![]() So subsetting fonts gives us more typographic options! The Google Fonts API supports that: you can load a subset of a Google Font with just the glyphs you need by appending &text=theglyphsyouneed to your query. Loading that whole typeface could make the page noticeably slower, but loading only those 5 glyphs doesn’t make a big difference. But does it have to be that way? Let’s say you’d like put the word Autumn in some special font on your homepage for the end-of-season sale. So every time a designers asks a developer to add more fonts, they get pushback. Notice how compared to web pages, some print magazines show many more typefaces? We’re used to using few typefaces online, because loading more fonts makes the page slow. You can just make one yourself with by slicing up R, C and B and combining them with dashes. Like when you just got the perfect font for a retail website but there is no ₹, € or ฿ in it. More than once I ran into the issue of finding a font missing glyphs I really needed. After all, I only need the numbers 0–9 and a colon! Why create custom fonts?īesides icon fonts and ridiculously big countdown timers, there are three use cases for custom fonts I think are important. For years I’ve been thinking of making my own typeface, so I thought it would be a nice exercise to figure out how feasible that would be. There were dozens of features I found more important than those tiny details, so I ignored the ink traps until it started to bug me that when in use, the UI blends out and all users see are those huge numbers. ![]() Spoiler: I created custom versions for all numbers anyway. When making this screenshot I realized that only the 7 and 2 clearly show an ink trap. ![]() They complained about ‘ink traps or something’. And of course that caught the eyes of some designers using it. As a result, even on a medium-sized display every detail of a font will become visible. ![]() I put a lot of effort in making sure the numbers are as big as possible on any screen. Its biggest feature is that it’s, well, big. In case you don’t know it yet: I want to make the best countdown timer for design workshops. However, BirdFont is flexible enough to provide users familiar with font creation the possibility to become creative and invent new representations for alphanumeric characters.A while ago I was asking for feedback on my countdown timer application, Big Timer. This is not a program for a wide range of users and trying to learn the ropes may prove a difficult task. Precision drawing of lines and breaking them with control points are the cornerstone of a new font and BirdFont makes available a nice, flexible rack of options that allow bending the lines into the desired shape.Īpplying a background image, zooming in and out, merging, rotating and resizing paths, making Bezier curves, convert points, circles and rectangles are all part of the arsenal of tools available in the application. The choices available are exactly what one would expect in order to come up with precise lines that define a new character. Tools are available within easy reach, in the right hand part of the application window and for less experienced users a tooltip becomes available at the bottom of the application window when gliding the mouse cursor over the options. Moreover, it can show a full list of Unicode characters to pick from and open those of interest into separate tabs either as different projects or as part of a single one. When beginning a new project you are presented with a grid of letters and numbers as well as other characters so that you can select the one you want to invent. Clean interfaceĪ clear-cut, straightforward interface lets you start working on your letters from scratch. It can be used for business logos, where lettering can play an important role as far as product branding is concerned. Most of us take the various glyphs for granted and only a few can discern the fine lines that make the difference between similar fonts.īirdFont is a utility that can help aficionados and professionals alike create new letter types. Not many users know how much effort can sometimes be invested in creating a font.
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