Font Design Software
Calligraphr
A quick tool for creating a font from your handwriting
FontLab — Highly recommended
This is a powerful, compact font design application for Mac and Windows
FontSelf Maker — Highly recommended
An extension for Illustrator and Photoshop CC to quickly turn any lettering into OpenType fonts
FontStruct
A web-based font maker based on a grid; not suitable for script fonts; very limited but very fun; completely free
Glyphs App / Glyphs Mini — Highly recommended
A professional font design tool available in two sizes: Mini for the font design hobbyist, and the full app for pros; the Mini version is still extremely powerful and can produce all sorts of fonts, making it a fantastic bargain; available for Mac only.
iFont Maker — Highly recommended
A tool for drawing your own font; works beautifully on the iPad; available for iOS only
Prototypo
A web-based font design tool based on templates; free to play with but you must pay to download completed fonts
RoboFont
A professional font design tool
Other Font Design Tools
Adobe Illustrator — Highly recommended
An important tool to use in conjunction with many font design programs; free trial available
Font Template Generator
Create downloadable templates with your choice of base line, x-height, cap height, and slant angle
Glyphs App Extensions — Highly recommended
Extremely helpful plugins and shortcuts for font designers who use Glyphs App.
Kerning Pairs Generator — Highly recommended
An absolutely essential tool for generating sample text kerning pairs from various sets of letters and glyphs
Font Design Tutorials & Courses
Build a Better Font: An In-Depth Guide To Creating Fonts — Highly recommended
A hand-lettered font Skillshare course by Jamie Bartlett; simple and easy to follow; uses your own hand lettering, Glyphs App and Adobe Illustrator.
Hand Lettered Font Making by Every Tuesday — Highly recommended
An extremely in-depth course for anyone interesting in turning their hand lettering into fonts, including instruction for connected script typefaces.
Designing a Typeface, With Illustrator and FontLab, from Start to Finish
A 3-part written tutorial from Envato Tuts+.
Make a Color Vector Font in Illustrator
A Skillshare class with Ria Green; uses hand-drawn letters and icons, Adobe Illustrator, and FontSelf Maker.
Making a Font from scratch in Adobe Illustrator, Fontself and Fontlab
A Skillshare class with Emma Make; uses Adobe Illustrator, FontSelf Maker, and FontLab
Paper to Digital: Create Your Own Hand Drawn Font
A Skillshare class with Jenn Palandro; uses hand lettering and Glyphs App
Vectorising Scripts with the Pen Tool Using Affinity Designer — Highly recommended
A Skillshare class by Ivana Maric
Font Download Sites
1001 Free Fonts
Despite the name, this site actually has 10,000+ fonts
Creative Market — Highly recommended
Beautiful, unique fonts from designers around the globe
DaFont
Free font database specializing in fun and decorative typefaces
Font Space
A collection of 30,000 (mostly) free fonts shared by designers from around the world
Font Squirrel
Free and paid fonts
Google Fonts — Highly recommended
Fonts to use on your website or download to your computer for free
Lost Type
A pay-what-you-want type foundry sourcing beautiful fonts from designers around the globe
MyFonts — Highly recommended
One of the web's most comprehensive collections of typefaces. Plus a font identifying forum called WhatTheFont!
SkyFonts
A free desktop app for downloading and managing fonts from the cloud
Typekit — Highly recommended
A subscription service bringing thousands of beautiful fonts into one library for quick browsing, easy use on the web, or in applications. Available for free to Adobe Creative Cloud subscribers
Font Organization Apps
Mobile Font Apps
Font Combining Tools
bold. Font Combining
This website lets you browse various combinations of web fonts
Font Blogs & Inspiration
Find books on typography and design on our Books & Magazines page.
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