如果您可以创建自己的 TrueType 字体，将它们命名为您想要的任何名称，并在Word、Photoshop等程序中实际使用它们，那不是很好吗？幸运的是，有一些非常酷的软件应用程序，您不仅可以使用它们创建自己的Windows字体，还可以编辑系统上当前的字体！
在这篇文章中，我将提到几个程序，一些是免费的，一些是付费的，您可以使用它们来创建自定义字体。显然，付费程序往往具有更多功能和更好的字体处理界面，但也有一些不错的免费程序。
免费字体编辑器
让我们从免费字体开始，因为大多数人创建字体不是为了做生意，而是为了好玩。您可以在线下载或购买数百万种字体，因此，如果您正在阅读这篇文章，您可能对创意和独特性感兴趣！
创建新字体的最简单方法之一是使用在线字体编辑器(online font editor)。您可以直接在浏览器中创建字体，并在完成后将它们下载到您的计算机上。
字体结构
FontStruct可能是我最喜欢的在线字体编辑器(font editor)，因为它具有漂亮的界面和用于处理字体的最佳工具。为了使用该服务，您必须创建一个帐户并登录(account and login)。之后，单击“创建新字体结构”(Create New Fontstruction)按钮。给你的字体一个名字，你会看到字体编辑器屏幕(font editor screen)。
在这里，您使用“砖块”逐块创建字体。他们有很多积木可供选择，您可以切换到专家模式(Expert Mode)，这将为您提供更多用于创建字体的工具。在你创造出任何非常独特的东西之前，你需要一些时间、练习和创造力(practice and creativity)，但这绝对很有趣。
油漆字体
FontStruct 要求您使用数字工具创建字体，但如果您宁愿手动绘制字体然后将它们数字转换为矢量字体怎么办？好吧(Well)，这就是PaintFont可以提供帮助的地方！
PaintFont是一个简洁的小型在线服务，首先让你选择你想要的字体中的字符，然后为你打印一个模板，你填写，然后让你上传它，这样它就可以将你的笔迹转换成实际的字体. 它还具有除英语(English)以外的其他语言的模板，例如西班牙语(Spanish)、德语(German)、法语(French)、意大利语(Italian)等。
单击创建模板(Create template)后，将下载一个PDF 文件(PDF file)，您应该打印并填写该文件。每个块将包含您在上面选择的字符中的一个字符。您显然不必按照框中显示的方式书写字母，但您希望它以您的新字体出现。该字符仅供参考，以便程序知道哪个块代表哪个字母。
然后上传字体模板(font template)并下载新创建的字体。显然，这个过程并不完美，因此您需要确保在上传之前对模板进行良好的扫描，并且字符用黑色墨水清晰地书写。好消息是，如果无法正确识别几种字体，您不必从头开始。
您可以仅使用错误字符创建一个新模板，然后在上传时单击高级选项，您可以使用原始字体作为基础字体(base font)。新识别的字符将替换基本字体(base font)中的字符。总的来说(Overall)，一个简洁的概念和一些有趣(neat concept and something fun)的事情你可以和你的孩子一起做！
鸟字体
从在线工具转移到桌面工具，一个不错的字体编辑器(font editor)是BirdFont。它有很多用于处理字体的工具，对于已经使用过Adobe Illustrator 或 Corel Draw(Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw)等软件的任何人来说，它都非常容易使用。
如果您对这些工具中的任何一个完全陌生，则需要一些时间来学习它们，因为仅仅通过使用您不知道如何使用的各种工具来创建任何看起来不错的东西是很困难的。您可以查看他们的在线教程(online tutorials)以获取入门帮助。
字体锻造
另一个用于编辑字体和在字体类型之间转换的免费程序是FontForge。这是一个开源项目(source project)，运行良好，但不如我所愿。首先，它似乎自 2012 年以来就没有更新过。其次，它不是在一个大窗口中，而是有单独的工具窗口、字体列表等，有点像GIMP过去的样子。
它工作得很好，但它不是非常用户友好。此外，它没有BirdFont那么多的工具。现在让我们谈谈一些用于编辑字体的付费应用程序。
商业字体编辑
字体创作者
High Logic有一个非常酷的程序，称为FontCreator ，起价为 79 美元，允许您创建和编辑TrueType 或 OpenType 字体(TrueType or OpenType fonts)。它还具有一些非常强大的绘图和编辑工具(drawing and editing tools)，专为排版师和设计师打造，以及为初学者提供的直观界面！
该程序非常适合设计师和图形艺术家，除非您有很多钱可以扔，否则不太适合玩耍。以下是该程序的一些主要功能：
- 创建(Create)和编辑TrueType 和 OpenType 字体(TrueType and OpenType fonts)
- 重新设计现有角色
- 将(Add)缺失的字符添加到字体集中(font set)
- 将(Convert)图像（例如签名、徽标或笔迹）转换为字符轮廓
- 编辑和重新创建字体名称
- 修复字符映射
- 更正无法正确显示的字体
- 生成(Generate)、修改、导入、导出和清理字距调整对
- Add/correct超过两千个复合字形
- 转换(Transform)单个字形或整个字体（即制作粗体(bold)版本）
- (Extract TrueType)从TrueType集合中提取 TrueType字体
- 安装前预览所有字体
- 将字体安装到Windows以与Windows程序一起使用
要熟悉FontCreator，您不妨继续创建自己的字体。首先(First)，从菜单中单击文件，然后单击(File)新建(New)。
给你的新字体一个唯一的名字，否则它以后将无法在Windows中正确安装。此名称不是文件名；它是将在程序中显示的字体名称(font name)等。例如，Times New Roman是字体系列名称(family name)，文件名(file name)实际上是 timesbd.ttf。
