The good the bad and the FONTS

[mariusthered]

so I now have more fonts than I can handle in my computer, it's getting to the stage where i'm wading through loads of fonts i never use to get to the ones I do. tomorrow I'm going to be having a clear out in my font folder.

what fonts do you use for different emotion? such as ....

yelling:
normal chat:
crying:
anger:
alarm:

do you only use free fonts ( like me coz i'm cheap lol) Or do you pay for fancy fonts?

[AffectedMind]

yelling: digital strip BOLD
normal chat: digital strip
crying: digital strip
anger: digital strip bold and thousand of exclamation points
alarm: digital strip

ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS:
yelling: pen brush
normal chat: digital strip
crying: digital strip
anger: pen brush
alarm: pen brush

That's how I use it, really xD I either use digital strip for everything because I like when things are consistent or additionally to show very strong emotions or sound effects I use pen.
Plus digital strip is very comics like and it's free, I highly recommend it ^^

[jmhenry]

I'm actually gonna check a few of these out later. My font library's in dire need of expanding....

[AnnaLandin]

I only use one font for the dialogue, and vary it with font-size and bolding/italicising it. The font I'm using is Klepon Scone, which is a 100% free font I got off dafont.com. It is the font that most closely matches what my handwriting would look like if I could be bothered to be neat, and I've been too lazy to make my own font.

All sound-effects from chapter two of Grassblades onwards are hand-drawn, and based on nothing but my own shaky grasp on proper lettering. I like to think I'm getting better each time, though I've always been the type to use sound-effects sparingly.

[phen]

I've been trying to find a good font to use for my comics for years and I've yet to come across one I like enough! I hand write everything, it's so time consuming. Sometimes it looks really nice (especially for yelling/anger/alarm, the organic energy you can get by freehanding the words is great!), other times, it can be a strain on the reader.

I recently made a font using myscriptfont and, while it's certainly not something to bank on, it could help you figure out the best geometric complement to your linestyle. Here's a little demo of what I made in the programme using my tablet and photoshop:

Still needs tweaking but it's really fun to play with!

[Aetherwing]

I actually use one font for everything which is a font I created myself. The majority my onomatopoeia is hand drawn, but I usually keep it pretty simple looking.

[nobody]

So far I've used only one font in my comic (which is a series of one-pagers), but I'm working on longer stories too, and I try to stick with only one font there as well, and use bold/italics for variation.

I paid for a font on Blambot called Billy the Flying Robot. The pay fonts are very cheap there, and I wanted a font that had a very hand drawn, whimsical feeling to it, with the extra characters and features that come with the pay fonts (for instance the ability to write the Norwegian letters æ, ø, å, plus more).

[joannekwan]

Demon House and Heavy Horns uses Humana Sans ITC light, and I use medium for any yelling, emphasized, or bold parts.
Erie Waters uses Tekton Pro bold condensed for the main text, bold oblique for the ghosts' dialogue.

[somvi]

Thanks for sharing, I actually thought your comic might be hand lettered.

[Mharz]

Here's the font I use (although I'm not really sure if it would fit well with your comic art)

Normal chat: digital strip 2.0 italic
Yelling: digital strip 2.0 bold
Extra emphasis: geek a byte 2.0 (though I'm thinking of changing this)

[eschaefges]

I recently made a font using myscriptfont

There goes the rest of my night...

[somvi]

I like Digital strip but sometimes it spaces things out too much so I use Backissues for slightly more compressed text.

[AnnaLandin]

@somvi You're welcome. : ) Klepon Scone is actually pretty close to what my handwriting looks like when I make a serious effort - but for me to get my handwriting that neat consistently, I have to slow down to a crawl. Most of the time, my handwriting is so bad even I have trouble reading it, so my options are either "lettering takes three weeks and looks awkward and crooked" or "I think those are letters, but I'm not sure". And as I haven't bothered making my own font, Klepon Scone is a nice solution.

[jacintawibowo]

Tales from the Well is weird in terms of lettering and fonts because we're intentionally experimenting with the fonts we use to portray different voices.
-For Prince Deryn/ the caption boxes we use "Unmasked"
-For screaming, yelling, monsters, sound effects, excited children, everything else: my handwriting XD
-I'm experimenting with later pages to use a font of my handwriting for caption boxes. The effect isn't the same as writing it myself, but it works for a slight whimsical effect =)

[SethJH]

I use a font called Komika. It's 100% free, and was developed "with the intention of giving indie comic writers access to a font that isn't Tekton or Sans without having to pay for a pro font". I also use my own handwritten lettering for the non-dialogue text around the page for effect.

I also recently got a font called "TallMarker" as part of some huge typography kit sale. The sale's over now and I'm not sure where or how much the font is normally. TallMarker closely resembles the handwritten text I was doing initially. My only complaint about the font is that there's no '' or ' characters for some odd reason and it's frustrating. I have to use a different font to get ''

In terms of background text (like on walls, signs, etc...) it's usually what looks best for the application, although a common choice for me (as it is a sci-fi theme) is called Outlier (another free font it seems. Some people call it the "Star Wars" font when they see it in my work, but it's not the star wars font).

[carodoodles]

I'm a big believer of using hand-lettering. It gives your comics an unique and more warmth/personalized feeling.

The problem: My handwriting is terrible lmao. So I tried using a free website that allows you to create your own font based on your handwriting. Then trace over it. But the kerning isn't really great. See below for an example of earlier pages in my comics The Satrians.

So I decided to use Please write me a song from dafont then trace over it. I'm liking it so much better.

Just head up, with some fonts from DaFont, you might have to manually fix the spaces between lines, sometimes fix the kerning. Manually doing it every time you make a dialogue can be a pain in ass. So instead, what I do is save the action under 'Action' in photoshop. And I just type out dialogues in regular default fonts in PS- doesn't matter which one. Then I highlight it, then play the 'replace font' action that I've created. And ta-dah, you're all set!

[AnnaLandin]

Just head up, with some fonts from DaFont, you might have to manually fix the spaces between lines, sometimes fix the kerning. Manually doing it every time you make a dialogue can be a pain in ass.

This is definitely true of Klepon Scone - the linespacing is very generous, and sometimes the kerning as well. I've gotten so used to fixing it that I don't even think about it any more - and it's actually a pretty nice reminder to myself. When the speechbubbles start getting so full that I have to adjust the linespacing for stuff to fit, I'm probably using too many words. XD

[mariusthered]

wow thanks for all the responses so far peeps.
I will take a look at some of your fonts. later I will post the ten fonts I use the most.

[shaylafarley5]

I just use times new roman, when I first started my comic I tried different fonts and I didn't like them. But when it comes to yelling, whispering and sound effects I make my own, just warp it here and there. Use a little skew and perspective and add shadows or highlights and it good.

[purrlpankras]

Corbel and Orator Std,
I use different fonts for more important scenes or important characters