Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Make Graffiti Fonts

When creating your own fonts, you'll be designing an alphabet that is unique in its look. Spend some time and effort on this basic element of your design. Think about capitals and small letters. Draw each case of letters apart from each other.


Instructions


Make Graffiti Fonts


1. Draw different font ideas and pick one. Consider the ligatures as you work out your idea. Ligatures are the swirls and other lines that connect letters to each other. You can create variations of your ligatures to make your font easier to use. Some of your letters may seem more artistically correct as free standing letters. Look at the symbols in your word processing software and design your punctuation and other symbols you want to use.


2. Once you're satisfied with your hand-drawn design you can scan it. Try to draw your letters no less than 0.25" high and your scanning resolution needs to be set in sync with your originals. Your letters should come out about 300 to 400 pixels in height. Scan using a multiple like 150 or 300 DPI for a 300 DPI scanner.


3. The next step is converting your scans to outlines. You can use Adobe Editor or another illustrator. Examine the vectors the software has laid out. Adjust if you want to make changes. Loading your letters into a font is your next step.


4. You can use Fontographer, GLCD Font Creator 1 or find another program that creates and edits fonts. This tool will allow you to pick and place the outlines for each letter that you want to use by basically copying and pasting the graphics into their slots. At this point, you can perfect each letter by rescaling and aligning. When you get the right scale factor use it for the rest of your alphabet.


5. When you are satisfied with your tweaking the software will convert your idea into your font.


6. The last step is to test your font. Check it in a graphic program or word processor. Look it all over very carefully and to see what it looks like in bold, italic, and underlined. Test any symbols you put in your alphabet too. Are the weight and curve like you want them to be? Is the shape of the letters correct? Are the letters clear? If you want to make corrections use the font software or graphics program. When your font is just right, blast the world.