Okay, so today I messed around with creating a font, and let me tell you, it’s a whole thing. I decided to try and design a font called “Nusuk”. I’ve always thought those super sleek, modern fonts looked cool, so I figured, why not give it a shot?
Getting Started
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First, I needed a plan. No way I was going to just jump in without some kind of guide, so I grabbed a pen and paper to start from sketching.
I began sketching out some basic letterforms on paper. Just rough ideas, you know? I wanted something geometric, with clean lines and maybe a bit of a futuristic vibe. Think rounded corners, but still sharp, if that makes any sense.
The Tools
After I had a general idea of the direction on paper, time to get digital with tools.
- Inkscape:I don’t have fancy design software, I started with Inkscape, which is free and seemed good enough for a beginner project.
Building the Letters(one by one)
This is where things got real, and by real, I mean tedious. Building each letter, one by one, felt like it took forever.
In Inkscape, I started with the letter ‘A’. Using the rectangle and circle tools, and a lot of pushing and pulling of nodes to form the shapes.I made sure to keep things consistent by setting up my shapes at the *, using the “Path” functions (like “Union” and “Difference”) to combine and cut out shapes, getting the exact look that I wanted at the beginning.
And then, repeat. ‘B’, ‘C’, ‘D’… Every single letter, both uppercase and lowercase, had to be built. And don’t even get me started on the numbers and punctuation!
I spent a ton of time, just tweaking, refining, and adjusting. Moving a point here, curving a line there. The zoom function in Inkscape got a real workout, let me tell you.
Spacing and Kerning (The real headache)
Once I had all the characters drawn, I thought I was nearly done. Nope! Turns out, getting the spacing right between letters is a whole other art form.
I had to play with it, testing out different words and sentences to see how the letters looked together. Some combinations looked squished, others too far * part was definitely the most frustrating. It felt like I was nudging things by tiny, tiny increments for hours.
Exporting and Testing(Fingers crossed)
Finally, after what felt like a lifetime, I exported my font. Then test the font,fingers crossed it can work.
Final Result
It’s definitely not perfect, but it’s mine. There are a few letters I’m not totally happy with, and the kerning probably needs more * for a first attempt? I’m pretty stoked about how Nusuk turned out. It’s got that modern, geometric feel I was going for, even if it’s a little rough around the edges.
Would I do it again? Maybe. It was a lot more work than I expected, but it was also kind of rewarding to see my own creation come to life.
