This afternoon I have been trying to select a font for the new comic. It's a painful business. On of the things I'm tired of is the way the speech bubbles in Scary Go Round look, they float above the artwork and don't really look integrated into the page (because they aren't). I think one need only look at some of the blog entries below to see why I won't be lettering by hand (this guest page I did for Barnaby Ward is about as neat as I like to get it). I need something kind of freewheeling looking, relatively narrow, with an upper and lower case, and I am open to suggestions. I would prefer not to use a free font so just go shopping on my behalf.
I am looking for leftfield suggestions!
My comics: Bad Machinery - Scary Go Round - Giant Days :: My Shop :: My Flickr Sketchblog :: My Last.fm
16 comments:
Hi John
http://www.blambot.com/fonts.shtml have a pretty good selection of fonts for quite cheap roughly $20 a set (he did letting on the Umbrella Academy, Madman &some Goon). I'm using one to letter my impending comic and finding them really good - the only possible downside is I haven't seen any with a £ symbol but he seems like a nice guy so I'm sure he'd knock you out a set with one in.
I think you could do well with a subtle serif font, or a sans-serif that's not at all geometric. The first impression would be really different, but some of your humour might just come off better with it. I guess in the long run, your characters voices will probably colour it for long-term readers much more than the font, anyway.
As long as it's not so straight and serious that it clashes with your art style, of course!
ITC Eras
Or basically anything in the quite large Humanistic Sans subcategory. Vanquish Condensed also looks promising.
Wheee, fonts!
I do graphic and forms design for part of my living, and have nearly 1,200 fonts on the work machine. My mind goes blank at the thought of actually suggesting a font... I'm simply overwhelmed. But let me chek my notes...
I really like your handwriting, John!
My comic used a font which wasn't comic sans and got labeled as comic sans and I got sad.
Now I do it by hand, which I think looks better anyway.
Thanks everybody, keep the suggestions coming.
DCW, I like Comic Sans now because it drives humourless chinstrokers up the wall. I say more of it!
Comic Sans has its place in the world. That place is inside church bulletins, on the "fun activities" walls of elementary schools, and titling pamphlets and schedules to be handed out in your local children's library.
So if your new project is about church-going young children with a penchant for reading fundamentals, I say go for the Comic Sans, like your heart is telling you to.
Have you thought of working up a font of your own? I did that one day after I couldn't find the font I wanted for something and although it took a few hours to do, a useful font is something to treasure always.
Naturally, I never used it again.
The advantage of doing this as a one-off is you can certainly finish the job before font programme's 30 day trial runs out and never have to pay a penny!
I remember Chank used to do lots of good handwriting fonts, but I don't see so many there now.
I think the world is finally ready for an all dingbats comic - this will be the USP that sets your new venture above the rest!
Glenatron, have things moved on in the world of font creation? I tried to use Fontographer a few years back and had to be talked down off a roof. What software did you use?
James, you have gone too far.
http://www.fontshop.com/fontlist/alternatives/comic_sans/
Here's a place to start. "Duper" is the newest one to pop up, and is OT and nice... and $200 for the set. Yeah, they're all expensive, but they are professionally designed and come with all the nifty features. It's a place to start anyway.
The best place for you to ask this question would be the forums over at Typophile. Knowledgable and friendly!
http://typophile.com/
Thanks for an informed and informative post, Lucas!
I don't know what I used, I thought I might still have it on my PC but it doesn't seem to be there. It wasn't too hard when I used it- I just scanned in my alphabet then cropped each letter into a bitmap and then imported them into the font tool. Not tricky, but laborious. Probably had I taken more care over kerning and roundels it would have probably been harder.
http://www.fontshop.com/fonts/singles/itc/itc_django_std_regular/
Follow-up! Here's one that matches your fine penmanship nicely. Its "t" is a little more tame, but it's almost remarkable. Not the most readable, however...
This 'ere is the cheapest make-your-own font site that I can find:
http://www.yourfonts.com/
I intend to make my own Cadwell font for "Blood Blokes", it will be personal and a time saver!
Thank you everybody for your contributions. I am now £91 lighter but I think the new comic, for all that it might have the appearance of the traditional "dog's breakfast" art wise, will have the finest letters known to man. I chose "CC Digital Delivery" for my schemes.
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