The Art of Lettering?

[malverav]

I'm moving to try hand lettering for some of my comics and was curious: how do you guys letter your comics? Hand or digital - and what font do you use? Sound effects? I struggle making them gel with the rest of the page so let me know if anyone has some hot tips!

Right now, I use a font made from my handwriting and the kerning infuriates me. I'll finish my current comic on tapas like this for consistency, but I'm definitely not using it again.

We'll call it, uh, rustic. Here's me below on my first crack at hand lettering a thing - it's not perfect but I like the results a lot better, and it's weirdly meditative.

[mariusthered]

your hand writing is certainly better than mine.
I write like an epileptic spider coming out of a ink well. It's digital for me. I use a font named Back issue and i don't have to worry about capital's with that font.

[punkarsenic]

i mostly digitally letter my comic using a variety of fonts, but lately ive been using hand-lettering for particularly stylised or emotional bits (ppl crying, yelling, you name it) - i do prefer hand lettering, tbh, it allows for a lot more freedom with what you do. but it also takes a lot longer, so mosta the time i just roll with text

sound effects always hand drawn though

[joannekwan]

Digital. It's just so much faster to lay out the text and easier to make edits.

I hand-write sound effects though, and sometimes short quips uttered by characters.

[Rhonder]

I'm in the same boat: I'm currently using a handwriting font from my own handwriting but it's... really not very good imo xD gonna finish out the current season with it and then maybe go back and edit it to a different font later. (I'm wanting to print some copies eventually so it's worth the fix, I think).

^ Meh.

As far as actual hand lettering goes, I just recently did a 10-page short story where I hand lettered everything, and I think it turned out pretty nice! I used a trick I saw someone suggest on this forum a while back, where basically I typed out all the text and then turned the opacity down and hand lettered over it, which helps keep the kerning consistent and the text aligned and straight xD then once it's written, you can lasso it and move or rotate it around as needed.

I'm going to take another stab at making a better handwriting font for the next season of my comic, but if it's still not great I may be moving this direction for all of my stuff afterwards too xD

(For sound effects and such, i typically just write them out manually, and lately just apply a stroke effect to the outside of the layer. I've been pretty happy with how that's been turning out!

[ben]

I’ve only ever hand lettered because I don’t like the way fonts look with my comic. I even did try to make a font of my handwriting but it looked more off to me than just my actual handwriting (that seems to be a common experience!)

I also mostly draw traditionally because I don’t like any time I have to spend looking at a screen and I found that it took me LONGER to mess around with my text when I had more of an option to fiddle around with it. Now I just have to commit and go with the flow. Which is also why I draw traditionally in general and it reaaaally helps with my speed.

Since I’ve been hand lettering since the beginning I’ve gotten super comfortable with it and it’s probably the least time consuming part of the process for me. I can knock out a page with lots of dialogue in ten minutes or less.

It’s not always the most consistent but I think it works best even when I flub it a lil.

[Shanny8]

I'm digital- I tried doing hand lettering traditionally several years ago and did not like the results. I even found certain fonts that ramp up the emphasis when needed. My main font for my webcomic is Comicraft's Meanwhile:

The emphasis fonts I use- I switch between Shout Out from Comicraft and Blambastic from Blambot. The red is Shout Out, and the black is Blambastic.

[skicoak]

Digital mainly with a bunch of effects stuff mixed in...

I know as visual artists we really get involved in the subtle way lettering affects a project but I seldom see the average person even note on kerning and such unless it creates a funny circumstance. It might be a part of this craft that is like listening for a slightly untuned violin in orchestra is for musicians.

[malverav]

Those sound effects look really great, and I love the way the handwriting on the short story looks. Thanks for the tip on the opacity, I'll make use of that in future!

[IndigoShirtProd]

Digital, though I need more practice when it comes to the placement of sound effects. I'm a big fan of giving my characters small quips to say at the beginning or end of speech bubbles; just adds more charm.

[irene_addler]

My handwriting is atrocious and too big for hand-lettering. I wish I could do hand-lettering. So for me it's digital. I use a version of Helvetica lol

[rajillustration]

My handwriting is v bad so I usaully use a typeface (the same exact one that @shanny8 uses, actually)

But sometimes when I want my comic to have a certain vibe, I do handwritten, but only if I know it's a very short comic. Since my handwriting is just super bad, I do it by first laying down a typeface and then drawing over it. Like this. (this short comic I unfortunately never finished. Maybe one day)

I absolutely love how much a typeface can emote, almost like a character itself it just...it takes SO long I never do it.

[Kittosaurus]

I definitely hand letter - saves me a lot of time!

Here are some examples:

I also enjoy playing around with text to make it more interesting for sound effects or prophecies:

I will say I have learnt a lot from my first episode ( plus the software that I use (Procreate) has also improved). Here is a panel from my first episode for comparison:

I have my off days... but I am still working hard to improve my writing every episode!

[yondoloki]

I use digital lettering for text bubbles, but handwrite sound effects. I feel it gives them more energy, and I quickly got tired of trying to use fonts for effects, since I never thought they worked or fit the comic style. I find it hard to hand letter digitally though, and I cramp up very quickly when writing.

Right now I use the font Acme Secret Agent BB, a free to use font from Blambot.

I have considered making a font out of my hand writing though, but I haven't found any proper tools for doing it yet. Also, since I come from Denmark, I want to include our special letters (æ, ø, å), so the few "make your handwriting a font easily" features I have found doesn't cover those

[malverav]

That style suits your art so much, I aspire to have such good writing!

[malverav]

I have a character with "æ" in her name and I roll my eyes every time I have to handwrite just that specific character. They make you pay for that, which is annoying when the language demands those letters!

[malverav]

I love the way you do the sound effects and also can I say, your colour work is fantastic? I love heavy blacks personally, it looks really cool!

[Kittosaurus]

That style suits your art so much, I aspire to have such good writing!

Thank you

[skicoak]

I love the way you do the sound effects and also can I say, your colour work is fantastic? I love heavy blacks personally, it looks really cool!

Thank you​, it's not really the preferred art style in these parts but I'm glad you dig it.

[Maps]

It looks like a lot of people have draw their speaking bubbles too? I’ve been contemplating doing that when I jump back into my comics because the bubbles I use from ClipArt are super thick and I always have trouble thinning them...