Was just wondering if anyone out there has purchased or used any of the free font generators to be able to add that personal touch even in your DIGITAL scrapbooking?
If you've used one...which?
How much was it and were you pleased with it?
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3 in our family used YourFonts.com several years ago, when they were offering it free. They now charge a small fee, not much really, under $10 unless you get all the extra characters. I moved the letters around digitally before I submitted them, to get them more uniform in size and we were pleased with the results, though we didn't use it often. But now that I'm digitally scrapping, I plan to use it more.
I originally got interested in it, because my Grandmother's handwriting had gotten VERY jittery and unrecognizable. She wanted to write, but couldn't. Mom was just talking with me a few weeks ago, and told me that Grandma's new medications have steadied her hands and she's even drawing now! So I've recently taken to thinking about creating handwriting fonts again.
After just a small search, I've found that there are still a few you can get that are free. Just wanted to know what others have experienced? Thanks.
I use a graphite board and just write into my designs when I want to use my own writing.
I have a font of my writing that I bought several years ago from Kimberly Geswein, (kimberlygeswein.com) but I don't think she's still does them that way. It was less than $10. I use it a LOT!
Do you have links to any that are free? I've never found a free one!
The free font I found the other day was at myscriptfont.com. I've not used it yet though.
Wow Thanks Laura!!! Most excellent!!!
I was looking for a free font software the other day. I found one called Scanahand, but I haven't tried it yet.
Thank you Laura, I will check that out!
I always learn SOOOO much from the forums here on pixelscrapper. I can't wait to try creating my own font. Great post, Laura!
I've tried this one - it's actually great, but it doesn't look much like my handwriting :p
I've always wanted to try this... thanks for the freebie link
I bought Scanahand a few years ago.
It's awesome because I can make however many fonts I want. I only bought the cheap one, so it doesn't let me fix every little thing. However, since I just scan the font, I have been able to fix how I write it in the box to make it better. I've also used it to make doodles that I've loaded as fonts.
Also, it's cool because I've been able to add journalling in the handwriting of the person. For example, my mother in law shared a story with me, and I was able to add it with her handwriting. Plus, I have my siblings handwriting when they were young (think backwards letters) and they can see it.
@Courtney: That program looks interesting. I've often thought about making my handwriting a font, but it always seemed a bit complicated. Maybe I will take the plunge.
Marisa, I already tried it! and it is fun, quick and easy. I have my own font now
The basic one is very very simple. You print out a page, write your letters (or dingbats) and then scan it in. Save the font, and done!
The more advanced one I haven't tried, but I know it'll let you fix slants and such to make your font better. For journalling, I find that the basic one has worked just fine.
Heather Joyce has a great deal at Scrap Orchard right now: she turns your handwriting into a digital handwriting font for 1 dollar 30 - normal price is 10 dollars!
http://scraporchard.com/market/The-Custom-Digital-Scrapbook-Font.html
Note: At that price she reserves the right to use your handwriting font, repackage, & sell it. I would be scared someone else that purchased it could use my font and forge my digital signature. I know that your digital signature is becoming "legal" tender for business use and can cause you to be held responsible for things like applying for a credit card online.
just my 2 cents on the subject...
I hear ya, Shawna.
That would make me concerned, too. It was only a few years back that I had someone steal my mail over a period of a few days & change the address on one of my utility bills - thankfully I noticed right away (got a PO Box, called everyone I had an account with or subscription with & had them switch it to that & had them password-protect my accounts - to make sure that could never happen again) - I think I would have been the victim of identity theft otherwise. So, needless to say, while using my own handwriting as a font sounds nice (for like scrapping genealogy books & what not) I wouldn't be comfortable with my handwriting being offered to the general public.
I agree, I wouldn't ever use the "signature feature" on these. Paid or free. My signature looks different than my handwriting. And most of these, except for the VERY expensive, aren't set up to deal with cursive's, and only deal with a print. I would feel better about a "signature stamp" if I scanned it, and kept it password protected!
oh thank you so much for this. I was able to get my moms handwriting for my journaling.
I tried myscriptfont.com and I think it came out really cute. Since they tell you to use a medium felt tip, it looks a little casual, like I'm marking moving boxes or making garage sale signs. I might try again, using a thinner pen and my "good" handwriting to see what turns out. Has anyone else tried a thin felt tip or even a ball point?
I used Gel pens on mine it came out cute for all of mine I did, my daughter, mine, and my moms.
Oh, nice! Thanks Megan; that will be what I try next.
