You can import outlines from Inkscape and Illustrator, or even import entire SVG fonts and modify them. This beautiful, powerful and practical application comes in a portable form – there’s no need to install it, it just runs as an HTML file. Before exporting your new font into one of many supported formats (OpenType, TrueType, AAT, SVG, PostScript, Multiple Master, dfont, BDF…), you can check for errors and inconsistencies with the Find Problems option and the Font Validation Tool.
You can also use it to extract fonts from PDF files. For better control over your drawings, FontForge offers layers, and just like BirdFont, it can import SVG and EPS files from Illustrator and Inkscape. The Spiro mode lets you perform detailed adjustments on curves.
If you’re used to drawing in Photoshop or Gimp, this won’t be too difficult. In FontForge, you draw letters using curves and modify their shape and position. Luckily, there’s a tutorial to help you get started, along with a detailed FAQ that can teach you a lot about typography. With so many tools and options, it might seem overwhelming to a beginner. Step-by-step tutorials can be found on the official website.Īvailability: Linux, Mac OS X, BSD and Windows.įontForge is a free, open source, complete software solution for creating fonts. BirdFont can import drawings from Inkscape and Adobe Illustrator, and export finished projects as TTF, EOT and SVG fonts. Definitely try font forge, but don’t feel obligated to complete a huge project in it.To create fonts, you can draw on the grid, import SVG icons to make an icon font, or draw letters by hand in another program (or even on paper), then import that image into BirdFont as a background and draw over it, tracing the letter shapes. I think rather than looking for a free option to complete a mammoth task that you never did before, you could start a bit smaller and test the waters - using font software is completely different to online tools like calligraphr and requires tons of knowledge and practice with cubic beziers and b-splines, some technical knowledge and ideally coding knowledge, plus a whole lot more. Not to say you can’t use font forge or something else, but it will be harder and it seems to me you are a beginner - having only worked with calligraphr which is (not to be rude) a kind of pedestrian way of making fonts.
To be honest if you have the dedication to make a typeface rather than just a singular font, i think you should seriously consider investing in some type design software, since that process can take multiple years even for skilled type designers, and it will be way shorter if your software makes the process easier for you.
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