What you need to start making a font

Creating your own font means designing letters, numbers, and symbols as individual drawings, then packaging them so software recognizes them as a typeface. You do not need to be an artist — you need software that lets you draw shapes and assign them to keyboard characters. The two most common routes are font editors (dedicated programs like FontForge or Glyphs) and vector drawing tools (like Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape) paired with a font compiler.

Most people start with a font editor because it shows you the grid, spacing rules, and character set all in one place. FontForge is free and runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Glyphs costs money but has a gentler learning curve. If you already use Illustrator for design work, you can draw there and export to a font file, though you will need to handle spacing and kerning separately.

Before you open any software, decide what you are making: a display font (large, decorative, for headlines), a body font (readable at small sizes, for paragraphs), or a symbol font (icons or special characters only). Display fonts are easier to start with because small imperfections are less noticeable. Body fonts require much more precision and testing.

Key Takeaways

  • Font editors like FontForge (free) or Glyphs (paid) let you draw each character on a grid and set spacing rules in one program.
  • You can also draw letters in Illustrator or Inkscape and convert them to a font file, but you will handle spacing separately.
  • Start with a display font or a small character set (just uppercase, or just numbers) rather than a complete typeface with every symbol.
  • After drawing, you must set the spacing between letters (kerning) and test the font in real documents to catch problems.
  • The final file is a .ttf, .otf, or .woff file that installs on your computer or uploads to a website.

Drawing letters in a font editor

Open FontForge or Glyphs and create a new font. The software shows you a list of every character you need to design — uppercase A through Z, lowercase a through z, numbers 0 through 9, and punctuation. You do not have to design all of them at once. Most beginners start with uppercase letters, then add lowercase, then numbers.

Click on a character (say, the letter A) and a drawing canvas opens. The canvas has a baseline (the line letters sit on) and guides showing the height of capital letters, lowercase letters, and descenders (the tails on letters like g and y). Draw the letter using the pen tool (which works like Illustrator's pen tool — click to place points, drag to curve lines) or use preset shapes like circles and rectangles.

The width of each letter matters. FontForge and Glyphs show you the letter's bounding box — the invisible rectangle around it. Set the width so there is a small amount of space on both sides. A capital M is wide; a lowercase i is narrow. If you make all letters the same width, the font will look wrong. Most editors let you copy a width from one letter to similar ones (all capitals the same width, all lowercase the same width) to save time.

Using vector tools if you already draw in Illustrator or Inkscape

If you design in Adobe Illustrator, you can draw each letter as a separate artboard, then use a plugin or script to convert them to a font. The plugin Fontself (available for both Illustrator and Photoshop) lets you select your letter drawings and export them as a .otf or .ttf file in minutes. You still need to set spacing and kerning, but the drawing part stays in software you already know.

Inkscape, the free alternative to Illustrator, does not have a built-in font export. Instead, you draw your letters, copy them, and paste them into FontForge. This is slower than using Fontself, but it costs nothing and works well for small fonts or symbol sets.

The advantage of this route is speed if you are already comfortable drawing in Illustrator. The disadvantage is that you lose the grid and baseline guides that font editors provide, so letters may not align properly. You will catch these problems during testing, but fixing them means going back to Illustrator and re-exporting.

Setting spacing and kerning

After you draw all your letters, the font will look wrong when you type with it. Letters will be too close together, or too far apart, or will collide with certain pairs. This is where spacing (the default distance between all letters) and kerning (custom spacing for specific pairs) come in.

In FontForge or Glyphs, you can type a test word and see how it looks in real time. Type "HELLO" or "Tango" and watch the spacing. Adjust the width of each letter if needed. Then look for problem pairs: "AV" often needs to be closer because the A's point and the V's angle create a gap. "To" and "Ty" often collide. Add kerning rules for these pairs — most editors let you select two letters and drag them closer or farther apart, then save that rule.

Do not try to kern every possible pair. Start with the letters you use most (common pairs like "To", "Av", "We") and test the font in a real document. You will spot problems you missed in the editor once you see the font at actual size in a word processor or design program.

Testing your font before you use it

Export your font as a .ttf (TrueType) or .otf (OpenType) file. On Windows, right-click the file and select "Install". On Mac, double-click it and click "Install Font". The font will appear in your software's font menu within seconds.

Open a word processor or design program and type with your font. Look for letters that are too wide or too narrow, spacing that looks off, or curves that are rough. If you drew in a font editor, you can go back, fix the letter, and re-export. If you drew in Illustrator, you will need to re-export from there, then re-import to FontForge or Glyphs.

Test at different sizes. A display font might look great at 72 points but terrible at 12 points. A body font needs to be readable at 10 or 11 points. If your font is meant for the web, test it in a browser at the actual size it will appear. Small imperfections that do not matter in print become obvious on screen.

Uploading your font to a website

If you want to use your font on a website, export it as a .woff or .woff2 file (modern web formats that are smaller than .ttf). Services like Google Fonts, Adobe Fonts, and Typekit let you upload custom fonts, though most charge a fee. You can also host the font file yourself and link to it in your website's CSS using the @font-face rule.

To use @font-face, upload your .woff file to your web server, then add this to your CSS:

@font-face { font-family: "My Font"; src: url('myfont.woff') format('woff'); }

Then explore it to any element: font-family: "My Font";. The browser downloads the font file when someone visits your page, so the font appears the same way for everyone, regardless of what fonts they have installed.

Starting small: why a symbol font or limited character set is smarter

A complete typeface with uppercase, lowercase, numbers, punctuation, and accented characters (like é and ñ) can take weeks or months. Most beginners give up halfway through. Instead, start with a symbol font — just 20 or 30 custom icons or decorative marks. Or design only uppercase letters, or only numbers. A finished small font teaches you the process and gives you something you can actually use.

Once you have completed one small font, the second one is much faster. You understand spacing, kerning, and the software. You can then tackle a larger project with confidence.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to know how to draw to make a font?

Not in the traditional sense. You need to be comfortable with vector drawing tools (the pen tool in Illustrator or FontForge), which is a skill you can learn in a few hours. Your letters do not need to be beautiful — many successful fonts are geometric or straightforward. Start with a basic sans-serif (no serifs) alphabet, which is easier than a decorative or serif font.

Can I make a font from handwriting?

Yes, but it requires extra steps. Write or draw your letters on paper, scan them, import the image into a font editor or Illustrator, and trace over them with the pen tool. This is slower than drawing directly in software, but it works if you want your font to feel handmade. Some apps like Calligraphr let you photograph handwritten letters and convert them automatically, though the results need cleanup.

What is the difference between .ttf, .otf, and .woff?

.ttf (TrueType) and .otf (OpenType) are both desktop font formats that work on Windows and Mac. .otf is slightly newer and supports more advanced features. .woff and .woff2 are web formats — smaller file sizes, designed for browsers. Use .ttf or .otf for fonts you install on your computer; use .woff for websites.

How long does it take to make a usable font?

A small display font (uppercase only, 26 letters) takes 10 to 20 hours if you are learning as you go. A complete typeface with uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and punctuation takes 40 to 100 hours depending on complexity. Most people finish a small font in a few weeks of part-time work.

Can I sell a font I made?

Yes. You can sell it on marketplaces like Gumroad, Creative Market, or MyFonts. You can also license it under a free license (like Open Font License) and let people use it for free. Either way, test it thoroughly before you release it — users will report bugs, and fixing them after release is harder than fixing them before.