Create Your Own Font Designs

IntroCorelDRAW provides powerful resources for creating custom logotype, symbol,

or character designs. Discover how easily you can turn your design into a digit
al font you can use in any text-capable application in this continuation of my 2
-part tutorial on creating custom fonts.
As I mentioned in part one of this tutorial, CorelDRAW has equipped users with a
full set of font-creation tools to both design and export digital fonts since v
ersion 4. Creating your own digital font opens creative avenues and provides gra
phic solutions in many different ways. You can create a custom graphic or corpor
ate logo font to use in any text-capable program or create your own special font
design.
CorelDRAW includes all the latest tools for you to both design and export your d
igital font. With the creative part of your logotype or font design complete, le
t s examine the steps you need to follow to export your creation.
Preflight Your Logotype or Font Design
Before you begin the process of exporting your design to a digital font format,
examine what you ve created for any potential anomalies or incompatibilities with
the export filter. Doing so will ensure that your hard work will transition smoo
thly into a font that displays and prints just the way you want it to. Here are
four common problems to check for:
Use Single Objects or Composite Paths Only In order for your letterform desi
gn to be compatible with a digital font file format, each character must be a si
ngle closed-path object comprised of one or more subpaths. If your character or
symbol design consists of more than one object, an error message (shown below) w
ill appear when you try to export the character.
TrueType Export dialog
Remove Incompatible Outlines, Fills Digital fonts use only the vector outlin
e information to describe shapes, which means that any custom outline or fill pr
operties applied to your design shapes may be incompatible with the export filte
r. Apply a simple black hairline outline and removing any fills before exporting
(see below).
Compatibility
Reduce Curve Complexity Highlycomplex outline shapes may cause problems duri
ng export or further down the line-for example, during printing. You can quickly
curve complexity without visibly altering an object using the Shape Tool in com
bination with the Reduce Nodes button and/or the Curve Smoothness slider in the
Property Bar (see below).
Reduce nodes
Split tall or wide graphics/symbols If you are planning on creating a symbol
font that includes excessively tall or wide characters such as vertical or hori
zontal logo, consider splitting them into two or more parts to be exported as se
parate character definitions.

Exporting Your Digital Font s First Symbol or Character

When you export your first symbol or character to a new font file, two actions t
ake place at once. The digital font file is created and the first symbol or char
acter definition is added. Additional characters must be added separately as ind
ividual export operations. So, the steps to create a new digital font file diffe
r slightly from appending the file with additional characters. In this tutorial,
we ll examine both operations.
We ll begin by creating a new font and adding the first character using a simple f
ont/symbol example. I ll briefly define many of the font and character options you l
l encounter along the way. To get started, follow these steps:
Download, unzip, and open this sample font design file in CorelDRAW. It incl
udes three simple graphic shapes on separate pages. If it isn t already in view, t
urn to page 1 to view the first character (shown below).Font shape 1 sample
Using the Pick Tool, click once on the object on the page to select it and c
hoose File > Export (Ctrl+E) or click the Export button (shown below) in the Sta
ndard toolbar to open the Export dialog.Export command
Enter a name for your new custom font file in the File Name box. For our exa
mple, let s use the default Face Font name provided by the document name. This wil
l name the font file but will not affect how the font appears in your applicatio
n font list selector once installed. Although CorelDRAW enables you to create ei
ther TrueTypeor Adobe Type 1, choose TTF TrueType Font for this example. Be sure
to expand the dialog by clicking the Options button and place a check mark next
to the Selected Only option (as shown below).Export options
Click the Export button to continue the process and notice the Options dialo
g is displayed (as shown below). This dialog appears only when you export the fi
rst character to your new digital font file and is skipped if (or when) you add
additional characters to your digital font file.Second-level export options
Enter a name for your new font in the Family Name box to specify the name th
at will eventually be displayed in the host application font list selector. Alth
ough you can enter a font name up to 80 characters long, keep in mind that font
names longer than 25 characters may exceed the space available in most applicati
on font lists. In this case, enter Faces as the family name.
Since our digital font will eventually contain only three symbol shapes, cho
ose the Symbol option. This designates the font as a picture (Pi) font in the fo
nt header. Certain applications enable you to use symbol fonts prepared using th
is format in special ways. For example, previous versions of CorelDRAW gave acce
ss to symbol fonts through the Insert Symbol Character (historically known as th
e Symbol docker/rollup).
If you were exporting a font design that includes a partial or full characte
r set, you would need to disable the Symbol option. This would enable you to des
ignate Normal, Bold, Italic, or Bold-Italic font styles using the Style selector
.
Leave the Grid Size and Leading options at their defaults. Grid Size options
for Adobe Type 1 fonts are fixed at 1,000, while TrueType fonts default to 2048
.
Set the Space Width option to 375. This option enables you to set the amount
of space created when the space character (0032) is used. Although it isn t criti
cal for our symbol-only example font, the default value of 1000 isn t really a con
cern. But, for character fonts, this value is often too large.
Click the OK button in the Options dialog and answer Yes to the prompt dialo
g that appears (shown below). This prompt appears only when the font is first cr
eated and signals that the font name and location are now set.Save changes to ex
port file
Now that we ve defined the font file name and general font options, the next s
tep is to set properties for our current character. The TrueType Export dialog (
shown below) opens next enabling you to choose character-specific options. The c

