Create your own typeface

Use a free, open-source app to draw new fonts or edit existing ones

FontForge is an open-source tool for creating and editing typefaces. It is made for Unix’s X11 windowing system, which you’ll need to install in macOS to be able to use it. FontForge is pretty clunky, which is why most type designers pay for alternatives such as Robofont (around $430, doc.robofont.com). But it does the job for free.

In this tutorial we can only give you a quick introduction. Creating a typeface requires planning and organization, and if you want to get into the subject in depth, the process is thoroughly explained at

designwithfontforge.com. It’s worth reading everything there. Drawn this way Fonts are stored as vector graphics, but rather than drawing these from scratch, it’s usual to start by roughing out glyphs on paper, big, and then scan them. You could also sketch on an iPad using Apple Pencil or a third-party stylus.

Either way, you import a bitmap image of a single glyph into FontForge’s glyph window using File > Import. This image appears in the background layer, which you can edit by clicking Back at the bottom left or pressing Position it, then switch back to the foreground layer and draw over the top of it. Upon completion, you can choose Edit > Clear Background to remove the bitmap, although it’s ignored anyway when you export your finished font using File > Generate Fonts.

You can import glyphs drawn with other apps. Copy and paste won’t work, but we found that exporting an SVG file from another app and using File > Import in FontForge was reliable, though saving as EPS file back out of FontForge wasn’t.

Another way to use FontForge is to tweak an existing font, bearing in mind that any licensing terms will still apply to your edited version. Just go to File > Open – almost any font file will work, enabling you to edit each glyph, add missing characters, and learn from how professional fonts are drawn. Google’s Chivo (see below and bit.ly/2hhWdf6) is an especially tidy example.