Fine Tune

Introduction to typography
The print house, at home
This introductory article is followed by another about the choice of typefaces for designs and publications.
It’s surprising how little sensitivity about typography most computer users show. Although the basic configuration of a domestic or office equipment, with a laser or an inkjet printer, enables us to create documents printed with a quality not far from the printing press, most people is satisfied using the computer like a kind of sophisticated typewriter. And it’s not only that. It should be much more! With this sort of equipment, we have in our hands what just a few years ago was only possible for important publications: to print in full colour, at a high resolution, and with many fonts to choose. It has always seemed to us one of the most fascinating features of computers, if not most fascinating. The importance of typography does not have to be exaggerated — you don’t need many refinements to a few printed sheets of a report, a questionnaire or a listing. But using always the default fonts and paragraph settings and not paying attention to the typesseting of longer documents, it’s something else. Its very boring. It’s underusing things that we already have. It’s like always eating the same meal, until somebody serves something different. So, we must use the typesetting resources that we have, and use them well. In order to choose a different font in a program, it’ simplicity itsef: there’s no excuse, even for the most inexpert user: normally, it is an option within the menu of Format - Font: there we will be able to choose between the list of available fonts (installed or loaded); and many programs include a bar of tools where we can more quickly choose the font, its size and other properties.
With Windows you already have a standard series of fonts that you might find probably overused. Some people have authentic aversion to some of them, especially to Comic Sans or Times New Roman or Arial (Helvetica — there’s nothing wrong with the two last: arguably they’re excellent, utilitarian typefaces. But they have been overused for years. It’s been said that there’s no such thing as good fonts or bad fonts, only appropiate fonts for a specific project. And even a good font, used repeatedly, may feed up people: even the caviar, eaten every day, would do!
The remedy is very simple, because any program (Office, StarOffice, WordPerfect, CorelDraw...) comes with dozens, if not hundreds, of additional fonts that can be good alternatives for your texts. In addition, there is a plethora of web pages in the Internet where you can get fonts for free or purchase them. We’ll offer some links in this section.

Screen fonts
Of the many fonts that we can use, some are especially designed to be seen in a computer screen, and special care has been taken of making them very easily legible in the conditions of low resolution of these screens. In the past years, if you had installed Internet Explorer (or merely your ordinary Windows system), you surely find them installed in our machine. Fonts like Verdana, Tahoma, Trebuchet and Georgia, called the “Web fonts”. There’s no better collection of special fonts for the screen, formerly offered gratuitously by Microsoft in their Typography website (and also included with Windows 98 or later.) If you don’t have these fonts already, it is worth the trouble to install them in your system, because with these fonts, the experience to work with the PC or to browse is much more comfortable for your eyes. Georgia is very elegant, and in screen looks better than Times New Roman. Even its cursive is very legible: and it has some professional details, like the numerals in the old style (non-lining figures.) Verdana and Tahoma are excellent sans serif fonts that can replace the rather boring Arial perfectly. Trebuchet is a sans serif humanistic font, similar to Meta or Officina, with a small curved tail in the l . All these fonts are free, we repeat, come in a full family (normal and cursive, , both in regular and bold weights.)
Some of our favourites:

Choosing fonts for a document.
If many users of PC won’t bother to ever change the default font of the program they use, there’s also people who, mindlessly use any font they have for their projects, often in a clearly inadequate form. If you want to read an article in which we extend this subject, move on to the next article.
In the choice of fonts, the main guideline we can follow is our own taste, but it helps to consider some principles as well, in special the legibility and readability when it comes to typeset documents that are meant to be read. For shorter text blocks we have greater freedom of choice, and for the titles we can use almost any font we want, based on the spirit of the document and the sensation that we wish to convey.
The legibility of the characters is a property derived from the same design of the fonts. Traditionally, the letters with serifs (those bars appearing at the end of the letter shapes) are considered the most legible, although in a computer screen, given the low resolution it has, compared to the printed page, it may be the opposite: sans serif fonts like Verdana or Arial can be more legible. The ornamental fonts or calligraphic typefaces shouldn’t be used beyond a few lines, since they would be immediate cause of eye strain... When we choose a font from the many available ones, we have a series of designs that encompass several centuries of typographic design and type evolution. Letters in the style of Bembo are based on designs of the XV and XVI centuries. Other fonts have been designed a few years ago, or even recently. A contiunuous evolution in the forms of the characters exists that is interesting to know. In Internet we found all a series of pages that deal with this subject, and you can also find diverse books that deal with the same, like the excellent book by Adrian Frutiger, who designed Univers, Frutiger and Linotype Didot.
Some letters are associated to a certain historical period, or a place in the world. Immediately we associate what it has been printed with them to these times. Others, like Garamond, have a more untemporal nature —immortal, we could say— and they often are so fresh today as in the moment they were created, sometimes centuries ago. In order to choose one font or another, and to combine some fonts in a same document, we can pay attention to the recommendations that some experts do. For example, the Esperfonto system, put together by Daniel Will-Harris, classifies the letters according to the sensation, the taste that they confer to a document, instead of historical or technical criteria.
Many designers and type directors prepare and use a palette of fonts with a serif typeface for the text, a sans for the subtitles, captions, summaries... and perhaps a special, decorative or display font for the main title. It is a formula that is simple and effective. It’s better to avoid the mixture of different sans fonts or different serif fonts; it is a combination that rarely works. On the other hand, at the time of defining the typesetting attributes in a document, a series of rules by the professional practice must be considered. They’re easy to remember (even most PC users and even many professional designers fail to follow them.) In the section of graphic design we deal with in detail; see the article about the composition text for digital documents.
An era of typographic changes
The typography lives moments on deep changes. And paradoxical situations occur, derived from the unstoppable popularization of the Web. The same meaning of what it is a typeface has changed several times throughout the century, and with the digitisation the change has been radical, at least regarding the individual use that we can do in our own computers. This peculiar name, fonts talks about past technologies, already obsolete, of manufacturing types for the press based on the cast metal and molds.
Although the font display resources of the navigators have been allegedly miserable (although the style sheets, CSS, have solved some of the deficiencies), new fonts are created continuously, and in the Internet the digital type foundries proliferate, there are many pages dedicated to the typography, free font servers... indeed, it’s really surprising the variety and quality of the resources about typography in the network. We share some links in the different pages of this section, and some of them link at their turn to thousands of resources.
The typography in Internet has suffered, then, serious limitations, and if we limit ourselves to documents in HTML it’s very difficult to control the typesetting and fonts of a page in the navigator (because the visitor may not have installed the font we specified or because its local configuration makes the browser display a different one.) In the past years a “solution” of substituting text by images has been widely used, as we explain in the article Text as image. The main disadvantage of the text in graphic format is that it cannot be handled like text: it is an image, and the text that contains cannot be recovered or edited.
For the Web pages there isn’t yet a universally accepted standard of embedding fonts. Not surprisingly, almost no webmaster chooses to include embedded font objects within the websites. Remember, though, that if the control of the layout and the fonts is absolutely critical for the dissemination of your documents, there are alternatives like the widely used Acrobat PDF.
Impeccable texts: some basic rules of typography
Font choice
At the moment thousands of different fonts exist. Any user can have to his reach some hundreds (those included with the common programs.) Although the election of the typography for a document is a question, in good part, of personal tastes (and fashions), come consensus exists between the specialists in a series of basic points. The world of typography is a fascinating one, and in this manual we have devote a whole section to it.
If what we want is a easily legible text, we must discard letters with very ornamented shapes or decorative lettering. These must be reserved for special uses (posters, titles, initials, logos...) The body text must be made up with discreet, easily legible letters (but also refined and pleasant to the reader.)
Serif and sans serif —or simply sans— are the obvious choice for body text. They’re the classical type designs, evolved through the centuries to make the experience of reading as easy and pleasurable as possible.

Thousands of available digital fonts exist, and they fall into different categories of typeface classification, something every designer should take some time to know. It’s possible to find extensive information about type history and classification in different books and websites. The one-for-all type resource on the net is, of course, Luc Devroye’s On snot and fonts, easily considered the font resource.

Specifying sizes
The most current size for the normal text is between the 10 and 12 points. A point is equivalent to 1/72 of inch. If we design a composition with multiple narrow columns, the size can be reduced to 8 or 9 points; the bigger the paper, the larger the fonts can be, and the other way around. For example, if we use oversized paper or posters, we can increase it proportionally. For the headings there are no fixed rules, but often they are specified at a 20% superior or inferior size to the text size, together with a changes of style where necessary (using bold or italics.) This means that for a text to 10 points, a subtitle (or second level heading) of reasonable size could have about 12 points. If the text is greater, to 12 points, the subtitle would have to be increased to 14-14,5 points, and so on. In printed designs, you usually specify the sizes using the absolute units of points, but you can easily calculate the sizes or calculate them only once, and print it out in a table and have it near at hand —see our own example below. Web designers can take advantage of relative units, like percentages, or em units to create layouts where all the sizes of the elements get scaled in the same way when the user chooses a different size for the text.
Don’t trust the defaults! The default size of many programs is 12 points, just a bit too large for printed text, although it’s fine for the screen. For printed documents, it is more professional and inviting to read a size of 10 to 11 points (or perhaps 10.5 points.)
Main rules for typesetting (and common mistakes)
These are some orders that would have to be followed —always! Many errors that are committed derive to apply the typewriter habits and practice (with many limitations) to word processing or DTP programs, which are much more flexible. Let us remember: an appropriate font for the body of text must be used, with a size that makes the reading comfortable.
If you are creating a document with long blocks of text, such as a book, or a long article in a magazine, never mix too many different fonts in each page. It’s hard to resist the temptation: after all you have so many fonts to choose! But the look of the page will be chaotic —or will look like a fonts catalogue. “Too many” fonts, in this case, could be an absolute maximum of 4 different fonts, including the cursives If you can get away with fewer fonts, 2 or 3, even better.
Common values for leading
% leading
120%
130%
140%
Text at 8 pt
9.5pt
10.5pt
11pt
Text at 9 pt
11pt
12pt
12.5pt
Text at 10 pt
12pt
13pt
14pt
Text at 11 pt
13pt
14pt
15.5pt
The leading (the spacing between text baselines) is another important characteristic of the text. Many programs have a “double-space” option, reminiscing of the old days of mechanical typewriter. It’s better not to use them. All word processing programs allow to establish an exact value for the leading, be it absolute or relative. See the table of recommended values on the left side; too small or excessively big values make the reading more difficult. The difference between a text badly set (or one with the nasty double spacing) and a text with correct leading is like the night and the day.
Normally, a leading of the 120% to the 140% of the size of the text is perfect. This means that, approximately, for text at 11 points, the space between baselines of two consecutive lines must be between 13 and 15 points. For other sizes, check out the table.
Take care with the text alignment. Full justification alignment isn’t necessarily more professional-looking. Take a look to any printed publication. It will surprise to you to see that, in fact, the alignment to the left is also very commonly used. This is because left alignment is the option that obtains a better distribution of the letters in each line, without blank spaces or altering the letter spacing (adding extra letter spacing or word spacing is usually bad and best avoided, except for titles.) The other options —alignment to the right and centered alignment— must be used exclusively for short texts (captions, titles, summaries...) since they make reading more difficult.
The separation of paragraphs is very important. This is very important, not only aesthetically, but also to avoid problems with the text blocks and text flow. The paragraphs must never be split with two carriage returns. Never! Use always the paragraph options of your application. For example, see this picture which shows the dialog in Word, in Format Paragraph. Here you specify the indents, separation between paragraphs, how to control consecutive paragraphs... this is a vital part to have professional-looking text and avoid composition problems, like unexpected line breaks and empty lines at the end or beginning of pages.
