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Old 03-08-2018, 06:54 PM   #1
Ronald
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Default Advice on hand-rendered fonts/lettering

Could someone direct me to information on how to create fonts by hand? I don't even need a fully functional font alphabet, but just a few letters for a custom logo. I'd like advice on using grids, proper spacing, and variations in thickness. The couple times I've tried creating letters in the past, I loved the loose sketches, but when trying to perfect and vectorize them, they often look stiff, imbalanced, or just strange.
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Old 03-09-2018, 01:23 PM   #2
terrie
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I knew that I knew of font creation/editing software but I couldn't bring it to mind so I did a forum search (searching on: create font) and found a thread from 2009 "Inexpensive Font Creation - Mac" which mentions 2 font creation tools and a thread from 2007 "BitFonter 3 (Mac, Windows)" which also might be useful--all 3 listed below are (now) part of FontLab and links below are to the specific software:

1. TypeTool -- mac and win versions and not too pricey at $47.99 and describes itself as "Value priced font editor for light users. Version 3.1 for Mac and Windows."


2. Fontlab - mac and win versions and quite a bit pricier at $408.99.


3. BitFonter - mac and win versions, $149...



Hope that gets you started...'-}}



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Old 03-09-2018, 01:55 PM   #3
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Did a bit more digging around in hopes of remembering the name of the font software I mentioned in my last post which was unsuccessful but doing a browser search (searching on: font creation software) and found the following--in no particular order:


1. Fontself - need Illustrator


2. I Love Typography articles on font creation


3. Free font editors, creation software - brief descriptions with links




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Old 03-10-2018, 01:33 PM   #4
Steve Rindsberg
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Fontographer, maybe?

https://old.fontlab.com/font-editor/fontographer/

   
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Old 03-12-2018, 08:18 AM   #5
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I don't know how good they are, but there are free online utilities for this. You could try this first.

   
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Old 03-12-2018, 09:27 AM   #6
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Or FontForge, at least it's free: http://fontforge.github.io/en-US/

   
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Old 03-12-2018, 11:43 AM   #7
terrie
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Quote:
steve: Fontographer, maybe?
That's not the one I can't remember the name of. It's driving me nuts that I can't remember the name of the software but it wasn't pricey--if memory servers it was $100 or less--and it allowed you to tweak existing fonts rather than being a full-blown font creation application.



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Old 03-13-2018, 06:14 AM   #8
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>> That's not the one I can't remember the name of.

I had a snappy reply to that but you went and spoiled it by providing more evidence than just the name. That you can't remember. ;-)

   
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Old 03-13-2018, 12:57 PM   #9
don Arnoldy
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ronald View Post
I don't even need a fully functional font alphabet, but just a few letters for a custom logo.
Then creating a font might be overkill.

I would work in Illustrator (or its like) and start with a typefaces that was close to what I envisioned. Convert name to outlines and tweek to your heart's content.

When building a logo, the letter forms only have to work with each other in the combinations used in the name—much simpler than trying to build a font, where they have to work in a myriad of combinations.

   
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Old 03-13-2018, 03:01 PM   #10
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Quote:
steve: but you went and spoiled it by providing more evidence than just the name. That you can't remember. ;-)
ROFL!!! '-}}



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