Font design
Personal project. I created a font using fonstruct.
Font design is difficult and time consuming. There are so many fonts that it’s unlikely that an amateur can create one that is both original and as good as something that is already in existence.
Still, it’s enjoyable as a creative distraction, like a cross between drawing and sudoku, and it’s good to create something.
This font
Previously, I’d drawn an alphabet of letters in different styles. The ‘i’ looked the easiest to turn into a complete font. So easy in fact I decide to give it a go.
The ‘i’ was built using a grid – as if I’d drawn it by colouring in squares of graph paper. This is the way you build fonts with Fonstruct. So that’s what I used. This is the result.
Fonstruct
Fonstruct is an online application that makes creating your own font much easier.
You don’t draw your font but ‘build’ it from a range of ‘bricks’. It’s a bit like Lego. The type of font you can create is limited. It’s going to be ‘blocky’. There aren’t going to be many curves1 and it’s unlikely to be subtle. Have a look at the Fonstruct website and you’ll see what I mean.
Limitations
The ‘i’ sets most of the rules for the rest of the letters: the width of the vertical strokes, the height of the letters, the size of the serifs. ‘l’, for example, is a longer version of the lower part of the ‘i’. ‘P’ is an ‘l’ with a loop attached to it, and so on. The number of things you have to think about when creating other letters is greatly reduced. This is a good thing.
Fonstruct is also limited. There’s a fixed number of brick shapes and you can only place them in a certain number of positions.2 However, there aren’t any fonts on Fonstruct that I can see myself using (including this one). So much for that!
- There are some curved bricks available but their use is limited.
- It does have options that make it more flexible but it’s still very limited compared to standard font creation software.