Dan Smith's Frequently Asked Questions

General Font Questions:

1. How do you make fonts?
2. Can you give me a copy of your font editor?
3. Can you make a custom font for me?
4. Can you mail me a floppy with your fonts?
5. Will you make Macintosh versions of your fonts?
6. Do you know where I can find any 'XENA - Warrior Princess' fonts?
7. I've downloaded the fonts, now how do I get them to work?
8. How do I install the fonts on my Windows PC?
9. There's a Virus! in the font files!!!
10. Windows/XP puts spaces between the Tengwar letters!

Tolkien Font Questions:

1. What is the Elvish word for 'tomato' ?
2. Where did you get the information about Tengwar numerals?
3. Why is the Tengwar letter for 'B' not found at 'B' on the keyboard?

How do you make fonts?

Fonts are made with a font-editing program. There are several such programs on the market. The one that I prefer to use, FontMonger, is no longer commercially available. Other font-making programs are Fontographer and FontLab. There are only two shareware font editors that I know about. I have never used either and cannot comment about them. The first is called 'Softy', the second is called 'Font Creator Program'.

Can you give me a copy of your font editor?

No. That's called software piracy.

Can you make a custom font for me?

Probably not. Right now (fall 2006) my life is simply overflowing with activities, and since I only make fonts in my spare time, I currently don't have the time to start any new font projects. Someday I hope to beging working on a font (or series of fonts) based on the mysterious Rongo-Rongo script of Easter Island.

Can you mail me a floppy with your fonts?

No. You are free to download any fonts that you find on my WWW home page, but I will not mail-out floppies containing my fonts.

Will you make Macintosh versions of your fonts?

No. My font editor (FontMonger) can only produce Windows TrueType and Windows Type-1 postscript fonts. The following Web site does contain Tolkien-inspired and Fantasy fonts for Macintosh systems:

Yamada Language Center Font Archive

Do you know where I can find any 'XENA - Warrior Princess' (or any other weird) fonts?

No. I have never heard of such a font, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. You may want to browse thru my Fantasy Fonts, Sci-Fi Fonts, or General Font links pages in search of your mystery font.

I've downloaded the fonts, now how do I get them to work?

The font files have been compressed into a 'ZIP' file so that they can be downloaded quickly. To use the fonts you will need to first 'unZIP' them and then install them.

• To unZIP a file, you will need an unZIPing program. One of the best ZIP/unZIP programs for Windows is called 'Win-Zip'. A fully-functional evaluation copy can be downloaded from their WWW site: www.winzip.com. Just download it and install it. It works great!
• Use the WinZip program to unZIP the downloaded file into a temporary directory on your hard drive.

How do I install the fonts on my Windows PC?

Once the 'ZIP' files have been UN-ZIPed and font files are sitting in a temporary directory on your hard drive; you must use your Windows Control Panel to install them properly.

• The fonts must be installed using your Control Panel, moving the font files to the 'C:\Windows\Fonts' folder doesn't always work right.
• Here's how I install Windows fonts on my Windows98 PC:
  1. Click on [Start]
  2. Click on [Settings]
  3. Click on [Control Panel]
  4. Double-click on the Fonts icon in the Control Panel window
  5. In the Fonts window, click on the [File] drop-down menu
  6. Click on [Install New Font]
  7. Navigate to the drive/folder containing the un-ZIPed font files
  8. Click on [Select All]
  9. Click on [OK]
• Once downloaded, unZIPed, and properly installed, the fonts should work with any Windows application.

There's a Virus! in the font files!!!

No there isn't! The Microsoft Word document template files (*.DOT) included with my fonts may trigger a FALSE positive when using a many Anti-virus programs. This is why:

The Microsoft Word document template files contain Worbasic macros. Microsoft has found that some Hackers have been able to insert destructive commands into their WordBasic macros. Companies that make Anti-virus software have responded by making their programs scan and report any occurrence of WordBasic macros in Microsoft Word documents or document templates. If you are using such an Anti-virus program, and you attempt to open one of my Microsoft Word document template file, your WordBasic anti-virus detector may identify my WordBasic macros and FALSELY identify them as a virus.

My WordBasic macros have been tested and have run without problems on several different PCs running Microsoft Word 6.0, 7.0 (Word 95), 8.0 (Word 97) and Word 2000 on Microsoft Windows 3.1, 95, 98 & NT4. None of the WordBasic macros downloaded from this WWW site contain any commands or instructions that could in any way harm or damage your PC. But just to be safe and legal I need to state that:

By installing these Fonts and associated WordBasic macros on their PCs, the user assumes all responsibility for their use or misuse. Daniel S. Smith can not be held responsible for any damages caused by using these Fonts or WordBasic macros.

Windows/XP puts spaces between the Tengwar letters!

Sometimes Windows/XP users experience an annoying problem with the Tengwar fonts. When a certain, hidden Windows/XP setting is turned on, all the tehtar (vowel marks) appear to the right of where they are designed to be, making it look as if there were spaces between the letters. To fix this behavior, and make the Tengwar appear normally, do the following:

1. Click on [Start]
2. Click on [Settings]
3. Click on [Control Panel]
4. Double-click on the "System" icon in the Control Panel window (If you don't see it, it's listed under "Performance and Maintenance" in category view.
5. In the Fonts window, click on the [Advanced] tab
6. Un-check the "Smooth edges of screen fonts" box
7. Click on [OK] until all dialog boxes close

What is the Elvish word for 'tomato' ?

I do not know. I am not an expert on Tolkien-inspired Languages, I just like the Tolkien-inspired Alphabets! Good places to find information about Middle-earth languages are:

Resources for Tolkienian Linguistics by Carl Hostetter

Tolkien Language Information by Julian Bradfield

Ardalambion by Helge Fauskanger

On-line Tengwar Transcriber (specify Output=PNG)

Where did you get the information about Tengwar numerals?

Information about Tengwar Numerals came from some of J.R.R.Tolkien's notes that were presented to the publishers of the Tolkien Language Journal 'Quettar' by Christopher Tolkien in the early 1980's. To learn how to subscribe to 'Quettar' visit Julian Bradfield's Tolkien Language Web page.

Why is the Tengwar letter for 'B' not found at 'B' on the keyboard?

The keyboard layout is (generally) based on the J.R.R.Tolkien's Tengwar chart found in Appendix E of "The Lord of the Rings", except that it is laying on it's side. There are two reasons for this:

• The Tengwar alphabet was designed by J.R.R.Tolkien to be a generic quasi-phonetic alphabet, easily adapted by different races of beings for their own languages. The Tengwar letters do not have fixed phonetic values. They can be and are re-defined by each group that use them. For example, Tengwar letter #22, can be used for 'V', 'W', 'M', or 'OO' depending on the language and mode being used. If I were to place Tengwar letter #22 at the 'V' on the keyboard, it would be in the wrong place for the people using other Tengwar modes.
• Many of the Tengwar letters can be represented by multiple versions of a symbol. For example, Tengwar letters #29 and #30 are often used to represent the 'S' sound, except at the ends of words - where a downward pointing curly-hook is used. So these are potentially three Tengwar letters to represent the English letter 'S' - which one should appear on the 'S' key on the keyboard ? This gets even more complicated if you consider the vowels. There can be as many as nine different variations to each of the vowel symbols.

I believe that I have done the best with what I had. My Tengwar fonts contain over 170 characters, about half of them are available on the keyboard, about half require special keystrokes. I tried to make sure that most of the frequently used letters were available at the keyboard, and that the font's usability is balanced with it functionality.

Daniel Steven Smith

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