Switching to a computer early on saves time and headaches. Sketching is a medium best suited for generating free form ideas. If your goal is to make a digital font, sketch for ideas but not for perfection.

If you are going to design a professional digital font, the bulk of this post is for you my friend. If you are simply looking to digitize your handwriting, I’ve written a paragraph below about that. Second, determine what type of font you want to make. The importance of noticing this is that if we design one letter from each basic shape then we have the back bone to create the remaining letters in that shape before advancing to the shape combinations. All letters and numbers are constructed from these basic shapes and some by combinations of them ( : KMNY, : BDJPU, : R). I’ve broken my experience down into 6 categories:įirst realize that there are three basic shapes of font characters: ectangular (EFHILT), ircular (CGOQS), and riangular (AVWXZ). Read ahead with your habits, skill-set, and bandwidth in mind. Everyone’s process will vary greatly, and what works well for me could in fact be detrimental to you. What you’re about to read isn’t a science as much as categories and exercises to produce a good font. You’ll learn how designing 4 good letters will get you 90% of the way towards a professional font.

If you want to sell it, you need a marketplace ( Your website or Creative Marketplace).

If you want to be able to type it on a keyboard, you need a font editing software ( Calligraphr or Glyphs).

If you want it to be digital, you need a basic design software ( Sketch or Illustrator).

For a professional level you need an understanding of the anatomy of typography.

For a personal level you only need a pencil and paper.

Here’s what you might need for varying desired outcomes: Whether your motivations are personal or professional there are really powerful tools out there to help you create your very own font with minimal effort.

Back then it required printing out a form, filling out multiples of each letter by hand, snail-mailing it out, and waiting for god-knows-how-long. Over a decade ago my aunt told me there’s a service that converts your handwriting into a type-able font 🤯.

Create my own font free