Step 1: Choose a Letter
Once you've started the FontStructor editor, you first need to choose the letter to start designing. When you start the FontStructor for the first time, the latin letter ‘A’ will be active. You can see it's highlighted in the list of characters at the bottom of the screen:
The Character Selector
You can choose a different letter by clicking on a different character, or you can choose a completely different set of characters from the list in the bottom left.
Step 2: Choose a Brick
Now you've chosen a character, you need to choose a shape to build with.
On the left-hand side of the screen you will find the ‘All Bricks’ panel, a collection of shapes - ‘bricks’ - which are available. By default, a simple square is selected and highlighted:
The ‘All Bricks’ panel
Step 3: Choose a Tool
Once you’ve chosen your character, and your brick, you need to choose a drawing tool. There are a number of drawing tools available. When you first start, the pen tool is selected by default in the tool palette:
The Tool Palette
Step 4: Start Drawing your Letter
Now you can start designing by clicking anywhere on the squared canvas.
Note that the horizontal, blue guideline marked ‘BASELINE’ is the baseline for your letters - so they should usually sit on this line. The vertical, blue guideline marks the left-side of your letters. So most of your letters will probably be built upwards and to the right of the red dot.
The red dot is the origin. Most letters will be built sitting on the horizontal blue baseline.
Congratulations, you’re FontStructing!
Step 5: Preview, Save, Download
Once you've built a few letters, you may want to look at them together, and try typing with them. To do this, click on the ‘Preview’ button at the top of the screen:
Your view changes to look like this:
In the top half of the screen you can type in any letters you have created. In the bottom half of the screen you can see all your letters. You can use the slider controls to change the size of your letters. Press the ‘Go Back’ button to return to the editor.
Always remember to save your work regularily, using the "Save" button at the top of the edit screen.
Once you’ve finished creating your font, click the ‘Download’ button to download a .zip archive file containing your finished TrueType font file and licensing information.
Try more bricks, try different tools, build more letters, have fun, and don't forget to save your work. If you do get stuck, return to the help page for more detailed information.
Please contact us if you can’t find the information you’re looking for here.