FontForge

FontForge is intended for creating and editing fonts. Every time you start the program, there is an initial menu that lets you pick the desired task.

Luckily, you do not always need to start from scratch as it also allows modifying existing font sets. In this regard, it is excellent that the tool supports various font formats, including Bitmap, PostScript, TrueType, Outline and OpenType. It can even extract fonts from a PDF document.

The program has a built-in editor that allows you to design each character in the set separately until the whole type is completely. Luckily, you have full freedom to draw whatever you need thanks to the availability of many drawing tools, like curve points, hand scrolling and measurement. It is also quite convenient that you can use layers to design the elements of the character independently from one another. Finally, you can accompany the set with information regarding its name, size, style and Unicode range.

FontForge is not the kind of program everyone can use, even if they study the online help documentation. Its interface looks rather complicated, probably because there are too many windows and dialog boxes with lots of configuration options. In addition, it requires at least some background knowledge of graphic design to achieve the best results. This is an open-source product; yet, donations are encouraged for keeping the project going.