My 5 key learnings from creating handwriting fonts with Calligraphr

Once upon a time, around 4 years ago, I have read about a simple way to create a font. Since that day, I was curious about trying the mentioned app and creating my own font. Finally I have taken the time and created some handwriting fonts. 💪

After some research I decided to use the web app Calligraphr and am very happy to present three different fonts: flowerish memo by JD, dialog by JD and winter • land by JD 🍾.

winter • land by JD

I would really like to encourage you to create your own font! It’s no big deal and it’s really fun when you follow my key learnings! 🥳

How does it work?

First, you define the set of characters that should be included in your font. Next, you print the template and draw the glyph for each letter onto the template. Finally, you upload the filled template to Calligraphr and … 🥁 … create your font.

After experimenting with three different fonts, I gained key insights regarding the template, glyphs and settings.

1. Create your Calligraphr template

Pro-Tip: Include rather too many than too few characters! Ligatures can be added later on.

a) Define your set of characters, e.g.

• A-Z, a-z, 0–9
• punctuation characters (e.g. !.;?)
• language specific letters (e.g. äöüß)
• special characters (e.g. → @ & #)

b) Download the template

• File format: „PDF“
• Size of template boxes: „smallest possible“
  (Advantages: Nice overview of characters, no mess with template pages)

2. Draw the glyphs

Pro-Tip: Initially perform the following steps only for the most basic characters. Then, complete the remaining glyphs.

1. Draw the glyphs onto the template. ✍️
2. Upload the template to Calligraphr.
3. Create the font and check if the font’s style fits your expectations.
4. If necessary, revise the glyphs.

3. Define the font settings

1. Check the baseline (and size) of all glyphs.
2. Create the font and decide about the font size, letter-spacing and word spaces.
3. Create the font and check if you need to correct the horizontal spacing of single glyphs.

If you want to go even further, you can now

• draw variants for (frequently occurring) letters and
• add ligatures (I used ligatures to define the kerning for specific letter combinations).

What can go wrong?

1. Bad resolution of characters

When I started with my first font, I wasn’t satisfied with the resolution of the characters.

2. Mess of template pages

Thus, for my second font, I printed a new template and selected the largest possible character box size. This wasn’t really a good idea and I ended up in a big mess of way too many template pages 😳 and thus layers in my drawing file.

3. Incomplete set of characters

Shortly before completion, I decided to include additional characters in my font. Each additional character caused all other characters to shift on the template 🤯. Thus, I had to mange both template sets in parallel or move each glyph to its new position.

How to draw the glyphs?

There are numerous possibilities to draw the glyphs onto the template:
You can use different devices (Mac/PC/smartphone/tablet) and draw the glyphs via mouse/finger/pencil. Depending on the device, various apps can be used, based on vector (e.g. Adobe Illustrator) or pixel graphics (e.g. Procreate).

Moreover, you could print the template and use a black pen. This might be a great way for a kids font project 🧒 — especially in these days of home schooling 🏫.

Drawbacks of Procreate

In my first experiments, I used the iPadOS app Procreate and an Apple Pencil. Procreate is a really great drawing tool, but has some drawbacks when being used for glyph drawing:

• Moving single glyphs (e.g. for creating ligatures) is tiring.
• No import of pdf files possible. Thus, you need to convert the Calligraphr PDF template to a high-resolution image file manually (e.g. via Preview → save as → png; resolution: 700 pixels/inch).

Pro-Tip: Pay attention to the correct resolution of your template in Procreate! I sent a high-resolution PNG template via AirDrop to my iPad. After importing the PNG from the Photos App to Procreate, the resolution was extremely scaled down.

Why Calligraphr?

I have decided for Calligraphr due to the following advantages:

• You can start with a free account.
• No Mac/PC software installation required.
• It supports character variants and ligatures.
• The template provides a nice overview of all glyphs.
• The template can be filled in any desired way. Thus, you can draw the glyphs on your tablet (or use pen and paper).
• It is easy to use.

By the way, I really like the animations in this article illustrating the creation of consistent letters by replication.

Alternatives to Calligraphr that might we worth to consider

• iFontMaker: iPad app that looks promising. Probably I’ll give it a try 😊.
• FontForge: Unfortunately no web app available, but the documentation is very interesting.
• fontstruct: Web app, looks interesting.

Conclusion

While experimenting with different fonts, I learned about fonts in general including kernings and diacritical marks.
Unfortunately, Calligraphr neither supports the definition of kerning pairs nor a default setting for accented characters such as more sophisticated font editors do. Nevertheless, it is a great tool to start your journey into the land of fonts. 🚩

My 5 key learnings 🚀

1. Create the font step-by-step and start with only the most basic characters (section How does it work?).
2. Particularly care about the clarity
3. and completeness of the template
4. and also the resolution when using a drawing app (section What can go wrong?).
5. Wisely choose the app for painting the glyphs. Prefer vector over pixel graphics apps (section How to draw the glyphs?)

Take your time and create your own font! ✍️ It’s really fun! 🥳 I would be happy to hear about your experience and fonts!