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Creating a universal font document (.otf .ttf) with CC?

New Here ,
Sep 29, 2017 Sep 29, 2017

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I love Photoshop. ive done some powerful things with it like 3d .gif and all sorts.. so I'm assuming this should be easily possible. can someone please point me in the right direction? do I need to download a plugin? when searching online I get drowned out by standard tutorials on how to add font to an image but cannot find this specifically.

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LEGEND ,
Sep 30, 2017 Sep 30, 2017

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A font is a font. You need dedicated software to create it. This has nothing to do with Photoshop at all. You draw out basic contours in a vector graphics program and then finetune the properties like kerning in tools like FontStudio or whatever tool you use.

Mylenium

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New Here ,
Sep 30, 2017 Sep 30, 2017

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it just seems like it wouldn't be that hard for photoshop to convert an image into a glyph considering I can define brushtips and patterns... is there an adobe vector program or will I need to outsource?

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LEGEND ,
Sep 30, 2017 Sep 30, 2017

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Why should PS even do that? I'm not following you here. Fonts simply work completely different from brushes or whatever. Adobe has no font creation program, though of course you can create the mere contours in a million ways. In PS one workflow might be to convert selections to vector paths and export them as AI or SVG files, but you still need to import them into a dedicated font tool to get anything useful out of it in the sense of actually being able to type out letters.

Mylenium

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New Here ,
Sep 30, 2017 Sep 30, 2017

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forgive me for making an assumption. I mean why should ps have a 3d aspect considering its called *Photoshop*

or why does it and why can you build .gif in  *Photoshop*

thanks for your time.

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Community Expert ,
Sep 30, 2017 Sep 30, 2017

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You can create fonts in Photoshop using the plugin FontSelf

https://www.fontself.com/

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LEGEND ,
Sep 30, 2017 Sep 30, 2017

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PS is about creating pixels and as such having 3D features are a means to an end e.g. for creating 3D rendered text. However, PS isn't advertised as a tool for creating refined 3D models that can be used in other programs and therein lies the analogy to your request - PS may be able to create some sort of user-generated typefaces and I'm sure the upcoming "variable font" features will expand on that, but per se it's not a tool to create refined fonts to be used elsewhere. If this feature contains some way to export these remixed fonts to their own OTF/ TTF files, then lucky for you and your wish has been granted, but otherwise the whole notion of using PS for font design remains strange to me, considering that even creating the contours is the lesser part of the equation and good fonts take a bloody lot of work to get kerning, alternate glyphs and al lthe advanced features right, for which other tools simply are a lot more qualified.

Mylenium

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Explorer ,
Sep 30, 2017 Sep 30, 2017

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Hi, there are actually a couple good reasons why someone would want to create fonts in Photoshop:

  • First, because sometimes we just need to be productive. and working within the same software makes more sense. PS is not a full featured video editor, but I use it a lot for creating and editing animated GIFs. It is way faster to make them directly within PS than having to create different asset files, then launch Premiere and import them there. Same applies for fonts, as many already design and layout their lettering manually using Photoshop.
  • Second, because using dedicated font creation software requires additional investments (learning curve and/or license purchase). It can take some time to learn type-making tools, and sometimes one just need a more intuitive solution. Being able to leverage Photoshop's features, including vector and bitmap editing, can fairly shorten the time needed to design a personal font.
  • Third, because there are new creative possibilities that no other font creation tool can offer. For instance the OpenType SVG format now let you embed PNG image glyphs into a font file, and Photoshop CC 2017 can display such color fonts.

If anyone is looking to invest a lot more into type-making, dedicated font editors have a lot to offer. But creatives might prefer an easy, fast and powerful alternative that runs within their creative tools.

Thousands of Adobe users have actually chosen Fontself Maker, a $49 font creation add-on for Photoshop and Illustrator (I am one of its cofounders). And because of the reasons stated above, we have designed novel ways to make fonts:

  • Drag & drop to turn any layer into a font character in seconds
  • Support for PS native features like ruler guides, which can define a glyph baseline
  • Support for OpenType-SVG color fonts, so users can not only create regular vector fonts, but also bitmap fonts that retain the textures and colors of their lettering.

You can learn a bit more about the font creation process in Photoshop with Fontself in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUM8MlMkeMI

Or even check a step-by-step tutorial: https://help.fontself.com/making-fonts/create-a-color-bitmap-font-step-by-step

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Community Expert ,
Sep 30, 2017 Sep 30, 2017

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There are some usecases where Photoshop for font creation makes perfect sense.

Thinking of personalized printing where you print names of people in calendars using pixel based fonts. Nobody expects these to be perfectly kerned and such. It's just for the fun of having your name on the photo of a sand castle.

Sometimes you need icons or logos or individual symbols in a font because it's just the most universal file format for exchanging graphic between all kinds of applications.

Nobody will even think of creating Linotype's new best-selling typeface in Photoshop. But for a lot of designs that don't aim at this level of font-making, using Photoshop will work just fine.

That said: I don't want to advocate for font-creation abilities inside the application. If a plugin can fulfill that need, that's just perfect.

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