[Mike Gondek]

Fontographer
Came out in late 80s and was the industry standard for creating fonts with out really anyhting close to it
https://www.fontlab.com/font-editor/fontographer/

Fontlab came out about 10 years after Fontographer and was loaded with extra features most notably the ability to generate cross platform Opentype Fonts.
https://www.fontlab.com/font-editor/fontlab-studio/

I have not used either in quite some time, but looks like Fontographer can’t do Opentype. Most everyone I know is using Fontlab now.

[Mike Gondek]

Thankyou I needed that.

[Mike Gondek]

How did you outline yourtype, what command did you use? This looks like you used the command
object >> path >> outline Stroke

I am not sure if the final result you need is the outermost shape, but select the hollow pointer tool, click on what you want to delete and delete this.

If all you need is the outermsot shape, you can select all >> pull down the pathfinder palette >> alt click on the first icon unite.

[Mike Gondek]

File >> automate >> batch
Change destination from: folder to: save and close

make sure “override action save as commands” is unchecked

[Mike Gondek]

I believe you are asking how to add a stroke in photoshop.

Select the layer you would like to stroke

Layer >> Layer Style >> Stroke

This layer style will add a line around the transparency of the layer.

Please let me know if I misunderstood your post. The words em & nuddle, I interpreted as “M” and “Noodle”.

[Mike Gondek]

In Illustrator you cannot specify a gradient stop to have transparency as in Photoshop, as far as I know (someone please correct me if I am wrong).

You could achieve this by:
selecting your gradient
copy to clipboard
keep the original item selected
go to the transparency palette flyout menu
choose make opacity mask
click on the icon on the right side of the transpency palette (the mask)
paste in front (CTRL F or CMD F on mac)
You can then edit the gradient you pasted in front, which acts as a transparency mask.

[Mike Gondek]

Double clik on the pencil or brush tool. Uncheck edit selected path. You can also set yhe tolernace to a low number for that and you should not edit your selected path.

[Mike Gondek]

Draw a tall vertical rectangle. Switch to your area text tool. Click on the rectangle, and type in or paste your text. Select the entire object and rotate it this 90 degrees. These object >> envelope distort >> make with warp: arc 50%.

For this to look correct you will want your initial rectangle to be about 1/10th the width of the height (eg: 100 pts wide by 1000pts tall). This way the type won’t look very distorted. The sample you gave appears to have a very small distortion to the type (the type is a little taller on the left (outside of circle) side than on the right).

Great question, thanks.

[Mike Gondek]

I am able to drag the anchor point in CS4 while doing a free transform. Try resetting your preferences.

[Mike Gondek]

This can be done by drawing 2 paths with the bezier pen tool. Then apply a blend to this and set the specified steps to a low number (eg: 4 steps would give you 6 total lines). Since blends are live, you can edit each bezier point, and the wave will change.