FontLab 7.2.0 Build 7649 Beta (Mar 13, 2022)

Variation:
New When you create an instance or add an intermediate master in a glyph that has bound glyph metrics (sidebearings or width), FontLab now correctly interpolates the bound glyph metrics. For example, when the expressions in LSB are =8 and =4 in two maters, and you create an instance in the middle, the glyph will have the LSB =6.
Features:
New When a positioning lookup is active in the Lookups panel, the top of the Rules section now shows the MarkFilteringSet and the IgnoreBaseGlyphs flags.
TrueType Hinting:
When the TrueType Hinting mode of the Glyph window is active:
New The TrueType Hinting panel now has two buttons. You can open the Code section either to the right or at the bottom of the panel. Use these buttons depending on where you dock the TrueType Hinting panel.
New When you place the cursor in the Code panel, FontLab now highlights the corresponding hint (arrow, double arrow, interpolation arrows, anchor) in the glyph canvas. And vice versa, hovering over the hint in the Glyph window highlights the corresponding line in the Code panel.
New When you change the scale for the pixel Waterfall Preview in the TTH ☰ menu and then close and reopen the Glyph window or just switch tools, FontLab correctly remembers and restores the selected Waterfall Preview scale.
New In the visual hint Options panel, the Align destination options are now disabled when Round length is on.
New When the hint Options panel is open and you switch to another glyph using Glyph > Next Glyph or Glyph > Previous Glyph, FontLab now hides the panel to avoid using it in the wrong glyph.
New When you add a link or interpolation instruction, FontLab instantly accepts it and adds the line of code to the Visual TT Program panel.
New The Show Off-curve Points button in the Property bar is now disabled when the current glyph has no TrueType curves.
Font window:
In the Font window sidebar, the Layers & Masters section, when you have multiple masters and some of them don’t include all glyphs, a circled number appears next to the master name.
When you click the master name, the Font window filter shows the glyph cells that have that master.
New When you click the circled number, the Font window filter shows the glyph cells that don’t have that master. This way you can easily find glyphs that are missing a particular master.
Fonts panel:
New The Fonts panel now shows an icon with several bars if the font has multiple masters.
Windows and panels:
New Preferences > General > Other now has a new option Close panels by CmdW. When this is on, the keyboard shortcut CmdW CtrlW behaves differently depending on where the user interface “focus” is (which UI element is active):
When a panel has focus, the keyboard shortcut is associated with Window > Close Panel. When you press the shortcut or choose the menu item, FontLab closes the currently active panel.
When a window has focus, the shortcut is associate with Window > Close Tab or Window > Close Window. When you press the shortcut or choose the menu item, FontLab closes the current tab, or the current window if it has no tabs.
Turn the preference off, and CmdW CtrlW will always close the tab/window.
Menus:
New The Tools > Commands & Shortcuts dialog now also lists all the commands from Font > Organize Fonts and Font > Rename Glyphs submenus.
UFO/VFB:
New When you export the font to UFO or VFB, FontLab no longer copies anchors from component sources to composite glyphs.
New When you open a UFO and a GLIF file defines linked metrics using Glyphs-compatible lib keys like com.schriftgestaltung.Glyphs.glyph.leftMetricsKey, FontLab now converts them into FontLab-compatible metrics expressions, the same way it does when you open a .glyphs file.
New When you export DesignSpace+UFO, FontLab now respects custom Family names set for instances in Font Info > Instances, and writes them correctly to the .designspace file.
Bug fixes:
Fix When the Font Window uses a codepage filter, it now shows the empty glyph cells as expected.
Fix Font Info > Overview now correctly displays the Safe Bottom value as a negative number, with minus.
Fix When you test OpenType features in the Glyph window and use the glyphtext /glyphname notation, FontLab now applies the features to all glyphs correctly.
Fix If a glyph layer has elements that have a live shift applied, and it has hints, when you change the live shift or expand the transformation, FontLab now updates the hints correctly.
Fix After you apply a filter in the Font window and click the + button at the bottom of the sidebar, FontLab now correctly stores the filter as a new bookmark.
Fix After you use the Fonts panel to duplicate a font, FontLab no longer hides the font guides in the original font.
Fix When you copy and paste multiple elements and hint(s) at the same time, FontLab no longer crashes.
Fix In Classes panel, if the name of a class is very long, the width of the left column no longer changes unexpectedly.
Fix When you edit the glyph name directly in glyph cell caption, the use of an invalid name shows an alert and keep the focus on the glyph. Previously, the focus jumped to the first glyph in Font Window table.
Fix If your feature definitions in the Features panel don’t contain languagesystem definitions in the Prefix section, FontLab automatically generates them when you click Compile Features. FontLab now generates the languagesystem definitions more correctly.
Fix In Font Info > Names, when you edit the Master name, FontLab no longer moves the text cursor to the end of the field.
Fix The Lookups panel now correctly displays the list of base glyphs in mark and mkmk features.
Fix In the TrueType Hinting mode, when you turn on pixel Waterfall Preview after adding a visual hint, FontLab no longer crashes.

