Type design apps/software for young people

Maurice Meilleur
Maurice Meilleur Posts: 62
in Type Education

Passing on a question from a friend: does anyone know of any apps/programs for youngsters to make fonts? The suggested analog was TinkerCAD, but for type design. I’ve suggested Rob Meeks’s FontStruct, but maybe other folks have good suggestions?

Comments

  • Dave Crossland
    Dave Crossland Posts: 1,557
    iPad fontself?
  • Carl Enlund
    Carl Enlund Posts: 15
    FontBob. I'm building it for new designers. I've used it in design workshops and while guest teaching at design schools in Stockholm. Always open to feedback.
  • dascaluflorin
    dascaluflorin Posts: 5
    Hi, Maurice.

    Some of the ones I tried:
    - (Paid) FontSelf - you design in Illustrator (or Photoshop and apparently there's an iPad version, too) and just drag and drop the glyphs into the FontSelf panel. Haven't tried it in a while and I'm not sure what new functions they added, but IIRC there was a button that would open a new document with glyph metrics boxes. Don't remember if there's a way to set the x-height, cap height, descender, UPM, etc., tho. I'm mentioning it because your friend might find the pen tool in Illustrator more familiar than the one in other softwares.
    - (Free) FontForge - there's a lot it can do, but the UI isn't really the best.
    - (Free)     Counterpunch Editor - IIRC Yanone created it. Worth a try.
    - (Free) Fontra - I believe you can either self host it or download and install it locally? Might be wrong, tho. TBH, haven't used this one (yet), but I've seen a lot of (positive) discussions about it and seems to be getting improvements pretty often.
    - (Free) FontBob - haven't played too much with it and honestly there were a few things I found confusing. But still, seems pretty powerful.

    Hope these help.
  • SCarewe
    SCarewe Posts: 68
    What age are we talking about for youngsters?

    Fontself is great. It also allows you to draw by hand on the iPad with different brushes and it converts the strokes to font outlines. The app is very limited in terms of type design technicalities, but to get your hands into letterforms and generating functional fonts, it's a great place to start.

    If you're talking about students getting into type design for the first time, Fontra is probably a good way to go. Mostly because it's free and browser-based, so anyone with a computer can access it.

    Glyphs Mini is paid (50€), but is probably the best way to get familiar with industry-standard font software. The Glyphs team also offer educational licences for the full Glyphs app.
  • Maurice Meilleur
    Maurice Meilleur Posts: 62
    Thanks, everyone—I think Glyphs and Fontra would be too much for the audience in question, but I'll ask for specifics. The website for the reference I was given, TinkerCAD, shows learners in their tweens.
  • John Butler
    John Butler Posts: 359
    FontLab’s TypeTool is $49, close to the 50 € Glyphs Mini but without the macOS requirement.
  • Steven Liu
    Steven Liu Posts: 5
    My first font design app is fontforge, too old fashsioned though, it forces me to read its docs and understand basic knowledge about font metrics, rendering, OpenType features etc.
  • Thomas Phinney
    Thomas Phinney Posts: 3,151
    I would say that most of these tools are clearly not great for tweens (8–12). My (then) 10-year-old kid joined the first two days (out of three) of one of my intro type design workshops, and I think the hardest thing for them was wrestling with the actual drawing elements of the tool.

    Honestly, my main piece of advice would be to figure out if there is an easy-to-use Bézier drawing tool, and have them learn that first. Then move on to a font editor. The problem is, font editors are in general aimed at people who already know a vector drawing tool.

    That said, if one must proceed now....

    If they are Mac based, Glyphs Mini is probably the easiest of the lot. That does not mean I think Glyphs Mini (or TypeTool or FontForge!) are easy and straightforward enough. FontBob has some really awful choices that make it clunky and counterintuitive IMO, so I can’t recommend it. Fontra and CounterPunch are really intended to be pro tools, and especially CounterPunch is very early yet.
  • Carl Enlund
    Carl Enlund Posts: 15
    Thomas Phinney said:
     FontBob has some really awful choices that make it clunky and counterintuitive IMO, so I can’t recommend it. 

    Haha let me hear!

  • Alfonso García
    Alfonso García Posts: 10
    edited July 23
    Thank you for this post. 
    I have an upcoming workshop* to make for a group of people around 3rd year of University in Argentina.
    Workshop purpose: scan and make a font from movable type (so it needs to support an image). A short set as windows basic. Only one font, no weights, no widths, no inclination.
    Students profile: Most surely they know how to work with beziers, but first time making a font.

    The computer lab only have PCs. So Glyphs is out of question. 
    Public University, so the workshop is free for the students and there is a need that they do not pay for anything. And at the same time there are University budget issues in this lovely country. So, I tested the free soft mentioned by @dascaluflorin (much appreciated). 


    Here it comes my short experience (I tried for two no full days)

    Counterpunch: I did not understand what I was supposed to do. It reminds me the only time I tried Robofont. But I could not start a new font of my own. Playing around I manage to open another font, and I don't know if I have to work from there. 

    Fontra: I made an step further, manage to draw something. But quite difficult for myself to find the tools I need.

    FontForge: Great documentation. I need to work a little bit more on it, so I can understand it better. But, really not comfortable UI

    FontBob: I think it is the one I could advance more towards what I need, in this short time. I still need to  get used enough to guide the workshop. But I am rooting for this or FontForge if I can make it work as I need.

    Of course in such a short period of time is not fair to compare. In order to understand my background I have used Fontographer (too long ago, almost does not count, but I like to mention it) Fontlab 4 and 5 for 10 years and the last 10 years Glyphs app. 
  • jectives
    jectives Posts: 2
    @Alfonso García Fontra posted this recently on Typo.Social.

    There was a class of similar students who designed typefaces using Fontra, but it looks like most of them were working in Affinity (a few in Illustrator) and then bringing their vectors into Fontra. If they're a group that's already familiar with vector software, maybe it would be a lower lift option for them.

    It might be worth reaching out to the professor who ran that course (Renato Valerramas) and seeing how he handled it.
  • Carl Enlund
    Carl Enlund Posts: 15
    @Alfonso García happy to help you set up FontBob for the workshop, or write some quick documentation for working with scanned images.
    Feel free to email me at hello@fontbob.com
  • Dsche
    Dsche Posts: 8
    If we're considering (or at least assuming) a future career, I'd recommend early versions of FontLab (around version 4). The interface isn't overloaded with confusing information, and it already has everything you need to create a professional font. If we're just playing around, try Corel Draw. No special knowledge is required: just draw and export to TrueType.
  • John Hudson
    John Hudson Posts: 3,721
    TypeTool from FontLab is worth checking out. It is their introductory tool, priced similarly to Glyphs Mini.

    Another Windows option would be FontCreator from High-Logic, which is often overlooked but full featured. It is on sale until 28 July.

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