When you want to mark the beginning of a new paragraph in the text, there are two options, mutually excluding. Use one of these two alternatives, but never both in the same text. Of course, you shouldn’t set the text with neither of the two options.:
Bleed the first line. The standard typesetting value is of 1 em, a relative unit equivalent to the width of an M letter, and equal to the current size of the font in points. If you work in points, for example, at 11 pt, 1em equals 11 points (approximately three blank spaces.) For normal texts in a book or a magazine with regular paper size, a larger bleed, say more than a centimeter (half an inch) is too big. Again, ’t trust the program’s defaults, usually too large. Specify this first line bleeding in the program options for paragraph, not typing extra spaces or tabs! You can leave the first line with no bleeding, because it’s clear where it begins with no further changes.
Leave some extra space between paragraphs with no first line bleeding. Again, you have to specify this extra spacing in the paragraph options of the program, never with extra carriage returns..
We must insist: never try to mark the paragraph with tabs or extra spaces. You have comprehensive contro using the paragraph control menus or palettes, and it’s the right thing to do. This will prevent the text from having problems, too.
Other professional details.
Some common mistakes that are easy to avoid and professional details which make a difference:
· Never use underlined text. Another typewriter convention, in order to emphasize a part of the text. Use italics or bold instead. Of course, when you try to imitate an old typewriter-made document, feel free to underline.
· A dot and a comma or a parenthesis should be followed by one space, not two.
· You can improve the look of the item lists using some kind of graphic element instead of simple hyphens or dots. Try using small squares, rhombus, triangles, a small icon...
· For written texts, you should take care of the quotes. Instead of the normal keyboard quotes (straight quotes: ", '), use the correct typographic quotes, the “curly quotes”. In France and Spain it’s common to use «french quotes», and in Germany and other countries in central and eastern Europe, special curly quotes, the left one placed on the baseline.
Character
Combination
’
Alt + 0146
‘
Alt + 0145
“
Alt + 0147
”
Alt + 0148
«
Alt + 0171
»
Alt + 0187
· The problem with some of these punctuation marks is that they do not appear in most keyboards. The necessary combinations appear in the attached table. Luckily, most of programs correct it automatically as you type, and it’s enough with having this auto-correct option enabled in the program preferences. In web pages the typographic control has been more limited for a while and that’s why very often "the incorrect" quotes show up due to different systems, language definitions and other issues.
· If your text contains figures, try to use old style figures (lowercase non-lining figures) because they combine better with normal text, which is set mostly in lowercase letters. The fonts which incorporate this kind of numerals are often called “osf” (from oldstyle figures.) But if you are designing a poster or cover with upper case only, you should use normal (lining) figures instead

Choosing fonts
This is without a doubt one critical step in the design process. All the look and feel of the work, may change with one font or another. Although we do not analyze consciously what typography has been used, subconsciously we relate what we see with previous experiences. And thus, simply looking at the design, the font used communicates a cold or friendly,formal or informal, pleasant or unpleasant sensation to us.

At firt glance, typography and colour say more than the text itself...
Along with colour, the typography can alter the meaning that we associate to a design completely. The text can say a thing; but the letters, something else. If we have to carefully select a font, we will not have problems with the immense supply of typographies available (literally, there are thousands of digital fonts where to choose.) Even a very basic home computer may easily have at least dozens, or even hundreds of fonts, like those that accompany many programs, like Office or CorelDraw.
On the other hand, the task of selecting the more appropriate font between a so extensive range can be intimidating, or make you think that it is a job for experts. In fact, it is enough to pay attention to the common sense, and of course read some basic information so you’re able to go on on solid ground.
Association of typography to times and places
The typography has an unsuspected power: it influences the way in which we perceive a message. As it happens with the artistic trends, musical styles, the fashion... each typography can be associated unequivocally to a certain place and a concrete time. This means that, normally, the typefaces that bear a clear association of this kind are used for specific uses, but seldom in other situations. This means that it even turns out to be strange seeing them in another context, different from the expected. For example, why many beers are advertised or branded with the typical gothic letters, the fraktur fonts?
Some styles of fonts are associated to specific moments in the time or to a given geographic area or place: this is an excellent resource for the designer, to reinforce the communication. Simply with a suitable selection of the typefaces we can already achieve a good part of the objectives of the project.
Custom-made font sets
When we have a great number of fonts, it’s almost necessary to use some kind of font management program, to deal with the handling and organisation of fonts in our system. Some of these programs are free, others are shareware, so if you still aren’t using one of these applications, it’s time you try one to simplify and enhance your type management. An ideal benefit of the font managers is the capacity to create groups (or sets ). A group or Set is just a list of fonts, grouped according to a certain criterion: for example, serif fonts, sans, handwritting fonts... The group normally does not contain the fonts themselves, only one reference to access them ; thus you can safely add, delete and move fonts in the sets, since the file proper is safely kept in its original folders and will not be affected by Set management operations.
Once you begin to use this possibility, it quickly becomes something addictive and essential: the fastest and most comfortable way to access all the necessary fonts for each project.
If you have a collection of several hundreds of fonts, you really need to create some basic groups (for example, we use calligraphic, decorative fonts, serif, sans, dingbats...) But it is also a good idea to prepare special groups, such as sets that gather all the necessary fonts for a project, and the palette of fonts that we used.
Examples of special font sets
o Slabserif or Egyptian fonts have flat serifs. In these fonts, we find simple, elegant and functional type forms, and in addition they’re easy to read. Effective both for text and for titles. Typical examples: Lubalin Graph, Geometric Slabserif, Stymie, Serif, Square Slabserif...
o Fonts in the style of the architects’ lettering: they look like the handwritting or stencil letering used in drafts and blueprints; a diverse group, which includes both somewhat irregular fonts and others more refined.
o Stencil fonts like the ones used in signage, packaging or, in a smaller scale, in technical, Rotring-written stencil lettering; some are very popular (in the style of Dymo — do you remember these devices?), others not as much. Plantiya is an original creation by Typephases Design that was digitised because we did not find something similar elsewhere. Later we were able to spot other similar fonts like the freeware Mars or Holstein.
o Typewriter-style fonts. Who would say it? After years wishing something more regular and perfect for home and office printing, with the arrival of the DTP and the laser printers, the designers return to use digital imitations of the old letters of mechanical typewriters. The effect, has been abused, frankly, but still it’s a unique solution for many works, especially when you have to recreate a vintage look for documents.
Font palettes
The same way we prepare a palette of colours to use in a design or painting,we can also select a group of fonts that suits a certain work. A typical palette contains:
A font for the body text, accompanied by:
A font for the titles and subtitles (or headings); its size can be increased typically to about a 120 - 130% of the text base font.
A font for the captions, summaries, quotes and notes. In many cases, it can be the same font already used in the headings or the text, in different sizes and weight; for example, use captions at a 70 - 80% of the body text size in the same font as the headings, bold; or the same font as the body, in italics.
The font you choose for the text can include, naturally, the cursive (italics) and bold variations. Both must be used only to emphasize parts of the document, but not in extensive fragments. Try to choose a easily legible and readable font, be it sans or serif, and accompany it by other complementary fonts, but not from the same kind: for example, if we have chosen Garamond or Caslon for the text, we accompany them with Franklin Gothic or Univers for the captions or headings. That is: a serif font combined with a sans-serif. This is the combination that works in most cases, and it admits a infinity of variations. Mixing two sans or two serif fonts usually doesn’t work, although you can always try and experiment it. To choose the specific pairs or trios of fonts is a very personal question and, in any case, it depends on the project in which we’re working. Some fonts work very well together, others not at all. Some typefaces have a sans version and a serif version,and usually these form a perfect combination. With different fonts, it is question to try out; or to pay attention to the recommendations of experts. You can visit Daniel Will-Harris’s website , where you find priceless information on the election and combination of typographies (sections Typophile and Esperfonto .)
In each document, besides the basic palette, you can also use some special font, with greater impact, for the general title, or to separate main sections. This font can be selected with greater freedom: here legibility isn’t the main concern, always makign sure it’s appropriate for the contents and the intention of the work.
Colour, applied discreetly to some parts of the text, can improve its understandign and retention by the user. It even can create the impression of a greater variety of fonts. But it’s also true that colour, used inadequately, can have a negative impact, and act like a nuisance, a distraction and make the design worst looking. Therefore, it must be handled wisely. A slight touch of colour in the subtitles, or highlighting some parts, is a very useful and elegant way to use it, but making a collage of colours in a text page that means to be serious or informative is tasteless and unprofessional.
But, which font do we choose?
Just as the clothes we put on, choosing a font is a very personal question, and it reflects our taste and personality, and our intentions when preparing the document: this is at least what gets across to the reader. Everybody has his own taste, but there is a series of conventions and we must pay attention to if we want that our documents do not lend themselves to biased or wrong interpretations. You wouldn’t come to a job interview dressed in multicolour clothes, would you? Unless if you were applying to a position in a circus, it might be astonishing. It would be difficult to understand that a supposedly formal document was printed in letters that look like a children party invitation!
To make a good font choice, we can be guided by the impression the font makes: does it go well with the content, or not? Is is similar to the ideas and references we’re using or is it far from them? We have to choose with good sense. We musn’t forget that the fonts that we use will project a good part of our image and must enhance our message, not get in its way.
We should try to avoid overused fonts. A font that everybody is using will mean our own projects or documents may be indistinguishable, ordinary stuff. Some of the fonts that include the PCs, like Arial (or its lookalike Helvetica), Courier and Times New Roman are the most repeatedly used fonts in history. It’s true that the alternatives for screen-based work are few, but for printed texts, there are dozens of alternatives that, being basically from the same type, will move apart from the anonymity and boredom.
Even if these fonts are overused, you should keep them in your computer, because many programs use in their menus and diverse functions, and they’re necessary for surfing the net. But try not to use them beyond the strictly necessary. Due to excessive use, fonts that intrinsically are pretty and with refined design, end up being tiresome. In recent years, for example, some humanist style fonts like Officina Sans or Meta have become old-hats. They are used everywhere; many companies have incorporated them in their corporative identity, in advertising, brochures... Such a repeated exposure causes boredom. Years ago it happened with Helvetica. Most professional designers tend to avoid using Helvetica; they use some other sans fonts (there is no shortage of these, fortunately.) With the fonts happens something similar to the trends, the fashions: what now is cool, the present, fresh, dynamic, in just a few months or years becomes boring, heavy, tiresome. If you like a font, but it’s already being used by many people, take advantage of it while the good things last... try to make it personal, though, because it could end up resembling a million other designs. You could as well look for an alternative and be more original —and the work could stay fresh longer
Dingbats
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Organizing and managing your font collection
Here we will deal with Windows font management. The way Macs use fonts is quite different; however, the basics behind managing your font collection are common, and so are the ideas about organizing your type stuff.
Contents of this article:
· Windows and fonts
· Loading/unloading fonts
· Installing/unistalling
· Classification and cataloguing
· Obtaining samples
· Font management programs
· Other utilities
Font management strategies
A basic hands-on guide How to set your fonts straight!
Windows can handle different kinds of fonts. Some have a fixed resolution (printer fonts or screen fonts). These are seldom used to add type in the applications; they are used to display the text in the menu bars, dialog boxes and other graphic interface elements.
The fonts we will use most of the time, both on screen and to print, are scalable: their shape is unaffected by changes on size, and is independent of resolution. The main scalable formats are TrueType and Postscript Type 1 (or simply Type 1), and the comprehensive OpenType. Both kinds of fonts store the information to generate the contours or every character, with no loss of quality when we change the size. If we want to use TrueType fonts in Windows, we need nothing else than the font files: the operating system itself is able to manage them. To use Type 1 fonts, it works differently: Windows (with the exception of Win 2000) needs the help of another application that is in charge of displaying and managing the fonts: Adobe Type Manager (ATM). The basic version of ATM is a free download from Adobe.