New in FontLab 7.2.0 Build 7644 (Mar 13, 2022)

Features:
When a positioning lookup is active in the Lookups panel, the top of the Rules section now shows the MarkFilteringSet and the IgnoreBaseGlyphs flags.
TrueType Hinting:
When the TrueType Hinting mode of the Glyph window is active:
New The TrueType Hinting panel now has two buttons. You can open the Code section either to the right or at the bottom of the panel. Use these buttons depending on where you dock the TrueType Hinting panel.
New When you place the cursor in the Code panel, FontLab now highlights the corresponding hint (arrow, double arrow, interpolation arrows, anchor) in the glyph canvas. And vice versa, hovering over the hint in the Glyph window highlights the corresponding line in the Code panel.
New When you change the scale for the pixel Waterfall Preview in the TTH ☰ menu and then close and reopen the Glyph window or just switch tools, FontLab correctly remembers and restores the selected Waterfall Preview scale.
New In the visual hint Options panel, the Align destination options are now disabled when Round length is on.
New When the hint Options panel is open and you switch to another glyph using Glyph > Next Glyph or Glyph > Previous Glyph, FontLab now hides the panel to avoid using it in the wrong glyph.
New When you add a link or interpolation instruction, FontLab instantly accepts it and adds the line of code to the Visual TT Program panel.
New The Show Off-curve Points button in the Property bar is now disabled when the current glyph has no TrueType curves.
Font window:
In the Font window sidebar, the Layers & Masters section, when you have multiple masters and some of them don’t include all glyphs, a circled number appears next to the master name.
When you click the master name, the Font window filter shows the glyph cells that have that master.
New When you click the circled number, the Font window filter shows the glyph cells that don’t have that master. This way you can easily find glyphs that are missing a particular master.
Windows and panels:
Preferences > General > Other now has a new option Close panels by CmdW. When this is on, the keyboard shortcut CmdW CtrlW behaves differently depending on where the user interface “focus” is (which UI element is active):
When a panel has focus, the keyboard shortcut is associated with Window > Close Panel. When you press the shortcut or choose the menu item, FontLab closes the currently active panel.
When a window has focus, the shortcut is associate with Window > Close Tab or Window > Close Window. When you press the shortcut or choose the menu item, FontLab closes the current tab, or the current window if it has no tabs.
Turn the preference off, and CmdW CtrlW will always close the tab/window.
UFO/VFB:
New When you export the font to UFO or VFB, FontLab no longer copies anchors from component sources to composite glyphs.
New When you open a UFO and a GLIF file defines linked metrics using Glyphs-compatible lib keys like com.schriftgestaltung.Glyphs.glyph.leftMetricsKey, FontLab now converts them into FontLab-compatible metrics expressions, the same way it does when you open a .glyphs file.
New When you export DesignSpace+UFO, FontLab now respects custom Family names set for instances in Font Info > Instances, and writes them correctly to the .designspace file.
Bug fixes:
Fix Font Info > Overview now correctly displays the Safe Bottom value as a negative number, with minus.
Fix When you test OpenType features in the Glyph window and use the glyphtext /glyphname notation, FontLab now applies the features to all glyphs correctly.
Fix If a glyph layer has elements that have a live shift applied, and it has hints, when you change the live shift or expand the transformation, FontLab now updates the hints correctly.
Fix After you apply a filter in the Font window and click the + button at the bottom of the sidebar, FontLab now correctly stores the filter as a new bookmark.
Fix After you use the Fonts panel to duplicate a font, FontLab no longer hides the font guides in the original font.
Fix When you copy and paste multiple elements and hint(s) at the same time, FontLab no longer crashes.
Fix In Classes panel, if the name of a class is very long, the width of the left column no longer changes unexpectedly.
Fix When you edit the glyph name directly in glyph cell caption, the use of an invalid name shows an alert and keep the focus on the glyph. Previously, the focus jumped to the first glyph in Font Window table.
Fix If your feature definitions in the Features panel don’t contain languagesystem definitions in the Prefix section, FontLab automatically generates them when you click Compile Features. FontLab now generates the languagesystem definitions more correctly.
Fix In Font Info > Names, when you edit the Master name, FontLab no longer moves the text cursor to the end of the field.
Fix The Lookups panel now correctly displays the list of base glyphs in mark and mkmk features.
Fix In the TrueType Hinting mode, when you turn on pixel Waterfall Preview after adding a visual hint, FontLab no longer crashes.

