If you've ever considered crafting your own font, you're probably aware of the significant time investment it typically takes. Drawing each character, scanning, cleaning up scans, and converting them into a font creation tool might sound simple, but trust me, it's a time-consuming process.
I've wanted to create my own handwritten font for a long time. The mere thought of scanning over a hundred characters used to give me nightmares.
However, if you happen to own an iPad, I've got fantastic news for you! With an iPad, you can craft your very own font in about 5 minutes. Yes, you read that correctly – 5 minutes! Sounds unbelievable, right?
Well, let me assure you – it's not only feasible, but it's also so straightforward that even your mum could do it!
Creating Your Handwritten Font the Easy Way
All you need is the iFontMaker app and your finger or a stylus pen. Personally, I use an affordable Griffin iPad pen. Before we dive into the process, let me briefly remind you of the traditional font creation approach:
- Print a character template
- Hand-draw each glyph with a pen or pencil
- Scan each letter
- Process each glyph in software like Photoshop or Illustrator
- Convert the drawings into a font using tools like FontLab Studio or similar software
- Adjust the spacing between characters
- Fine-tune the kerning (letter spacing)
- Generate the final font
Clearly, this process is quite complex and requires expensive software. However, there's a simpler way:
Effortless Handwritten Font Creation
First, you'll need to acquire the iFontMaker app. After installation, you can either watch instructional videos on the creator's website to get a quick grasp of the app's functionality or, if you're like me, you can dive right in and start drawing. The app's intuitive interface operates similarly to other familiar apps – just drag, drop, and rotate, etc.
Let's Get Started:
- Create a new document
- Provide your font with a title and author name
- Use an example font as a template if desired
- Commence drawing your glyphs
- Scale and modify them as needed
- Build your font via 2TTF.com
- Email the font to yourself or access it through the website
- Installation on your desktop is all that's left to do
Conclusion
How straightforward was that? I rarely find an iPad app that I'd use more than once, but this one has me excited. I plan to create numerous typefaces with it. If you need inspiration for creating your font, take a look at "Before Breakfast," a free font I designed using this app. It took me 10 minutes instead of five, but it's still incredibly quick!