Windows and fonts
Every Windows user knows the rudiments of type use in their applications. But it is also important to have a basic understanding of the way the system manages fonts and how you can prevent fonts from getting in your way or decreasing system performance.
First, we must know that a font needs a computer file that stores its contours. This file must be accesed by the operating system: this means it will be stored in the hard drive, a diskette, a cd-rom or even on a network. The font file in windows has a .TTF extension (for TrueType) and has two associated files (one .PFB and one .PFM) for Type 1 fonts. If you want to use Type 1 fonts, and you have Windows 9- , ME or NT, you need a helper application called ATM (see below, in Font Managers.)
It is not enough to have the font file stored in our computer disk. The programs will access its information only if the font file has been loaded into the computer memory. This can be done by two ways: loading the font files temporarily or installing permanently the font. To be more precise, besides these two alternatives, there is another option, called font embedding. When a document contains an embedded font, this will not be available to create other documents; the font information that contains is used only for that particular file. PDF documents usually contain embedded fonts, but this is something that you can do with many other programs, like MS-Word and many more.
Activating (loading) fonts
When we load a font into the computer memory it will be available for the applications running in this system, only while the font file isn't removed from memory. When we shut the system, and start it later the font will not be available if we don't reload it.
This way of temporarily activating fonts is convenient when we only want to use a font for a specific project during one session or a moment. For example, if we are using the font to create a graphic, we can unload it as soon as the text has been typed (for bitmap applications) or converted to curves (in vector programs.)
How do we load fonts? There are several ways:
· Explore the fonts using the Fonts folder from the Windows system or the Windows explorer. You just have to spot the font file, double-click it and a preview window appears (see the figure.) Now the font is loaded, as the system has read it to display it. If we now minimize this window, the font will still be loaded and we can use it as long as we don't close the preview window. We can do the same with a number of fonts, but soon our desktop can be terribly busy with preview windows!
· Use a dedicated font management program that is able to load/unload fonts, like The Font Thing, Typograf, FontXplorer... Remember that some of these work only with TrueType fonts.
Installing and uninstalling fonts
Installing a font makes it permanently accessible for any program; each time we start the computer, the list of installed fonts is read by the system and they are loaded into memory. Usually, the installed fonts dwell in a special folder within the Windows directory, called (surprise) Fonts. To install a font is straightforward:
Open My PC > Control Panel > Fonts
Browse to find the drive and folder that contains the fonts you want to install.
Select the font or fonts you wish to install, and click Install. To select multiple font files, hold Shift to add consecutive fonts to your selection, and hold Control to add non-consecutive fonts to your selection.
To uninstall a font, the procedure is similar. In the Fonts folder, select the fonts you want to uninstall and select the "Uninstall" option.
Again, a good font management program will help you installing or uninstalling fonts (as we mentioned, FontLoader will do it simply right-clicking a folder or a file.)
How many fonts must we install?
There are some rules we should abide. We can be nuts for typography, but it isn't realistic to have a thousand fonts installed: we will use just a fraction of these for everyday use. To keep the system resources, it is better to have a limited number of fonts installed. As these are loaded into memory, the system gets slowed. Many hundreds of fonts can seriously bog down your system. To avoid this decrease in performance, the best solution is to select a few dozen fonts, our absolute favorites, or the ones we use more frequently, and install them. Keep the rest stored in different folders and load or install them only if we are going to use them.
With the increasing performance of today's computers, the main reason to have a limited number of installed fonts is to access the fonts quickly in the applications menu. If the list is very long, it takes more time to find the font and select it.
How do you classify your fonts?
If we must keep most of our fonts stock sleeping until activation, it is necessary to have a well organized folder system. The way you create these folders depends on your preferences and the kind of work you do ?and from your knowledge of type history, etc. I don't care much about this. Here it is the system I use, but you should customize it to your own needs:
· Dingbats and symbols.
· Illustration fonts.
· Capital letters and fontbats. Fonts that are appropiate to use as initials, with special decoration or pictures.
· Display and decorative fonts. This is a huge category that can contain different subfolders. You can create these subsets according to historical or geographical connotations, formal or informal, or whatever you want.
· Serif fonts. You will use them for copy text, but you aren't restricted to this use, they can work as display fonts, too. I include the Slabserif typefaces in this category.
· Sans serif fonts. Another category you will use in copy, titles and subtitles, captions... Here I include the Humanistic fonts (like Optima, Officina, Trebuchet...)
· Typewriter and monospaced fonts.
· Calligraphic and handwriting fonts, including copperplate scripts, formal and informal handwriting. Some shouldn't be used for long texts, but some other work very well for brochures, for a few pages.
· Screen fonts: optimized for aliased text to be read on-screen.
This classification seems to work for me. When I add a new font to the collection (and you could do it all the time just downloading them from the net) I place it to the folder it belongs. The fonts in a CD, like the 1000-font collection included with Corel Draw is another story, because they are sorted alphabetically.
Alternatively, you can place the font files wherever you want, and organize them in sets (also called font groups or collections, etc. depending on the program) using your font management software. This option lets you create folders that contain a link or shortcut to the selected fonts, rather than the fonts themselves. For example, you can create a "Art Deco" set that links to fonts stored in ten different folders on your disk, or you can prepare "font palettes" for your projects. Once you load or install that set, all the fonts are correctly installed, and you can use them as normal. You can safely move, copy or delete the references in a given set, because the fonts will be unaffected. For a designer, this ability to manage sets is full of exciting possibilities. You can be as specific as you want when you create these groups. And if you ever need to come back to the project when you've already finished it, that way it's very easy to collect all the fonts you originally used in it.
How to get font samples
If we have to find a font quickly, it is better to examine a printed specimen than a screen preview. If we have many fonts, this can be one way to "materialize" our collection. It is particullary important to have a sample of symbol or dingbat fonts, because you cannot guess which image corresponds to each character. Of course, we may already have a printed catalog from some type shop or distributor, and it will not be necessary to print samples of the fonts represented there.
When it comes to create printed samples, we can do it with almost any application. In a word processing program, just type some words or the whole alphabet at different point sizes, and we are done. We can save the document as a template and use it to print other samples, simply changing the font in the selected text. However, this method has a lot of limitations compared to the font management program approach. Most of these utilities generate quickly a variety of specimen sheets, and they do it in batch mode, for all the fonts we have selected:
· A single font in a page, with text at different sizes,
· A number of fonts per page (10, 20, 40...) with just a line or a few words of text.
· The character set of a font or the keyboard distribution (with shift/unshift positions) --a very useful option for symbol fonts.
The nonense phrases that appear in many programs, such as "pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs" or "the quick red fox jumps over the lazy dog" are typographical texts that contain the whole alphabet in a single sentence. sometimes we find special words like AVATAR or hamburgevons, that help you try the letterspacing of a particular font.
Font management programs.
This kind of utility is really necessary if you have a good collection of fonts. While it is possible to manage them just with your Windows fonts folder, it is better to get some help from a dedicated program like the selection we comment below. A good management program must be able to:
· Display what a font looks like at different sizes, either if it is installed or not.
· Generate catalogs to print or save, with different options, and ideally do it in batch mode if necessary.
· Compare between two or more fonts.
· Load/unload and install/unistall fonts easily and quickly.
· Manage font sets to better catalogue, organize and use your collection.
Some programs will not let you load/unload fonts, but they balance this shortcoming with a fast install and unistall. Most font managers have a similar interface, and they are usually small-size, memory friendly and fast programs. Get one of these programs: there is no excuse to stall, because there are several freeware alternatives, and even the commercial ones are really cheap and you will prove extremely useful if you are seriously into typography and / or design.
In this article we are showing several screenshots of these programs: The Font Thing, FontLister and Font Navigator.
For example, The Font Thing interface shows several frames. On top we have the usual menu bar and buttons, that let you perform the different tasks. The left panel lets you browse your system to find font files. The fonts found on a given folder are listed at bottom left. The frame also has a tab for the collections o sets you have prepared, and a installed fonts tab. On the right panel we have several tabs: a sample, a multiple fonts sample, the character map, detailed information about the font and notes (we can write our own comments for a font, for example: "this is the font used in the ACME logo", or "this works better at small size", or whatever.)
The Font Thing is freeware and you can get it from Sue Fisher's site.
Adobe Type Manager (ATM) from Adobe Systems, comes in two flavors: a freeware "lite" version and a powered-up DeLuxe version, with bonus fonts and full management abilities. Important note: If you use Windows 9-, NT or ME, you need ATM to use type 1 fonts in your system. Any other type manager needs ATM installed and working properly to manage Type 1 fonts.
FontLoader is a tiny freeware utility from Moon Software, that we have commented up in this page; the same company has several other type management tools, like FontXplorer . This is shareware, and has a lite version called FontXplorer lite.
Bitstream Font Navigator is a very good font manager. It comes bundled with CorelDraw 8 or later. To install/unistall is very easy in this program, because you just drag the font or the font set from the installed panel at right to the font catalog (the list of all the fonts in your system) at left. Very recommended. It is commercial, but affordable. More information at Bitstream.
Screenshot of Fontlister, a basic font management utility,.Font Lister is a simple but effective font manager. Its second version is freeware, the version 3 is (very cheap) shareware, and has an improved feature list. Visit his creator's site.
Typograf is regarded by many type aficionados as the best tool to boss your fonts. Full of great features, it is a shareware program. You can try it for a 30 day period and if you keep it, it has a modest registration fee. More information here.
Extensis Suitcase is a originally Mac-only app that has been ported to the Windows platform. It is a commercial application, but you can try it for a limited period from Extensis.
MacIntosh systems can use a number of font management programs. A few are Mac-specific tools, but most of them have been ported to the Windows platform, like ATM or Suitcase, the powerful Font Reserve, Font Agent or MasterJuggler.
Finally, if you want a comprehensive list of the available font managers, with comments and the urls, visit Luc Devroye's On snot and fonts, and go to the Font Managers section.
Other helpful utilities.
The Character Map from Windows is very useful to access the hidden characters from every font, and to see which key corresponds to every symbol in a pi or dingbat font. You will see the keyboard combination that will produce each of the hidden characters, like "curly" quotes, french quotes, en- and em-dashes and so on. You can copy a character o several characters to any Windows application. This useful tool deserves to be promoted to the desktop or the main level of the taskbar, rather than being buried deep in the Accesories subfolder.
· Extender Character Map is an enhanced version of the previous tool, and it is freeware. It offers larger previews of the characters and a couple of additional features. Symbol Selector is a special character map that works only with symbol fonts. Get it from www.rks-software.com
· Despite its reputation as an Empire of Evil of sorts, Microsoft has a great Typography subsite, and they offer cool fonts and utilities for free:
· Font smoother antialiases text on screen, improving its appearance, especially at larger sizes.
· Font properties extension gives full information about a font when you right-click its file icon.
· Font properties Editor lets you change different parameters in a font file. Very useful if you create fonts in a somehow limited program (for example, if you have exported the TrueType from CorelDraw.)
· Weft is a font embedding tool for web pages, that takes advantage of the CSS specification to link a font object to a common html page. This .eot font object stores the font contours and lets the browser render it like the user had the font installed in his computer. It works with a wizard interface that guides you through all the required steps to complete the embedding process for a single page or a number of them.
