Tutorials > Digital Design
Creating a calligraphy font :)
PrettyLittleDetails:
Hi everyone!
I was wondering if any of you have created your own font with your calligraphy. I have been working on creating a new logo for my blog (hand lettering it & then using Erica's tutorial to digitize it), but now I'm thinking I would like to use the same calligraphy on other areas of my website as well. I am thinking the easiest way to do this would be to create my own font, so I wouldn't have to scan individual artwork every time I wanted to add something. Does anyone have any recommendations on where to start? Are there any specific programs I would need to create my own font? Has anyone had success with this?
Thanks for all your advice!
Jennifer Ashley
www.prettylittledetails.ca
tintenfuchs:
If you're looking for the easy way out, forget that. Creating a font is way more work than scanning and digitizing everything. It's not just scanning the images and putting them into a program. You have to vectorize each letter and for the actual writing to look right, you'll have to work on the letter connections, the kerning (i.e. the distance between the letters – and by that I mean between every letter and every other letter) etc etc etc. Creating a font is a huge amount of work. If you try to just paste your letters into a program, it would not connect the letters, it wouldn't make words but just paste the letters next to each other. Creating a calligraphy/script font is a huge challenge.
Just my 2 cents after taking type design classes for a semester.
Linda Y.:
FontLab is what many pros use. Natascha/sisterofdream is right on the money - it's very tedious work and definitely not as easy as writing a-z, A-Z, scan it in and let the software do its magic.
I've had a potential client ask me to create a custom font for their non-profit org, and I ended up sending them to MyFonts.com to purchase script fonts that have the "calligraphic" look.
PrettyLittleDetails:
Thanks for the warning @sisterof dream! I think I'm up for the task though so I'm going to give it a try ;)
Thanks for the FontLab suggestion @Linda Y. I looked the program up and its definitely out of my price range, but while googling it I came across a similar free program called FontForge. I'm downloading it right now, so I'll have to see how it works!
tintenfuchs:
Also a very good programme (and in my opinion more user-friendly) is Glyphs.
Good luck and please share your results!
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