Answering several font questions:

Lars wrote:
<<
I've downloaded a couple of free fontbuilding programs to build the  
Urianian 'runes', but I'm not quite happy with them, or with my  
efforts. Maybe I should outsource the job? Or maybe you know some  
tools that I'm not aware of?
 >>

I have a font-making program that I paid money for ages ago,
and I've been using it ever since.  It simply allows me to create
fonts by hand.  I've been doing it awhile, and have gotten pretty
good at it.  For some examples of my fonts, you can look at the
images at the following pages:

http://dedalvs.free.fr/zhyler/orthography.html
http://dedalvs.free.fr/sathir/orthography.html
http://dedalvs.free.fr/njaama/orthography.html
http://dedalvs.free.fr/epiq/orthography.html
http://dedalvs.free.fr/gweydr/orthography.html
http://dedalvs.free.fr/tantyls/orthography.html
http://dedalvs.free.fr/sidaan/orthography.html
http://dedalvs.free.fr/x/determinatives.html
http://dedalvs.free.fr/x/substantives.html
http://dedalvs.free.fr/kamakawi/names.html
http://dedalvs.free.fr/kamakawi/zorthography.html
http://www.theiling.de/schrift/learn-split.cgi?mode=kamakawi;prot=3
http://dedalvs.free.fr/megdevi.html
http://dedalvs.free.fr/kamakawi/babel.html
http://dedalvs.free.fr/sheli/poetry.html

I also recently created a font for Kevin Urbanczyk's Proto-Drem
which I'm rather fond of.  There's a sample of it here:

http://dedalvs.free.fr/misc/dremex.jpg

Jeff wrote:
<<
What kind of help did you have in mind? I have a couple .bmp files ....
 >>

I've created fonts for other people from scratch, and fonts from
image files.  I don't have copy and paste ability, so I just look at
the actual glyph and copy it by hand.

Ollock wrote:
<<
Do you have ways to create fonts that can make character into two or  
three
different glyph types and arrange them into syllable blocks?
 >>

I don't quite understand what you mean.  If you use a Windows
computer, there's considerably less freedom in how many glyphs
you have, and where you can put them on the keyboard.  If you
wanted to create three different font tiers that were searchable
with the "insert symbol" function, I'm not sure I know how to do
that (perhaps I would if I used a Windows machine).  If you mean
simply have fonts where you can type in different characters to
produce a single glyph, yes, I can do that, and have done it before
with Sheli (you type in a consonant to get the top half of a glyph,
and the vowel to get the bottom half).  If I were to create a syllabic
font (like Japanese) for myself, I would utilize the Mac ability to
map various characters to various keys.  For example, for Kamakawi's
syllabary, I did this (this is a sample):

ka = k
ko = K (shift + k)
ki = g
ke = G (shift + g)
ku = q

Of course, Kamakawi doesn't have very many consonants, so
this works out quite well.  If you had a lot of consonants, you
could do something like this:

ka = k
ke = K (shift + k)
ki = ˚ (alt + k)
ko =  (alt + shift + k)
ku = g (or some other character)

Of course, this only works on a Mac.

One wonderful thing about Macs is you can make suitcases.  I've
utilized this for Kamakawi.  So, for example, if you type in the
font normally, you get the syllabary, and some grammar function
glyphs.  If you italicize the font, you get a second set of characters,
these being disyllabic glyphs composed of syllabary glyphs.  If
you bold the font (that is, bold non-italicized), you get glyphs that
are more pictographic, and maybe more than two syllables.  If
you make the font bold *and* italic, you get a fourth set of glyphs
that are more complex.  This allows me to have four entirely different
fonts in one.  The same effect could be achieved with four entirely
different fonts (and might work on Windows if you simply kept
them as separate font files, now that I think about it...).

Is this close to what you meant?  If it's not, chances are I probably
don't know how to do it.  :(

-David
*******************************************************************
"A male love inevivi i'ala'i oku i ue pokulu'ume o heki a."
"No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn."

-Jim Morrison

http://dedalvs.free.fr/