Program for changing the font on the computer. How to create your own font

Graphic editor FontLab Studio, which can then be downloaded for free via a direct link, is a real professional font editor, which is used in their work by developers of world companies Adobe, Apple, IBM, Microsoft, Monotype, Bitstream and many others.

FontLab Studio software for working with fonts has all the necessary capabilities to create any type of highly artistic and high-tech. Quality fonts created in FontLab Studio can be seen in the world's best publications and on the most popular Internet sites.

Most design studios and printing houses use fonts that came out of the pen of the FontLabStudio program. Not surprising, because the program that you can download for free in this post supports OpeneType, TrueType, ASCII / Unix Type and many more types of fonts, allows you to import and export vector fonts in AI and UZYb formats, as well as in TIFF and BMP.

The professional FontLab Studio program for working with fonts has its own viewer and powerful ready-made fonts, there are options for a large number of tools and filters, the editor program supports various encodings (including Unicode) and many other features.

FontLab Studio 5 has been significantly improved over previous versions and is now aimed at printers, professional designers, typists and graphic design studios.

Professionals will appreciate the huge selection of FontLab Studio features for creating, processing and modifying fonts of various categories, support for generating Windows Type 1 and OpenType PS and Arabic and Hebrew characters. Excellent drawing tools, batch character transformation, encoding templates, more than 200 levels of undo and redo are implemented.

Download archive with FontLab Studio 5.0.4.2741 on

Are you tired of the daily monotonous use of regular fonts? Or maybe you have some creative ideas for your own font and its style? If yes, then we want to tell you that since you are confident and creative enough, it's time to start visiting free sites where you can bring all your ideas related to fonts to life. Yes, that's right, because there are many resources for graphic designers on the Internet where you can design and design your own fonts. In the future, you can use them in your own projects or share with others. It’s worth noting that there is a huge demand for new and exciting types of fonts right now. Believe me, the graphic world just needs talented font developers, and if you are good at it, then you can also earn extra money on it.

We offer you a list of 10 free resources with tools where you can create and create new creative fonts.

Bird Font is an online tool for creating and editing vector graphics. The service offers import and export settings for True Type Font (TTF), Embedded OpenType Font (CRT), and Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG). On the site you can explore many features and tools for creating various vector images. The most popular among them are curve orientation, contextual binding substitution, kerning, object rotation, background change, and much more.

The site is designed specifically for creating fonts and offers an efficient platform for font design. The resource will be useful for enthusiasts who like to experiment with fonts and create new types. On FontStruct, you can create fonts using various geometric shapes, such as tiles or brick grids. In addition, here you can find ready-made new types of fonts. Fonts built on FontStruct are called FontStructions and can be installed or downloaded in a True Type Font (.ttp) file. They can also be used in Photoshop applications, Mac/Windows, or on websites and blogs. This is a site that is really worth paying attention to.

Glyphr Studio is a font design and editing program and a tool that offers many interesting features. On Glyphr Studio, you can create your own character ligatures and glyphs using various vector editing tools such as pen and pointer. One of its characteristic advantages of the service is the import of SVG code from Inkscape and Illustrator. The tool offers a dual screen mode for easy design and editing. Among other things, Glyphr Studio supports font files such as True Type Font (TTF), Embedded OpenType Font (EPB), and Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) font files.

The site is a browser-based tool for designing and editing bitmap fonts. The service allows you to download or upload fonts to their gallery in a True Type Font file.

MyScriptFont is a great online tool for creating vector fonts from your own handwriting. All you have to do is download the template in PDF or PNG format and then print it. Next, write the text in it by hand, scan and upload to the site (the program supports JPG, PNG, PDF and others). You can also use Paint to write text. Unlike other similar tools, MyScriptFont allows you to view and download your handwritten font in Open Type and True Type formats for free. Handwritten fonts can be used in graphics programs, greeting cards, logos, personal letters, and more.

FontForge is an online platform for creating free fonts. It has an easy to use user interface and a built-in program for comparing different fonts. With FontForge, you can create and edit fonts in a variety of formats, including PostScript, SVG, True Type, Open Type, and more. Also, at your service is the full text of the textbook, which helps in professional training in creating fonts.

FontArk is what every font designer is looking for. Access to the service is only free for a limited time, but it's actually worth taking advantage of. FontArk is a browser-based program and a generation of font tools with a built-in fluid grid system. FontArk's design and editing tools are what sets the site apart from its contemporaries. It offers users real-time, multiple glyphs, character editing and font design tools, as well as logos. In addition, it offers many other features and supports multiple languages.

PaintFont.com is another great tool for converting handwriting to vector fonts. The site has an extensive set of pre-made characters categorized into categories such as ligatures, math, and punctuation. The tool offers glyphs and symbols from various languages: Japanese, German, Turkish, Hebrew, Spanish, and more.

You can create fonts or upload and modify your own using the custom tools at Fontastic. The service offers several features such as adding or changing colors, adding shadows, zooming, and syncing across multiple devices. The site also contains a huge collection of vector icons that can be used to implement any of your design projects. They are sorted into several categories for complete convenience.

