Does anybody know of free/open source programs that allow you to make your own fonts (export/save to .ttf or other)?
There are some more expensive programs like fontographer out there, but I was going to see if anybody knew of some free ones before I decide If I want to buy one.
You can’t get much better than FontForge. (it used to be PfaEdit)
http://fontforge.sf.net
IIRC, it imports TTF, OTF, PFA & PFB (Type 1 and 3), SVG fonts, and even Metafonts, TeX bitmaps, and BDFs; it exports all the above except MF, TeX, and BDF. You can also load bitmaps to trace by hand.
And if you are still on Windows, you can try Manutius:
http://www.typeforum.de/modules.php?op=modload&name=Downloads&file=index&req=getit&lid=56
Never really tried it…
It’s in german and seems to be abandoned…
And if you manage to design a font, feel free to share… 
BTW. My teacher once told me that he had tried one of this cheap “turn your handwriting into a font”-programs, and it wasn’t that bad… at least you can turn scans into type…
Edit: and if using Linux, Fontforge is your choice…
Thanks. I had seen fontforge on sourceforge, and while the developers say its for windows, I don’t really want to try and figure out which file.
I amtrying out Manutius as I type this. It looks pretty interesting, and since I know what paths, etc. are in photoshop/gimp its pretty easy to learn and has control point editing (like vertices) since its Java it should also be cross platform. It looks like it can only save in .pbf format though, so I am going to have to find a .pbf (type 1) to .ttf (true type converter) but that shouldn’t be too hard.
Thanks a lot.
Yeah, the only problem is that AFAIK FontForge only compiles on Windows under Cygwin (and it’s a bit of work to learn Cygwin for just one proggie). If you’re willing to do it, cheers, but it’s not very easy (you have to install Cygwin/X11 and set it up and then install the binary using the Cygwin Setup).
I tried fontfogre under linux, and it seams to be a very competent program, so if you have real interest of making fonts I think it’s worth it to install linux just for that…
I use “font creator program” what a lovely original name no? Not free, but it works well.
But I think it may work best to create the “letters” in corel draw and then export them to a program that can put them all together in a single font.
That’s the link to Font Creator Program. Windows only, not free but cheap, very high quality and the author is very receptive to feedback. There is also an on-site forum if you want to ask questions. Free 14-day trial download as well. I highly recommend it 
yah that’s the one.
also very helpfull when you want to design logos and such… and of course once something’s a font you can import it into almost any proggy.