urrent character we re exporting is shown in the preview window on the left side o
f the dialog with the character origin, baseline, and sidebearing guidelines ind
icating the character s eventual relative text position. (For more information on
these font properties, see part 1).True Type second-level export dialog options
Leave the Character Width set to Auto to accept the automatically detected v
alue of 1472 for our example. When creating character fonts, disabling the Auto
option enables you to set a custom width and in turn affect spacing to the next
character.
If it isn t already, set the Design Size option to 720 points and leave the Ba
seline option set to 0. The baseline value enables you to raise or lower your ch
aracter above or below the baseline for letterform shapes representing punctuati
on marks, accents, mathematical symbols, language-specific symbols, or other spe
cialized letterforms.
The Character Block option enables you to choose character blocks for the fu
ll range of supported character codes. For this example, choose Basic Latin if i
t isn t already. Character codes for Basic Latin are displayed below this option w
ith the T (character 0084) currently selected. This enables you to assign a corr
esponding keyboard scan code. For our example, we ll use the X, Y, and Z keys. Loc
ate and click on the X in the list to set our symbol to character 0088 (see belo
w). Click OK to accept your selected options and close the dialog. CorelDRAW wil
l create the new font file with the first character added.Character mapping
Adding New Characters to Existing Fonts
So far, you ve created a new digital font that includes just one symbol. If you wi
sh, you can install this font onto your system and begin using it immediately. B
ut let s take it a step further and add two more characters to see how it s done. To
append the remaining symbols in our example to the new font file, continue from
the previous steps:
With your Face Font.CDR document still open, turn to page 2. Using the Pick
Tool, click to select the symbol on the page (as shown below). Open the Export d
ialog (Ctrl+E) and browse to and/or select the Face Font.TTF we created earlier.
Choose Selected Only and click the Export button. Font shape 2 sample
The True Type Export dialog opens with the embedded Faces family name embedd
ed already loaded. Notice the X character you selected is now darker than the re
st signifying that a letterform has already been assigned to it (as shown below)
.True Type Export dialog options
If you wish, you can click the Options button to open a dialog (see below) t
hat provides access to options you specified earlier and more, including charact
er width, space width, and a font metric options. A prompt will enable/require y
ou to confirm any changes you make.True Type second-level export options
In the True Type Export dialog, click the Y character (0089) in the list. Le
ave all other options as they are, and click the OK button. The new symbol is im
mediately added to the font and the dialog closes.
Repeat this operation for the symbol on page 3 of the Face Font.CDR document
. Select the shape, open the Export dialog, click the Face Font.TTF file in the
browse area, and click Export. This time select Z in the list and click OK to ad
d the symbol to the font file.
With all three symbols added to the font file, the next step is to install t
he font onto your operating system. Running most Windows operating systems, this
is done through the Control Panel Fonts utility. With the Face Font.TTF install
ed, return to CorelDRAW , choose the Text tool, and open the Property Bar Font L
ist to verify that a font called Faces now exists in the list (as shown below).F
ont added to font list
Select the font, click an insertion point on your page to begin a new Artist
ic Text object, and type XYZ. The characters you added to the text string (see b
elow).Font entered as text
A Caveat for Professional Typographers

After you have successfully created and finalized your symbol or font design and
the final TTF file is ready for use, there may be one final step you wish to pe
rform. Although CorelDRAW provides you with to create a digital font, it lacks t
he tools and resources to implement professional-level kerning, metrics, and spa
cing refinements
often sought after by discerning typographers creating fonts fo
r their livelihood.
This means if you re considering using CorelDRAW for high-end font creation, you d
efinitely need to consider picking up a robust font manipulation program. Try Fo
ntLab Studio for professional and advanced font manipulation (roughly $700 USD),
or TypeTool for basic font editing (roughly $100 USD). Both products are availa
ble from Fontlab Ltd.
Aim for Originality
The font tools in CorelDRAW enable you to create and assemble your own custom fo
nts from virtually any compatible shape-even characters from other fonts. This p
resents and interesting ethical dilemma that needs to be mentioned. Like any cop
yrighted work, many fonts and symbols are the legal property of others. Creating
fonts can be easy, but so is being sued for font piracy. Avoid legal perils by
ensuring the digital fonts you create are the result of your own creative ideas.