您现在将看到字形概览窗口(glyph overview window)，您可以在其中实际绘制字母。双击(Double click)带有标题“A”的单元格，您现在将被带到字形编辑窗口(glyph edit window)。从“插入(Insert)”菜单中选择“轮廓(Contour)”以开始创建您的字母。
您可以在此处阅读使用FontCreator(FontCreator)(FontCreator)的完整详细手册。如果您仍然觉得这太难了，或者您想用自己的手写字体创建字体，您将需要某种绘图板和图形程序（例如Photoshop ） ，可以将您绘制的每个字母保存为GIF。还有很多免费的绘图程序。
如果您将每个字母都保存为GIF 格式(GIF format)，则可以通过转到工具(Tools)然后导入图像将字母导入(Import Image)字形编辑窗口(glyph edit window)。这样您就不必使用工具实际绘制字母，而只需将它们写出来即可。
创建一些字体后，您可以通过转到“字体(Font)”菜单中的“测试”来测试新的自定义字体。(Test)开始(Start)输入字母，您现在应该会看到字母组合起来的样子：
现在您可以单击字体菜单中的(Font menu)安装(Install)将字体安装到Windows中。建议不要简单地将字体复制到Windows 字体文件夹(Windows Fonts folder)。安装后，您的字体将可在您喜欢的所有应用程序中使用！
字体实验室工作室
FontLab Studio是字体创建工具方面的黄金标准，它的价格与该标题相匹配：673.95 美元！仅仅创建字体就需要很多钱！只创建字体然后在网上销售的字体代工公司大多使用这个程序。(Font)
创建自己的字体的过程并不一定容易，但对于大多数人来说，只需一点时间和精力(time and effort)（也许还有一点现金），这绝对是可能的。不过总的来说，制作自己的字体来发送卡片、电子邮件等真的很酷！享受！
How to Create Your Own Fonts and Edit TrueType Fonts
Wouldn’t it be neat if you could create your own TrueType fonts, name them whatever you want, and actually use them in programs like Word, Photoshop, etc? Luckily, there are some really cool software apps out there that you can use to not only create your own Wіndows fontѕ, but also to edit the fonts that are currеntly оn your system!
In this post, I’ll mention a couple of programs, some free and some paid, that you can use to create custom fonts. Obviously, the paid programs tend to have more features and better interfaces for working with the fonts, but there are some good free ones too.
Free Font Editors
Let’s start with the free ones since most people will be creating fonts not as a business, but just for fun. There are literally millions of fonts you could download or buy online, so if you’re reading this post, you’re probably interested in being creative and unique!
One of the easiest ways to create new fonts is to use an online font editor. You can create your fonts right in the browser and download them onto your computer when finished.
FontStruct
FontStruct is probably my favorite online font editor because it has nice interface and the best tools for manipulating the fonts. In order to use the service, you have to create an account and login. After that, click on the Create New Fontstruction button. Give your font a name and you’ll see the font editor screen.
Here you use “bricks” to create your font block by block. They have a lot of bricks to choose from and you can switch to Expert Mode, which will give you even more tools for creating the fonts. It will take some time, practice and creativity before you can create anything very unique, but it’s definitely a lot of fun.
PaintFont
FontStruct requires you to create your font using digital tools, but what if you would rather draw your fonts by hand and then have them digitally converted to vector fonts? Well, that’s where PaintFont can help!
