Fonts for Comic Creators

[onyisart]

So I am picky AS F--K when it comes to fonts. I think picking the right font for your art style can kind of bring a comic together. Some art styles look REALLY GOOD with something like Times New Roman so you don't need a fancy comic font.

If you're starting out and are looking for some fonts to use then here is my suggestion. You can find these fonts on Blambot.com and via google search. If it doesn't have a price it's free.

I use Spinner Rack and Blambastic but I'd like to like to give Might Make Rights and Victory Speech a try in the future. I only bought them because Blambot has a monthly of 10% off and I didn't like many of the other fonts out there.

For Dialogue
* Komika
* Komika Boo - great for slurred words, awkward/nervous speech or etc
* Komika Parch - Great for irritated speech bubbles
* Digital Strip
* Anime Ace 3
* Back Issues BB
* Ames
* Blambastic ($25) - great for yelling speech bubbles
* Spinner Rack ($25)
* Might Make Rights ($25 (reg)-$30(pro)) (fontspring/Blambot) - Lezhin uses this font
* Victory Speech CC ($49-$139) (fontspring/fonts.com)

For Sound Effects
Komika Axis
Palooka
Crash Landing
Blowhole
Brushzerker ($25)

Samples.

[darthmongoose]

I used to use Creative Block (Blambot) almost religiously back in the day because I felt it suited my chunky inks.

It's a really distinctive font that kind of draws a lot of attention to itself, like the lettering becomes a design element in itself.

But for Errant, I was like... okay, this is going to have probably a lot of dialogue, so I'd like to attempt Marvel-style lettering with upper and lowercase rather than block caps, and after trying a few options, I settled on Blambot Casual, which is a very readable font to the point hopefully you don't even notice it when reading.

One of the nice things about working with a font like this is that I can jump into uppercase for shouting, which I couldn't do when everything was in uppercase! Also this font comes with Adobe Typekit (as do a few Blambot fonts actually), so it's part of my Photoshop subscription anyway. Might as well use it!

If anyone's curious to know, when I entered a tokyopop competition many years ago, I learned that Tokyopop localised and OEL manga are all lettered in Markerman, which everyone who entered had to use. A lot of popular webmanga use Anime Ace.

[EmmyPax]

I use Anime Ace 3 as well. It's a nice, basic looking font.

I use Bottle Rocket for a few different effects, though not super frequently. Most of my graphic lettering I just do by hand.

[YuJiaKweh]

Ah these fonts are great. I only use Wild Words and Wild Words but bigger font. It was either that or Arial. Gonna be using Komika Boo for when a character says shhhh or something like that.

[Kann]

I use calligraphr to make my own fonts from my handwriting. That's good to consider if someone is REALLY picky or just wants to give their comic some personal touches. XD

[sushy00]

This is a useful resource!

[summermcallen]

I use Qikki Reg but I always like to look for new great fonts in general. Thank you

[surenlicious]

Google Fonts can be your friend too, or just activate some from Adobe Stock. Sadly, I haven't got that pretty handwriting yet so you win by default if you can use that omg.

[Iris-Grimoire]

Anime Ace 3 finally has Ç avaliable? Time to figure out how to put it on Clip Studio Paint when I have the time then, I always have to edit manually e_e'

Blambot is really good for independent comics, can't recommend that enough. However, for sound effects, I do like to make them on my own since I usually have time to learn the ropes and study other comics during the lettering phase.

[disqette]

Heads up -- DaFont isn't a free font source. Many fonts there are pirated. Sometimes they'll say if a font requires a license or not, but that information isn't reliable. If you're looking for fonts on DaFont, make sure you look for the source of the font to double check the license

But YES, Blambot is a great font source for comic creators. In my opinion, though, Anime Ace isn't all that great. I find that font to be too wide to suit the vertical scroll format.

I've been using Samaritan Tall for my recent chapters and it's been amazing The license was expensive though ($120). But it's slim and easy to read, making it perfect for vertical scroll format comics.