New in FontLab 7.2.0 Build 7608 Beta (Nov 3, 2020)

Contour editing:
New: When a glyph layer has duplicate nodes (two consecutive nodes at the same coordinate), FontLab shows a red rhombus indicator. Duplicate nodes are not necessarily an error, especially if you work with multiple masters — in some masters, you may put two nodes on top of each other, and in other masters, you may move them apart. In FontLab 7.2, the rhombus indicator is slightly smaller.
Suggest distance:
New: When you turn on View > Suggest > Distance, and you drag a node, handle, selection or anchor, FontLab now draws a temporary suggested outline at the distance defined in Font Info > Other Values > Contour properties > Suggest distance. This is like having a freeform grid that adapts to your current drawing.
You can define separate horizontal (x) and vertical (y) distances, separately for each master.
If the distance is a positive number, the suggested outline appears outside the existing closed contours, and to the right of open contours.
If the distance is a negative number, the suggested outline appears inside the existing closed contours, and to the left of open contours.
Use Suggest Distance to position anchors at a specified distance from existing contours, or to transform the existing drawing, especially if you turn on Contour > Power Nudge, to quickly produce a bold or a condensed variant.
When you drag a point or anchor, it snaps to the suggested outline.
When you select some points or segments and start dragging a point (node or handle) of that selection, that point snaps to the suggested outline.
When you select some points or segments and start dragging the outline, FontLab chooses the nearest node of the selection as the snap point, and that snap point snaps to the suggested outline.
When you select one or more anchors and start dragging one of them, that anchor snaps to the suggested outline.
Add nodes at inflections with Knife:
When you activate the Knife tool (J) and hold Shift near a contour, the knife indicator now “jumps” not just to extrema points but also to New inflections. Shiftclick and FontLab adds a node at the extremum or New at the inflection.
If you have multiple masters and Edit > Match when Editing is on, and you use Shiftclick with Knife, FontLab adds the node at the extremum or inflection in the current master, and adds matching nodes in all other masters at the proportional position within the matching segments, which may not be extrema or inflections.
To add extrema in all masters, use Tools > Actions > Contour > Nodes at extremes, though it may result in masters that no longer match.
Adding a node selects it:
When you add a node on the contour using the Knife (hold J and click the outline) or with CmdCtrlAltclick, FontLab now selects the added node so you can instantly move it with the arrow keys.
Double-click a node has precedence over activating another glyph:
If the glyphs in your fonts are touching (for example in a script font) so that in the Glyph window text a node of the current glyph is on top of a node of another glyph, and if you have Edit > Edit Across Glyphs off, when you double-click the node in the current glyph, FontLab now converts it between sharp and smooth as you’d expect. Previously, FontLab activated the neighboring glyph.
Pen tool:
FontLab 7.2 improves the Pen tool. When you have started drawing a new contour, you now can click on top of another contour and FontLab will not stop drawing the current contour.
Simple calculations
New: You can now perform simple calculations (e.g. enter 50*3 or 230+50) in the text fields -
in the Add Oval dialog that appears when you click with the Ellipse tool
in the Contour > Expand Contour dialog
in the Contour > Create Parallel Contour dialog
in the Position fields of the Anchors & Pins panel

New in FontLab 7.1.4 Build 7515 (Aug 2, 2020)

New in FontLab 7.1.3 Build 7495 (Jul 15, 2020)

New in FontLab 7.1.2 Build 7436 (May 21, 2020)

New in FontLab 7.1.2 Build 7432 (May 11, 2020)

New in FontLab 7.1.1 Build 7383 (Mar 28, 2020)

New in FontLab 6.0.1.6558 (Dec 20, 2017)

