How do I create a script font?

#1

Hey guys,

I just purchased fontself, and I would like to know a step-by-step on how to start creating script fonts in FontSelf.

Things I already have in place:

  • iPad Pro 2020 with Apple Pencil
  • Wacom Tablet
  • Illustrator 2021
  • Fontself Ready and installed

Thank you! I appreciate your response!

#2

Hi Prestigeartsy and welcome to this forum.

Creating script fonts is a great subject and a lot of fun. It is also a very broad topic, so it is difficult to give precise advice.

I take the following approach:

  1. On a white sheet of paper, I have faintly drawn guide lines for the baseline, ascender and descender.
  2. then I write or draw my letters with sufficient spacing using a black caligraphic pen.
    I scan the paper, which is better than taking photos with my mobile phone.
  3. in Photoshop I optimise the scan so that the guide lines are no longer visible.
  4. in Illustrator I vectorise the image. Combine one letter at a time into a group and name the group “A”, “B” and so on in the “Layers” palette.
    With the necessary guides like “baseline” I then draw my letters in Fontself Maker.
  5. adjust the spacing etc.
  6. save as .AI file and as font .otf from Fontself.
    (I will write an article about it in the next days.)

If you have an iPadPro and a pen or Wacom tablet, you can also draw each letter digitally. You have to try out how and where your letters look better.

Good luck.

#3

Thank you for your response.

When you mentioned vectorize, does it mean, outline the image, then expand it? Or do them all over again by using the pen-tool?

Thank you!

#4

All Fonts, if they are no bitmap-fonts in photoshop with fontself, are vectors. So you have to put vector objects into Fontself in Adobe Illustrator.

Please read this article about it: https://creativemarket.com/blog/how-to-create-your-first-font-from-scratch-a-step-by-step-guide