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From what I’ve seen, type-design-specific apps have tools far more superior for drawing letters than Illustrator.
I’m wondering:
Beside type designers, do logotype designers and lettering artists use these tools in their work as well?
Do these programs have an option to export the vectors to Illustrator or do you have to save your artwork as a font to use it?
Tools are only as good as the user using them. I can do vector drawings with notepad and in quite many ways I have better tools available in notepad than in Illustrator*. Possibly your question could have been better if you could have asked of a specific tool.
* tools being better is up to debate, but vanilla notepad can easily make EAN codes, Isometric Drawings, Pubications, PDF files, and so on.
If you aren't a type designer then the answer is probably not. It is possible, but if you don't already have and know these tools it can be a big investment of time and money for not much gain. What you gain from these tools isn't the ability to draw shapes better but the tools for working with kerning, hinting etc. Features that you need for creating a whole typeface but not a logotype.
When you design a logotype you treat the whole thing as one form whereas designing a typeface you consider each individual characters form. If I'm designing a logotype, I'll rarely design each character separately. Obviously you can adjust and tweak the individual characters but that has to be done in context of the whole form.
I performed a comprehensive research about the topic for my diploma thesis. I asked letterers whether they use such software, and many answered yes. Usually, font tools have better curve drawing than any other application. At least they fit the needs for type drawing.
Sure – easiest way is copy and paste to another vector tool.