Rewritten from scratch and in glorious Retina HD, this release is an important milestone in the development of our pro font editor. We’ve worked with the type industry’s best brains, creative thinkers and problem solvers. We’ve redesigned the user interface, so you can work with tabs on a notebook display or with floating windows on multiple monitors. We’ve unified the Glyph and Metrics Window, so you can draw and edit across multiple glyphs and masters, working on entire words or phrases at once.
Did we say draw? Drawing in FontLab VI is an immensely pleasurable experience! (As it should be, really, since that’s what you do most of the time.) The Pen and Pencil tools are better than ever, but with the brand-new Rapid tool, you’ll get pretty curves in many fewer clicks. Fancy new phrases like Power Nudge, Servant and Genius nodes, Tunni Lines, tension, Curvature, Harmonize and Balance don’t just promise easier and faster ways of getting the right curves — they deliver! These new techniques can assist you in your drawing process, but of course you’re the one with the final control over the curves, whether they are TrueType or PostScript.
We’ve replaced the more limited old Multiple Master interpolation model with a new Variations workflow, so you can have virtually unlimited axes, intermediate font and glyph-specific masters. You are no longer forced to have your glyphs point-compatible at all times, but if you do need point compatibility, our revolutionary Matchmaker tool and automatic Match Masters will get you there.
Element References are a powerful way to work with repeating paths and contours — more like CFF subroutines than TrueType components. You can use them not just for base and mark glyphs, but also for open path fragments like serifs, and they’re linked in a bi-directional way.
There are tons of other cool features to help you design typefaces and create fonts from start to finish, from a simple design to a really “ultra bold” complex project.

New in FontLab 5.2.1 Build 4868 (May 11, 2013)

Improved OpenType generation:
Adobe FDK for OpenType (AFDKO) version 2.5 is integrated, and the 6,400 glyph limit is removed. FLS can now save and generate fonts with up to 65,635 glyphs.
Interpolated Nodes:
Contour / Interpolate / Horizontal and Vertical enables and disables the “interpolated” state of a node (in X and Y separately). The position of an interpolated node will change accordingly if nodes between which an interpolated node is located are moved.
Class Kerning Overlay Preview:
All class members being overlaid semi-transparently on top of each other for the active kerning pair in the Metrics Window / Kerning mode if Tools / Options / Metrics window / Show all kerning class members for selected pair is enabled.
OpenType Layout-aware Metrics Window:
New setting in the Metrics window toolbar is available: Process Features. If enabled, OpenType Layout substitutions are performed to the text entered in the Metrics Window depending on the features enabled in the OpenType Preview panel. For example, if you type in “Hello” in the Metrics window, switch to the Metrics mode, in the OpenType Preview panel enable the “smcp” feature, then the Metrics window will show the glyphs “/H/e.sc/l.sc/l.sc/o.sc”. Works in the Metrics In the Preview, Metrics and Kerning mode of the Metrics window. OpenType Layout features must be compiled using the Compile button in the OpenType panel for this to work.
Additional Improvements:
This build supports Python 2.4, 2.5, 2.6 and 2.7 on Windows (the most recent Python is used).
New operation: Contour / Paths / Change Weight uses the Fontographer “Change Weight” algorithm to change the weight. Works differently than Actions / Effects / Bold/Outline.
New operation: Contour / Paths / Clean Up Paths uses the Fontographer “Clean Up Paths” algorithm. Works differently from “Optimize” and is not MM-compatible. This is also available as Action / Contour / Clean Up.
New view: Preview panel / Preview tab / Preview options dropdown menu / MM Blend. In an MM font, previews a series of interpolated instances of the current glyph between two masters. The number of instances previewed depends on the size of the panel.
Add Canvas Note in the context menu now creates a note inside a glyph which can be positioned inside the glyph window. There can be multiple in-glyph notes per glyph. The old Add Note behavior is now available as Add Glyph Note.
New setting in Tools / Options / Glyph Windows / Outline drawing / Thick outline results in a thicker outline being drawn in the Glyph window.
File / Import / Background now supports PNG, GIF and JPG in addition to TIFF and BMP.
All core bugfixes from FontLab Studio 5.1.3 on Mac OS X are now incorporated into FontLab Studio 5.2 on Windows.

