How to create your own fonts and edit TrueType fonts

Posted on February 14, 2008 at 7:14 am

Wouldn’t it be neat if you could create your own TrueType fonts, name them whatever you want, and actually use them in your programs like Word, Photoshop, etc? I usually don’t write about software that isn’t free, but there’s some really cool software out there that you can use to not only create your own Windows fonts, but also to edit the fonts that are currently on your system!

High Logic has a very cool program called FontCreator that allows you to create and edit either TrueType or OpenType fonts. It also has some very powerful drawing and editing tools built for typographers and designers, as well as an intuitive interface for beginners!

This program is well-suited for designers and graphic artists, but it’s also great for people like me who just like to mess around with technology and do cool things! Here are some of the programs key features:

Create and edit TrueType and OpenType fonts
Redesign existing characters
Add missing characters to a font set
Convert images (e.g. a signature, logo or handwriting) to character outlines
Edit and recreate font names
Fix character mappings
Correct fonts that do not display correctly
Generate, modify, import, export, and clean up kerning pairs
Add/correct over two thousand composite glyphs
Transform individual glyphs or an entire font (i.e. to make a bold version)
Extract TrueType fonts from TrueType collections
Preview all fonts before installing
Install your fonts into Windows for use with Windows programs

To become familiar with FontCreator, you may as well go ahead and create your own font. First, you click File from the menu and then New.

Give your new font a unique name otherwise it will not install properly in Windows later on. This name is not the name of the file, it’s what will be shown inside programs, etc. For example, Times New Roman is the font family name and the file name is actually timesbd.ttf.

You’ll now see the glyph overview window, which is where you can actually draw in your letters. Double click on the cell with the caption “A” and you’ll now be brought to the glyph edit window. Choose Contour from the Insert menu to start creating your letters.

You can read the entire in-detail manual for using FontCreator here. If you still feel this is simply too hard or you want to create a font from your own handwriting, you will need to have some kind of drawing tablet and a graphical program such as Photoshop, Xara, etc that can save each letter you draw out as a GIF. There are also lots of free drawing programs out there also.

If you have each letter saved in GIF format, then you can import the letters into the glyph edit window by going to Tools and then Import Image. This way you don’t have to actually draw your letters using tools, but can just write them out.

After you have created a few fonts, you can test out your new customized font by going to Test in the Font menu. Start typing the letters and you should now see how your letters look in combination:

Now you can click Install from the Font menu to install the font into Windows. It is recommended to not simply copy the fonts to the Windows Fonts folder. Once installed, your font will be available in all of your favorite applications!

The process for creating your own fonts is not necessarily easy, but it’s definitely possible for most people with a little time and effort (and maybe a little cash too). Overall, though, it’s really cool to make your own fonts for sending cards, emails, etc! Enjoy!

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» Filed Under Computer Tips

Comments

4 Responses to “How to create your own fonts and edit TrueType fonts”

Madhur Kapoor said on : February 14th, 2008 at 12:50 pm

I need to work on my designing. I tried this with some fonts and really made a mess. Good software though.

MJ said on : February 14th, 2008 at 6:03 pm

I agree! It looks a tad bit tedious but I’m sure once you get it down it can prove to be very useful and fun.
Thanks for the post.

Chelsea said on : March 19th, 2008 at 1:06 am

thanks, this info really helped =)

Rogerio Balazar said on : June 23rd, 2008 at 7:08 am

tenho um texto manuscrito em potugUes de 1600 gostaria de transformar em fonte os caracteres escritos, de modo que eu possa digitar um texto e sair escrito com aquelas letrinhas terríveis, penso em copiar cada letra de A a Z para imagens tiff?? e dai converter estas imagens em fontes, como devo fazer