How did you pick the font for your novel or comic title?

[Birbmagadon]

Been browsing fonts all night and was wondering: how did y'all come up with the font / design for your novel or comic title? Did you find it online? Did you make it yourself? Tell me.

[EncryptedWriting]

when in doubt go for cinzel decorative

[Birbmagadon]

The problem isn't that I can't find a font, it's that I find too many of them xD But thank you!

And I'd like something quite unique, so using someone else's work should fit that expectation. Don't want your title to be using Times or Comic sans MS now, do you?

[LunarScyphozoa]

I went with Luna (because it looks nice and is a pun) and then just used a different brush on top of it

[Birbmagadon]

I like the idea of picking a font because the name echoes your work. This is poetic

[gabriellabalagna]

• I studied what other book covers do.
• I looked for free Celtic fonts (as my comic has some Celtic elements to it), but couldn't find anything bold enough.
• I studied Celtic fonts I liked.
• I made a sketch and "vectorized" it.
• I watched YouTube tutorials to figure out how to add golden effects to it in Photoshop.

[Scarlet_Cryptid]

The title... I was looking for something that looked medieval/LOTR-ish.

But the inside word bubble text? I just... could not find a free-use font that I liked. Nothing matched the look of the art... so I made a font from my own handwriting. (I have decent handwriting, especially when I'm trying, so I get that that may not be an option for everyone...) I like it a lot better, even if it's not perfect.

[VibrantFox]

I used medibang paint so i tend to take advantage of the cloud fonts they have available

Fonts | MediBang Paint

I try to have a specific font in mind when it comes to browsing sites and then choose based on look and readability.

[Birbmagadon]

@gabriellabalagna Gotta say, your font is pretty dang nice. I love the texture it has and how you incorporated celtic stuff in it. Your efforts paid imo!

@Scarlet_Cryptid I checked out your comic and I think the bubble text is pretty nice, yes. It mixes well with the traditional feel of your pages. A digital font would have stood out much more and could have felt unfit so great choice here. And your title is pretty nice as well.

@VibrantFox Didn't know Medibang had fonts, that's pretty neat. Thanks for the resource

[Lirina]

I filtered by fonts with a license free for commercial use and the one I'm using now was the first it came up. Somehow, I just knew it was the one. Luckily, my instinct was right and it looks amazing on my background

[rumpenstiltzkin]

I really just wanted something own made so I took a bunch of fonts I kinda liked the look of and combined and painted over till I found something I sort of liked. Im no designer by any means and it might not be looking very good but its mine to use xD
Someday I might need to go over it properly and vectorise it :S

Same with what font to use for dialogue, I made it myself and I can use it however I want and it works decently I guess. Might try to go over that one too one day xD

[LadyOttoline]

I just played around with the free stuff on canva until I found a combination I liked. The cover I've spent the lest amount of time on is my most popular title so clearly I don't know what I'm doing.

How To Date A Monster | Tapas

@rumpenstiltzkin I love the typeface you used for your dialogue. It looks handwritten yet super clear!

[Pony_wearing_a_hat]

Poorly!

I've been told by many people that they have trouble reading it! Also I just scoured Canva until my terrible taste took over.

[Caro]

I think for the most part I’ve hand-lettered all of my titles. I don’t have naturally great handwriting but I’ve had a passive interest in lettering for a long time and I find that the looseness of my work matches the looseness of my lettering?(I think!)

This one I didn’t really put much thought into because I hadn’t slept for three days trying to get my book ready for print so that we could have it released in time for SDCC so I was dying. But I think its perfectly simple and fine for what it is.

This one wasn’t supposed to be the title font I just thought it was funny and kinda ironic but people seemed to really like it as it is. I’m not sure its the final version (the book doesn’t come out til 2022) so I’m still messing around with it. For example:

This one was just a quick and dirty lil patreon bump for the end of my IG slideshow posts but if I clean it up I think its usable for the comic and matches the fun, girly, bimbo tone.

This was the only title I didn’t letter myself and I was just going through the free to use fonts on Google Fonts for a subtle font that feels kinda idk domestic and safe but in red because uhhh dangerous for a horror comic about a happy pregnant couple visiting the wife’s mysterious home town that doesn’t show up anywhere in the maps.

[arxianfall]

I wanted something that could work with my crap style.
I also wanted something that could help you imagine how characters sounded.

I also needed something not everyone uses but isn't out there.

And especially something that my partially blind best friend could read at almost any size.

And another font that's for titles, presentations and effects.
I am using Junkdog and Action Man.
I'm still on the lookout for a font for text on devices.

[Birbmagadon]

Sorry for the late replies people, I was deciding on my new font myself and didn't see the clock tic away!

@Lirina Free fonts are a gold mine when you know how to look. Love the modern day vibe of the one you picked, it's pretty nice and totally fits.

@rumpenstiltzkin Woah, combining fonts, that's clever. Never really thought about it. How many fonts did you play with to create this? I love it. So unique and dynamic.

@LadyOttoline Lol I felt that. Interesting that you used different fonts between Thumbnail, Banner, and Cover. That's pretty nice

@Pony_wearing_a_hat It looks readable to me? Perhaps it has something to do with dyslexia and how letters can be mistaken by some people, since some are bold while others are thin? Not sure. Would you want to change it now?

@Caro Damn all your lettering is so creative! Loving Girl Juice the most, with all the roots. It feels demonic, I love it. Also love the way you play with contrast on that last one, with a plain font for a quite dark story. And, congrats for the printing of your books!

@arxianfall Damn, kudos for that dedication to your best friend. Did you find that epic font with all them pros?

[hjpetersonauthor]

I found my dialogue font on blambot - they have free fonts for independent comic creators. The one I use is webletter and webletter bold - they're very easy to read, and I like that there's a difference between the capital and lowercase "i".

Dialogue Fonts

The best thing that I can suggest for a decorative font for issue covers, etc., is to pick an overall aesthetic theme. For example: I chose a typewriter font for the covers of my comic because I thought it fit best with the WW2 theme. For my novel, I tried to find a font that was a little more 1800s-y, because I did a lot of the worldbuilding based on that time period. I found that one on 1001 fonts. Some of their fonts do require licensing to use, so be sure to check before you download them. This is also where I found my font for SFX.

https://www.1001fonts.com/

Overall, I'd say to only use three, four fonts for your comic, max: using a ton of different fonts can make your comic hard to read, as well as seem unprofessional. My advice: have one font for comic covers, one for dialogue, one for sound effects. I personally have a different font for loud sound effects (like gunshots) versus quiet ones (like keys jingling) but even that's probably too much.

[BOMB]

I usually find fonts that seem close to what I'm going for and then I edit them to get them the rest of the way.

[rumpenstiltzkin]

I actually found a concept of the old fonts for this - the left one are fonts I found on various sites, I cant remember where or their names Im afraid. The right one was my friend going over them and making a font for me but then I ended up making my own in the end, slightly based on these.