your Dad bought you an iMac and a scanner for your birthday and Gran gave you enough cash to pick up the software programs you reckon you'll need to letter your own comics. You've peeled the shrinkwrap off the Fontographer box, you've read the manual and you're ready to create a couple of fonts. This may surprise you, but at this point I'd suggest you turn the computer off for a couple of hours and sharpen up one of those pencils you threw in the back of the drawer, it's time for a little...
fter you've had just a little practice, and you've gained some confidence working on your computer, you'll soon find yourself creating fonts directly in programs like Adobe Illustrator or Fontographer. For a beginner, it's best to sketch out some raw material with a good old-fashioned pencil on a piece of paper. Concentrate first on standard UPPER CASE letters, and resist the temptation of writing out a straightforward A-B-C through Z, as you'll tend to create letterforms that are somewhat lifeless and self-conscious. If you fill your sketchpad with thoughts about anything and everything close to your heart, your characters will better capture your unique creativity and personality.
e careful not to over-design your fonts. At some point you have to take a step back, circle your liveliest characters, scan them and then create electronic outlines using either the "Autotrace" feature in Fontographer, the pen tool in Illustrator or a conversion program like Streamline. When you've pasted your letters into Fontographer, you'll be just steps away from generating your first font. If your experience is anything like mine, you'll may be a little bit downhearted when you see your first results. Stick at it. Roman numerals weren't spelt in a day.
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reate as many fonts as you can; draw letters with pens, pencils and pen tools; experiment with both IIlustrator & Fontographer. Computer Lettering is NOT about the hardware and it is NOT about the software. It doesn't matter if you favor pen and ink or the latest superfast Macintosh, the art of comic book lettering has always been about just one thing: