Comic Genesis Forums

I have always hand lettered my comic. Maybe six months ago, a couple of folks pointed out to me that my letting was probably the weakest part of my comic, so since then I have made a much greater effort to make my lettering look neat and tidy. I think I've generally succeeded (at least I hope I have), but it takes much longer to do than it used to.

The overwhelming majority of webcomics use fonts instead of hand lettering. I kind of hate to go that route, since I am unrepentantly old-fashioned, but what do people think? Is it worth the effort? Does hand lettering look better than a font, as long as it's done well? (For that matter, if you're willing to take a peek, does my lettering look better than a font? The Saturday, August 1 strip's lettering was rushed, so it's uneven. Sigh.)

I have heard of some webcomickers actually making custom fonts based on their own handwriting. I wouldn't know how to do that, but with help, I suppose that might be a possible compromise.

I respect people who can do hand lettering, but there's nothing wrong with either method. With hand lettering you have a lot more control and freedom to do interesting things with the text. Digital text is a bit more limiting, but can save a lot of time.

Really it's mostly what you prefer. As long as you find a font that looks good and you take the time to make sure the formating and stuff is done right it'll be fine.

Usually the problem with hand lettering, especially in webcomics, is legibility. If you choose the right font and point size then you know that your text will always be legible. That's why I use digital fonts rather than lettering, because I tend to get sloppy and my writing can be tough to read when it's scanned and uploaded and the file size is reduced etc.

Of course there's also people who make their own fonts using their own hand lettering to get the consistency of typing with the individuality (and no need to pay royalties to the font creator if you go professional) of handwriting.

Unless there are very extreme circumstances in which I have to use a font, (like achieving a certain style or I need to put a lot of words in a small space), I'll use fonts, but otherwise I will handwrite everything. It actually makes a comic a bit more like yours for there to be handwriting in most places in your comic.

Your lettering looks ok. It's a bit crooked here and there but otherwise looks kinda personal.

My opinion: to be frank, lettering is the last thing I'll pay attention to in a comic. I only notice it if it's unreadable or otherwise bothering. I guess I'd rather have artist working more on his comic and skills, than spending time patiently lettering.

To me computer-lettering is a gift from gods, being that I'm one of those folks who have helplessly bad handwriting, it always turns out bad.

I made two fonts based on my handwriting. It's not a hard thing to do, but it's time-consuming. Take any foln-maker and from installing it, creating a basic font with english letters should be straightforward. Time-consuming part is because your scanned handwriting won't be useable untill you smooth out every letter and adjust it to font's needs.

I do hand writing on my little "sketch comics" and I've gotten many a compliment on my handwriting. I actually have pretty good handwriting. But ya know part of it for me, is that handwriting doesn't allow me the type of scaleing that computer fonts do. I really want to make a font on my hand writing sometime. I've done stylized fonts before. its a lot of fun. and well worth the time it takes to make them.

I think a major aspect of my art that apeals to those seven people out there that like my art is how flawed it is. For instance, I challenged myself to produce an entire 17 page comic using only brushes (I have always used pens) and my inexperience led to a few lines here and there that I hated. They didn't look awful but I knew I cou;d do better with my trusty set of pens, and yet they told me to keep it the way it was. Said they loved how "human" it felt. I follow John Dewey's logic behind the meaning of art, that its a unspoken form of communication between artist and audience: the artist trys to understand how his audience will view and interpret his product and the audience attempts to understand how the artist created it and why.
I always use a tablet to hand write my text because of this. I do not think typing text to be outside of this concept, but hand writing is more appropriate for my expression.

Lettering is part of the art, so I hand letter my comics. If I want a certain look, I just write it out instead of looking for a font that matches what I want. It also forces you to compose the whole panel or page instead of just slapping a balloon down on top of what you've drawn (one of my peeves is balloons covering half of someone's head because of poor planning).

Sometimes people forget that hand lettering is as much an art as the drawings, so it takes practice to make it look good. Once you've got it down, it becomes as much a part of the final page as anything else.

Since I create my strip entirely on a computer, fonts are pretty much a necessity. Plus I use a bunch of different one as "voices" for the various species in my strip.

Thank you all for the feedback. Well, I'm going to stick with the hand-lettering for a while, at least, and see if I can just get faster and neater with it. I may change my mind later.

To take this in a new direction:

Can anyone recommend a good, free, easy to use font maker to make my own font?

Alas while hand lettering might be fun and all, personally I don't have all that time to write it with the tablet ( and trust me, my normal writing is somewhat like the one of my father, illisible to most). Thus, I prefer to use font even if sometime the bubble cut some of the art. (But I do plan where it would be).

I don't even draw my comic, hand lettering might be a bit silly. Though my handwriting is atrocious, so that's another good reason to go with fonts. Of course I eventually had to stop using Comic Sans as apparently everyone but me hates it.

I kinda write most of letters the wrong way. Like, I write a lot of them starting from the bottom.

I remain a hand letterer, I still use a nib with india ink like in the old days to do my inking and lettering, though my coloring is done in photoshop.

McDuffies wrote:I kinda write most of letters the wrong way. Like, I write a lot of them starting from the bottom.

that has to be a serbian thing, cause i have the sample problem, at least with S's and 8's

Dr Legostar wrote:

McDuffies wrote:I kinda write most of letters the wrong way. Like, I write a lot of them starting from the bottom.

that has to be a serbian thing, cause i have the sample problem, at least with S's and 8's

Must be a serbian webcomickers thing then, cause I had to stay after school countless times, teachers trying to fix something that apparently can't be fixed.
I don't have problems with S's, more with O's and P's.

McDuffies wrote:

Dr Legostar wrote:

McDuffies wrote:I kinda write most of letters the wrong way. Like, I write a lot of them starting from the bottom.

that has to be a serbian thing, cause i have the sample problem, at least with S's and 8's

Must be a serbian webcomickers thing then, cause I had to stay after school countless times, teachers trying to fix something that apparently can't be fixed.
I don't have problems with S's, more with O's and P's.

or maybe we're just strange.

McDuffies wrote:I kinda write most of letters the wrong way. Like, I write a lot of them starting from the bottom.

I thought starting "p" from the bottom up was normal. also an "O" is a circle does it really matter where you start it?