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Make your own font, FREE!


gingerbreadmann

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I've always wanted to do this but never wanted to pay for Fontifier...

Yourfonts is a site that lets you download their template, print it, write your own written letters on, scan it, and make a TTF font of your handwriting, for free! Also, the template is a PDF, so I don't see why anyone couldn't load this into AI and make real fonts with this tool, and if you do it all virtually, no printing or scanning required. I have to go try this now. Awesome!

I love you, Lifehacker!

Imma let you know right here and right now...

...it WORKS.

(The proof will show itself soon enough... ^_^ )

*Disclaimer: I am not an authoritative expert on stuff...I just do a lot of reading and research and keep in close connect with a bunch of people who are authoritative experts on stuff. 😁

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I tried, but the font turned out pretty rough. But there's probably a better way to do it than what I did.

Explain to me what it was you did and/or how you did it and what you were going for. I might be able to help.

*Disclaimer: I am not an authoritative expert on stuff...I just do a lot of reading and research and keep in close connect with a bunch of people who are authoritative experts on stuff. 😁

|| dribbble || Behance ||

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I tried, but the font turned out pretty rough. But there's probably a better way to do it than what I did.

Explain to me what it was you did and/or how you did it and what you were going for. I might be able to help.

I typed out the rows of text with an existing font, making sure that they were all lined up in the template. Then I made the letters into objects and worked with them until I got something I liked. I then exported it as a .png file and uploaded to the site. It looked fine in the small print of the example, but when I went to use it, the lines were crooked, and some letters were raised a pixel or two. I do use Inkscape though, not AI, so maybe that has something to do with it.

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I tried, but the font turned out pretty rough. But there's probably a better way to do it than what I did.

Explain to me what it was you did and/or how you did it and what you were going for. I might be able to help.

I typed out the rows of text with an existing font, making sure that they were all lined up in the template. Then I made the letters into objects and worked with them until I got something I liked. I then exported it as a .png file and uploaded to the site. It looked fine in the small print of the example, but when I went to use it, the lines were crooked, and some letters were raised a pixel or two. I do use Inkscape though, not AI, so maybe that has something to do with it.

That pixel-difference thing happened with me, too. But, considering I don't think that site was meant for what it is (we're) trying to do here, AND for having converted shapes to letters so fast, I'll take a difference of a pixel or two! =D (Plus...how many freeware fonts have you downloaded that had all kinds of zigs and zags and 30,000 anchor points per letter?)

I will ask this, though: how did you set your template up? I don't have Inkscape--although I probably should DL that so I can see what it is you 'Scapers out there are working with. Whatever the case, are you able to use guides (guidelines) in that program? If so, then I HIGHLY suggest you do that--in fact, that's good advice for pretty much ANYTHING you do with type or hell, with design period. It takes a considerable amount of time to set up, but the payoff is well worth it in the end. The hey to it, though, is that you want to make sure you have each letter in the exact same spot in each square--this will help with things like letter and line spacing. One more thing: does Inkscape have a grid option? I know in AI, there's a function that allows you to "snap to grid" or "snap to point" for more fine-tuning. You might want to find out if Inkscape has a similar feature.

If you could, you think you could post a screenshot or image of the text you're working with? This may help me (and any other curious readers) see what it is you're doing, so that we can help you out a little more. I wish I could be of more assistance, but I'm comletely ignorant to Inkscape.

*Disclaimer: I am not an authoritative expert on stuff...I just do a lot of reading and research and keep in close connect with a bunch of people who are authoritative experts on stuff. 😁

|| dribbble || Behance ||

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I tried, but the font turned out pretty rough. But there's probably a better way to do it than what I did.

Explain to me what it was you did and/or how you did it and what you were going for. I might be able to help.

I typed out the rows of text with an existing font, making sure that they were all lined up in the template. Then I made the letters into objects and worked with them until I got something I liked. I then exported it as a .png file and uploaded to the site. It looked fine in the small print of the example, but when I went to use it, the lines were crooked, and some letters were raised a pixel or two. I do use Inkscape though, not AI, so maybe that has something to do with it.

That pixel-difference thing happened with me, too. But, considering I don't think that site was meant for what it is (we're) trying to do here, AND for having converted shapes to letters so fast, I'll take a difference of a pixel or two! =D (Plus...how many freeware fonts have you downloaded that had all kinds of zigs and zags and 30,000 anchor points per letter?)

I will ask this, though: how did you set your template up? I don't have Inkscape--although I probably should DL that so I can see what it is you 'Scapers out there are working with. Whatever the case, are you able to use guides (guidelines) in that program? If so, then I HIGHLY suggest you do that--in fact, that's good advice for pretty much ANYTHING you do with type or hell, with design period. It takes a considerable amount of time to set up, but the payoff is well worth it in the end. The hey to it, though, is that you want to make sure you have each letter in the exact same spot in each square--this will help with things like letter and line spacing. One more thing: does Inkscape have a grid option? I know in AI, there's a function that allows you to "snap to grid" or "snap to point" for more fine-tuning. You might want to find out if Inkscape has a similar feature.

If you could, you think you could post a screenshot or image of the text you're working with? This may help me (and any other curious readers) see what it is you're doing, so that we can help you out a little more. I wish I could be of more assistance, but I'm comletely ignorant to Inkscape.

Yeah, Inkscape does have guides and grids, but I'm not that familiar with them. But I'm not sure if that's the solution to my problem. The spacing is fine, but the letters look warped and distorted after I run it through the website.

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I suppose I'd have to actually see what you're working with here...think you could post a screenshot of your letters?

*Disclaimer: I am not an authoritative expert on stuff...I just do a lot of reading and research and keep in close connect with a bunch of people who are authoritative experts on stuff. 😁

|| dribbble || Behance ||

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These are probably the most distorted. Pretty much everything but T have something wrong though. Maybe I'm just too picky though.

its because this isnt a high-end font program....it basically just autotraces the raster image....

you aren't going to get perfect vector looking letters from a program that requires you to rasterizes them first

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These are probably the most distorted. Pretty much everything but T have something wrong though. Maybe I'm just too picky though.

its because this isnt a high-end font program....it basically just autotraces the raster image....

you aren't going to get perfect vector looking letters from a program that requires you to rasterizes them first

Yeah, I figured that, but Brandon said he got it to work.

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These are probably the most distorted. Pretty much everything but T have something wrong though. Maybe I'm just too picky though.

its because this isnt a high-end font program....it basically just autotraces the raster image....

you aren't going to get perfect vector looking letters from a program that requires you to rasterizes them first

Yeah, I figured that, but Brandon said he got it to work.

My "font" isn't entirely perfect, either--several of the letters dropped about a pixel or three below the baseline--but, for the most part, they look pretty close to what I'd hoped (not jagged). I'm also not planning on using these letters at anything above 48-point, so it works for me. Looking at your example, I can't be entirely sure of how those letters got as warped as they are without actually seeing what your working file looked like or what you did to it. (I will say that you look like you have a nice design idea for[/] your font there, though.)

And, as RSM said, true, this is a "freebie" program--but it is a start. And I'll take that anyday! I do still plan on testing out that other program that website links to right after the download process ends for your "font", to see what that's like. If/when I get to that, I'll be sure to share the results.

*Disclaimer: I am not an authoritative expert on stuff...I just do a lot of reading and research and keep in close connect with a bunch of people who are authoritative experts on stuff. 😁

|| dribbble || Behance ||

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