Font Design

[MyFox]

Programs you require; (Please read the tutorial make sure you know everything while you are downloading the programs)

Ai - Adobe Illustrator



FontLab Studio (I find this the easiest to use)



Creative mind (I am sure you already have)

Tutorial

Step One;

First I draw out the shapes of letter on a blank A4 piece of paper; i only write a few letters, just enough to give an idea about the font I am wanting to create. This is the hardest part out of them all so be creative, it is your font, have fun do what ever you want to.

Step Two; (Ai = Adobe Illustrator)

I then start drawing my fonts using circles and boxes (NOT The Pen Tool - This tool is a very unforgiving tool when creating fonts). You must have basic illustrator skills if you do not I would happily explain it to you. Start drawing your A letter first (this is what i do) Then continue and match the whole alphabet to the style you want. Once you have completed this make sure you have expanded every font so it has one single path (You will understand if not please ask that is a step you take in Ai).



Step Three;

Select your letter, in this case we are going to say A as it is the first letter of the alphabet. Open a blank canvas (i create it 1500 square so that is 1500px by 1500px) add a ruler mark aprox' 50px - 75px from the left edge. Now paste on your letter A, You will need to scale this letter. I usaly tend to scale between 400%-500% Make sure you scale using the % tool not the normal scale tool found in the toolbar on the left (your letter should be about one quater (1/4) of the canvas). Once you have scaled it place is on the bottom line of the open document up-close to the rule mark you created, now it is time to save it as a .EPS.

Saving as a EPS
(I am going to describe this using Ai CS3, It might corraspond to other versions of Ai)

Go to File > Save As, From the top drop down menu select legacy format, the one above the bottom one. So technicly the second from bottom one. Sorry I am writing this after a long day of chemistry and forensic studies so i am a slight by worn out.

Starting FontLab

This is a very simple program. I do not think it will require much thought to understand what you have to do. There are many letters, double click on the lower/upper case A. This should open a Glyph where you are able to edit your font. Go to File>Import>EPS You then need to find the A EPS file you saved (This must be in legacy format otherwise it will not open it). Now you have a ruler mark on the left and the right with your letter A in the middle. The left ruler should be fine, because you used the ruler when you saved it in Ai. Just drag the left ruler leaving a small gap to this ruler and the letter. This will give space between letters, so that they are not all connected and get mixed up with each other.

Now all you need to do is repeat the saving of every letter & importing every letter into FontLab once you have completed this you can add all your details about the font using File>Font Details (I am not sure i do not have font lab open) Once you have finished this you then go to File>Generate Font. This will then generate a font. To install it on Mac double click the font and click install font. For windows drag the font into your fonts directory inside your windows folder.

How simple was that. Congrat's you have just created a font.
I am sorry there are probably are come grammar errors combined with spelling errors so please do not bash my grammar. Hahaha.

I hope you found this helpful. If you did not send me an abusive message Hahaha Joking. Nevertheless if you need Ai help just ask. I will happily write you another tutorial. By the way i wrote this percificly for you and it has taken me about 1 hour. How boring am I, taking that long to create a tutorial.

I would love to see the fonts you create so please just message me saying that you have created one and i will happily take a look.

Kind regards and be creative

~Fox

[Distello]

I tried making two or three fonts once. Kept fucking them up when it came to transferring them to the builder program. Kerning etc...

[MyFox]

Font lab has a simple slider to adjust the Kerning, its very user friendly I find. What software was you using at the time?

Fox

[Distello]

High-Logic FontCreator I think.

[MyFox]

I have never used high logic sorry. But if you do decide you want to create another typeface (font) give font lab a try. If you have any trouble drop me a message and I will happily help you and anyone else who has any issues with it.