font guide
A FONT GUIDE
Commonly used fonts on my icons and some pointers.
Guide For: Any graphics program.
Made in: Photoshop CS2
Level of Difficulty: Easy
Image Heavy? No.
Translatable? Yes.
PSD? No.
I get so many questions about my fonts and the fonts I use so I decided to update my font guide. Part One of the guide is here, but it's fairly outdated. So new! and improved! font guide. :)
TIPS TRICKS & POINTERS
» I've found that it's easier to add your text one layer at a time, one word at a time. Yes, this is time-consuming. But, this method allows you to line up each word perfectly in a way that looks good. Adding the text a sentence at a time makes it harder to move it around or line it up.
» If you have several lines of text to add to an icon it can make it look jumbled up or take over the entire icon and distract away from your subject. What I find works the best in adding several lines of text? Merging all your text layers and moving everything as one layer. You can also use your free-transform tool to shrink the text down a little. Of course, you shouldn't shrink it too much or it will become to pixelly and hard to read. And always rasterize your text layers if you're going to be rotating or shrinking text -- neglecting this step will make your text look gross. Two examples:
(1) In the first example, I selected all my text layers by holding down my control key and clicking on each layer. I then rasterized everything by right-clicking and selecting rasterize type. Instant rasterizing! I then right-clicked again, and merged the text layers into one layer. Using my free-transform tool I shrank the text down a little and moved it to the middle. See how clear and sharp it is? Rasterizing your text can allow it to look this good even when you've merged and shrank it down.
(2) In the second example, I merged-visible all my text layers, shrank it down and rotated it, but I didn't rasterize this time. See how icky it looks. You don't want your text to look like that and that's why rasterizing is so important.
» At a loss on what text to add to your icon? Song lyrics are usually my first choice when I'm thinking of what text to add. Quotes are also good. Google is your friend. There are tons of lyrics-related websites out there.
» Never neglect your anti-alias settings when adding text. Anti-alias is important because it really give your text a cleaner smoother appearance and make it less difficult to read. Two examples:
(1) See how the first example looks better than the second? Anti-alias improves the readability of your text. Each font will have a different anti-alias setting, so fiddle around until your text looks good.
» Text brushes are fine and some people like to use them, but I stay away from them. Frankly, I like the challenge of thinking of my own text to add and in my opinion, text brushes are too much of a cop-out. Icon making is about being creative and using your imagination. Put your own stamp on your icons with what text you choose to use. I will however, use tiny text brushes -- those tiny unreadable lines of text can sometimes add a little flair to an icon. I use them a lot.
» Text hard to read? Try adding a new layer underneath your text layer and using the blur tool (at a lowered opacity of course) and blur the text a little. Believe it or not this actually will make your text stand out better. Drop shadow and stroke will also improve readability of text as well.
» Practice practice practice. When I first started making icons I got so frustrated with text and would really shy away from it because it was just too hard for me to master. But once I checked out some font guides and fiddled around in Photoshop, I finally got the hang of it. Experiment. Add different fonts at different settings to your icon and just see what you come up with. It's the surefire way to get a handle on text.
» Don't push it, though. If you've gone through all your fonts, fiddled with every setting possible and nothing is working, that's when it's time to scrap the text entirely -- some icons are meant to be textless. :D
WHERE DO I FIND FONTS?
» Google is a good place to start. In the search box just type font+font name and you are guarenteed to get some results.
» And here are some other places to try:
1001 Free Fonts
Acid Fonts
Action Fonts
Dafont (this is a highly recommended site and the first place I check for fonts)
Font Garden
Font Stock.net
Fonts N' Things
Urban Fonts
Webpage Publicity.com
fontaddicts (an ideal place to ask questions about fonts or to get help identifiying a font)
HOW DO I USE FONTS/TEXT?
» Font guides are very useful. For a complete list of some of the better ones out there, you can check out this post -- towards the bottom I have some helpful font guides listed.
» Tutorials are useful as well. bethyj at bethyj_graphics has done two very detailed guides on text and fonts:
Make Text your Friend: Part 1 - Fonts
Make Text your Friend: Part 2 - Text Techniques
PLEASE DIRECT ALL COMMENTS TO THIS ENTRY! THANK YOU!!
