Lettering for covers

[derekh95]

Hey, everyone.

I'm really happy with the artwork for my story, but I am curious. How do some of these other stories make the actual lettering/fonts for cover art? Is it all handmade?

I just used a typical font for mine, but it could be so much better.

Thanks!

[darthmongoose]

I just used a typical font for mine, but it could be so much better.

I mean.... Papyrus font worked for James Cameron's Avatar....

Joking aside, most covers use pre-made fonts, but they're rarely the basic fonts that come with your computer like Arial, Papyrus, Comic Sans, Times New Roman or Impact. These fonts either weren't made for professional design, or even if they originally were, they're so overused now as to lack a unique identity.

Hand-written text is also an option, but you'll need somebody who knows what they're doing. I did my series logotype by hand, but I have some design training and my partner is a designer, so I knew how to render it out as vectors and what to look for. If you don't have this expertise, either hire somebody who does, or stick to a pre-made font.

For a beginner, I recommend grabbing a font from the "Display" category of Google fonts.

Google Fonts

Pick something that's only a little bit fancy, not something ridiculously fancy and silly. Also make sure the theme and style fits your story, for example, a serif font looks better for old-fashioned settings and Fantasy, while sans serif looks better for modern and futuristic, and handwritten tends to suit softer and more whimsical stories like Romance etc. Look at works with a similar sort of setting, genre and tone for inspiration.

[DasIstWunderblyat]

I used my own handwriting because the fonts I want are either demos, need attribution (I hate having to credit people), or unsuitable for commercial use (I meant I got some ink support and KoFi from it, even though it is in a very little amount better safe than sorry).

It is probably a little difficult when you need to do more in same style, so I suggest you to make an entire font when you can (which I regretfully did not). The upside is probably it is very personal.

[VibrantFox]

Gonna second what @darthmongoose said about searching a page like Google Fonts.Personally I used the cloud fonts available in Medibang Paint Pro, since the usual windows defaults can be bland. Hand lettering as was mentioned can work but it'll take a steady hand and knowing how to clean it up.

Your main goal though is going with something that's readable since it's what people will spot alongside your art when browsing series on the main site/mobile beyond that is making sure it fits to the tone of your series and is visually appealing

[Possum]

When the artist who worked on my cover was deciding on stuff, she basically just took a font she liked the look of, drew over it and altered it in ways that worked for the content of the book. There's a lot of good sites that talk about how different fonts are good for different things. Like they have their own brand sorta. Here's my cover. I'll see if I can find the sites I researched for it.

[artemficta]

I find that it's not so much the font you use as it is the effects you use on it. Adding a stroke is pretty common, a drop shadow, a gradient, etc. You do want to pick something that captures the feeling of the story though, but sometimes that is a default font. There's also many sites that offer free commercial friendly fonts, like Font Squirrel (https://www.fontsquirrel.com/). Some people will add an additional image to the font to fancy it up too, like the silhouette of a character, a gear, a clock, etc. I used a magic circle behind the one on the header of my website, just all sorts of things you can do .

[byelacey]

I hired a graphic designer buddy to make my comic's logo and it was worth every penny! He really took the time and care to make me something that fit the comic's spooky vampire brand well! It's hand-drawn! If you have the $$$, hiring someone to do design for you (if you suck at it like I do) is a great idea.

[drcharlotterodricks]

I just googled doodle fonts and mashed them up

[joannekwan]

I mostly do the bare-basic of just choosing a nice typeface and then perhaps dressing it up a little with an effect if at all. I don't picture my series as big franchise things so I don't put much energy into making a super unique logo.

BUT since it was my first, and it was quirky enough to ask for something special, I did go through the effort of making Demon House's title as an ambigram (a design that reads the same upside-down).

I researched how to pull off an ambigram, picked Excellens as the font, and then altered a few of the letters to work.

The only title treatment I've hand lettered so far is Erie Waters. I thought it needed something more in-line with the art style so hand-letters it was.

[SagaHolmgaard]

This is what I did as well. It allowed me to make it feel a bit more unique, and the swirl is a symbol that appears a lot in the comic (very subtly though, heh) so it really makes it feel like it belongs

[Shanny8]

With my print only series The Clique, I "designed"(redesigned) the logo in Illustrator based on the original logo that a friend had done for me. I scrapped his "THE" and added my own, in a graffiti-like marker style...

With the Ray Thunder title logo, I used two fonts that I felt "fit"- the Killswitch font from Comicraft & the Susurrus font from Blambot...I've pretty much been designing a lot of the Ray Thunder campaign around the Susurrus font as well.