This service can be called an ideal place for professional font designers and just amateurs. The service has more than 20 parameters that allow you to experiment with built-in glyphs. Also here you will find several editing and design functions that will be expanded in the future.

A few more resources you might find useful:

FontPunk.com is a free online styling and visual effects tool to create a visually appealing font for an advertisement, flyer or website.

FontConverter.org is a free online font file converter.

Font Squirrel is a free online resource with a collection of web fonts that are licensed for commercial use.

Conclusion

Now you know that developing your own fonts is very easy if you have the right resources. For the self-taught and hobbyist, these resources are useful for learning practical skills such as kerning, curve tuning, exploring structural variations, and glyph assembly.

Decoration is a boundless ocean, growing every day. New font types are created daily every day or by making custom changes to already existing fonts. Fonts enhance the visual appeal of text content, which is why designers are constantly looking for new font styles to make their work as fresh and innovative as possible.

When working with graphics, especially in printing, you almost always need to deal with fonts. Hundreds of fonts on the computer, thousands - on the Internet. Paid, free, serif, sans-serif, Cyrillic, decorative, grotesque, stylized - it's easy to drown in the variety of fonts, and it's almost impossible to remember everything. Moreover, most of them are rarely used. This is where font managers come to the rescue. There are also quite a few of them - from simple viewers to powerful managers that provide many opportunities. In this article, we will look at several effective free font managers.

Fast Font Preview

This is a very simple utility that allows you to quickly view the fonts installed on your system. For greater convenience, the standard test phrase can be replaced with your own. It is noteworthy that the program can work portable. Actually, the possibilities of FastFontPreview end there. But often, that's all it takes. You can download FastFontPreview.

font viewer

The Font Viewer program works similarly. For more convenience, you can customize the font color, size and background. You can also save your favorite fonts to lists for quick access in the future and export your list of fonts to a txt or pdf file.

FontMassive

Incredibly powerful program included in the FontMassive Pack series. The program is offered in paid and free versions. The list of its features is impressive:

Display fonts as a list.
Symbol table.
Distribution of font files into folders.
Installing fonts in the system.
Removing fonts from the system
Working with formats: TrueType (.ttf), OpenType (.otf), PostScript Type1 (.pfm + .pfb).
View fonts without installation from any source (folders, CD/DVD-ROM, network environment).
Character-by-character comparison of similar fonts.
Very fast list filling (you can already work with the list while it continues to fill up).
Opening subfolders. For example, when dragging from Explorer, hold down Ctrl.
A large number of sorting options (for example, by text width - helps to visually find similar fonts).
Copying styles in curves in .
Viewing a symbol in curves.
Folder history.
Own folder tree.
Work without installation.

FontDetect

The eternal problem - the client asks to write “in such a font”, of course, he does not remember the name. Searching for a similar style with a simple search can take a lot of time and end up with nothing. The FontDetect utility included with the FontMassive Pack helps solve this problem. Program features:

"Probing" fonts in a given list for similarity with the image.
Sort by the most similar to the image.
Very fast search.
Built-in mini-editor (or rather, corrector) of the image.
Ability to work independently (without FontMassive).
The search occurs among all font files specified by the user.

FonTemp

Having a large number of fonts on a computer is a production necessity. But with each new font, the load on the graphic editor and the search time among the many unused options also increase. The FonTemp program from the FontMassive Pack allows you to make a tricky move. You can temporarily "install" the font while the program is running, or you can create an array of the desired fonts. At the end of the work, the system will no longer "see" them. In general, FonTemp can do the following:

Installing fonts "for temporary use" regardless of their location (at least on a local network).
The system is not "overloaded" with a large number of permanently installed fonts (besides, it is limited).
The System's limitation on the number of installed fonts is due to the limited maximum size of keys in the Registry.
When the program is closed (or restarted), the fonts are no longer installed (visible by all programs).
List of Sets and a list of fonts from each set.
Labels for "temporarily off this temporary list" :).
The number of created sets is not limited.
Convenient call from FontMassive (first select the fonts in FM and open the context menu of the list).
Ability to work independently (without the entire FontMassive Pack).
Minimize to tray (“by the clock”).

NexusFont

NexusFont is in many ways similar to the above programs. This handy application, in addition to viewing, installing and deleting fonts, also allows you to work with fonts only while the program is running. You can combine fonts into all sorts of groups for greater convenience, as well as remove duplicates, even if they have different names.

The portability of NexusFont is also an undoubted advantage. You can run the program from a flash drive on any computer and still use all the variety of fonts you have.

FontFrenzy

Let's say you decide to use a program to temporarily connect fonts and clean the system to its original state. But how to remove all unnecessary and not touch the system fonts? A simple FontFrenzy program comes to the rescue. It will quickly put things in order in your system, and all the "extra" fonts can be put into a separate folder, from where you can always restore them.

