Corel Draw, from version 3 on, supports TrueType font design.  Since it's much less costly than FontLab, it's also more accessible.  I had purchased an old copy of it (version 4 circa 1993, from a used-software store) and never knew it had the ability to produce fonts until I started searching the World Wide Web for font design software.

The only thing about using Corel Draw, particularly the early versions of it, are that the TrueType export feature doesn't happen with a vanilla, regular installation.  You must perform a custom installation.  On the first set of pages I show how I installed Corel Draw 4 to get it usable for exporting TrueType fonts.  Remember, this is Corel Draw 4.  Later versions' windows and dialog boxes may appear differently, and the sequence of actions may also differ.  This is presented because: (a) it's the only version of Corel I have, and (b) this is intended to get you going off on, I hope, the right foot.

Soon I will add to this page the step-by-step for actually creating a font using the drawing tools in Corel Draw.

Installing Corel Draw 4 For TrueType Export Support