FontLab 8 vs Runebender
FontLab 8
fontlab.com
Runebender
runebender.orgSide by side
| Figure | FontLab 8 | Runebender |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $9.08/mo | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 6 | 1 |
| Spec score · Font Design Software | 8.1 (#9) | 7.4 (#24) |
| Support | The maker offers expert support with the Starter and Pro licenses and provides support through its support portal and email. | The FAQ directs users to open an issue in the project repository for help. |
Plans
FontLab 8
- Starter — 3-months license$97, paid once
- Workshop 2-weeks$99, paid once
- Student 1-year$109 a year
- Course 4-months$249, paid once
- Student / teacher lifetime$335, paid once
- Pro — Lifetime license$499, paid once
In their own words
Runebender
Runebender is a free font editor for UFO and Designspace sources, with tools for glyphs, paths, filters, components, anchors, masters, interpolation, spacing, kerning, feature code, color fonts, text shaping, font information, and font checking. It opens UFO and Designspace files, Glyphs files and packages, and compiled TTF or OTF fonts; Glyphs files are converted to UFO, while compiled fonts are opened as UFOs in memory. Babelfont packages can also be imported. Experimental local models can suggest a heavier glyph master from a lighter one, and local chat is available through font-ml. The browser editor runs on the user's machine without uploading files, but it has interaction gaps and is not recommended for real work. The native application has no packaged release and is installed from source with Cargo. Runebender is alpha software and writes UFO and Designspace files in place, so the documentation advises working on copies and keeping sources under version control. The project is licensed Apache-2.0 or MIT and maintained independently, not as an official Linebender project.