If you want to suggest some cool utility that you think should be listed here, do not hesitate to contact me
Letra de artista
¿Reconocéis la letra? La signatura del gran monstruo del arte, convertida en typography digital, Pablo, y disponible en vuestro propio ordenador. El artista responsable es Trevor Petit (1995) y también está disponible en el catálogo de ITC. Illustration de Joan M. Mas, imaginaria (creo que todos tenemos en la cabeza la misma imagen de Picasso, allá por los años 50, vestido con polo de rayas, pantalón corto y calvo...)
La firma de los grandes artistas, como es bien sabido, vale mucho dinero. Puede que no lo sepáis, pero es probable que tengáis en vuestro propio ordenador la firma de algunos de los mejores artistas de la historia. Es algo muy curioso. Veamos. Por ejemplo, entre las fuentes que incluye el paquete de CorelDraw 7 encontramos tres fonts (Matisse, Pablo y Bang) basadas en los dos primeros casos en nombres muy evidentes, y en el tercero, en Joan Miró. Aquí tenemos un ejemplo de cada una, acompañado de una illustration homenaje a Henri Matisse y Pablo Picasso.
Hay muchos más ejemplos de este tipo: fuentes creadas a partir de los escritos de Cézanne, Paul Klee... Aquí sólo hemos recogido unos cuantos que nos parecían significativos.
Para los que están realmente interesados en esta clase de typography, existe una fundición tipográfica muy especial: P22 Type foundry. Su catálogo, muy variado y disponible en forma de pdf, incluye versiones digitales de las escrituras de artisats de diferentes épocas y estilos, tales como Paul Cézanne, Leonardo Da Vinci, M.C. Escher, Edward Hopper, Josef Albers, Claude Monet, Auguste Rodin, Michelangelo Buonarotti, Joan Miró y Vincent Van Gogh.
¿Interesante, no? Esta typography, Matisse, es obra de Gregory Grey (1995) y la distribuye ITC. Parece estar basada en los recortes de papel de color que el gran Matisse realizava durante su última etapa en Niza. (Illustration: original de Joan M. Mas, basado en una foto de Matisse en sus últimos años.)
Esta letra, Bang, está basada en el estilo de Joan Miró, y es obra de David Sagorski (1993). También incluída en el Cd-rom de fuentes de CorelDraw. Existen otras fuentes creadas a partir de la muy particular grafía mironiana: Peter’s Miró, Miró de p22...
La Corelcción
Browsing the incredible font collection included with CorelDraw.
CorelDraw has been one of the most popular graphic design packages for more than ten years. Here we will take a look at the incredible wealth of fonts that the package includes.
Corel has a peculiar marketing strategy that consists of coming up with a new version every year, then dumping the previous versions for cheap sale in supermarkets. For example, we bought version 7 in a local shopping mall, for less than 5.000 pts (around $30), and a few years ago, version 3 in CD was a giveaway with PC magazine. It is also common to get CorelDraw installed or bundled with new computers. Even it is possible to get the fonts in the program through special offers like a Design Course ( "Graphic Design with Mariscal") that was published recently in Spain. It offered version 9, password-protected. You had to buy all the issues of the course to get all the keys to keep the program working. But all the fonts plus the fantastic font manager Bitstream Font Navigator were already in the first disk, unlocked and yours to keep. For less than $5!!!
It's easy to get "1000 fonts" CD packages for little money, or even as a gift. Alas, usually the quality is inversely proportional to the price tag. But the thousand fonts included with Corel are of the highest quality-- part of the ITC (International Typeface Corporation) and Bitstream catalogs. If you check the value of all these fonts (if you bought them separately, around 30-40 dollars each) you realize that you are getting several hundreds of dollars value in typefaces! If you are seriously into design, you must take advantage of these offers, even if you don't plan to use the program. The fonts alone are worth many times the price. The ITC font library is excellent. You can browse their catalog visiting their website, or through other vendors such as Eyewire. The Bitstream catalog, on the other hand, includes many fonts carefully digitized from previous designs. In many cases they are faithful renderings of historical typefaces but the names are different for legal reasons. For example, Humanist 521 is very similar to Gill Sans, Zapf Elliptical looks almost identical to Melior, Zapf Calligraphic is equivalent to Palatino, and so on. It's possible to get a complete list of equivalences.
The fonts bundled with Corel include many complete text families (both serif and sans); many display and decorative fonts suitable for every imaginable project, from formal to festive. Better still, the typefaces included cover a wide range of associations to places and epoques. An invaluable design tool, certainly. The only kind of fonts that one finds missing is a bigger choice of dingbats. There are half a dozen symbol fonts, though these are very good.
All the font package comes alphabetically ordered in subfolders within a \Fonts directory , and both in Truetype and Type 1 format.
Let's inspect some of the hidden treasures that you will find in your Corel CD (just a tiny fraction of what you will find!) You can get further information visiting the mentioned sites (ITC or Bitstream.) We also recommend visiting Daniel Will-Harris' site, where you can get practical advice on the combinations of the fonts in your projects.
Dingbats.The offer is limited, but we do find some fascinating symbol fonts.
Zapf Dingbats, designed by the venerable Hermann Zapf, one of the best typographers of this century, is a very utilitarian dingbat. Very handy to create icons, logos... A small classic. Some of the symbols, like the fountain pen, are truly the best you can get.
DF Diversions (Ayse Ulay, 1994): A good collection of icons that you will welcome to illustrate articles, brochures or posters dealing with arts, sports, lifestyles... If you add a touch of colour you can further take advantage of their possibilities. The images come in two versions, one lineal and another more "filled", with shapes that alternate negative and positive.
DF Diversities (Mike Quon, 1995) Amusing drawings in the style of quick ink sketches, suitable to create icons or simple monochrome illustrations for a variety of themes. They can also be coloured like in the example shown here. These series carry the DF name (standing for Design Fonts, the ITC dingbat range, an excellent collection.)
DF Calligraphic Ornaments (Richard Bradley, 1993) an assortment of pretty drawings rendered with the classic calligraphic quill technique (see two examples here) A lot of liturgic subjects, but it can also be used for invitations, posters... again, a few touches of colour, strategically applied, can bring these images to a new visual dimension.
Text familiesI) Serif typefaces.The disk contains a huge collection of utilitarian text fonts, those you will like to use for printed matter. The fonts on offer are enough to fit a professional print office. They include whole families of classics like Bodoni, Caslon, Garamond. These can also be used for titles and display, of course, especially using the bolder members of the family.
· Bodoni is the quintessence of the so called modern typefaces, with plain horizontal or vertical, thin serifs. The bodonian typefaces were designed in the late XVIII century. We have several versions here: Bodoni and Bauer Bodoni.
· Caslon. Another atemporal classic, designed after the original typefaces by William Caslon, an english XVII century printer and typographer. There are several Caslon fonts in the disk, slightly different. There is even another "caslon" called Casablanca. The Antique variant simulates an old text, with its irregular contours; this makes this font an obvious candidate for a project that needs the appearance of an old printed text.
· Garamond and Baskerville are other examples of immortal type classics. Both belong to the oldstyle category, originally designed in the XVI century. Garamond is considered by many designers their "desert island" font. Its precious cursive is so wonderful and inviting.
· Zapf Calligraphic and Zapf Elliptical are equivalent, respectivelly to Palatino and Melior. Both are named after german designer Hermann Zapf. Fonts with excellent legibility, even on the screen; they are distinctive and at the same time sober.
· Century, Cheltenham, Goudy Old Style, Charter, Novarese, Benguiat, Bookman, Caxton, Clarendon, Dutch (with many variants), Fenice, Galliard, Korinna, Kuenstler, Lapidary 333 (a.k.a. Perpetua), Schneidler, Souvenir, Tiffany and many more are good designs from our own century, like the Zapf designs. Again, we must consider using any of these instead of the more overused fonts like Times. There is no excuse to type boring and monotone looking texts!
· There is good selection of Slab Serif fonts: Lubalin Graph, Geometric Slabserif, Serifa, Stymie...these are some of our all time favorites to almost any printed use, from long texts to logotypes and titles.
· We find only one Typewriter font, but it is excellent: a design from the 70s called American Typewriter, alias Memorandum. Exactly like an electric typewriter, with perfectly regular letterforms, with the advantage that these are not monospaced, and it is more suitable for long texts.
II) Sans serif fonts.Again, we find true treasures in this category. Like with their serifed counterparts, we can (we must, we would say) use these instead of the sans serif fonts you have seen several million times, like Arial or Helvetica (though this is also present in the collection, under the alias of Swiss 721.)
· Avant Garde, a classic from our times. Designed by the genial Herb Lubalin. It was the cover logo font from the homonyme magazine (late 60's-early 70s) and perhaps his signature work.
· Benguiat Gothic. The serif version of this font can also be found in the collection but it is not nearly as strong as this. A charming design with some art-déco connotations and full of details. A swiss-blade font. Use for body text, only in uppercase, for display use, and it always works.
· Franklin Gothic. An everyday font, sturdy and legible; the medium weight is ideal for captions, in combination with a serif body font, or with its own book weight.
· Futura. A classic design by Paul Renner, (from the 1920s) It is still an elegant, restrained and attractive font, very legible and it conveys a clean and orderly atmosphere (too germanic, perhaps?)
· Goudy Sans. A very peculiar sans serif font, designed by another well known typographer, Frederic Goudy, in the late 1920s. Its cursive is absolutely fascinating. You find forms that you did not expect to see. This is what makes this font special and often you will see the irresistible cursive variant instead of the more standard-looking base font.
· Humanist 521 is actually equivalent to Gill Sans or Hammersmith (drawn by Eric Gill), and it is one of the typefaces in use in the London Underground system (together with the famous Edward Johnston font.)
· Humanist 777 (=Frutiger): Another favourite, simple and functional, and it has all the necessary weights. Far more elegant and sophisticated than other swiss designs, but equally good for a non-distracting display text font. Versatile and beautiful.
· Kabel (Kabana): a digital version of a rather old sans serif font, this time from the 1920s (though it was used especially in the sixties and early seventies.) Designed by the german typographer Rudolph Koch, Kabel has very distinctive lowercase shapes.
· Zapf Humanist (=Optima), again by Hermann Zapf, is the perfect definition of the Humanistic fonts: sans serif typefaces designed with the classic proportions of older fonts, and more complex and refined than most sans serif designs such as Helvetica.
· Zurich (a.k.a. Univers) with a wide range of weights and variations, from extra condensed light to ultra bold extended.
Display and Decorative fonts.
There is no shortage of display fonts in the Corel Font collection, covering almost any style and feel. Let's see some notable examples.
· Amelia: the famous font that used in the Beatles film from 1968, Yellow Submarine (together with Kabel).
· American Uncial. A digitized uncial alphabet. The uncial letterforms, known since the 10th century or earlier, are still often used in celtic countries, especially in Scotland and Ireland. Beautiful and strong.
· Balloon, like its name implies, is a font you will like to use in comics' dialogs, and other informal and funny uses.
· Bickley Script is one of the many calligraphic fonts included. It's very elegant but not stiff: a perfect combination of spontaneity and formality, that makes it a sure bet for many design projects.
· We will not discuss all the handwritten, script or calligraphic fonts included, but the offer is generous: Fine Hand, Chiller, Bergell, Ru'ach, John Handy, Tiger Rag, Van Dijk and several Copperplate Scripts. There is a lot to choose and first-class stuff.
· Bolt Bold is a strong and geometrically simple font from the early 70s, and still useful, partly thanks to the current revival of these years in the design field, but also by its own merits. Suitable for posters, flyers, logos.
· Broadway. Its name is well choosen. We can imagine bars, restaurants and dance halls from the 20s - 40s with this font, or in a music film, starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers...
· Busorama. Another seventies font. You will see it, not coincidentally, in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction credits.
