Cheap way to make fonts?
- Started
- Last post
- 20 Responses
- ian
People, I want to make a font and I need a relatively inexpensive programme to do so. Got a suggestion for FontLab or some such item but its a wee bit pricey.
Is there a cheap alternative to make fonts?
- stewardes0
fontographer
- unknown0
steal it
s'that cheap enuff?
- rasko40
a tin of spaghetti letters.
- stewardes0
http://www.xs4all.nl/~maxb/eroty…
use fat people for bold
skinny people for light
and crippled for italic
- rasko40
HA! brilliant!
- ian0
Stewardes, not quite what I was thinking of but fantastic! Nearly scalded meself on my coffee!
Stealing is wrong, theoretically. But in theory Communism works. I have fontographer and its a pooey shade of brown. Is there a better way, apart from using crayons?
- rasko40
get on with it... just draw them in illustrator and drop them in .fog after.
- ian0
Tried it rask and they come out all wonkey like! Spent ages drawing them in illy and looking for a hassle free way to make em into a font without having to redraw them in Fontographer.
- stewardes0
yep Rasko, that's probably the easiest/cheapest way to fix the job i guess.
- rasko40
what do you mean they came out wonkey?
- ian0
Its just a bastard of a programme to use. I did a font in college and its really crappy, took me ages in fontographer. Just wondered if theres an easier way.
Apart from a tin of spaghetti letters.
Or kids fridge magnets.
- stewardes0
import the illustrator drawings in fontographer
- ian0
I copied and pasted, i think. Whats the best way? Save em as an ai or eps and import? I really should have nicked a manual from college.
- rasko40
its the best way.. seriously, I couldn't dream of actually drawing fonts in .fog.. IMPOSSIBLE!!
- rasko40
not being funny right but sometimes you just need to use your head. I taught myself fontographer about 6 years ago with no manual and worked out the following secret code of the bestest way to do typefontfaces... are you sitting comfortably?
- stewardes0
i guess eps, it's a while ago used fontographer. But if you have everything inside fontographer it's quite a job to set all the typographic shit right (spacing, kerning etc)
can't you nick a manual from the library?
- ian0
Ah ha, Im out of college now and I got a look at the manual for 1 night, tried my best to commit it to memory but drink has forced a huge chuck of it out.
Ans yes rask, I am sitting comfortably, impart your knowledge!
- rasko40
well its been 6 years but as I remember the best way I found is like this: (I use freehand but Illy will be the same.
draw a line the will act as your baseline and one for your x-height, make sure that all your alphabet is drawn in exactly the right place along the baseline.
Draw a square box that can accomodate your largest letter. Put it over your first letter to copy out...(now I say paste because that is what I did, however when trying to create a euro symbol for an existing font more recently I had trouble with copy/paste, see what works)...
now move the box to cover your second letter making sure to shift click so that the vertical axis remains fixed, this is important or else your baseline will be out..
Do this for all your letters, you use the box because it constrains the size of the letter and keeps the baseline constant... then in fontographer comes the fun part.. kerning.. what a bitch.. no short cut here, all I can recommend is trying to keep your letters with some kind of conformity but basically its a matter of adjusting those guide thingies and testing with different combinations of letters... sometimes in pasting in you will have trouble with compound paths.. sometimes it seems quite random but theres always a fix.
Overall thats really the quickest, easiest way I found to do it.
Hope it helps.
- rasko40
oh yeah I forgot to say; delete the container box when you get into .fog!!
- ian0
Cheers man, I tried that and things went a bit weird but I shall try it properly and see if I get anywhere! I will keep you informed of my progress!