I taught Graphic Arts for several years prior to developing and teaching the Video Graphics program in my school. My college training in Graphic Arts was limited but I remember setting lead type selected from a single font stored in a California Job Case and printing on a platen press! By the time I began teaching in the early 80’s, lead type was no longer in use and computerized typesetters had taken over. Several complete lead fonts still remained in my school’s Graphics lab and provided as an excellent visual and teaching example of what a font is.
Computerized fonts were initially purchased in sets. Today there are thousands to choose from that are free, included with software purchases and easily downloadable from the Internet. Once in a while, however, a particular font style is desired but not available. This is where my third Web 2.0 tool Fontstruct comes in. Fontstruct is an online font generator that allows you to create your own font, save it, download it and use it in your layouts or projects. The homepage has an excellent step-by-step video tutorial explaining how to create your own original font.
Webster’s Online Dictionary (Merriam-Webster, 2009) defines the word font as “an assortment of type all of one size and style”. Fontstruct takes the learner through the process of creating an original style font including complete sets of capital letters, lowercase letters, numbers and symbols. These individual components make up one complete font. If total originality is required in a Graphic Layout Project and a computer is used for the layout (as compared to hand drawn), Fontstruct will provide the ability to create even the font used. Although free, you do need to create a user account and need to have an email account as well. Happy Fontstruction!
http://fontstruct.fontshop.com/
font. (2009). In Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.
Retrieved November 8, 2009, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/font
POSTED BY CMILLS AT 9:17 AM
1 COMMENTS:
Floyd's Front Page said...
Chuck,
As a journalism teacher, I consider myself somewhat of a fontgeek, having to help students design yearbook and newspaper pages. So how exciting to find something like fontstruct!
Not only does it have a variety of fonts to show students, but how neat it would be to design your own font, something I never understood how to do.
I poked around on the site but haven't yet joined--I will when I do my graphics unit with my beginning journalism students. However, since there are tutorials on the site and many examples, I can see using it with all of my classes when they are searching for a particular "look" for their typography.
Thanks for sharing!
Sheryl Floyd
NOVEMBER 10, 2009 8:23 PM
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