If we use our computer to work, we may need an element whose use has been growing exponentially in recent times in various areas related to technology, such as typography or text fonts. This is something that we will need to use in sectors such as marketing, advertising, graphic design, blogging, among others. That is why it can be essential to be able to create and use fonts in Windows to be able to write with our own handwriting.
Arial, Time New Roman, Helvetica… are some of the best-known and most used typefaces and typographic fonts around the world. And it is that typography is an art that requires many hours of work to master. If we want to create a typographic font from our own handwriting, we can find different tools that will help us to carry out this task.
Create your own font with these programs
In order to create our own custom font we can make use of these free programs available for Windows.
Microsoft FontMaker
We are talking about an application developed by Microsoft to help us easily create our own typographic fonts so that we can give all our creations a personal touch. We can download it for free from the Microsoft Store . Although we should be able to create our own fonts using the mouse, the truth is that it has not worked for us, so it is advisable to have a PC with a touch screen or a tablet and a stylus to use it.
Once we execute it, its main menu appears with different squares that show the alphabet, where we must write the letters as the symbols to be able to create our own font, although we see that the letter ñ is missing to have the complete Spanish alphabet since, when found in English, it shows the letters of this language. It should also be said that we will not be able to delete those characters in which we have made a mistake, nor will we be able to add special characters or add more options for the text.
On the next screen we see three sentences that we must write. These sentences are written in English and we must write them in their corresponding box. In this way it is possible that we feel like when we were young and we had to learn calligraphy with those famous notebooks. It is a similar situation, and it is important that we do it correctly so that the program can detect the font that we are going to create.
On the last page it will allow us to adjust the size and create the font . At the bottom we find three slider bars to configure the space between characters, the space between words and the size. Later, in the event that a letter seems to be out of place, we can go back to the previous screens through a small arrow-shaped icon located in the upper left. If the size of the font is not too tight, there is no need to worry since we can always adjust it in applications such as Word.
Once finished, click on the Create button to open a File Explorer window so that we can save our font, which we must give a name and will be accompanied by a TTF extension.
FontForge
It is a powerful open source application to create and edit digital fonts that is characterized by incorporating a good number of functions that will help us customize each letter as much as possible, including various metric and transformation functions. FontForge is compatible with Windows, macOS, and Linux and is completely free to use. To do this, simply download it from the developer’s website .
The application can be installed in Spanish which helps to make its handling easier. Once opened, a window appears from where we can load an already created source or create a new one by clicking on New.
This will make the main menu appear with a map with all the letters of the alphabet (not including the ñ), each one in its corresponding square. We will also have some special symbols. By double-clicking on any box, an editing screen appears from where you can create the font corresponding to the chosen number, letter or character. This is something that we must do individually with each square. Every time we add the source, the square will turn white, while the rest show an X.
Once finished, all that remains is to save our source, for which we click on File and Generate source . Now we only have to give it a name and a location where it will be saved.
Web applications to create a typeface
If we don’t want to download any software to our computer, we can also create our fonts with these web applications.
Calligraphr
It is a web application that allows us to scan our handwriting to create a custom font. It is easy to use and offers several features that will help us get your perfect font. We can export the results as TTF or OTF formats to use it on both Windows and macOS computers. We can use Calligraphr to create and export a custom handwriting font for free. Plus, having a Pro subscription unlocks additional features to help us turn our handwriting into the best possible font.
The main disadvantage of using Calligraphr for free is that its font is limited to 75 characters . That may be enough for uppercase and lowercase letters, every number, and common punctuation marks, but not much else. To start we must access its official website and create a free account.
The first thing will be to create a template of the font, which is based on a grid of boxes with a box for each character that we want to include in the font. After creating the template and printing it, we must write each letter by hand in the boxes and then scan it again in our PC to be able to create the font. To do this we must click on Download template and the file format and the size of the cells.
Once downloaded we will obtain the necessary template that we must print. We then use a black pen or marker to complete the template by drawing a single character per frame, making sure that each line is clearly drawn.
Now we have to click on the My fonts section and then click on Load template to add the template with our font.
It will show us the written characters that we can edit or delete if we like one in particular. We can also adjust its size to make sure each character is the same height. Once finished, click on Add characters to the source .
Finally, we only have to click on the Generate Font button for Calligraphr to finish converting our handwriting into a font. Once finished we make sure it looks good in the preview, then we download the file in TTF or OTF format.
Font Maker Bit
This web application is much simpler than the one previously seen and, in addition, it is completely free . With it we will be able to create fonts quickly for which we can use its gallery, import fonts in TTF format or use the Sample function to create the font using a template . It is compatible with the main web browsers on the market and all you have to do is access its official website .
To start we must click on the box of the letter, number, symbol that we want to design. It is worth mentioning that the alphabet is English, so we will not have the letter ñ available. In the lower panel, a box appears from which to design the character that we have selected and each cell corresponds to a pixel, so we will have to select the one that best resembles it to give it the desired shape.
Once finished, click on the Build Font button that we find in the lower right. This will show us a window where we must enter the name of the source, the name of the author and the spacing between words. Finally, click on Build and a window will appear with the file explorer so that we can choose where to save the file in TTF format.
Use the new font within Windows
To be able to use our new font in Windows, the procedure is quite simple. We simply have to save the font in a known location, for example, on the Desktop. Then we just open File Explorer, right-click on your source and copy it.
Next, we access the following address from File Explorer:
C:/Windows/Fonts
Once here, we right-click and paste the font. We will see how a short progress bar is applied which means that our font is installing. Once finished we will have the source already available. If at any time we want to delete the source, we go back to the folder, right-click on the source and select Delete.