Update2: I added another version of the initial font. The second one look more slim. Both are meant to be"regular" type.
Update: I have uploaded a final version of this font I made, it can be found at the end of this thread!

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Edit: Warning: In my experience, FontForge has some nasty stability issues, I won't recommend using it. :P
Edit2: It was imported SVG graphic put into the 'guide' layer, which eventually made the save files corrupted and made FontForge crash. Removing this from the 'guide' layer fixed both issues.
Edit3: Haven't figured out how to use hinting, but I have figured out how to set the kerning for pairs of characters.

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I thought i'd make a thread about creating a font for the fun of it. Didn't get to do the numbers this evening.

Apparently it wasn't that difficult to draw up a new font. I did spend some time cursing at my screen. :) The font probably doesn't look that unique, but I didn't copy the shapes from anywhere so it is original to me at least.

The general idea was:
• characters basicly 6 units wide and 7 units tall
• characters having 1.5 unit thickness
• some characters are made a little wider and maybe a little narrower


I realize at the end that there are some inconsitencies. :P For example, the letter A has here a wildly different shape than V, which I find a little odd. I wasn't sure what to expect in the end so it was fun seeing it completed. The 'W' character seem a little cheap, being an upside down version of the 'M'.


For anyone wanting to try this with the free 'Fontforge' software, I have this piece of advice:
• Use the layers to help guide your spline drawing, because apparently there isn't any grid snap in Fontforge afaik.
• You can copy a finished character to a background layer, for making a new character.
• You can use some kind of guide, like an image or vector drawing, and import that in, so it shows up for every letter in the background.
• Apparently, saving the font and using it is easy, font goes into windows' "font folder".
• The 'find problem' option is useful for spotting errors where spline curves aren't joined.
• Sometimes, simply repositioning a control vertex onto a redundant cpontrol vertex, have them join (which is good).
• A spline or control verticies can be 'reversed', which is important for punching a "hole" in a character.
• When using the 'cut' tool, you end up with what appears to be a point on a line, but there are two points that can be dragged apart, as opposed to simply creating a point on a line, with the 'add corner point' tool's.
• If you simply delete a point and the associative line "beneath" it, you can simply snap parts of other geometry into this "open" part and the two parts will merge. That way, it is simple to reuse elements. Just select a few points on a shape, do a copy paste and snap move that pasted part into some "open" shape and the parts will fuse together. :)
• It is probably a good idea to have the three floating windows arranged so that they don't overlap on the screen, that way it is easier to have an overview.
• Apparently the undo states are associated with whatever character/letter you are working on.

•You can use the 'z' and 'x' key for zooming in and out respectively (doesn't work whenever "caps lock" is enabled) .
•You can use the 'v' key to enter selection mode.
•You can use Ctrl + d to hide and unhide the display of points on the screen.
•In selection mode, double clicking a point selects an entire shape, double clicking the same shape again selects every shape.
• The ruler tool is temporary and can be used to see if your lines line up in a straight line, you can also measure the angle, but only for whole degrees afaik.
•In selection mode (v), you can move stuff around per pixel, or per 10x pixels when holding down the shift key.
• Fontforge can and will crash, make sure you press Ctrl + S to save your work often. :) (It doesn't crash by itself though.)
• The 'overlap' tool for fusing two shapes together, require both shapes to be closed, so just close them by drawing a new line in the open sides, before trying to fusing/merging the two shapes.
•A character shape can be centered, when right clicking a letter and choosing 'center in width'.
• When changing the spacing between letters other than default, the shapes will move sideways in relation to anything placed in the 'guide layer'. I.e the 'guide layer' don't move when changing the spacing betwen letters.
• MAKE SURE YOU HAVE MORE THAN ONE SAVE FILE, I just noticed that a save file crashed on load (Fontforge crashed when saving). :o
• When saving over an exisiting file with Ctrl + s, Fontforge creates a series of files that can be opened if changing the file type back to 'xxxxx.sfd'
•My crashes might be related to this warning popup I get "When loading tt instrs from sfd: Missing right bracket in command (or bad binary value in bracket)"
•My crash seem related to this: http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.comp.fonts.fontforge.devel/5431 (edit: removing my guide layer SVG items fixed my issue)

Edit: Feel free to criticize this font as it is, and if you have any experience in making fonts, I'd appreciate some hints for areas of improvement. :)

Btw, I only wanted to make a font for all caps characters.

* I noticed that to best merge two shapes, instead of placing them next to each other right away and deal with the problems, you should probably delete the black outline where the shapes are to be merged. Because this way, simply snapping one shape into the other will merge them automatically. To delete the black outline, I add a point on a line, and then delete that point, somehow that also deletes the black outline connected to my temporary point.


* removing points on an edge can be done with "merge with line" (right click for menu over a point). Simply deleting the point also delete the line connected to it.
* This shows shows the 'guide' layer (splines/lines) beneath the 'fore' layer. There is also the 'back' layer and you can make more layers in addition to those three default layers.