[MissEffigy]

I was just wondering if its hard to make your own fonts from scratch? I'd like to learn because I can never find the right fonts to go with my designs, I manage to get close but I can never anything perfect.

Stace x

[steveb]

I churn them out regularly. It's simply a matter of drawing the letters. You can draw them on paper and scan them in or you can create them in Illustrator or Photoshop or Gimp or InkScape. When you've drawn the letters, you can draw numbers, punctuation, dollar and euro signs, tildes and umlauts and circumflexes. If they all match up nicely and look like they're all part of the same font, it's time to get hold of a font generator program. I use this and I'm very satisfied with it. FontCreator - The Most Popular Font Editor!

My next utfi update with a new font (Snevil) and a redesigned site is imminent.

I should mention that my designs are created from a flash of inspiration or insight and not with any predetermined purpose in mind. I think that would be next to impossible. I was recently asked for a "summery, happy font" so I told the customer to draw smiley faces over the letter i.

[wheedwacker]

It takes a whole lot of time and patience to make a font.

These may help:
So You Want to Create a Font. Part 1 | i love typography, the typography and fonts blog
So You Want to Create a Font. Part 2 | i love typography, the typography and fonts blog

[steveb]

Good point - the thing is, it's not a drudge!

Interesting articles, those. Taken altogether, they seem a little off-putting - so many work steps - but the best way to learn is by doing and it isn't difficult. Repetitive and a little monotonous at times for sure but the reward at the end is worth the time spent.

[MissEffigy]

Thanks for the advice guys. I don't mind the repetative and maybe sometimes dull parts of design, just as long as end up with an enjoyable creation at the end all is good.

Although I'm not so sure I would have the time for it, sounds like a very long process, unfortunatley that's something I don't have a lot of right now, this may be a learning project that will have to wait until after I've learnt everything else I want to learn about professional design. Will keep everything you said in mind though. Cheers

[wheedwacker]

Originally Posted by steveb

I should mention that my designs are created from a flash of inspiration or insight and not with any predetermined purpose in mind. I think that would be next to impossible. I was recently asked for a "summery, happy font" so I told the customer to draw smiley faces over the letter i.

Several type foundries do commissions though, such as H&FJ Clients | Hoefler & Frere-Jones

Though I doubt that the clients tell them to have a certain feel like that; the type designers probably come up with that themselves.