Hello!
I’m in the vinyl graphic design industry as a installer but have been trying to get more into the design aspect of things. I decided I wanted to create my company logo from scratch including the lettering, i started my creating individual files for the letters but now want to convert them into a actual font and want them to look more uniform. anybody have any experience with this that might be able to help? thank you in advance!
For starters, you might try an opensource font creator called Fontforge.
If you’re a bit more serious, there the Macintosh-only application I use (and love) called Glyphs.
There’s also the more expensive, more complicated, but very capable FontLab, which I also use.
There’s also Fontographer, which was the original desktop font creator that dates all the way back to the 1980s. It hasn’t been updated in a few years, still costs money, but still works just fine (except on the newer Mac OS, where it no longer works at all).
Robofont’s also an option used by some of the big type foundaries, but in some ways it’s more of a development environment than an out-of-the-box font design tool. I wouldn’t recommend starting there.
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Thank you for the sources. I did try Fontforge breifly but I am brand new in the design aspect of my company so it is a little mind boggling learning how to use it adequately.
Yes, font creation software is complicated because there’s a lot that goes into it that most people don’t realize.
I think there might be a few simpler, low-cost or free, drag and drop sorts of applications made simply for creating very basic, no-frills fonts, but I’m unfamiliar with them since I create commercial fonts and have no particular need for them. A Google search ought to turn up a few of those options, though.
What would someone like yourself charge to create a font for me if I give an example? Its a very simple font.
If done right, there’s really no such thing as a simple font. The forum rules don’t allow discussing specific prices, but multiply what most people might assume by 20 times and it would be in the ballpark. Seriously, it’s a ton of work to build a good font — even a one-weight font with a basic character set. There are quick and dirty ways to get it done, but as someone involved with vinyl signs, maybe you’ve had cutting issues with those kinds of fonts.
I’ll say it again – I heard this before.
no i understand where you are coming from. I’m a perfectionist so it takes me 20x longer then some if it is one of those jobs. i have TONS of time in the font already and only have 10 letters to the point of finishing touches. i also barely know what I’m doing as well soo…
My late friend who sadly passed away wrote an amazing script
There’s an updated article linked in the above.
Hope it helps.
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To give you some idea; I have a font I have been working on, on and off, now for 8+ years. Still not happy with it – and I haven’t started the italics yet! It’s a Sisyphean task for obsessives!
I dislike building the italics. They’re more difficult than the uprights and they’re used far less.
Yes, but not wishing to descend too far into geek territory, italic lower case fs are always a bit of a guilty pleasure to draw.