New in FontLab 5.2.0 Build 4664 Beta (Oct 12, 2012)

Improved OpenType generation:
Adobe FDK for OpenType (AFDKO) version 2.5 is integrated, and the 6,400 glyph limit is removed. FLS can now save and generate fonts with up to 65,635 glyphs.
Interpolated Nodes:
Contour / Interpolate / Horizontal and Vertical enables and disables the “interpolated” state of a node (in X and Y separately). The position of an interpolated node will change accordingly if nodes between which an interpolated node is located are moved.
Class Kerning Overlay Preview:
All class members being overlaid semi-transparently on top of each other for the active kerning pair in the Metrics Window / Kerning mode if Tools / Options / Metrics window / Show all kerning class members for selected pair is enabled.
OpenType Layout-aware Metrics Window:
New setting in the Metrics window toolbar is available: Process Features. If enabled, OpenType Layout substitutions are performed to the text entered in the Metrics Window depending on the features enabled in the OpenType Preview panel. For example, if you type in “Hello” in the Metrics window, switch to the Metrics mode, in the OpenType Preview panel enable the “smcp” feature, then the Metrics window will show the glyphs “/H/e.sc/l.sc/l.sc/o.sc”. Works in the Metrics In the Preview, Metrics and Kerning mode of the Metrics window. OpenType Layout features must be compiled using the Compile button in the OpenType panel for this to work.
Additional Improvements:
This build supports Python 2.4, 2.5, 2.6 and 2.7 on Windows (the most recent Python is used).
New operation: Contour / Paths / Change Weight uses the Fontographer “Change Weight” algorithm to change the weight. Works differently than Actions / Effects / Bold/Outline.
New operation: Contour / Paths / Clean Up Paths uses the Fontographer “Clean Up Paths” algorithm. Works differently from “Optimize” and is not MM-compatible. This is also available as Action / Contour / Clean Up.
New view: Preview panel / Preview tab / Preview options dropdown menu / MM Blend. In an MM font, previews a series of interpolated instances of the current glyph between two masters. The number of instances previewed depends on the size of the panel.
Add Canvas Note in the context menu now creates a note inside a glyph which can be positioned inside the glyph window. There can be multiple in-glyph notes per glyph. The old Add Note behavior is now available as Add Glyph Note.
New setting in Tools / Options / Glyph Windows / Outline drawing / Thick outline results in a thicker outline being drawn in the Glyph window.
File / Import / Background now supports PNG, GIF and JPG in addition to TIFF and BMP.
All core bugfixes from FontLab Studio 5.1.3 on Mac OS X are now incorporated into FontLab Studio 5.2 on Windows.

New in FontLab 5.0.2 (May 26, 2006)