· Enviro. A special typeface that on the one hand reminds you of the architects writings, and on the other hand, has some Art-Déco connotations --similar alphabets were used in posters, packaging and film credits at the time.
· Firenze. It was common to use this kind of bold decorative serif fonts in the late 60s and 70s. We love this one and we think it is perfect for many display uses, at big sizes and with a well chosen colour scheme.
· Glaser: the famous stencil font designed by the always amazing and wise Milton Glaser.
· Honda. A crossing between gothic and futuristic letterforms, no less. Though it was designed quite a long time ago (Bonder & Carnase, 1970), it still has a contemporary look.
· Hazel. A fascinating initials alphabet. You will use it sparingly, but it will bring a special look to your designs. Created by a british designer, the late Phill Grimshaw, who has created many more interesting display fonts.
· Motter Fem (Femina.) A peculiar decorative font, with sexy curves. Ummm! You will see it in some 70s-looking designs.
· Pablo. Based in Pablo Picasso's handwriting. There are quite a few examples of artists' letters converted to fonts. We will deal with this topic in a future article.
· Papyrus. A favourite for many designers. It has been used a lot in posters, stationery and other printed projects. It looks a refined calligraphy on textured quality paper.
· Oz Handicraft. A condensed typeface originally designed by the designer Oz Cooper, and it is a good candidate for informal text when some space economy is needed. The letterforms are beautiful and very original.
· Pioneer. This 3-D looking font is also a product from the early seventies (Bonder & Carnase) and works well even at small sizes. Obviously, a display only font. It is a shame that this kind of decorative typefaces is almost obsolete, with modern graphic design software.
· Plaza. Brings to one's memory the posters and publications from the 20s-30s, the Art Déco era, with carefully crafted geometrical forms, with elegant and well balanced proportions that convey a sense of elegance and sophistication.
· Rubber Stamp and Stencil will suffice as stencil fonts (together with Glaser.) These two mimic the type on packages and parcels; the first one even has rugged contours, like printed on wrapping paper, wood or burlap.
· Technical is an alias of Tekton, similar to the lettering in arquitectural projects. It has been a bit overused, but it is still a good font, suitable for brochures, subtitles, captions-- and of course, in maps and drafts.
· Zinjaro and Arriba Arriba are two "ethnical" fonts. The first has been used in african or caribbean-looking designs, and the second... well, the name says it all: Ándale, Ándale, Arriba, Arriba, Epa, Epa, Epa!
It would take hours to show and comment all the hidden treasures in this excellent collection. Even if you don't want to hear about Corel Draw as an illustration program, it is a worthy addition to your designer resources, and the font package, the font manager and the ton of clipart and photography included is an incredible bonus. If sometime you find a good sale of the program, don't hesitate and purchase it
The world of online type catalogsWhile designing these pages, I have thought quite a lot about the different ways in which you can prepare online specimens of your fonts.There are many excellent tutorials on font management elsewhere, but I haven't seen articles dealing with this topic. If you have a fonts page, or you plant to develop one —even if you simply like all this stuff— you will find this article useful and interesting.
Like most articles in this site, this is a translation of the original spanish text. I apologize for any mispelling or nonsense. If you find some passage particullary stiff or badly translated, please help me sending a quick fix!
Type catalogs, either in printed form or on screen, are truly fascinating. We can see dozens of type samples, their use, imagine what we could do with them. For type addicts, browsing through their font collections is an entertainment in its own right.
Printed samples, provided by type foundries are getting rare items these days, and rather typical of professional level, expensive fonts. Of course, we can create our own printed samples. Font management programs, such as ATM DeLuxe, Font Navigator or the like, are the best way to create printed samples, but it is always possible to use any other application. It will be enough to write and print (and save) in a word processing utility, a graphics program or whatever.
The Internet has revolutionised type distribution and use. Most type foundries, either commercial or freeware, feature more or less detailed samples of their products, so the visitors are able to see exactly what they offer while browsing through their websites. There is a number of alternatives that can be used for online font samples, which we will discuss here.
PDF specimen sheets.
This is a common solution. Many foundries offer PDF files that can be downloaded from their sites by customers or visitors. A PDF sampler may have very good quality (regarding colour, design, layout, type details...) with very reduced production or delivery cost for the foundry. Using PDF, indeed, it is possible to give the visitors a quality specimen book without the expense of a printed catalog. The PDF format is cross-platform compatible. This means that there is no need to create different versions. To read the files it is necessary to install a program (Acrobat Reader), but this is supplied as freeware by Adobe.
The file size of a PDF document can be large if it includes many fonts or complicated layouts, but once saved in our disk, it lets us examine every detail of the fonts. Usually, the fonts are embedded in the PDF document. Rather than the font itself, the document contains equivalent vector contours that let Acrobat reader properly display the letters.
You can generate PDF files from a variety of programs (most vector drawing applications have an export to PDF filter), but the most complete solution is the Acrobat suite (from Adobe.) There is a freeware alternative to Acrobat, called FreePDF. You can find more information about it at their website.
Some foundries offer good PDF specimen sheets: the catalan foundry Type-O-Tones, Alphabets, P-22 or Garagefonts are recommended visits.
Online typesetters.
Many font distributors have a website that offers type samples that are generated on the fly from the text typed by the customers. With this input, there is a program in the server that creates an image sample (usually a gif file) that is displayed on the browser of the visitor. Of course, the fonts must be installed on the foundry/font distributor server. The example below is a screenshot from Eyewire's Typeviewer. You choose a foundry (Library), select the font you want to examine from a drop-down list, type your text and choose the size, and you get a sample like this. (font shown: ITC Panic, by Wayne Thompson.)
There is no need to say that this is a solution aimed for big businesses! Some of these engines are very useful. Visit ITC Fonts and use their Euripides system to see samples of their fonts, up to 72 points' size, the Eyewire online TypeViewer that works in the same way, or the Font Shop page, shown below:
A sample of Flash-powered type sample. The text in the box below is live: you can type your own text to see it rendered in this font Then, if you wish, it is possible to zoom in for a closer look (click the right mouse button on the top or right margins for options.) font: Scroonge, one of my freeware fonts.
Flash
Since its fourth version, Macromedia Flash has become a very interesting alternative to create online font catalogs. Now it is possible to include text boxes with embedded fonts in the SWF (Shockwave Flash) files. The Flash player is a free, small-sized, plugin that comes bundled with most browsers and, if missing, can be downloaded for free from Macromedia's site.
To have embedded fonts in a Flash file means that it is a solution similar to PDF, if not better, because Flash files can contain more animation and interactivity features. What is more important, the text is live —the user can type his own text to see the effect.
As far as I know, the only programs that lets you create this SWF files with embedded fonts are Flash and Director, both commercial applications distributed by Macromedia. If you run a non-profit foundry and you would fancy to offer Flash specimens, there is a Tryout of Flash (version 4 or 5): you will be able to generate as many files as you need for a 30 day period. At least you can prepare samples of all your font stock.
Some foundries use Flash to display their stuff. Glitch, a cool dutch e-foundry, is a recommended visit, with a special interface built in Flash. Another example is the T26 foundry.
Other vector formats
Any vector format lets you zoom in to see details of the pictures and text. This makes a vector file a good way to distribute font samples. Even if it is not possible to embed a font, this can be converted to outlines and the shapes are kept intact in the vector file.
However, vector format other than Flash are little used on the net. For example, the flare (WEB) file format from Xara is virtually unknown, even if it is full of good features, comparable (and sometimes better) than a static SWF or a PDF sheet: sophisticated transparencies, smoothed contours, ultra compact size... The plugin you need is a 200k only download, free from Xara. The .web files can be exported from Xara or Xara Webster, which are streamlined, fast and powerful web-oriented graphic tools.
Then there is the new SVG format (Scalable Vector Graphic), a recommendation by the W3 Consortium. This might become a good choice in the future, because it will be supported by the browser itself and it is written in XML, giving it many exciting features. By now, the SVG file needs a plugin to display it. For example, you can get Adobe SVGViewer, free from their site. There you will find lots of information about this promising graphic format.

The Microsoft Typography pages contain samples of their web-embedding system, Weft, and offers the tools you need to embed your own fonts as a free download.
Below: There are several alternatives to display a font catalog using merely images in a normal html web page:
Embedding fonts in web pages
It is possible to embed fonts on a normal html page, using technologies such as Microsoft Weft or the Bitstream Webfont Maker. There is detailed information about these systems at their respective websites. Microsoft offers Weft (Web embedding font tool) for free at their Typography site, while the Bitstream application is commercial.
The Weft system needs CSS support, and works better on (surprised?) Microsoft Explorer. The Bitstream alternative is supported natively by Netscape Navigator (or so it was before version 6. I am so dissapointed with it that I haven't bothered trying with it.) If you use Explorer, you only will need to download a small, freeware plugin to see the font objects in your browser.
These technologies don't seem to take off, though they sound promising. Anyway, their application to catalogs is one of the possibilities that comes to one's head.
Using plain image samples
The most widespread system to display font samples are plain GIF images, linked to a plain html page. We are not talking about the fancy online-generated samples here; we mean single images that we have previously uploaded to our server.If we have to display a large number of samples, or large images split in smaller slices, we will have to devise a system to navigate through these multiple pictures. This system should be easy to use and update.
In many sites you will find a frame-based layout. Many webmasters (and users) don't want to hear abouf frames, but we must admit this is a situation where its use can be convenient, or at least tolerable. In a small side frame we can put a list of the fonts, while the main frame contains the sample images. It is unnecesary to jump from one page to another to see different samples (or so it seems: the only unchanged page is the lateral frame.) Alternatively, you can place an internal frame in a specific position of the page (with the IFRAME tag), and use the rest of the page to list the fonts that will appear in the space of the internal frame.
If frames are taboo for you, it is possible to prepare that same specimen book in simple pages, but in this case you must take extra care to include the full navigational system to jump to the rest of samples in each page. Place the list of fonts in an easy-to-spot place in the page.
Another solution, that will work only on recent versions of browsers (but sometimes with the dreaded compatibility issues) is a dynamic html page, or a Java applet that lets you move through a slideshow of pictures in a single screen. If you consider that most surfers have updated their browsers to version 4 or better, using these scripts and applets can be a very good idea. In our Specimen section you will find several scripts and applets that will show you a number of images without having to scroll.
Many scripts that let you set up this kind of slideshow are freely available from sites like Dynamic Drive. Their configuration is usually easy, and there are different alternatives:
Choose a picture from a drop down list with descriptions.
Images that slide in and out with a vertical or sideways movement.
The pictures are shown in sequence using direction buttons (forward, backwards)
Depending on the script, each picture can be joined by a text description or even a link to download the file or to get further information.
This same kind of slideshow can be displayed using a Java applet. Again, it is possible to find freeware applets (you can try at Java Boutique) that should work perfectly in any browser. The configuration of the applet parameters is pretty straightforward. For example, in the applet we have used for our freeware samples, it cannot be easier. You only have to prepare a text list with the image file names (a list you can generate automatically in your operating system.)
Conclusion
We have many choices to set up our font catalogs and samples for the web. We don't have to stick to a single system, but it is always recommended that we keep a common feel or identity in the font specimens.
The important thing to remember is that even the smallest personal-freeware foundry is now able to offer attractive specimen sheets, which can be designed and set up with little effort. These samples will surely be appreciated by the visitors, and constitute a useful addition.
Font creation tutorial
Every graphic designer who uses computers thinks about creating or modifying fonts, sooner or later: “ how do I create my own fonts?” “how can I retouch one of the fonts I have to better suit my needs?” “Is it difficult?” “will I be able to do it?” There is something clear: somebody has drawn the fonts we have, either with traditional tools or with a computer... and some of the designs are clearly based on handwriting forms.
