Lettering... er, Fonting

Glarryg · Post by **Glarryg** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 5:49 am

I've been messing around with the presentation of my comic, and have been trying to refine the way I do my lettering. Having just recently crossed over from hand lettering to computer lettering, I'm trying to figure out the best font for my work. Here's my question: while I know the basics for choosing a font (e.g. no serifs or any fancy junk like that), how practical do you think it would be to give every character his/her own font for their speech? I'm talking practicality in terms of readability and the flow of dialogue; I'm not worried about the extra seconds it would take to switch fonts during production.

Glarryg

Joel Fagin · Post by **Joel Fagin** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 5:57 am

I think it's jarring to use noticably different fonts. That's a good thing if the voice you're representing is very different from a normal voice but I wouldn't use it for normal characters.

Howard Taylor of Schlock Mercenary used different fonts for different voices but for the normal voices, he simply changed the colour of the speech bubbles. It worked well.

However, he also gave it up because it was too much bother.

- Joel Fagin

TheSuburbanLetdown · Post by **TheSuburbanLetdown** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 6:01 am

Use the same font for everyone ulness it's a specific, limited use mood-inflecting font. Good lettering should be appreciated but seemless. Different fonts for different characters is distracting.

Noise Monkey · Post by **Noise Monkey** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 6:17 am

I used to use a different font for each person in Troubled Times, but then I realized 1) it was stupid and 2) I couldn't remember which was which between chapters.

IVstudios · Post by **IVstudios** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 9:29 am

If your looking for fonts, this site has a ton of them, and all for free. Just be careful because not all of them are complete, some only have lower case or uppercase and others lack punctuation.

(just make sure to click the "English" button at the top, unless of course you speak French.)

MixedMyth · Post by **MixedMyth** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 10:08 am

Blambot has quite a few free fonts if you want to play around with them. Me, I used different fonts in my comic...with mixed success, I feel. If done artistically, I think it can really add something Just be careful.

It is a little more time consuming to switch from font to font.

Wishmaster · Post by **Wishmaster** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 10:14 am

I employ different fonts only if the voice is meant to be really different. Robots, aliens, demons - - they might have weird fonts. Normal humans and caption boxes all have the same font.

Noise Monkey · Post by **Noise Monkey** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 10:20 am

my main lettering font is Wild and Crazy (a cheap font that's apparently no longer available) from Comicraft, but for basically ANYTHING else, I use Blambot. Can't beat free.

Odd1 · Post by **Odd1** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 10:37 am

Speaking of fonts and comic lettering: who can tell me an easy way to create a custom font using my own handwriting? I've been told there is freeware floating around for this. Any recommendations?

Noise Monkey · Post by **Noise Monkey** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 10:54 am

Indeed! The programs mentioned in Comicraft's How-to section cost a ton!

Turi · Post by **Turi** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 11:45 am

There is a guideline in illustrations:

The guideline wrote:Never use more than three fonts on the same page

I think that applies to comics as well. Too much clutter.

[geoduck] · Post by **[geoduck]** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 12:06 pm

Several different talking species appear in my strip, and I use a different font for each species. Finding fonts that are both unique and readable is very hard, and I've only been partially successful in finding good ones. (I'm still using crusty old Comic Sans for my main-character humans, because I haven't found anything better..) If I ever win the lottery, I'll definitely pay someone to create a few custom fonts.

Scott Skillings of Triumphant Losers uses a clever scheme where he color-codes the outlines of his speech bubbles, instead of the bubbles themselves.

Dutch! · Post by **Dutch!** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 12:29 pm

I primarily use Letter-o-matic for just about everything because it's an all caps font and I reckon it suits the characters and stuff like that.

I only occasionally use various other fonts for sound effects and stuff, but mostly I just warp the same font into waves or shapes instead.

I do use the Kids font from time to time for handwriting that the kids in the strip may do, etc.

Valuedan · Post by **Valuedan** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 2:58 pm

Glarryg wrote:I've been messing around with the presentation of my comic, and have been trying to refine the way I do my lettering. Having just recently crossed over from hand lettering to computer lettering, I'm trying to figure out the best font for my work. Here's my question: while I know the basics for choosing a font (e.g. no serifs or any fancy junk like that), how practical do you think it would be to give every character his/her own font for their speech? I'm talking practicality in terms of readability and the flow of dialogue; I'm not worried about the extra seconds it would take to switch fonts during production.

Glarryg

Tried it. Didn't like it. You don't want people focusing on your fonts more than they have to. Although, if you were to use different hand-written fonts, ala Pogo, that would be something completely different.

McDuffies · Post by **McDuffies** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 3:23 pm

Odd1 wrote:Speaking of fonts and comic lettering: who can tell me an easy way to create a custom font using my own handwriting? I've been told there is freeware floating around for this. Any recommendations?

From my experience, programs that automatically transform scanned handwriting give edgy fonts that I was never really happy with. But with average program for making fonts, you should be able to export scans and then clean them up a bit. It's a lot of work but it's worth it.

Sput · Post by **Sput** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 3:42 pm

My comic uses different fonts for different characters, but I'm thinking of making it 1 font per point of view(my comic has 4 or so), but giving the main characters different colours (my er...whole 3 i have to choose from). The really noticeably different people get a freaky deaky font, though. I've been advised against my weird fonting ways, but I like it. If you want to do it, I say go for it, but I -have- been told not to do it.

Blackaby · Post by **Blackaby** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 4:48 pm

Please use only the one font. Oh please. PLEASE. PLEASE. PLEASE. Multi-fonting is the Work of the Devil.

ManyWorlds · Post by **ManyWorlds** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 4:55 pm

I just use Comic Sans for everything. If I want to make a character 'sound' a lot different from normal, or just distinguish between characters, I change the color of the font/speech-bubble.

Phact0rri · Post by **Phact0rri** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 6:31 pm

I use to use a diffrent font for the android then I said hell with it and started shaping the balloon for him diffrently.

Post by **Mercury Hat** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 7:34 pm

[geoduck] wrote:Scott Skillings of Triumphant Losers uses a clever scheme where he color-codes the outlines of his speech bubbles, instead of the bubbles themselves.

Fireball of Kagerou does that, too. The text itself is also colored.

I use different-shaped word bubbles as well, phact. Ellipsis for the people speaking English and rounded rectangles for dialogue which has been "interpreted" so that it appears to be English.

I've flipped back and forth between a lot of different fonts for my comic, but I think I'm going to stick with Comic Book Commando.

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Lettering... er, Fonting

Lettering... er, Fonting

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