A Journey in Type Design

You'll need a piece of font-editing software. Don't go all out and get FontLab immediately. Start on the cheap. My recommendation is to start with TypeTool, which you can acquire for less than $100, and even cheaper if you're a student. The big brother to this, FontLab, might become a necessity later on if you begin to build complex fonts or families of type. For example, when I created new weights of my first typeface, FontLab sped up this process immensely. But TypeTool is more than enough to begin building display typefaces. Even after I upgraded to FontLab, I have still used TypeTool to create a simple display font. Research others if you wish – I've heard lots of good things about Glyphs – but this is what I would recommend.

You can create letters in FontLab or TypeTool using their drawing tools. Type designers I've asked or read have suggested drawing letters in the font software. I don't recommend against this; obviously these guys know more than me. What I will say is that it's okay not to do that, at least starting out. If you feel comfortable drawing your letters in Illustrator, then do that (I do). You've got enough new information to deal with already. Make the transition when you're ready. Be sure and look up how to set up your document so that there is a smooth copy and paste import into your font-editing software, as this setup sometimes changes with software versions.

Controlling the spacing of your type is key in making it look professional as opposed to amateurish. You will do this in your font software, and it's a lot simpler (not easier) than you might imagine. You basically tell each letter how much space (sidebearings) it should have around it (an O should have smaller sidebearings than an I). And then you address problematic pairing of letters by creating Kerning Pairs. These are commands, done manually or programmatically, that say "if an A appears next to a W, decrease the space between them" in order to achieve optically similar space between letters. The manual that comes with the software gives a pretty clear and straight forward way to do this.

Controlling the spacing of your type is key in making it look professional as opposed to amateurish. You will do this in your font software, and it's a lot simpler (not easier) than you might imagine. You basically tell each letter how much space (sidebearings) it should have around it (an O should have smaller sidebearings than an I). And then you address problematic pairing of letters by creating Kerning Pairs. These are commands, done manually or programmatically, that say "if an A appears next to a W, decrease the space between them" in order to achieve optically similar space between letters. The manual that comes with the software gives a pretty clear and straight forward way to do this.

Controlling the spacing of your type is key in making it look professional as opposed to amateurish. You will do this in your font software, and it's a lot simpler (not easier) than you might imagine. You basically tell each letter how much space (sidebearings) it should have around it (an O should have smaller sidebearings than an I). And then you address problematic pairing of letters by creating Kerning Pairs. These are commands, done manually or programmatically, that say "if an A appears next to a W, decrease the space between them" in order to achieve optically similar space between letters. The manual that comes with the software gives a pretty clear and straight forward way to do this.