Contents of this article:
· Introduction
· What is a digital font
· Necessary equipment and Workflow
· Starting points for a typeface
· Step by step
· Scanning
· How to trace the contours
· Creating the glyphs
· The vector shapes: important details
· How to generate the font
· Font making programs
· Resources
· Part 2: Advanced techniques and tips
To create a new typeface isn’t a particularly difficult task. Indeed, the idea is very easy to get, and the necessary equipment, very basic . At the worst, we can regard the process as something more or less laborious, and it requires good organisation and planning. This guide doesn’t aim to be either a complete manual on fontmaking or a tutorial about the software you will use (there can be plenty of programs involved -or just one, depending on what you choose.) This is only a quick, start level, introduction; if you want to achieve optimal results, some advanced understanding of those programs is recommended. Once you begin to have more confidence in creating fonts, go on to part two of this workshop.
The best starting point is to study the workflow diagram below. It illustrates the whole process: which kind of files we will deal with, what programs can be used. We can follow different paths to get to the same result: a digital font for the computer, so we can choose the procedure that best fits our equipment, software and skills.
What is a digital font
A TrueType or a Type 1 font is a group of vectorial drawings. They can be scaled with no loss of quality. The vectors that describe each character are stored in a file, which we shall install in order to use the font. In the PC platform, the TrueType files have a .TTF extension, and the Type 1 files are composed of two files: a .PFB and a .PFM file. This last file stores the metrics information. In a Mac system the file structure is somehow different, but this is a minor difference: the process of designing a font is pretty much the same, only choosing another saving option in the last step.
To create a digital font, we only have to 1) draw the shapes and 2) export them as a .TTF or a .PFB + .PFM file. Well, this sounds like Monthy Python’s How to write a novel! There are plenty of programs that will help us in the first part, drawing. However, the second part requires more specialized software. Fortunately, a very common program, CorelDraw, includes a font-export filter. What is more, the entire process can be completed from within CorelDraw. For this reason, we will focus the techniques of fontmaking in using a drawing application such as CorelDraw (and its user’s manual includes detailed information.) The tools these drawing applications include are usually easier to use and more powerful than those in a font-making program, but the fine details in a font file (kerning, spacing, hinting...) require them.
Necessary equipment and workflow.
Apart from the usual requirements for digital graphic design (or course, a computer, which can be very basic, even an old 486SX PC if you use CorelDraw 3! and the common programs), we will need:
A scanner.
Even an old b/w scanner will suffice: we don’t create the fonts in colour, but as black and white vectors.
Auxiliar drawing programs.
Used to acquire images in the computer, retouch where it’s necessary and prepare them for the typeface. Even the Paint app included with Windows will do, but it is recommended to use a propram with more features: Paintshop Pro, the Gimp, Photoshop, PhotoPaint, PhotoImpact...A recent version can be overkill: even PSP 4 will be more than enough -that’s what I use.
Programs to convert the image to vector.
This isn’t absolutely necessary, but it will help speed the process and keep it in control. Most designers use CorelTrace or Adobe Streamline as vector tracer, if the program itself doesn’t include this option. The vector editing programs include Freehand, Xara, Illustrator , and CorelDraw. The two first have an internal tracing utility. There is a basic (freeware in its version 2) vector editing tool, called Mayura Draw that will do, too.
Programs to generate the font file.
Several programs can do this last task. On the one hand, we have dedicated solutions, from entry-level shareware programs like Softy or The font Creation Program (FCP), to full-featured fontmaking professional tools (Fontographer, FontLab .); on the other hand, there is the special case of CorelDraw, a swiss blade of a program that will let you export as a digital font. So, if you already have Corel, this is a good starting point before buying a dedicated program. This isn’t a plug: you may love Corel or hate it, but it’s an extremely powerful program that can be found as a bargain, and it includes many extras (tons of clipart, premium quality fonts...)
The diagram that follows is a workflow for fontmaking. It considers almost every option; includes the programs that can be used and the kind of files they will work with. And you can choose your own itineraries.
Starting points for a typeface
First, we shall design the characters of a font (the glyphs). The diagram shows some of the possibilities:
A drawing on paper
Every drawing implement will do: pencil, ink, eraser, paper, or technical tools: ruler, measures, T-square, whatever. It can be our own handwriting. Then, we will have to load the file into our computer. We can draw directly with our painting or drawing program
or even the font-creation program. We can use the mouse, or have better control with a graphical tablet. Most professional-quality fonts have been drawn with painstaking detail with a drawing application, using (or not) a scanned template. We can modify another font, or digitalize a traditional design
But first, we must check all the legal questions, copyrights, and all this stuff. If it is legally possible, we can use another type design as the basis of our own. There is another interesting possibility: we can recover old designs, and bring to life (digitally) centuries-old typefaces. There is a good page at the University of Zaragoza in Spain that explains the recovery of a XVIII century font, the Ibarra typeface. Their page is a recommended complement of this tutorial.
Step by step
It isn’t easy to detail the fontmaking process, because it isn’t a single chain-like task; it is grid-like, and it is possible to use different programs with different routes. In order to cover most of the steps, we will follow the longest possible routine, starting at the top of the workflow diagram, from a sheet of paper with some letters drawn in, through the final step of generating a font. Of course, any other route is possible: for example, you could complete the whole task in CorelDraw or in ScanFont.
Scanning recommendations
The exact instructions and settings for your scanner depend on every machine, but there are some common points. It is better to scan at 300 dpi or less, and use a sample the largest the better. For example, characters with a height of 5 cm. or more (2 inches) will scan smoothly at 300 dpi. The reason why: if you scan small characters at a very high resolution you will get a lot of noise and a contour that reflects every irregularity; a low-rez scan of a big letter will let you discard the artifacts without affecting the overall shape, which is what you really want to use.
Yes, forget your fancy 32 bit-colour, 2400 dpi scanner. Set it to scan in greyscale, at a lower resolution (300 dpi or even less if you have big letters.) If you want to autotrace, this resolution is recommended; if you will trace the contours yourself, and the scan will only serve as a template, you can scan the drawing at screen (72 dpi) resolution.
It is often a good idea to apply a subtle blur filter to the resulting greyscale image, and refine it with the contrast and brightness or the levels controls. Use the gaussian blur option if available, and test it to get a more soft contour. This will polish the uneven contours and make the next step easier.
When the image is ok, we must save it. Save a greyscale copy (in the native format of your application, or in a lossless format, such as TIFF, GIF or PNG.) Then, convert it to bitmap (black and white); toy a little with the "threshold" parameter to push more or less pixels to black. Use either the BMP or the TIFF format, and save it. So now we have a bitmap file, like myfont.bmp. It is time to scan the contours.
How to trace the contours
If you examine the workflow diagram, you will realize that a number of programs will let you bring your bitmap file to the next stage, the vector file in adobe illustrator or EPS format. This vector file contains shapes that are defined by means of Bézier curves, mathematical instructions to place points and adjust curves and lines to them. This kind of geometrically defined curves are pretty much the same stuff that makes up a digital font. Read your drawing program documentation for a detailed description of Bézier curves, or visit some page such as Mike’s Sketchpad or the PostScript section of Luc Devroye’s.
Let’s see what the tracing step is. You must place anchor points and handles to define the vector shape, on top of the bitmap image you prepared in the first part. You can do it manually, but in many cases the autotrace option or a dedicated autotracing tool will do a good work. If you are lazy and/or the quality isn’t a critical factor, forget the hand tracing and open the autotrace engine!
When the either the autotrace or manual trace is ready, we must have something like the figure shown here. The figure has been approximated with more or less fidelity, by a number of anchor points that define vector shapes. Now we can save the results as a vector file, in Adobe Illustrator (.AI) or .EPS format. It is advisable that we use an older version of the AI format (version 5 or lower) to solve any compatibility issue.
Creating the glyphs
Now, open your drawing application, or if you have it, your font-making application. I will use CorelDraw as an example, because this is what I have, but you could use any other vector drawing tool, such as Illustrator, Freehand, Xara or even the humble but postscript-solid Mayura Draw. The process of font creation in CorelDraw is covered in several other tutorials that you can find on the net. Nick Curtis, of Nick’s Fonts fame, uses it to create his wonderful typefaces, and he has an article about his techniques (see the links below.)
First, we need a template to place the characters we will export to the font. The size of the characters must be big enough to test the contours and be sure they will look good at different point sizes. The recommended size is a 750 x 750 points page. This isn’t the standard page in CorelDraw, so you will have to change it. Double-click anywhere on the page and the properties dialog will show up. Then, place some guides to have consistent baselines, x-heights and so on. Just make the rulers visible, and drag the top ruler to place a horizontal guide, or drag the left ruler to place A typical template page should look like the accompanying picture.
The template is where you are going to place the AI/EPS files you traced before, or where you are going to draw the characters from the start. Take advantadge of the many and easy-to-use tools of your illustration application, and use the options of copy-paste, scale, unite, split, etc.
One moment now. A complete font has many dozens of characters. If we don’t want to go nuts, it’s better to tidy up our working environment. CorelDraw and Freehand have a multipage option that you can use to place a character in each page (sharing the same guides in all of them.) Even if you have a multipage file it may become unmanageable with more than 200 pages; it is better to create separate files, for example, for lowercase letters, uppercase, numbers and punctuation and extended characters. In other apps you will have to use some workaround, for example, prepare a page with groups of characters, with its own guides, then select them individually to export them to the font file. Another alternative, that will work even with very basic versions, like CorelDraw 3, is to have files with layers, where you put up your characters separately. Keep only the rulers and the active layer visibles to work easily.
The vector shapes: important details
Creating the shapes can be very easy if we autotrace the image, or if we use relatively simple shapes (circles, rectangles) that we weld, split or modify in other ways. There are only a few points that we must remember:
· It is better to simplify the contours to the minimum number of anchor points. If the vector has many nodes, it will be unnecesarily complex -it could even prevent the font from displaying or printing correctly. More complexity means more memory usage and often a worst quality. Keep in mind that a shape can be defined with just a few Bézier nodes: for example, a dot needs only two points. If you have started with a clean scan, it is more likely that you will have leaner Bezier curves.
· Each character in the font must be a single path, filled and closed . If necessary, you can use a and composite path. For example, you create a dot with a single shape, a circle or ellipse; to create an hyphen you need a solid rectangle.
· However, to create an "O" you cannot do it with an empty ellipse. The shape must have a fill. So you use two ellipses, and the smaller one cuts the hole in the outermost one. And you cannot use intersecting paths: for certain effects, you must use the "combine" or " create composite path" option, together with "removing overlap" or welding several shapes into a single path.
· There is another detail that can be corrected with some programs, and is the path direction. Composite paths have specific directions in each component (clockwise or counterclockwise) and as a rule, they should be inversed each time that a path contains another path. The outermost path must be counterclockwise, while the inner paths combined with it should have a clockwise direction. You can read more details about this topic in an article on how to make fonts in Corel in their site, designer.com (see the links down in this page.)
How to generate the font
The process of making single characters yeld the single or combined paths that will make it to the next and last phase, generating the font file.
In CorelDraw, select one character at a time, go to the File > Export menu, and choose Export as... then TrueType or Type 1, depending on the kind of font you want to generate. Caution: You must check the box "only selected" in the export dialog box. The following box will appear:
Here you type the name of the font, check the box if you are creating a Symbol font, and leave the rest at their default values. When you press "Accept", another dialog box pops up, this time prompting you to select the character that corresponds to the shape-s you are exporting. In this example, we must find the ! character in the central column, and select it:
Finally, we press OK in this dialog and we can repeat the process for the rest of the characters.
