Creating your own font can be a fun and creative way to express your personality and style. There are many tools and websites that can help you design and generate your own fonts, but here are some tips to make them.
Have you ever wanted to create your own font, but didn’t know where to start?
Maybe you have a unique handwriting style, or you want to design a custom logo for your brand. Whatever your motivation, creating your own font can be a fun and rewarding experience.
In this guide, we will show you how to create your own font using Fontself, a simple Illustrator plugin that lets you turn your hand-drawn letters into digital fonts. You will need Adobe Illustrator CC, a 1mm black marker, a pencil, and a printout of this free template.
Step 1: Draw Your Letters
The first step is to draw your uppercase and lowercase letters on the template. You can use the horizontal divisions on each line to guide you. Start your letters in the middle division and go up or down depending on whether the letter has an ascender (like d) or a descender (like p). Try to keep the width of each letter consistent and use a ruler and pencil marks if needed.
You can also add numbers from 0-9 and any special characters that you want to include in your font, such as periods, commas, semicolons, exclamation marks, and question marks. If you want to use your font in a different language, you can also draw vowels with accents (like á, é, í).
When you are happy with your letters, trace them with the black marker and erase the pencil marks.
Step 2: Scan Your Letters
The next step is to scan your letters using at least 300dpi and a high-contrast setting. This will help you get rid of the grey lines on the template and make your letters more clear. You can use any scanner or app that you have access to, but make sure to save your file as an image (JPEG or PNG).
Step 3: Vectorize Your Letters
The third step is to open your image file in Illustrator and vectorize your letters. This means converting them from pixels to paths that can be scaled and edited. To do this, you can use the Live Trace feature in Illustrator, which automatically traces the outlines of your letters.
To use Live Trace, select your image and go to Window > Image Trace. Then choose a high-contrast preset like Black and White Logo. You can adjust the settings as needed until you get a clean result. When you are done, click Expand to turn your image into vector shapes.
Step 4: Install Fontself
The fourth step is to install Fontself, the plugin that will let you create your font. Fontself is a paid tool that costs $49 for Illustrator or Photoshop, but you can also try it for free for 30 days.
To install Fontself, go to their website and download the installer for your operating system. Then run the installer and follow the instructions. You will need to restart Illustrator after installing Fontself.
Step 5: Create Your Font
The fifth step is to create your font using Fontself. To do this, open the Fontself panel by going to Window > Extensions > Fontself Maker. Then drag and drop your letters into the panel according to their category (uppercase, lowercase, numbers, etc.). Fontself will automatically assign each letter to its corresponding glyph.
You can also adjust the spacing and kerning of your letters by using the sliders or typing values in the panel. Spacing refers to the space between each letter, while kerning refers to the space between specific pairs of letters. You can also preview your font by typing in the text box at the bottom of the panel.
Step 6: Export Your Font
The final step is to export your font as an OpenType file (.OTF), which is a standard format that works on most platforms and applications. To do this, click on the Export button at the top right corner of the panel. Then choose a name for your font and save it in a location of your choice.
You can also share your font with others by clicking on the Share button next to the Export button. This will generate a link that you can copy and paste anywhere.
Congratulations! You have just created your own font!
Conclusion
Creating your own font can be a fun and rewarding experience that lets you express your creativity and personality. With Fontself, you can easily turn your hand-drawn letters into digital fonts that you can use for personal or commercial projects.
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