FontNet Explorer

Each designer has their own list of bookmarks with font sites. But searching for the right one on a variety of sites can take a lot of time. FontNet Explorer is a font browser that will do the search for the desired font for you on an impressive database of specialized sites. It is noteworthy that the program does not require installation.

MyFontbook

And, finally, if you are far from your computer and there is no flash drive with your font manager at hand, but you urgently need to find the right option, then use MyFontbook. This online application will show all your fonts, sort them by tags (if you have created them) and allow you to quickly view the desired phrase.

By choosing the software you need and putting things in order in the font folder, you can significantly simplify and speed up the creation of your design projects.

To create fonts, I recommend using an editor font creator from High-Logic. I must say right away that the program is paid, but this is the best of the options that caught my eye. If you need a free font editor, pay attention to the program type light by cr8software and online service Glyphr Studio. I'll stick with FontCreator (if I'm not mistaken, it was version 6.0).

Step 1: and so, start the editor and use the command: File > New(File > New) - create a new font. In the opened window New Font (from English. New Font) , you will need to specify a number of parameters:

Font family name- the name of the font family, i.e. just the name of the font, like the same Times New Roman, I pointed My Font.
character set- a set of characters included in the font, I recommend choosing Unicode (characters).
font style- font style, for each style you need to create a separate file here. For the regular (default) font style, select the option Regular.
Predefined outlines- built-in contours. I recommend choosing the Don't include outlines option, which will allow you to create a clean outline of the silhouettes.

Step 2: a window will appear in front of you with a form of silhouettes of some symbols, numbers and Latin letters. For adding Cyrillic into a font, you need to do the following:

2.1. Using the command: Insert > Characters… (Insert > Symbols…)- Open the window Insert Characters(from English. character insertion).

In this case, you may receive a message:

This operation is not undoable. Do you want to continue?

It informs you that the operation is irreversible and in order to complete it you need to confirm your action, press the button " Yes».

2.2. Next, you will see a symbol table. For convenience, the list Fonts choose a font Arial. Listed Go to Unicode Block select Cyrillic. Using field Selected Character, looks at the code for the letters "A" ($0410) and "I" ($044F) . In field Add these characters and/or character ranges… add the required characters and / or range of characters, in our case it is: $0410-$044F . We press the button " OK».

2.3. Cyrillic characters will be added to your font form. In the same way, but separately, you can add the letters "Ё" ($0451) and "Ё" ($0401) that are not included in the range of characters specified in the previous step.

Step 3: Now you can start creating symbols. Here, in addition to vector editing, using the appropriate tools, FontCreator allows you to create characters from pictures by converting them into a vector image. Obviously, for each character you will need to draw a separate picture.

3.1. As an example, I'll draw a capital letter "A".

3.2. In principle, after scanning, this image file can be used for import. To do this, select the image of the desired character in the form. Then using the command: Tools > Import Image... (Tools > Image Import)- Open the window Import Raster Image (from English. bitmap import) .

3.3. In the window that opens, click the " Load...» (from English. download) and select the image file you need.

3.4. By moving the slider Threshold (from English. threshold) set the level of darkening of the image to create a sharper outline. You can also use filters:

Smooth Filter- smoothing filter.
Erode- blur, makes the character bolder.
Dilate- stretching, makes the font thinner.

import mode (from English. import mode) better leave Trace, to convert to curves. With Negative (from English. negative) , I think everything is clear. So we click the button Generate».

Step 4: By switching to the editing mode, by double-clicking on the symbol in the form, you will only have to correct the bumps, adjust the size and set the indent line. You will need to do the same for other characters.

In general, the process of creating a font is not particularly difficult. This requires patience and a lot of time. With the FontCreator font editor, you can save a lot of time by importing and converting the symbol image into a vector. However, even this option is a lot of work. That's all for me. Thank you for your attention. Good luck!

Installing fonts "for temporary use" regardless of their location (at least over the network).
The system is not "overloaded" with a large number of permanently installed fonts (besides, it is limited).
When the program is closed (or restarted), the fonts are no longer installed (visible by all programs).
List of Sets and a list of fonts from each set.
Labels for "temporarily off this temporary list" :).
The number of created sets is not limited.
Convenient call from FontMassive (first select the fonts in FM and open the context menu of the list).
Ability to work independently (without the entire FontMassive Pack).
Working with the command line.
Minimize to tray (“to the clock”).

★★★★★

Free Font Renamer

Program for renaming collections of fonts. Usually font files are named abbreviated and it is not entirely clear which one is where. This program can batch rename all files, including subfolders (if we want), returning them to their original names. Free Font Renamer can also remove spaces from font names if needed. All fonts located in the Windows system folder will be ignored.

Nexus Font

Manager for managing fonts in the Windows system.
It is possible to display written text using different fonts.

The application supports TrueType, OpenType and Adobe Type1 font formats. NexusFont is also very useful for installing and removing fonts, finding duplicates, renaming and so on. It is also possible to export the preview window as an image.
This is very useful if you need a font to be confirmed by a client or colleagues.