So, this is the way people creates fonts! This is boring as hell, isn’t it? Yes, and even with the Big Daddy of Font creators, Fontographer, you create the characters one at a time, and the process is more or less the same as we have explained above. So take it easy. Go get yourself a good coffee mug, put some music and et to work. You can do it in several sessions if you get really bored. But in the end we will have our own font creation, something we can share with other people and -who knows- even sell. When the font is complete, we only need to install it to the computer and start using it.
Font making programs
CorelDraw can generate fonts, but it proves very limited when it comes to define most parameters of the font. It is good to create symbol, dingbat or illustration fonts, but if spacing, kerning, and hinting is critical you must use a dedicated solution to create and edit fonts.
Most font editing programs let you draw directly the character. In some cases you can also autotrace them from a BMP or TIFF bitmap. And you can place AI/EPS files created in other applications. Again, the many possibilities are shown in the workflow diagram of this article. The main handicap of Font creation programs is the price/functionality relation. They can be really expensive and you will only use them for font creation/editing. This means that if you create fonts ocasionally, you will find little use to the program. Consider this: depending on the route you follow on the Workflow, you will need a proper fontmaking program only for a short time. If you have some friend that has one of these programs, if he lets you use his computer for a while, you can bring a disk with your .ai or .eps files ready to place in the character slots, or better still, a raw font produced in a cheap utility or in CorelDraw. Then, in a while you can prepare a decent font and generate it. This is what I do.
There are several fontmaking programs that are available for trying out. The most notable and powerful of these is Pyrus Scanfont . With this tool, creating a font can be a matter of, literally, a few minutes. Just open a bitmap of the font, or scan it directly with the program. One command separates the shapes (that is, autotraces them), then you drag these shapes to a character map window, and the font is ready. Name it and you’re done! Amazing. It you start with a clean scan of your handwriting, you can have it ready to use in a few minutes. Of course, you may need to tweak individual characters, spacing, etc. and you can do it with precision. You can try Scanfont to create up to five fonts! Get it from their distributor, Pyrus or FontLab. The same company offers the most advanced font creation program, FontLab, and a basic font editor and creator, TypeTool (also with a 5-font tryout), together with some other type utilities. A visit to their website is recommended.
There are two basic font creators, Softy and FCP ( The Font Creator Program) that you can download from the net. The first is a very small program, but it isn’t very intuitive and lacks a good help system. FCP is available from High Logic, in the Netherlands, and is a good starting point to learn fontmaking.
And finally, what about Fontographer? This used to be the most used font creation tool. A professional caliber program, distributed by Macromedia. There is no tryout version of this program, so you will not be able to get a feel for it before buying. You can find more information about Fontographer at the Macromedia site, and there is also a Fontographer newsgroup. However, many years has passed since the program was last updated and it lacks many features present in Fontlab.
Don’t forget to take a look to the net resources listed on the below and to check out the second part of this tutorial. Jump there...
Resources on the net
These are some selected articles about fontmaking. This collection makes almost a complete reference book to get you started. These articles cover almost every topic. If some of the links doesn’t work, don’t blame me —in the Internet they get stale faster than home made cream.
· ChankDiesel tutorial
· A very good and detailed tutorial chez Iconian Fonts (Dan Zadorozny)
· Divide by Zero tutorial
· Creating fonts in Corel Draw
· Another detailed tutorial for CorelDraw users.
· The digital recovery of a 18th century font, Ibarra, explained by ateam from the University of Zaragoza. You can download the font, too.
· Even more information about font-editing programs, and actually anything relatedto type at Luc Devroye’s On Snot and Fonts. Good coverage of PostScript language, Béziercurves, etc.
· Of course, a search on Google will yeld many good results. Take a look and see for yourself.
· A tutorial using Fontforge and Autotrace. The process described there can be applied to any program, however.
· See even more links about typography in our links page.
· Now it is time to proceed to the second part of this workshop, where we will learn a few tips and advanced techniques

Font creation tutorial - advanced
Contents:
· Miscellaneous tips
· Scanning tips and tricks
· Vector tracing tips
· Template to create characters
· Bringing characters to the font editor
· Converting lines to shapes
· Calligraphic and special brushes
· Tips for handwriting fonts
· Combining and reusing shapes
· Special effects
· Part I of this tutorial
This page is not a well-structured workshop like part I. It is rather a collection of interesting ideas and tips to create fonts once you have passed the first part of the learning curve. The first article should be a good platform to get you started: here you will find more details and inspiration.
Miscellaneous ideas for fontmaking
· Draw the characters following their distribution in the character set to place them faster in their slots in the font you are designing. You can get the full list in the correct order simply opening the character map utility (see the picture below as an example.)
· Use your imagination when you design the characters. You don’t have to limit yourself to pen on paper. Use crayons, pencils, brushes, markers, cotton sticks, technical pens, your fingers, cut and paste papers...
· If you are designing a bitmap image for big characters, or you are making paper drawings for it, it is unnecessary to fill the whole shape in black. You can use the hollow shapes and then fill them using the paint bucket tool, or other tools from your paint program.
· Smooth the shapes when you trace (or autotrace). You can do it adjusting the threshold of vectorization in your autotracing utility. Play a little with its controls to get the best results: a combination of accuracy and simplicity.
· Get rid of excess anchor points. Each vector shape should have the minimum necessary anchor points to define its contour. Otherwise, the font will require more memory to be displayed or printed; sometimes it will not print at all. For example, to draw an oval requires only four anchor points.
· Test the font. To test your product, try to print it at different sizes. Some fonts will look terrible on screen, but they will perform well when printed. Try to display your font on screen both with antialiasing turned on and off.
· Add extended characters. A fontmaking utility can solve a common problem. Many users with a language other than english need extended characters (such as accents, dieresis, c cedilla, etc.) You can add those missing characters to a font simply copying and pasting the characters you want, like the vocals, to the location of the extended characters. Then, copy the acute and grave accents, and paste them where needed. The best way to do this task is to use the “create composite characters” or “reference characters” feature that we discuss later.
· If we want to draw onscreen, many illustration programs offer good tools, like the calligraphic pens (with a precise control on the angle between the stroke and the baseline and the width of the stroke) You can always apply a different stroke to an existing shape. Here you have to consider a few more points,that we discuss below. It is not always that easy to draw with the mouse; if you have a graphic tablet you can do it more easily.
Scanning tips
If you are skilled in bringing images into your computer, using a scanner, you just need to know a few more things to get the better results for images targeted to fontmaking. The first thing you must consider is the resolution you need, and the scanning mode you are going to use.
Many font designers use the minimum resolution (72 dpi) and they acquire large characters, made with some drawing implement on paper. Then, the image is used as a template to trace manually (or automatically) a vector contour on top of the bitmap. Why use an image at this low resolution, when the scanner is able to get much better scans? If we draw large character shapes, and then scan them at a low resolution, we will obtain the overall shape into our graphics/fontmaking program. This is exactly what we want most of the time; if we scan smaller characters at a very high resolution, many artifacts will appear on the digital picture, and many irregularities in the contour, resulting in worse autotracings or a difficult hand-tracing. Usually, high resolutions end up with more inconveniencies than benefits. However, if the images are small or if you want to get details of a small, complex image, you will need to use higher resolutions for scanning. I usually scan at 300 dpi grayscale when I want to create symbols for a dingbat.
Normally you will only scan images in either black and white or greyscale. Scanning in colour is actually no good to get images for a font (unless you start from a colour picture and you prefer to adjust the colour within a photo-painting app.) It is recommended that you scan in grayscale rather than in black and white; even if you have a black and white drawing as a starting point. You will convert the image to 1-bit bitmap (black and white) in your painting program instead. Why? Even if your drawing _seems_ just black and white, it has lots of tonalitities, ranging from black to white, that you will lose if you just admit these two extreme values. Indeed, you will discard useful information if you don’t use the rich range of grey values on the paper (even a “pure” black ink drawing has different tonalities that enrich it.) The routine to scan can be as follows:
Scan at 72-300 dpi in greyscale mode (depending on the picture size.)
Use the contrast and brightness control panel, or the levels dialog box in your program to enhance the image. Move the contrast and brightness sliders, or enter a numeric value to test it until you have a clean picture with all the details you need, and as little noise as possible.
You can smooth the uneven contours using some filters in your program, such as Soften, Blur, or specially Gaussian Blur; then use the contrast/brightness dialog or the levels panel to convert the image to something ready to convert to black and white.
When you are satisfied with the results, it is time to save the greyscale image you have just modified. Use a lossless format, such as PNG, GIF, BMP or TIFF.
Now convert your image to 1-bit bitmap, that is, to black and white. Most programs include a threshold option that lets you choose which pixels will be converted to white and which to black. Try different settings to get the best results. Alternatively, you can keep only the greyscale image. Most autotracing engines are able to convert a greyscale image to black and white before tracing it. You can try it, and if the results are unsatisfactory, you can always produce a more controlled 1-bit version from your saved image in the painting app.
Vector tracing tips
When it comes to tracing a digital image to get the vector contours you need to create a font, accuracy and quality are not always synonymous. If we use autotracing, the program may try to adjust excessive anchor points to the shapes of the symbols. A vector with too many nodes is more difficult to edit and has less quality; and a font with unnecessary nodes in all its characters will be a bigger file and a burden for the computer memory.
How can we get cleaner vector shapes --just with the necessary anchor points? The more radical approach is to hand trace every character. That way we decide where to place every node, and we can achieve optimal results. Most professional font designers work this way. The scan serves, then, as a template to trace the vector shapes. This is recommended to create geometrically simple fonts, or high quality text fonts. For something less ambitious, or for complex dingbats or handwriting, it is better to use autotracing. If you are lazy, don’t ever think about hand tracing!
If we don’t want to work that much, we will have to tweak the autotracing settings in our program (Streamline, Corel Trace, Freehand, Xara or whatever tool we use.) It may be necessary to reduce the tracing sensibility, in order to get rid of irregularities and keep just the overall shape of the symbols.
It is also possible to clean up the paths once the tracing has been produced. This is a feature included in some programs (called Smooth Paths or Clean up paths.) Again, it is possible to specify the range of smoothing that we want to apply. Some nodes are discarded in the process, and the shape is kept more or less intact, in a more simplified version with fewer anchor points. Obviously, some projects will admit a more energic cleansing, while others (such as a complex illustration font) will have to keep more nodes to maintain its fidelity to the model.
A template to create characters
Let’s see how to set up a template in a drawing program to prepare the characters you will put into your font. Here I will use CorelDraw as an example, because this is what I have and it lets you export fonts directly, but you can do it with whatever illustration application you use.
Start defining your page with custom dimensions: set the page units to points, and type in the dimensions field 750 points wide and 750 points high. The reason why? These are the dimensions that will let you produce characters that will print well, and you will be able to edit even the tiniest details in each character’s contour.
Place the coordinates (the ruler) origin at bottom left, but not on the same corner: just a bit offset (at 30 points from the bottom and 30 points to the right. See the figure.) You place the origin point to a new position dragging it to the new point. Now it is time to set some guidelines to help you draw your characters, keep them consistent in size and place them where they belong. Drag the guidelines from the top or left ruler to the desired positions on your page. Where? The most useful guides are:
· the baseline.
· the x-height. Not just the letter x height: the lowercase letters without ascender or descender parts share this same height.
· ascender height: the topmost height of letters such as l, t, d...
· descender height: the (negative) height of the bottom of the j,g,p...
· Some type designs have different heights for uppercase letters and the ascender of lowercase letters, but they are pretty close. You can place different guides if you want to be accurate. For simple works it is unnecessary.
