HND - Font Types

In truth I went through most of my own design education thinking that bitmap fonts were possibly the worst invention ever to be devised. I knew that the Apple Mac classic I was originally trained on used them and often printed very blockily on the Laserwriter II because I had specified a large point size (and often didn't display any better on screen). This was not an experience likely to endear me to them; so for me the whole notion of a bitmap font was negative, and when finally introduced to the concept of an outline font format like TrueType I was delighted. (I since learned that this experience was probably as much to do with the setup of the Mac I was using as it was with the limitations/traits of bitmap fonts.)

As part of Unit 1 however, you need to use outline and bitmap font creation software to experiment with font creation. In fact any software that can manage this will do - it's all part of introducing you to the purposes and uses of computers in art and design.

Background Information

With that in mind it is worth having some background information on fonts so you can be aware of the differences between types (and no doubt wonder why there are so many types). A good place to start is at the following:

1. A good summary of font types put together by one of our very own students - read it here >
2. General background on computer fonts (Wikipedia) >
3. Fonts: Bitmap, PostScript, and TrueType Compared (Apple) >
   
4. TrueType on (Wikipedia) >
5. Adobe Type 1 on (Wikipedia) >
6. OpenType on (Wikipedia) >
7. Pixel Fonts Explained (Best Flash) >

Creative articles about fonts:

1. Computer Arts Special - The Art of Type >
2. Computer Arts - Design a Display Font >
3. Computer Arts - Create Your Own Graffiti Fonts >
4. Computer Arts - Digitising a Bespoke Font >
5. Computer Arts - Design a Custom Typeface >
   

Bitmap Font Software

I added links to a whole load of software of questionable value previously, but this one seems pretty useful for learning some of the technicalities of font design and creation. In learning about Bitmap fonts, you might want to try this software:

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Others/Font-Utils/Raster-Font-Editor.shtml