Commonly used fonts on my icons and some pointers.
Guide For: Any graphics program.
Made in: Photoshop CS2
Level of Difficulty: Easy
Image Heavy? No.
Translatable? Yes.
PSD? No.
I get so many questions about my fonts and the fonts I use so I decided to update my font guide. Part One of the guide is here, but it's fairly outdated. So new! and improved! font guide. :)
TIPS TRICKS & POINTERS
» I've found that it's easier to add your text one layer at a time, one word at a time. Yes, this is time-consuming. But, this method allows you to line up each word perfectly in a way that looks good. Adding the text a sentence at a time makes it harder to move it around or line it up.
» If you have several lines of text to add to an icon it can make it look jumbled up or take over the entire icon and distract away from your subject. What I find works the best in adding several lines of text? Merging all your text layers and moving everything as one layer. You can also use your free-transform tool to shrink the text down a little. Of course, you shouldn't shrink it too much or it will become to pixelly and hard to read. And always rasterize your text layers if you're going to be rotating or shrinking text -- neglecting this step will make your text look gross. Two examples:
(1) In the first example, I selected all my text layers by holding down my control key and clicking on each layer. I then rasterized everything by right-clicking and selecting rasterize type. Instant rasterizing! I then right-clicked again, and merged the text layers into one layer. Using my free-transform tool I shrank the text down a little and moved it to the middle. See how clear and sharp it is? Rasterizing your text can allow it to look this good even when you've merged and shrank it down.
(2) In the second example, I merged-visible all my text layers, shrank it down and rotated it, but I didn't rasterize this time. See how icky it looks. You don't want your text to look like that and that's why rasterizing is so important.
» At a loss on what text to add to your icon? Song lyrics are usually my first choice when I'm thinking of what text to add. Quotes are also good. Google is your friend. There are tons of lyrics-related websites out there.
» Never neglect your anti-alias settings when adding text. Anti-alias is important because it really give your text a cleaner smoother appearance and make it less difficult to read. Two examples:
(1) See how the first example looks better than the second? Anti-alias improves the readability of your text. Each font will have a different anti-alias setting, so fiddle around until your text looks good.
» Text brushes are fine and some people like to use them, but I stay away from them. Frankly, I like the challenge of thinking of my own text to add and in my opinion, text brushes are too much of a cop-out. Icon making is about being creative and using your imagination. Put your own stamp on your icons with what text you choose to use. I will however, use tiny text brushes -- those tiny unreadable lines of text can sometimes add a little flair to an icon. I use them a lot.
» Text hard to read? Try adding a new layer underneath your text layer and using the blur tool (at a lowered opacity of course) and blur the text a little. Believe it or not this actually will make your text stand out better. Drop shadow and stroke will also improve readability of text as well.
» Practice practice practice. When I first started making icons I got so frustrated with text and would really shy away from it because it was just too hard for me to master. But once I checked out some font guides and fiddled around in Photoshop, I finally got the hang of it. Experiment. Add different fonts at different settings to your icon and just see what you come up with. It's the surefire way to get a handle on text.
» Don't push it, though. If you've gone through all your fonts, fiddled with every setting possible and nothing is working, that's when it's time to scrap the text entirely -- some icons are meant to be textless. :D
WHERE DO I FIND FONTS?
» Google is a good place to start. In the search box just type font+font name and you are guarenteed to get some results.
» And here are some other places to try:
1001 Free Fonts
Acid Fonts
Action Fonts
Dafont (this is a highly recommended site and the first place I check for fonts)
Font Garden
Font Stock.net
Fonts N' Things
Urban Fonts
Webpage Publicity.com
fontaddicts (an ideal place to ask questions about fonts or to get help identifiying a font)
HOW DO I USE FONTS/TEXT?
» Font guides are very useful. For a complete list of some of the better ones out there, you can check out this post -- towards the bottom I have some helpful font guides listed.
» Tutorials are useful as well. bethyj at bethyj_graphics has done two very detailed guides on text and fonts:
Make Text your Friend: Part 1 - Fonts
Make Text your Friend: Part 2 - Text Techniques
PLEASE DIRECT ALL COMMENTS TO THIS ENTRY! THANK YOU!!