· If the letters will connect their left and right sides, like it happens in script fonts, you can place a guide where the characters must touch each other.
Finally, you need some letters as a template. Some programs will let you convert them to shapes, and then to guides. If you cannot do it, just place the letters in visible, non editable layer, and give them a soft colour to use them as a reference without being distracted. The letters don’t have to occupy the whole page. You can leave a third or space on top, or even more. Note that the descender portion will be off the page, actually. Do not worry, it will work.
Now you are almost done. If your program has multipage support, add new pages that share the same guides. You will use a page for every character. As a whole character set has many letters and symbols, this would mean many many pages. You can create separate templates for lowercase, uppercase, and so on, and save them separately. These files will be more manageable, having only about 26 pages. If the program you use doesn’t have a template option, just save it as a normal file. When you open it, remember to save the file with the characters you have drawn with a different name! And finally, if the program doesn’t offer a multipage option, you can create a layer for each character. When you have finished one, make its layer non-visible and go to another layer.
From the drawing program to the font editor
If you have a font editing program, such as The Font Creator program, FontLab, Fontographer or whatever, you can incorporate the vector shapes in each symbol slot in the font file. The font editors normally have a import filter to get postscript vectors (saved in either EPS or AI format.) We suggest to save the symbols in a cut-and-paste file that we can call symbol.ai or symbol.eps. This procedure is recommended: when we finish one symbol in the drawing app, we drag it, or we copy-paste it to the symbol.ai window. Then we save this last file. In the font editor program, we import it to the character window where it belongs.
It is unnecessary to create separate .ai files for every character. With the method described above we only use a temporary .ai/.eps “container file" to transfer the vectors to the font creation programs. Why not copy and paste them directly? Unfortunately, this is only possible with some combinations of programs, and not as a rule.
An alternative technique of transferring vector shapes from the drawing app to the font creation tool is to copy-paste groups of symbols to your container .ai/.eps, import the group into the font creation program, and then cut-paste parts of this group, leaving only the desired characters in the corresponding place.
One trick that is recommended to use is including spacer elements with the letterforms. These spacer elements or control blocks are simply small simple forms, like rectangles, uniformely placed in all the eps files that we bring into the font editor program, for example, one aligned with the uppercase height and one with the descender guide. These elements will produce consistently scaled characters in the font editor. They can be easily erased when the letters are in their place:
When we have the each symbol in its correct location in the font file, it is possible to further edit it: reverse contours, retouch the shapes, apply special effects. What is reversing the contours and what is it worth for? This question might have a rather long answer. When a symbol is composed of different paths, like in the O, the direction of these paths must follow certain rules. Otherwise, the font might not print or display properly. Some font editors will display the symbol all in black if there is some issue with its path directions, and then let you automatically correct it with an option such as “reverse contours” or “correct path direction”.
From a line to a closed path
In a vector drawing program, a line may have different kinds of strokes: thinner or wider, with a certain angle. It is often easier to draw lines than complex closed shapes. For example, to get an “O” we could draw just one ellipse (with closed paths, we need two ellipses, and them combine them to punch the hole.) Why, then, don’t we use lines instead of closed paths? There is something that we cannot change in the way font symbols are defined. Each symbols must be a single closed path, or a combination of different closed paths. An open path will be ignored, and the width of its strokes will not be displayed.
It seems that we will not be able to use the easier method of drawing characters-- drawing lines instead of closed shapes. Fortunately, there is a workaround. Most drawing programs have an interesting option called “Convert lines to shapes” or “Expand stroke” that will convert a simple path to a closed and filled path. This path reproduces the shape of the line, with the stroke and angle we have used; it may be even a composite or combined path, like in the example we include here. The first O is useless as a font element. The width of the stroke would be ignored. However, when we expand the strokes (in this example they are slightly narrower) we get two combined paths. Both are closed and filled, and have no stroke. This combined shape can be immediately used for a font character.
Nick Curtis, of Nick’s Fonts fame, uses this line-to path method very frequently to create many of his charming fonts (those with monoline contour).
Calligraphic and special brushes
Even more interesting are the calligraphic brushes offered by most illustration programs. This kind of stroke is really suited to font creation. Using a calligraphic stroke cannot be easier; we just select it from a panel and draw using the pen tool or the freehand tool. The stroke we get is based on a natural calligraphic shape: it has a certain angle with the baseline, for example 45°. This means that vertical lines will be much narrower than horizontals, and the wider strokes will be those that keep a 45° angle with the baseline. With a real calligraphic pen, when you draw a vertical line, you do it with the corner of the pen, while you get wider lines in horizontal.
The calligraphic pens in a drawing program deserve a detailed exploration, because there are many creative possibilities. We can even apply a calligraphic stroke to a simple stroke that we saved in another project. If we draw a base font just with simple strokes, we can obtain many different variations, just changing the kind of stroke we use: more or less wide, varying angles, different terminations.
Some programs like Illustrator, CorelDraw, Xara X and Fireworks offer interesting art brushes. They work with any path stroke, and can be applied to any previous drawing with lines. Some of these incredible brushes seem to have been designed for font creation, especially for calligraphic and informal handwriting fonts. If we draw even a simple form, like the a in the example, we can then apply an art brush and bring it to a completely new dimension. Illustrator, for example, includes a variety of art brushes, but we can custom create our own, hence the possibilities of this technique are virtually unlimited.
However, as beautiful as these brushes may be, they are still single strokes. We have to use a workaround to get their effects into a workable shape. The solution comes again using the expand stroke option. The only problem we will find is the high number of anchor points that we get when we convert the line, with an applied complex brush, to a composite closed path. In the example that follows, the first and second characters cannot be used as font symbols, because they are simple lines; the first with a normal stroke, the second with an art brush stroke. But when we convert the latter to shapes, we get a rather complex but usable composite path that we can bring into the font creation program. If the vector is too complicated for practical use, we can export the image to a bitmap format and trace it back following the procedure described before.
Tips for handwriting fonts
When you learn to create fonts, digitizing your own handwriting is an attractive project. To create a font from your own writing is relatively simple, but there are some special details. Most personal handwritings tend to have connected letters, because we let the pen flow on the page and tie one letter with the next one. Of course, the digital font should recreate the rhythm of our own writing on paper, including these connections between letters. However, when we scan the writing to create a font outline on top of it, we will get a continous image for each word. For practical purposes, the letters should not touch --they must be isolated characters to put each one in its place. One solution could be writing the characters individually, but the results are very often unnatural and stiff, with little resemblance to the hand script. I have created several fonts with this technique, like Amano or Honcho, and sometimes they work, sometimes not. It depends on the words you write. But they are somehow different from the true handwriting in which they are based.
From this experience, now I recommend an alternative system. Write the text sample normally, with connected letters, the bigger the better (you can use a marker if you want to write larger characters). Write some “typographical” sentences, such as “pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs”, “sphinx of black quartz judge my vow” or whatever you like. This nonsense phrase contains the whole alphabet! Write it several times, so you can select the best letters for your project. Then write the same in uppercase, but this time try to write separate characters; finally you can write some special symbols and punctuation. After you have scanned the sheet, you must slice the individual letters from the lowercase sentences. You can do it in your painting program. Magnify the image to look in detail where two adjoining letters touch and make a thin cut line to separate the letters, using any tool: the line tool, the pencil, the eraser. Just make sure that most letters have their side connectors aligned. You can use the paint program rulers and guides to decide where to cut. One comment here for a very special program called Scanfont. It makes all these tasks really simple. More information about ScanFont in the first part of this series, and at their website, Fontlab.com.
Combining and reusing shapes
The combination of shapes is an interesting method to create character shapes. Each illustraton program includes filters that will let you cut, join, exclude, intersect... two or more shapes to get new paths. Given that a font is composed of elements that (with some variation) are repeated in different characters, it is possible to create a complete alphabet with a Frankenstein method, combining parts of different symbols, and using the shape filters of the program to achieve the desired results. For more detailed information about how to reuse elements in a font, read the Iconian fonts tutorial or some other material.
Some programs, notably Illustrator, make combining shapes a breeze. With its pathfinder palette, it is very easy to divide, merge, crop... two or more shapes. Very useful to punch holes in closed paths, for letters that have this trait (a, b, d, e, g...) or to weld several parts into one single shape.
There is yet another level of reusing elements that you can take advantadge of. In a font creation program, the special characters like accented vocals, not surprisingly, are created from two separate shapes (the accent and the letter.) There is a way of combining these elements that is called differently in each application, but the results are the same. When you reference a character to use in a new character, the second is linked to the first. This means that you can instantly update all the instances of, say, an a in a font just changing the base letter. The technique of creating composite characters also saves space in the font file, because the information stored is simpler.
Special FX
When a designer creates a font, usually plans to develop a complete family of related typefaces. Text typefaces often have bold, italic and bold italic versions. But there are many more possible variations: hollow, slanted, shaded, narrow, wide... versions of a font. Some type creation apps will let you apply these variations and effects to a group of characters, speeding up the design of alternate versions of a font or the different members of a font family. For some expert font designers, like Ray Larabie, to generate variations of a font is a piece of cake. They take advantage of scripts or automated actions that will batch process a number of fonts to create new versions (notably in the Grunge collection of Ray Larabie!)
A perfectly smooth and geometrically impecable contour is what we want to create for a text font. But in certain cases we want the opposite effect: we want a distressed look, or a retro look simulating an old printer or ancient typeface. This can be easily done applying some filters either in a painting program, a vector program or the font editor itself. These effects can be applied to one of our own fonts, or we can start with another design (but always check out the legal stuff- copyright issues and the like. It is legitimate to start creating a font with another typeface as a model, only if you really create something different and new!)
You can apply special effects to your scanned drawings, or to an existing font in a painting program such as Photoshop or Paintshop pro. There is a huge variety of filters or plugins that you can experiment with. The results are often umpredictable, and sometimes you can be lucky to get a really cool effect that you might like to preserve in a font. Another way of tinkering with your fonts in a painting program is to use the copy and paste options. You can alter a copy, then paste it above or behind the original letters to get new shapes. Remember that before being able to use the symbols you produce in your paint application, you must convert it to black and white first and trace it.
The vector illustration programs are ideal to manipulate letterforms as well. You can make basic editing tasks, using the program tools and filters (the shape combination filters are especially useful). But that is not all. You can take advantage of the multiple distortion tools, and even some special tools (perspectives, 3d rotation, envelope, and many more. In some cases, you can create special effects in the contours using options like “roughen”. Just select the characters, try with different settings and you are done. There is a lot to explore. The basic features of any vector drawing program are more than enough, but in some cases there are special plugins available (especially in the case of Adobe Illustrator.)
Finally, a good font editor includes special effects that can be applied to a single character or to a range of characters. These effects simplify the creation of italic or slanted versions, different weights (from thin to black), outlined fonts, and many more. You can also scale characters, for example, to create a small caps font. One of the most complete fontmaking tools, FontLab 3, includes some special effects (called bold, outline, 3d extrussion, 3d rotate, college, shadow, random move of nodes, envelope and gradient) Using these filters it is very easy to produce many versions of a display font. It is not surprising, indeed, that some font designers offer not just a single typeface but complete families that include outlined, shaded, oblique and other variations from the basic member of the family. Creating outlined or shaded typefaces does not seem as necessary as it could be years ago: after all, most drawing programs will perform these modifications with a couple of clicks. However, if we have a font already converted to a special version, it is ready to use in any program and any version.
So now you are on your way to become an accomplished font designer! I hope some of the ideas I have collected here will prove inspiring or useful for you. If you have any suggestion, comment or correction, please get in touch. Your help will improve these pages. And remember to check the recommended resources we list on the first part of this tutorial.