[ninjashira]

Yeah definitely Blambot and Adobe Fonts are the resources I go to more than anywhere else.

For my current comic, Hollow, I'm using Imaginary Friend, I think it reads really well on a phone and matches the simpler style of my comic more than a lot of the more "traditional" lettering fonts, without feeling juvenile.

For a more classic "comic book" look, I like Digital Strip. It's a little squatty, but not super wide, and I think it looks really nice without feeling overused.

And when I want something more cartoony and hand-written for comic strips and kid's comics, I go with La Cartoonerie. It's one of my favorite uppercase/lowercase lettering fonts, and I used the crap out of it for my childrend's comic strip I did ages ago.

I know a lot of people like Anime Ace, but I kiiiind of hate it. It is so overused, every time I turn around, someone is using Anime Ace, and I'm just kind of over it

[kitschensyngk]

For Nachos Con Carne, I use SF Wonder Comic condensed by 80%. I use WBX Komik for Words..

[C_o]

I use Wild Words and its various iterations: http://fontsgeek.com/fonts/cc-wild-words

[colorgoat]

I've been using Laffayette Comic Pro for dialogue. Might experiment with others, but it's a good option for sure.

Haven't poked around for sound effect fonts, but I've been having fun doing it by hand.

[NickRowler]

I use Crime Fighter on Blambot. Tho stretched out a bit.
I wanted something that looked a bit more like Euro comics and I was looking for something looked like Hugo Pratt's lettering. My criticism is that I don't like the "Z". If I needed someone to snore, I would switch over to Digital Strip.

Tho I used Digital Strip for Bay Be Fresh because I wanted something more cartoony looking.

[thedude3445]

I don't exactly know about fonts, but I do have a good resource for anyone who wants to translate their stories into Japanese at any point:

http://hyperwyrm.co.uk/mangafonts

These are the typefaces used in practically every published manga. Fonts in Japanese are a lot rarer due to the work to make them, so they are a lot more standardized, but each font has different uses.

[Freemints30]

eeeeh, Anime Ace. It simple, it gets the job done without it being too distracting. and really I don't tend to notice fonts anyway, unless its some out of place font like Times New Roman.

[Shanny8]

I think picking the right font for your art style can kind of bring a comic together.

FACTS.

My only problem is I'm a font junkie...I love fonts so much, I have a lot of stuff that I'll probably never use.

My base font that I use for my webcomic is Meanwhile from Comicraft. It's regular price($129) is too much, but you can catch it on New Year's Day on their annual NY Font sale for the price of the new year(i.e., next year is 2021- all fonts will be on sale for $20.21 each); that's how I got a TON of my fonts.

Blambot is another good brand. A lot of his fonts are affordable as heck- but he also has a Black Friday sale(between the days after Thanksgiving and the first of December) where he'll sell his pay fonts at 30% off; he also has small 3-day sales here and there where he'll sell pay fonts for 10% off as well...his free fonts are quality also- Palooka and Blowhole are a pretty good example of that. I use Blambastic as emphasis on certain words being yelled in my dialogue.

The KREEEAAKK font is Piekos FX from Blambot- I snagged that like 3 yrs back. The KANG font is Toonacious- a free font with all sorts of zany autoligatures and stuff.

[magnavarra]

I like Komoka family , but in Axis there are some similar looking letters 'E' and 'F' for instance but I do use it for FX sometimes. And I really prefer NOT ALL CAPITALS fonts, because they actually allow you to play with caps and make names stnd out. Fonts like Anime Ace looks like wall of text to me when used for more that 2 lines of text. Most of my dialogues is 3-4 so I preffer it that way. And it also looks less comedy though my comic is funny and lighthearted it's actually mature under the surface

[byelacey]

I use Milk Mustache by BlamBot and I love it! It meshes well with my angular art style, where a more traditional comic font is rounder and more, well, cartoony.

The great thing about BB is that most of their fonts are absolutely free to indie creators, which means you have the right to use it for print & profit--which is something you should absolutely be considering if you want to make ad revenue anywhere!