PaintFont is a neat little online service that first makes you select the characters you want in your font, then prints out a template for you, which you fill out, and then makes you upload it so that it can convert your handwriting into an actual font. It also has templates for other languages besides English like Spanish, German, French, Italian, etc.
Once you click Create template, a PDF file will be downloaded that you should print and fill out. Each block will contain a single character from the ones you chose above. You obviously don’t have to write the letter as displayed in the box, but as you would like it to appear in your new font. The character is just for reference so that the program knows which block represents which letter.
Then you upload the font template and download your newly created font. Obviously, the process won’t be perfect, so you’ll need to make sure you get a good scan of the template before uploading and the characters are written clearly in black ink. The nice thing is that if a couple of fonts are not recognized properly, you don’t have to start from scratch.
You can create a new template with the faulty characters only and then when you go to upload, click on the advanced options, you can use the original font as a base font. The newly recognized characters will replace the ones in the base font. Overall, a neat concept and something fun you can do with your kids!
BirdFont
Moving from online tools to desktop tools, one nice font editor is BirdFont. It’s got quite a bit of tools for manipulating fonts and will be really easy to use for anyone who already has experience with software like Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw.
If you are completely new to any of these tools, it will take some time to learn them as it’s hard to create anything decent looking by just playing around with various tools you don’t know how to use. You can check out their online tutorials for help on getting started.
FontForge
Another free program for editing fonts and converting between font types is FontForge. It’s an open source project and it works ok, but not as well as I would have liked. Firstly, it seems to not have been updated since 2012. Secondly, instead of being in one big window, it has separate windows for tools, the fonts list, etc kind of like how GIMP used to be.
It works well, but it’s not very user friendly. Also, it doesn’t have as many tools as BirdFont. Now let’s talk about some of the paid apps for editing fonts.
Commercial Font Editors
FontCreator
High Logic has a very cool program called FontCreator starting at $79 that allows you to create and edit either TrueType or OpenType fonts. It also has some very powerful drawing and editing tools built for typographers and designers, as well as an intuitive interface for beginners!
This program is well suited for designers and graphic artists, not so much for playing around unless you have lots of money to throw around. Here are some of the programs key features:
- Create and edit TrueType and OpenType fonts
- Redesign existing characters
- Add missing characters to a font set
- Convert images (e.g. a signature, logo or handwriting) to character outlines
- Edit and recreate font names
- Fix character mappings
- Correct fonts that do not display correctly
- Generate, modify, import, export, and clean up kerning pairs
- Add/correct over two thousand composite glyphs
- Transform individual glyphs or an entire font (i.e. to make a bold version)
- Extract TrueType fonts from TrueType collections
- Preview all fonts before installing
- Install your fonts into Windows for use with Windows programs
To become familiar with FontCreator, you may as well go ahead and create your own font. First, you click File from the menu and then New.
Give your new font a unique name otherwise it will not install properly in Windows later on. This name is not the name of the file; it’s the font name that will be shown inside programs, etc. For example, Times New Roman is the font family name and the file name is actually timesbd.ttf.
You’ll now see the glyph overview window, which is where you can actually draw in your letters. Double click on the cell with the caption “A” and you’ll now be brought to the glyph edit window. Choose Contour from the Insert menu to start creating your letters.
You can read the entire in-detail manual for using FontCreator here. If you still feel this is simply too hard or you want to create a font from your own handwriting, you will need to have some kind of drawing tablet and a graphical program such as Photoshop that can save each letter you draw out as a GIF. There are also lots of free drawing programs out there also.
If you have each letter saved in GIF format, then you can import the letters into the glyph edit window by going to Tools and then Import Image. This way you don’t have to actually draw your letters using tools, but can just write them out.
After you have created a few fonts, you can test out your new customized font by going to Test in the Font menu. Start typing the letters and you should now see how your letters look in combination:
Now you can click Install from the Font menu to install the font into Windows. It is recommended to not simply copy the fonts to the Windows Fonts folder. Once installed, your font will be available in all of your favorite applications!
FontLab Studio
FontLab Studio is the gold standard in terms of font creation tools and it has a price to match that title: $673.95! That’s a lot of money for just creating fonts! Font foundry companies that only create typefaces that they then sell online mostly use this program.
The process for creating your own fonts is not necessarily easy, but it’s definitely possible for most people with a little time and effort (and maybe a little cash too). Overall, though, it’s really cool to make your own fonts for sending cards, emails, etc! Enjoy!
