How To Create Font Design

The 6 Best Sites for Creating Your Own Font

By Sydney Franklin | June 2019

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Fonts are one of the biggest parts of design! I personally think typography is THE MOST important thing when it comes to design, but that might just be me! All joking aside, fonts are a large part of our subconscious, evoking emotions that we may not realize until we sit and ponder the composition of a poster or sign.

There are fonts that are standard in software, but have you ever considered creating your own font from your handwriting? Creating a font adds a touch of humanity to something that may have been sterile, especially when you are designing a poster for a show or adding some pictures to Facebook.

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Many sites these days allow you to experiment and stretch your creativity by offering free ways to create your own font. We tested out some sites and came up with the ones we thought were best -- some just have tools to create fonts, while others allow you to design your own. You choose a font and then the site guides you through the entire alphabet (uppercase, lowercase, symbols), you draw each letter using the font as a guide for size and shape. This doesn't mean you need to follow their font to a T, so think outside the box and try something new.

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Our new ArcStone office on a lovely Spring day.

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IfontMaker - Is still the best tool for creating a font. The photo above was made with a font designed in IfontMaker, and were extremely easy to use. Creating your very own font can take less than 5 minutes and be made just by using your fingers. Your new font can then be installed on your computers as well as your iPad and iPhone for any apps.
Consider reading our blog post on choosing website builder to help you.
FontStruct - is a free browser-based tool for creating your own typography. It lets you create your own fonts quickly and easily. This tool allows you to download your font as a TrueType, share your fonts with the FontStruct community and even browse or download fonts uploaded by others.
Fontographer -Fontographer is another great font editor that lets you customize existing fonts to make them your own and even provides the tools for helping you create new fonts. It is available for Windows and Mac systems.
Calligraphr - Calligraphr is the new and improved version of MyScriptFont. It is easier to use and you don't need a scanner anymore. All you need to do is print out the downloadable template and fill it out with a black pen to create your own font. Then, take a picture of it on your phone and upload it to this site. From there it will generate your very own font from your very own handwriting! You can then use your new font on your computer!
YourFonts - YourFonts is similar to Calligrapher, but it doesn't have as many character options. Try out both, and see which fits your needs better.
Raster Font Editor - Raster Font Editor is a separate app, meaning you can use it directly via your portable storage device, such as a USB flash drive, or cloud storage app, like Dropbox, without having to install it. It's not as opulent in features like some of the other sites mentioned, but it can be a preference for those that need only basic font editing features and software portability.

There are just a few of the many awesome sites out there that provide you with the capabilities of creating your own fonts. It is totally worth it to be unique and make your fonts stand out!

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Topics: Design and Technology