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February 27, 2008 3:18 PM PST

Hands-on: Fontifier

by Lindsey Turrentine
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I am absolutely in love with Fontifier, a simple service that creates a font from your own handwriting. Fontifier isn't new--Daily Candy covered it in 2005 and I saw it on the Craft blog--but in my opinion, good, ol' fashioned handwriting needs all the help it can get. (By, of course, making it less old fashioned.)

In about 5 minutes yesterday, I printed out Fontifier's template, scratched in my own versions of all the letters and symbols in a typical font, then scanned and uploaded the sheet. I expected that once I uploaded my alphabet, I'd have to wait a few minutes, hours, or even days to get my True Type font back. But after I paid $9 via credit card--ding!--there it was. I downloaded the file, dragged it to the Fonts folder in my Control Panel, opened Microsoft Word and started typing.

The result (below) doesn't exactly mimic my handwriting. I don't usually write with such a thick pen and I typically keep my hand a little straighter. (The vertical unevenness comes from writing my scanned letters at different heights in the template boxes, so I can only blame myself.) Typing with my font in Word, text looks nice at 18 points, but below that, my letters look a little jagged.

Still, I'm already dreaming up uses for my font--valentines! party invitations!-- and plan on creating a few more in weeks to come.

Fontifier test

My Fontifier font only sorta kinda looks like my real handwriting.

(Credit: Lindsey Turrentine/CNET Networks)
Originally posted at Webware
Lindsey Turrentine is an executive editor at CNET.
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by brianmv February 29, 2008 11:42 AM PST
This doesn't really sound like it's worth it...even for nine bucks.
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by trom00 February 29, 2008 12:45 PM PST
With a gazillion different fonts available in so many word processing programs, I am almost sure there is one very similiar to the one you came up with in this column, and I don't think it is worth $9. It is an interesting concept however, just should be free.
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by Cardinalxc13 February 29, 2008 12:52 PM PST
It used to be free, I can't believe they are charging now...
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by techguy00000 February 29, 2008 5:08 PM PST
umm... how about just use the program that comes with a Tablet PC... windows incorporates this!! (i think it is an add-on... but none the less free from microsoft) no need for this program at all... ive done it several times.
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by nickthestick162 March 1, 2008 2:31 PM PST
Hey, could you send me more info on that? Thanks for the help!
by nova123 March 2, 2008 4:48 PM PST
9 bucks seems ok to me. Especially if it's more robust than free ones. Thanks for the article.
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by lorumipsum123 March 2, 2008 5:49 PM PST
Fontifier is much better for signatures, but it's a nifty service for the price. Another inexpensive approach is a font site like www.fontmarketplace.com - they have some nice script fonts for like $4.99 - which is much cheaper than other commercial font sites.
by bangalore19 March 2, 2008 8:48 PM PST
I want YOUR job!
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