New Features:
In Metrics Window, pressing Ctrl/Cmd Up or Down goes to the previous or next pair in the Metrics/Kerning List.
Pressing Ctrl/Cmd when calling File / Print will use the previous settings of the dialog box.
The Rename Glyph window now allows you to rename the glyphs in classes and in the OpenType Layout features code.
The OpenType Features panel now displays glyph names that result from applying selected features.
On Mac, the genuine Adobe Type 1 rasterizer is now used by default to produce bitmaps from PostScript outlines rather than the Apple ATSUI rasterizer. This vastly improves the quality of the Type 1 hinting preview and Type 1 suitcase bitmaps.
Python handling was improved, some Python properties were added to the fl object (buildnumber, commonpath, usercommonpath, userpath).
Updated glyphname-to-Unicode mapping tables (.nam files). FontLab Studio 5.0.2 incorporates Adobe Systems� recent changes to their Adobe Glyph List for New Fonts: the mapping of the �problematic� characters Delta, Omega and mu was changed. The �AGLFN 1.4 (old) strict� table retains the previous mappings (to the "mathematical" codepoints), the �AGLFN 1.6 (new) strict� table includes only the current mappings (to the "Greek" codepoints), while the �Standard Table� now double-encodes the glyphs to map them into both the "mathematical" and the "Greek" slots. The �Standard without afiiXXXXX� table uses uniXXXX names instead of afiiXXXXX names � both sorts of names are valid. The �Standard with PUA� includes the old Adobe Corporate Use Area mappings and �AGL 2.0 (old)� is provided for reference purposes only.
Font Window:
Font window scrolling is fixed.
Changing encoding in the Names mode of the Font window updates cell template images properly if the installed font was choosen as a template.
Font window cells are rendered properly after creating component glyphs by drag-dropping composites from another font.
FLS doesn�t crash on removing a glyph in the Font window.
The Edit>Deselect command now deselects all cells in the Font window.
When Select All is used, the status line properly displays the number of selected glyphs.
Glyph Repertoire:
The Generate glyphs operation marks created glyphs with a black bar in the Font window cells.
The generate glyphs mechanism is fixed a little.
Some typos in the alias.dat file were fixed.
Glyph Window and Drawing:
Glyph Window doesn�t scroll to a random node on the same path after adding a node when zoomed in.
FLS doesn�t crash after numerous clicking on the button showing/hiding the Meter toolbar.
FLS doesn�t crash on closing if the Glyph Window toolbar floats.
Pressing Spacebar changes the mouse cursor into �Hand�.
Links and their sizes drawing is fixed.
Zooming with Ctrl(Cmd)-Alt-Space and Ctrl(Cmd)-Space now works properly.
The Parallel action now closes open contours if applied to more than one contour.
The Simplify Path operation�s bahavior is fixed. It has now two directions.
Pressing Cmd-Opt-Shift shows Meter tool cursor before mouse is pressed.
Bitmaps are shown properly in the TT Hinting Preview panel.
Measurement line doesn�t vanish under the baseline.
Mask and Background:
Tracing background bitmaps doesn�t create the unnecessary black border around the glyph.
Background bitmaps are created without cropping.
When Assigning font mask the Create new glyphs option now creates glyphs without contours (like �space�).
When Assigning font mask created glyphs retain their Unicode indexes.
Pasting a bitmap image from Photoshop into FontLab background layer pastes at normal resolution.
Components:
In the Glyph window, you can use the Cut (Cmd-X) command with Components.
Components can be mirrored properly now.
The commands Make First, HMirror and VMirror are available in the component context menu.
Connection marks for starting node are fixed.
Anchors:
Anchor�s coordinate values are not covered by the cursor when an anchor is moved.
The guidelines� custom names are rendered correctly.
Anchors panel: virtual composites are shown if you select a cell with an anchor in the Font window.
Multiple Masters:
When generating an instance from an MM font with anchors, the anchor positions are applied properly.
Rendering of MM font is fixed in the Preview Anchors panel.
It is possible to generate Mac Multiple Master fonts (Mac only).
Metrics Window:
The text cursor doesn�t disappear in the Text mode of the Metrics window.
Typing "period" in the Text mode of the Metrics window doesn�t go to the next glyph.
The text cursor size in the Text mode of the Metrics window fixed.
Metrics window: input of glyphs after re-sorting glyphs by names is fixed.
The limit for the size of the sample string in the Metrics window is increased.
Classes and Kerning:
Expanding and compressing kerning has been improved and the results are more consistent.
Clean Up Classes command is fixed.
FontLab Classes .flc files got their file type and creator.
Glyphs do not jump to the end of the list when dragged in the Classes panel.
FLS doesn�t crash now when expanding class kerning on generating OpenType font.
File handling, Import and Export:
Checking result of Save, font won�t close if save fails.
FLS doesn�t crash when non-ASCII characters are typed in the Save As dialog.
Mac Type 1 export: the unnecessary dialog asking for encoding doesn�t appear anymore.
INF file export can be switched off in the Save metrics dialog.
BlueScale values are rounded when Mac Type 1 font is exported.
FLS now accepts data from BitFonter when the Export As Pixel Outline Font command is selected (Mac only).
Default PFM character isn�t changed on re-import of the exported OpenType font.
�dfont� Mac TrueType export is now possible (Mac only).
Imported BDF bitmaps won't invert anymore.
TTFs with bad kerning do not hang FLS when imported.
Interoperability of digital signatures export (DSIG) and CacheTT.exe has been improved (Win only).
Improved Ikarus files import.
OpenType Layout:
Rebuilding the OT kern feature doesn�t crash FLS anymore.
Vertical glyph positioning in the OpenType preview panel (pos exclam ) is fixed.
Preferences:
Codepage selector for first 256 glyphs in OpenType TT Encoding now works properly.
Glyph window / Colors: Grid color can be changed now.
Glyph window / Appearance: �Show arrow on closepath� now works properly.
Customizable sample text string for the Open File dialog is now used for font preview.
Font Info:
Text pasted in Additional OT-Names field doesn�t have style or color.
Correct axis extreme value is shown for MM fonts.
Printing:
FLS doesn�t crash while printing a Font Sample.
Pressing Backspace in the system Print dialog does not delete glyphs in the Font window anymore.
Other User Interface:
Most tooltips now show keyboard shortcuts bound to them.
The Return and Enter keys now work in the �Save changes?� dialog.
The # symbol is available to UK keyboard users now when typed in the OpenType panel.
Unicode-aware combo boxes and text fields do not disappear in Windows 98.
Repetitive search of the string in the OpenType and Edit Macro panels is fixed.