What I did when we did our 3 fonts several years ago, 1) Mine 2) hubbies & 3) my Daughters...was I had them write in the boxes, but then I scanned them, and moved the letters in a drawing program so that the bottoms were on a good line. If there was a letter that looked obviously smaller or larger than others, I readjusted the size a bit trying to match. I laid guide lines down on the bottom, and mid point lines. If you want something that looks a little more uniform and nicer, you might want to take a look at doing something similar before you send it in.
Wow, thanks for the link, Fran! I downloaded Inkscape and Font Forge and have toted with them both. May just have to start making my own fonts...lovin this so far!
hahaha...yeah, it should have read
"downloaded Inkscape and Font Forge and have toyed with them both." And thanks for the tutorial, I was able to follow along with the videos, but only to a point. You're right they go fast. How do you slow them down?
Question Fran... have you used the newer version. I actually downloaded the 0.48 version, instead of a newer "Development Version"...but the How to Make a Font with Fontforge & Inkscape page had their 4th video that must be using one of the Develpment versions because I don't find the Typography under Extensions, though some of the options for aligning objects along baselines for text appear to be there.
I was trying to figure out how to "place the base lines" for the text. Because it is giving me the options in the Objects > Align and Distrbute the ablility to "Align baseline text" option. Do you know a way within the 0.48 version to add a baseline for the texts? Is it that its a feature only once you are dealing with TEXT instead of objects? (Which is where I'm still at with creating and defining SVG Font Editor, Adding Glyphs etc.)
I'm not sure if Illustrator has been upgraded yet to deal with multiple letters inside the SVG file as the last video, but I like the fact that Inkscape can. I've done a few ABC fonts, just as a test into Fontforge.
Also I've run into a problem, I'm seeing some of my fonts appears in Inkscape, but a DO HAVE a font that isn't showing up on the list. I've not yet found were to set the program to look for fonts or other types of files. Might just have to import as a bmp pic instead, cause it just happens that the font I wanted to tweek is the one that's NOT showing up in Inkscape, won't you know it.
For those with an iPad, I use iFontMaker. It's so easy to make a font with that program and it lets you pick a font to use as a guide. You draw directly onto the iPad as if you were using a pen which allows you to get pretty precise results without the scanning step. I think it's $5 or maybe $6. I'm really happy with it.
my sister uses a free iPhone/iPad app called MyRealFont. i haven't tried it but she says it's really easy to use.
Thanks for the software leads gals ! I've got apples on my dream lists!
@Fran: yeah there are some tricks to getting the glyphs to show, especially if you are using 2 separate lines/pieces...(I got all that figured out, but didn't get a tutorial written yet, and I'm reading the forums on my sons old itouch, so I'll have to look at it later. I learned it, but barely, there are times you should "Combine" and times you have to use convert to paths. I'll have to check into recording my actions on the screen for the tutorial, it would be easiest, but that's another whole program to learn... Lol...so it could be a while, will have to right out steps first.
When I was saying I had a Font that wasn't showing up, I meant a .ttf that is I got years ago, that you can't find on the list when using the Text tool...like Times Roman font...Cohort..but this is a foreign language font, Hebrew specifically, and ive had troubles with it in Gimp as well! It's on the list in GIMPs text but doesn't show properly when you type it, but if you have it selected and then copy and paste it from another program and the clipboard it knows how to get Gimp to show it properly. I know it's weird, but then I have a knack for finding bugs. Lol
I've played with the kerning in both programs, and liked it in both Inkscape and Fontforge, but really settled on using fontforge just so I didn't have to worry about how it would import in from Inkscape. You can define the spacing on each pair of letters!!! I'm LOVING it! I did have some troubles with Fontforge crashing, but then figured out how to battle through it and eventually it seemed to become more stable on my OLD system.
I finished a font, kind of but then decided I wanted to do the symbols as well, so I've got to get back to it, after a college bound trip for my son.
One other thing, did you realize that you can save ALL your glyphs (characters) and import the whole thing at once into Fontforge? Do NOT use the import- just find your .SVG file in your folder and right mouse clip, Open With... Fontforge. Bam!!! Their ALl there!
this sounds like a great idea!
Hmmm, was looking into MyRealFonts, and when you read the terms...they currently have two things you need to be aware of.
1) In #1 they say that you may not use any material from their ap for commercial use.
2) In point (ithink it was) #6...they indicate that by using it you relinquish ALL rights of the font you design to them. They also go on to say that they may. Store your fonts in their database and use it how ever they want WITHOUT getting your permission!
Just know the terms, before you start designing a font for THEM...lol
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