Big Font modification / developing steps by yourself

Resources Other
1

Hey Guys!
Here is the step by step guide to modify font by yourself based on any existing. Those who don’t want to use regular big font but finding some creativity on font, you can develop or modify the same font by yourself as follows in Illustrator.

  1. Draw a line, make copy past side by side 50 pcs. Make the opacity 40% and roate -45 deg.
  2. Type any number (here i take 5) and make the opacity 60%. Create outlines for this digit.
  3. Make both lines and digit in center. From path use outline stroke.
  4. Use compound path and click on MAKE.
  5. Finally from path finder click on intersect. Here is the result of first stage, that you got all the line in digit 5.
  6. Now click on each line by direct selection tool and right click on each line then make average and OK. Do this same steps for all the line you want.
  7. Fill with gradient the design you like and also put a background behind to look 3D feel as well based on your requirement.
    Enjoy!! Hope you can find this useful.
    2
    2962×961 10.1 KB

    3
    3962×995 16.2 KB

    4
    4318×575 4.74 KB

    5
    5318×575 7.82 KB

    6
    6504×802 150 KB
5 Likes
2

Nice . So if we do not have Illustrator do you think we can still do this ? Are we making an Image for each character or are you exporting these into a TTF Font File for use as Text ?

3

I think you can do it by other vector based software. I prefer making an image.

1 Like
4

Yeah I have tried a bit of that hard work but very rewarding .

5

I have a question about that …
what consumes more power during operation?
producing a ttf with a vector program is ok in terms of time.

1 Like
6

I think producing TTF takes more time because you need to make a set of letters from A-Z and all numbers etc maybe. For making watch face i need only numbers here in Facer. So i prefer images only 0-9. Hope got the answer.

7

@SR-Design.vision I think the issue is the Amount of Memory consumed . I have found recently that facer adapts to my Memory consuming Faces Better than it did . The problem with TTF is there are limitations to how it can Look . If you want something like @nobel.mixed has there or Full Chrome it has to be an Image . Once you have a couple of decent templates the whole job is a bit easier as you then do not haver to generate every layer from scratch .

8

if i need a ttf for facer i just do the numbers.
therefore the effort is small.

1 Like
9

I have not made or modified any TTF yet . Been putting it off .

10

I’ve tried both ways here.
I used chrome numbers as images and I made ttf myself.
I didn’t notice any difference in the loading times and the batt consumption.
hence my question…

1 Like
11

with corel it takes just as long as exporting the png.
advantage … you don’t have to code each picture individually …
downside… no nice gradients or other effects in the numbers…

1 Like
12

I wonder if Corel Draw is a free one . So we are saying TTF is Monochrome only . No Chrome or Gold effects.

13

corel draw is available used or as a cheap student / home version.
I don’t know of any program that can be used to create ttf with an effect.
But I still don’t know everything :wink:

1 Like
14

I’m going to assume the font takes less memory because it’s vector based, but it might not make any difference on a small watch screen if the images are optimized.

3 Likes
15

It is also question, whether a vector with 50+ shapes per digit is easier for the watch to compute, than bitmap of 1:1 pixel size ratio (which facer is not, 320x320 is only the assemble canvas, the bitmap sizes remain there to compute between inserted image size and the actual screen resolution). I think for the power consumption is not that important how much memory gets loaded (as long it is available), but how many computations per second is needed.

3 Likes
16

In my experiance I managed to get big enough images on to a Face that caused problems. Especialy with Sequences. Though we have no proper Gauge of the Memory used. I think you wil struggle to fill the memory with TTF. In my experiance it just takes longer and longer to upload to the server. It is good to have a very basic face to upload to the server to see how the Net is Working. And sometimes just now and again it is a bit of code that the Server does not like. :joy::slightly_smiling_face:

2 Likes
17

I do not care that much about my PCs or servers CPU or memory loads. They do not run on batteries. But the watch has to handle what we throw at it, with limited resources.

3 Likes